History
Within a week of Italy's 10 June 1940 declaration of war upon Britain, the British Army's 11th Hussars (assisted by elements of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and supported by Gladiators of No. 33 Squadron and Blenheims of No. 211 Squadron) captured Fort Capuzzo. A few days later, the Italian 1st Blackshirt Division recaptured it during an attack which reached Sidi Barrani, Egypt.
In December, the Western Desert Force regained the Fort during Operation Compass. It was then re-captured by General Erwin Rommel during his first offensive, falling on 12 April 1941.
During Operation Brevity, the Fort changed hands briefly on 15-16 May, but ultimately remained in German-Italian possession when the operation failed and the attacking British Brigade group withdrew. The fort was retaken by the New Zealand Division on 22 November 1941, during Operation Crusader.
Axis forces once again took possession following the Battle of Gazala before the Fort was returned to Allied control for the final time following the Second Battle of El Alamein.
Read more about this topic: Fort Capuzzo
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)