The Battle of Bir Hakeim June 1942 Triumph of the Free French

The French forces at Bir Hakeim held out against the German Afrika Korps and its Italian ally for some 30 days in mid summer 1942. The Germans, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , were driving for the strategic port of Tobruk on the Libyan coast. Tobruk was important to the Axis as it is the best port between Egypt and Tripoli. The British captured Tobruk from its Italian occupiers in January 1941. Rommel's thrust was assisted in a 12 mile breach in the British lines. He used this to his advantage to supply his armies but he was hindered at a crucial time by the small band of French defenders of the desert oasis called Bir Hakeim. The French forces were comprised of French Army soldiers, French Foreign Legionnaires who had marched to Libya from neighboring Chad and Senegalese fighters.