El Agheila

Al - Agheila (Arabic العقيلة, also al - Uqaylah or al - Aqaylah ) is a Libyan coastal town on the southernmost point of belonging to the Mediterranean Great Syrtis and the westernmost location of the Cyrenaica region. It belonged until 2007 to Munizip Ajdabiya, today it belongs to the Munizip al - Wahat.

El Agheila is known as the theater of war of the African campaign in World War II.

Location

Nearby places are Ras Lanuf (70 miles west), Qaryat Bashir (23 km east) and Brega (Al Burayqah, 45 km east).

History

At the site of today's settlement was located in the Roman Empire, the bearing Anabucis or his Greek predecessor car Mala.

During the Italian occupation was in El Agheila a concentration camp for Bedouins. It was located immediately south of the city and took more than 10,000 inmates, of which thousands died.

West of the town on the coastal road Via Balbo was from 1937 to 1970 the Arch Arco dei Fileni.

World War II

In February 1941, El Agheila was occupied by British parts of the Western Desert Force, after the Italian 10th Army was defeated in Operation Compass. The British remained there, while much of the rest of the Western Desert Force was moved to Greece to stop the local invasion of the Axis powers. This gave the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel the opportunity of a counter- offensive that ended with El Agheila was recaptured in March by the Axis powers and the British was thrown back to Tobruk and the Egyptian border (Operation Sunflower). Rommel left the fortification of the city reinforce and used it as a base for his operations, in particular the siege of Tobruk. After the loss of Tobruk during Operation Crusader in December 1941, was El Agheila retreat of the Afrika Korps, which could be defended against British attacks.

In January 1942, Rommel launched from El Agheila of a new operation, which again threw back the British to Tobruk. The Germans succeeded in taking of Tobruk (see Battle of Gazala ) and the advance into Egypt before they were stopped at El Alamein in July 1942 and finally defeated in November. The Afrika Korps was then largely wiped out, had (see Battle of El Agheila ) left so that the remaining forces on the retreat of the advancing British 8th Army, the city in December 1942.