This shifting of the Schwerpunkt of the operation was one of Rommel's recipes for success. He made an entry concerning it in his personal diary: "You can frequently decide a battle by simply changing the point of main effort, as long as it comes as a surprise to the enemy."
In order to make his new Schwerpunkt as strong as possible, he ordered all elements of the 15. Panzer-Division north of Capuzzo to be pulled out o: the line and moved to the left flank of the 5. leichte Afrika-Division. These elements would advance to Sidi Suleiman on the following morning and eject the enemy in conjunction with the 5. leichte Afrika-Division.
The reinforced Panzer-Regiment 5 moved out to attack at 0430 hours on 17 June. The enemy's initial resistance was overcome and Sidi Suleiman was reached and rapidly secured.
The I.Panzer-Regiment 8 of Major Fenski reached the enemy at approximately the same time. It rolled into the flank of the completely surprised enemy and opened fire. After a short, sharp exchange of fire, a number or enemy tanks were left knocked out on the battlefield. Sidi Suleiman was reached by this battalion as well. The tanks continued their advance from there, passing columns of Commonwealth trucks and tanks. The enemy had been caught in a trap.
At 0925 hours, Major General Creagh, the British commander in the trap, sent a radio message to the Commander of the Western Desert Forces, General Beresford-Peirse, that he needed to come to his command post. Major General Creagh did not know how to get out of this situation.
A short while later, the elements of Panzer-Regiment 5 that had advanced further reached the command post of Brigadier General Messervy and overran it. That action resulted in the British 4th Armoured Brigade becoming leaderless. When General Beresford-Peirse arrived at Major General Creagh's command post accompanied by General Wavell, he ordered the retreat of the British 7th Armoured Division. General Wavell, the overall Commander-in-Chief, approved the decision. General Wavell then flew back to Cairo, where he informed London that he regretted "to report that Battleaxe had failed."
The Summer Battle of Solluni had lasted 72 hours. It was the first time that all of the 15. Panzer-Division had been employed at the same time. The Commonwealth forces pulled back to their jump-off positions. Winston Churchill wrote the following in his diary: "Everything fell apart on 17 June."
Four days later, he sent an official message to General Wavell at his headquarters in Cairo:
I have come to the decision that the best public interest is served if General Auchinleck is named as Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Near East in your place.
A second message was sent to General Auchinleck:
You are assuming this important command in a time of crisis. You shall provide special attention to the situation in Tobruk, to the bringing up of enemy reinforcements in Libya and to the fact that the Germans are now primarily occupied with the invasion of Russia. You must certainly realize yourself how important these problems are.
The war in the desert entered a period of stalemate. In its initial stages, rowever, it had demonstrated that armored formations also had great opportunities there. It also demonstrated that the question of logistical support was especially important. This would be shown more than once in the period to follow.
Feldmarshall Erwin Rommel
(15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), popularly known as the Desert Fox.
He was a highly decorated officer in World War I, and was awarded the Pour le Mérite for his exploits on the Italian front. In World War II, he further distinguished himself as the commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France. However, it was his leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign that established the legend of the Desert Fox. He is considered to have been one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare in the war. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion in Normandy.
As one of the few generals who consistently fought the Western Allies (he was never assigned to the Eastern Front), Rommel is regarded as having been a humane and professional officer. His Afrikakorps was never accused of war crimes. Soldiers captured during his Africa campaign were reported to have been treated humanely. Furthermore, he ignored orders to kill captured commandos, Jewish soldiers and civilians in all theaters of his command.
Late in the war, Rommel was linked to the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. Due to his wide renown, Hitler chose to eliminate him quietly; in trade for the protection of his family, Rommel agreed to commit suicide.
Rommel was born on 15 November 1891 in Heidenheim, 45 kilometres (28 mi) from Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg (then part of the German Empire). He was baptised on 17 November 1891. He was the second child of the Protestant headmaster of the secondary school at Aalen, Professor Erwin Rommel Senior (1860–1913), and Helene von Luz, who had two other sons and a daughter. Rommel wrote that "my early years passed quite happily."
At age 14, Rommel and a friend built a full-scale glider that was able to fly short distances. Rommel even considered becoming an engineer and throughout his life displayed extraordinary technical aptitude. Acceding to his father's wishes, Rommel instead joined the local 124th Württemberg Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in 1910 and was sent to the Officer Cadet School in Danzig. He graduated on 15 November 1911 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in January 1912.
While at Cadet School, Rommel met his future wife, 17-year-old Lucia Maria Mollin (commonly called Lucie). They married on 27 November 1916 in Danzig and on 24 December 1928 had a son, Manfred Rommel, who later became the Mayor of Stuttgart. Some historians believe Rommel also had a relationship with Walburga Stemmer in 1913, which allegedly produced a daughter, Gertrud.
During World War I, Rommel fought in France as well as in Romania (see: Romanian Campaign) and Italy (see: Italian Campaign), first in the 6th Württemberg Infantry Regiment, but through most of the war in the Württemberg Mountain Battalion of the elite Alpenkorps. He gained a reputation for great courage, making quick tactical decisions and taking advantage of enemy confusion. He was wounded three times and awarded the Iron Cross, First and Second Class. Rommel also received Prussia's highest award, the order of Pour le Mérite, after fighting in the Battles of the Isonzo in the mountains west of Slovenia on the Soča front. The award was for the Battle of Longarone and the capture of Mount Matajur and its Italian defenders, which totalled 150 officers, 9,000 men, and 81 artillery pieces. For a time, he served in the same infantry regiment as Friedrich Paulus. While fighting at Isonzo, Rommel was caught behind Italian lines but managed to escape capture, though almost all of his staff were taken prisoner. In the Second World War, when the Germans and Italians were allies, Rommel tempered his initial disdain of Italian soldiers, when he realized that their lack of success was principally due to poor leadership and equipment. When these difficulties were overcome they were equal to German forces. Erwin Rommel wrote a book, Infantry Attacks, in which he examined and analyzed the many battles he fought in during World War I. It was published in 1937 and became essential reading for both German and allied commanders during World War II. He taught his men to dig in whenever they paused for any length of time. This paid off many times when French artillery fired upon his position, only to be shrugged off by the entrenchments built by Rommel's men.