“As usual?” Have you read many of my articles or other publications on the subject? If so you would have seen where I cover Bir el Hakeim quite comprehensively. I’ll post it below for your review and convenience.

You might find it enlightening, especially since it covers the parallel defense just a few miles away of Bir al Hakeim’s sister position, Bir al Harmat, defended by 500 Jewish Zionist volunteers fighting against the Third Reich under the command of Major Liebmann. I’m curious as to why you didn’t mention those, when their defense was equally as courageous and practically on the same battlefield as the Koenig’s Free French at Bir al Hakeim.

Also please bear in mind that in this article I have only 1600-1900 words to cover the first 80% of the 35-month expanse of the Desert War. So yeah, I have to leave out a lot. In this article I also didn’t have to cover about 40 other crucial North African battles on which I have written, including other facest of the Gazala / Knightsbridge battles which objectively may have been a little more influential in the “big picture” than Bir al Hakeim / Bir al Harmat

Here is work I have done on a scenario written for Desert Leader, originally a Brian Train adaptation of Panzer Leader for North African battles in WW2. Please click the ;link below to review the graphic (I cannot include them directly here) and then review the text below. I believe you will find I do Bir al Hakeim proper (and deserving) justice.

BIR EL HAKEIM – SCENARIO WRITTEN FOR DESERT LEADER – A PANZER LEADER VARIANT:

DESERT LEADER SITUATION 30
GAZALA IV – FRENCH BREAKOUT
BIR HACHEIM, 11 June 1942

As mentioned above, the fiasco of the Aberdeen offensive not only failed to crush Rommel’s Afrika Korps or eject him from the Cauldron, but it also left a big part of the Eighth Army very vulnerable to the inevitable counterattack, especially along the wings. When the 21st Panzer Division had slaughtered the 32nd Tank Brigade on Sidra Ridge, Ritchie’s northern flank had been ripped wide open.

The threat to the south was more subtle, with Germans and Italian spearheads worming through gaps in the British minefields near Bir el Harmat that no one in the Allied camp knew about. Thinking their left wing secure, the British were about to be sorely educated when the 15th Panzer came slashing through those gaps.

By the afternoon of June 5, 1942, the Germans were again on the move. The 21st Panzer Division leapt through the gap left by the reeling remains of the 32nd Tank Brigade, then curled east and south towards Bir el Harmat. Almost at the same moment, the 15th Panzer Division was likewise pushing the gaps cut through the minefields south of the desert town. The result was a massive double pincer, one of the few times Rommel tried such a maneuver (usually he relied on single pincers through the southern desert, relying on the Mediterranean Sea to cover his northern flank).

The British had no idea the Germans had cleared these gaps through the minefields, and surprise was complete. Quickly the 15th Panzer overran the headquarters of the 5th Indian Division and the 7th Armoured Division (again), even as the 21st Panzer cut down from the northwest. Very quickly, practically everything that had participated in the Aberdeen offensive had largely been encircled, including the majority of the 22nd Armoured Brigade, the 9th and 10th Indian Brigades (the bulk of the 5th Indian Division), and four regiments of field artillery.

Spastic efforts to regain some kind of footing were hampered by the Luftwaffe, which continued to bomb remaining centers if Allied command and control, such as El Adem and the Knightsbridge Box. The next morning, in the absence of any new British counteroffensives (such as might’ve been mounted by the 2nd and 4th Armoured Brigades, now reorganized under the 7th Armoured Division), saw the Afrika Korps renew their offensive around this new “mini-Cauldron” and smash the forces trapped therein. The Germans and Italians took over three thousand prisoners, 130 guns, and had destroyed at least 150 tanks.

Yet even with this victory, Rommel knew that he still couldn’t launch his final drive on Tobruk, not with Bir Hacheim still holding out stubbornly on his rear right flank. The position was still holding out against elements of the Trieste and 90 Light Divisions, sending Rommel into another of his temper tantrums. Orders went out to have this extreme southern anchor of the Gazala Line taken at once, no matter what it took.

One thing we had to clear up in the course of our historical research was the presence of a “Jewish Battalion” here at Bir Hacheim. Some sources, otherwise very detailed and reliable, repeatedly said it was there. Others, like Gregory Moore at gregpanzerblitz.com, made no mention of them. As it turns out, both were essentially
correct.

The 1st Free French Brigade, commanded by General Marie Pierre Koenig and reinforced by some elements of the 2nd Free French Brigade, in fact contained no such battalion. However, a group of about 400 Zionist volunteers commanded by Major Liebmann held another nearby position, about eight miles north-northwest of Bir
Hacheim, closer to Bir el Harmat. Many sources actually break these out as two separate battles, but both ran
essentially parallel courses. They held out against overwhelming Axis pressure, without any ground help from the Eighth Army. Despite murderous losses suffered from the fighters of the Desert Air Force, Stukas bombed these positions repeatedly starting on June 2, just as the battles in the Cauldron were starting to get cooking. Italian tanks also hit these positions, which both the Zionists and the Frenchmen often had to fight off with little more than Molotov cocktails.

The Frenchmen in particular were especially hard hit, but they did have a much larger force. Two battalions were made up of French Foreign Legion troops, many of them from Germany and Italy yet of course loyal to the Legion
(perhaps this explains why the French commander has a distinctly German name, recruits to the Legion often take
new French first names as part of their new identity).

German artillery also joined in as the 90th Light Division took up its siege positions, including old JgPz-47 tank destroyers and newer sIG-33 assault howitzers. Still, both positions held out despite a rapidly-dwindling supply of
both ammunition and water. Both General Koenig and Major Liebmann received repeated demands for surrender,
with both commanders giving the predictable reply. By now the forward German positions were just 200 meters
from the Bir Hacheim perimeter.

On June 9, the 7th Motor and 29th Indian Brigades tried attacking the 90th Light Division, in an attempt to take some
of the pressure off Bir Hacheim and Bir el Harmat. This attempt, although well-intended, only bought a single day’s respite for the besieged defenders. By now the Zionist Battalion in particular had suffered very high casualties, especially to Stuka attacks since they had no air defense weapons bigger than a Bren gun. Finally, on June 10, General Ritchie at 8th Army Headquarters was forced to admit that he could not rescue or relieve the positions at Bir Hacheim and Bir el Harmat.

He gave the order to withdraw. Major Liebmann by now had just 100 men left (25% of his original force), while Bir
Hacheim was being hit by Stuka raids sometimes up to 100 dive-bombers strong. Koenig made up his mind to break
out and escape with what he could, hoping to link up with nearby positions of the British 7th Motorized Brigade, some
seven kilometers to the southwest.

The attempt was made under cover of darkness, in the wee hours of the morning on June 11, 1942. Creeping through gaps in the minefields, the Frenchmen crept from the ruins of the Bir Hacheim fortifications and started what
the hoped would be a stealthy escape. Once a few surviving trucks and Bren carriers hit mines, however, the gig was up and it became a desperate sprint. Some of the fighting was hand-to-hand, and the French escaped with practically none of their equipment, but the majority of the survivors actually escaped. When the 90th Light finally took the Bir Hacheim fort, they took only 500 prisoners from an original force of around 4,000, most of them wounded too badly to make the run with their comrades.

When General Koenig and his men got to the 7th Motorized Brigade, they were amazed to find Major Liebmann and his men arriving as well. They had no idea another Allied force was fighting a similar (if smaller) battle for survival. In perfect French, Major Liebmann told Koenig his battalion were fighters from Palestine, but that they could not serve under their flag because of British regulations. Koenig then told him to raise their Star of David flag, and all Free French officers around him saluted it. Many of these Zionist officers would reappear on the pages of history a few years later, as some of the “founding fathers” of the Israeli Defense Force during their first War of Independence in 1948.

As for Major Koenig, he would later serve as the military governor of the French occupation zone of postwar West Germany.

Even Rommel gets a little good press out of this battle’s epilogue. There is documented evidence that proves that
Hitler knew about what was happening in the desert, and ordered Rommel to execute all French and Jewish prisoners taken. The French were fighting for a defeated nation, in defiance of France’s pro-Axis Vichy government, and thus could regarded as partisans rather than soldiers. As for the Jews, well … they were Jews. But these prisoners were never executed, and treated fairly by the Afrika Korps (actually, POWs taken by the Afrika Korps were treated better than most taken by the Germans overall). As for Hitler’s order to Rommel, it conveniently disappears from the Afrika Korps’ archives, presumably into the Desert Fox’s “Desert Circular File.”

Free French forces for this scenario are pretty well documented, thanks especially to Gregory Moore. First up are the 2nd and 3rd French Foreign Legion Battalions, still hard as desert nails but badly understrength. Next come the remnants of the Pacific Battalion (French colonists from Tahiti of all places), the 2nd Colonial Infantry Battalion (mostly from Cameroon), and elements of the 1st Naval Infantry Battalion. Although the French are assumed to have blown up much of their equipment, we can also envision them trying to escape with some of their guns, such as the remnants of the 1st Free French Artillery Regiment and the AA guns of the 1st Naval Fusiliers.

More notes follow on the special rules for the scenario, but you get the idea.