Neil Methuen Ritchie

role in World War II

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  In World War II: Libya and Egypt, autumn 1941–summer 1942

  General Neil Methuen Ritchie took Cunningham’s place on November 25, still more tanks were brought up, and a fortnight’s resumed pressure constrained Rommel to evacuate Cyrenaica and to retreat to Agedabia. There, however, Rommel was at last, albeit meagrely, reinforced; and, after repulsing a British attack…

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  In North Africa campaigns: Rommel’s advance and the fall of Tobruk

  …and Cunningham was replaced by Gen. Neil Methuen Ritchie on November 25. Eventually, after two more weeks of hard struggle, the numerical superiority of the British prevailed, and Rommel’s depleted forces were pushed out of Cyrenaica. Rommel retreated to a position near Agedabia (Ajdābiyā), and in late December 1941 he…

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  In North Africa campaigns: Rommel’s advance and the fall of Tobruk

  Ritchie abandoned the Gazala line on June 14 and started a rapid retreat to the Egyptian frontier, leaving the troops in Tobruk isolated. On June 21 Rommel captured the fortress of Tobruk, its 33,000-man garrison, and an immense amount of stores. The defeat was regarded…

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  In North Africa campaigns: The First Battle of El-Alamein

  In maintaining the pursuit of Ritchie’s forces into Egypt, Rommel was greatly assisted by the huge haul of supplies that he had obtained at Tobruk. Gen. Fritz Bayerlein, chief of staff of Rommel’s Afrika Korps, estimated that 80 percent of that unit’s transport at that time consisted of captured British…

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