Battle of El Agheila Battle of El Agheila The Battle of El Agheila was a brief engagement of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It took place in December 1942 between Allied forces of the Eighth Army (General Bernard Montgomery) and the Axis forces of the German-Italian "Panzer" Army ("Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel), during the long Axis withdrawal from El Alamein to Tunis. It ended with the German-Italian "Panzer" Army resuming its retreat towards Tunisia, where the Tunisia Campaign had begun with Operation Torch On 4 November 1942, Rommel decided to end the Second Battle of El Alamein and withdraw west towards
Second Battle of El Alamein Brigade was held off by anti-tank units helped later by tanks of the arriving "Ariete" Division. On 2 November, Rommel let Hitler know that: "The army's strength was so exhausted after its ten days of battle that it was not now capable of offering any effective opposition to the enemy's next break-through attempt ... With our great shortage of vehicles an orderly withdrawal of the non-motorised forces appeared impossible ... In these circumstances we had to reckon, at the least, with the gradual destruction of the army." At 13.30 on 3 November Rommel received a reply: "To Field Marshal Rommel.