 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Halfaya Pass" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
31°30′N25°11′E / 31.500°N 25.183°E /31.500; 25.183Halfaya Pass (Arabic:ممر حلفيا,romanized: Mamarr ḤalfayāEgyptian Arabic pronunciation:[ma.marrħal.fæyaː]ⓘ) is in northwestEgypt, 11.5 kilometres east of theborder with Libya and 7.5 kilometres south of the other, more major pass in the ridge today. A 600-foot-high (180 m), narrowescarpment extends south then southeastwards for a total of 55 kilometres (34 mi) from a short distance east of the border. It hems in east-facing small harbour town ofas-Salum, continuing as an east-facingsea cliff further north. Land to the east is lower than that to the west and the east side has steep slopes.
The pass is centred 1.6 miles (2.6 km) inland from the closest part of the shore. It makes for a subtlewind gap in the escarpment for the east-west land route. It made for the southern Mediterranean coastal road useful toMediterranean civilizations until the pass at as-Salum was enlarged afterWorld War II.
Among veterans of Allied forces from 15 June 1941 and thereafter it was nicknamedHellfire Pass.
The escarpment is known asAkabah el-Kebir "great ascent". ToEl-Edrisi it was known asʿAqaba as-Sallūm "graded ascent", whence the modern name of the gulf/bay and the town of Salum. Toancient Rome it was known asCatabathmus Magnus, in the peak of whose empire it divorcedAegyptus fromMarmarica. The range was seen as a demarcator of Africa and Asia in someHellenistic geography.[citation needed]
InWorld War II, the engineered route up the escarpment had been destroyed and the pass had great strategic importance. The only ways westwards into Libya were to assault the pass or to out-flank it to the south.
After the defeat of theItalian Tenth Army on 7 February 1941 duringOperation Compass, the Italians were reinforced by German units (Afrika Korps underErwin Rommel) and the British forces were forced out of Libya, leavingbesieged garrison at Tobruk. On 14 April 1941, Rommel's main force reached Sollum and occupied the Halfaya Pass. Allied attempts to recapture the pass and relieve Tobruk followed.
The first attempt, on 15 May, wasOperation Brevity. Rommel counter-attacked; the British withdrew and by 27 May the Germans had recaptured Halfaya Pass, a passage of time in whichMajor Edward Thomas earned his Military Cross. Supply shortages obliged the Germans to curtail their advance, so they dug in and fortified their positions at Halfaya with88 mm guns. This was the anchor for theAxis positions, which opposed theAllied forces during the next allied attack.
This wasOperation Battleaxe on 15 June. German armour was deployed to draw the British tanks (11th Hussars)[citation needed] onto the concealed 88mm guns and the first wave was cut down in a few minutes (11 out of 12 tanks were destroyed)[citation needed], earning the pass the nickname "Hellfire Pass".[1] The German commander, MajorWilhelm Bach, in his conduct of the Axis defence of Halfaya Pass earned himself the nicknameGerman:Pastor des Fegefeuerslit. transl. Pastor of Hellfire (an allusion to his peacetime occupation as aLutheran minister and the English nicknameHellfire Pass).[2] The commander of the larger Italian contingent, GeneralFedele de Giorgis, General Officer Commanding55th Infantry Division Savona, was awarded the highest German decoration, theKnight's Cross for the defense he conducted.[3] A British tank commander was last heard on the radio reporting, "They are tearing my tanks apart."
The third attempt,Operation Crusader opened on 18 November, with an attack on Sidi Omar to the west of the pass and an attempt to outflank Rommel to the south and relieve Tobruk. This was achieved on 29 November. Rommel, now under pressure, on 7 December withdrew toEl Agheila. Axis garrisons atSollum,Bardia as well as the Pass were left behind, a temporary thorn in the Allies side. Isolated after the fall of Bardia on 2 January 1942, besieged by Commonwealth forces, cut off from supplies, and bombarded from the air and the sea, Bach and de Giorgis finally surrendered the Halfaya garrison of 4,200 Italians of the 55th Savona and 2,100 Germans,[4] to theSouth African 2nd Infantry Division on 17 January 1942.[5]
The pass was scene of the accidental death of Major-General'Jock' Campbell (VC), then commander of the British7th Armoured Division. On 26 February 1942, a month after assuming command, his staff car overturned on the newly laid clay surface, killing him outright.[6]
The pass and its according battles play a role in theSniper Elite III game plot.
The pass inspires aBattlefield V map, Hamada.[7]
