General Ritchie, commander of the British 8th Army,
was cut off from his men and had no idea what had
happened to them nor did he know the direction of
his attackers.
About 1530 hours that afternoon a British patrol
of armored cars caught sight of an enormous
formation of German tanks speeding south towards
Bir Hacheim. The reconnaissance unit radioed HQ
with their report. They transmitted their warning
every half hour without a single message received
in response. No one was listening to the radio.
A monitor had never been assigned.
The British troops were enjoying a glorious morning in May.
They sat about and leisurely ate their late breakfast.
The first sign of trouble was the frantic firing of a guard,
quickly followed by the sound of earth rumbling and a dust
cloud made from hundreds of tanks headed their way.
Brigades of British armor were quickly eliminated.
Ritchie had ignored the warning from Cairo to
concentrate his tanks. These pockets of armor,
scattered miles apart, were small bites easily
swallowed.
Despite this catastrophe the British fought on courageously.
Opposing forces became hopelessly intertangled.
Both Ritchie and Rommel were now without the
ability to command. The Afrika Korps was battled
to a standstill.
Rommel's tank force was now prostrate - without fuel.
His supplies couldn't keep up and were forced to halt,
unprotected, many miles to the south.
Ritchie did nothing in response. He couldn't.
He didn't know. His HQ was too far removed
from events for him to have any accurate idea
as to what was going on.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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