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The commander of the larger Italian contingent, General Fedele de Giorgis, General Officer Commanding 55th Infantry Division Savona, was awarded the highest German decoration, the Knight's Cross for the defense he conducted. Pastor of Hellfire (an allusion to his peacetime occupation as a Lutheran minister and the English nickname Hellfire Pass). The German commander, Major Wilhelm Bach, in his conduct of the Axis defence of Halfaya Pass earned himself the nickname German: Pastor des Fegefeuers lit. transl. German armour was deployed to draw the British tanks ( 11th Hussars) onto the concealed 88mm guns and the first wave was cut down in a few minutes (11 out of 12 tanks were destroyed), earning the pass the nickname "Hellfire Pass". This was the anchor for the Axis positions, which opposed the Allied forces during the next allied attack. Supply shortages obliged the Germans to curtail their advance, so they dug in and fortified their positions at Halfaya with 88 mm guns. Rommel counter-attacked the British withdrew and by 27 May the Germans had recaptured Halfaya Pass, a passage of time in which Major Edward Thomas earned his Military Cross. The first attempt, on 15 May, was Operation Brevity. Allied attempts to recapture the pass and relieve Tobruk followed. On 14 April 1941, Rommel's main force reached Sollum and occupied the Halfaya Pass. The only ways westwards into Libya were to assault the pass or to out-flank it to the south.Īfter the defeat of the Italian Tenth Army on 7 February 1941 during Operation Compass, the Italians were reinforced by German units ( Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel) and the British forces were forced out of Libya, leaving besieged garrison at Tobruk. In World War II, the engineered route up the escarpment had been destroyed and the pass had great strategic importance. The range was seen as a demarcator of Africa and Asia in some Hellenistic geography.

To ancient Rome it was known as Catabathmus Magnus, in the peak of whose empire it divorced Aegyptus from Marmarica. To El-Edrisi/Idrisi (died 1165) it was known as عقبة السلوم ( ʿAqaba as-Sallūm, sometimes transliterated as Akabah el Solum) "graded ascent", whence the modern name of the gulf/bay and the town of Salum. The escarpment is known as Akabah el-Kebir عقبة الكبير ( ʿAqaba al-Kabīr) "great ascent". It made for the southern Mediterranean coastal road useful to Mediterranean civilizations until the pass at as-Salum was enlarged after World War II.įrom 15 June 1941 and among veterans of Allied forces thereafter it was nicknamed Hellfire Pass. It makes for a subtle wind gap in the escarpment for the east-west land route. The pass is centred 1.6 miles (2.6 km) inland from the closest part of the shore. Land to the east is lower than that to the west and the east side has steep slopes. It hems in east-facing small harbour town of as-Salum ( Arabic: السلوم‎‎, romanized: as-Sallūm various transliterations include el-Salloum, Saloum, Solum, Sollum), continuing as an east-facing sea cliff further north. A 600 feet (180 m) high, narrow escarpment extends south then southeastwards for a total of 55 kilometres (34 mi) from a short distance east of the border. JSTOR ( August 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ĭoordinates: 31☃0′N 25☁1′E  /  31.500°N 25.183☎  / 31.500 25.183 Halfaya Pass ( Arabic: ممر حلفيا‎, romanized: Mamarr Ḥalfayā Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: ( listen)) is in northwest Egypt, 11.5 kilometres east of the border with Libya and 7.5 kilometres south of the other, more major pass in the ridge today.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.