 Adolf Hitler responded to the Italian disaster with Directive 22 (11 January) ordering "Unternehmen Sonnenblume" (Operation Sunflower), the deployment of a new (DAK) to Libya, as a barrier detachment ().The DAK had fresh troops with better tanks, equipment and air support than the surviving Italian forces in the ASI.The Axis force raided and quickly defeated the British at El Agheila on 24 March and at Mersa el Brega on 31 March, exploited the success and by 15 April, had pushed the British back to the Libyan–Egyptian border at Sollum and besieged Tobruk.