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Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December 1941) was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army (with Commonwealth, Indian and Allied contingents) against the Axis forces (German and Italian) in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. The operation was intended to bypass Axis defences on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armoured forces and relieve the 1941 Siege of Tobruk.

On 18 November 1941, the Eighth Army launched a surprise attack. From 18 to 22 November, the dispersal of British armoured units led to them suffering 530 tank losses and inflicted Axis losses of about 100 tanks. On 23 November, the 5th South African Brigade was destroyed at Sidi Rezegh (Arabic: سيدي رزق, romanized: Sayyidī Rizq Arabic pronunciation: [sjdiː rizq] (listen)) but inflicted many German tank casualties. On 24 November Rommel ordered the "dash to the wire" and caused chaos in the British rear echelons but allowed the British armoured forces to recover. On 27 November, the New Zealanders reached the Tobruk garrison and relieved the siege.

The battle continued into December when supply shortages forced Rommel to narrow his front and to shorten his lines of communication. On 7 December 1941, Rommel withdrew the Axis forces to the Gazala position and on 15 December he ordered a withdrawal to El Agheila. The 2nd South African Division captured Bardia on 2 January 1942, Sollum on 12 January and the fortified Halfaya position on 17 January, taking about 13,800 prisoners.[2] On 21 January 1942, Rommel launched a surprise counter-attack and drove the Eighth Army back to Gazala where both sides regrouped. The Battle of Gazala began at the end of May 1942.

Over the following ten days, Rommel's forces withdrew to a line between Ajedabia and El Haseia, maintained his lines of communication, and avoided being cut off and surrounded, unlike the Italians the previous year. As his lines of supply shortened and supplies to El Agheila improved, he rebuilt his tank force and so the Eighth Army lines of supply became more and more stretched. On 27 December, Rommel was able in a three-day tank battle at El Haseia to inflict heavy damage on the 22nd Armoured Brigade, which forced the leading echelons of the Eighth Army to withdraw.[102] That allowed the Axis forces to fall back to a tactically more-desirable defensive line at El Agheila in the first two weeks of January without having to deal with pressure from the enemy.[102]

Auchinleck's determination and Ritchie's aggression had removed the Axis threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal for now. However, the Axis strongholds on the Libya–Egypt border remained, despite Rommel's recommendation for an evacuation by sea and to block the coast road and tie down Allied troops. In early December, the Allies decided that clearing the Axis frontier positions was essential to facilitate their supply lines and maintain the momentum of their advance. On 16 December, the 2nd South African Division commenced an attack on Bardia, garrisoned by 2,200 German and 6,600 Italian troops, and on 2 January 1942, the port fell. Sollum fell to the South Africans on 12 January after a small but fiercely-fought engagement. They surrounded the fortified Halfaya Pass position (which included the escarpment, the plateau above it and the surrounding ravines) and cut it off from the sea. The Halfaya garrison of 4,200 Italians of the 55th Infantry Division "Savona" and 2,100 Germans was already desperately short of food and water.[103] The defences allowed the garrison to hold out against heavy artillery and aerial bombardment with relatively few casualties, but hunger and thirst forced a capitulation on 17 January.[104] Rommel reported of General Fedele de Giorgis: "Superb leadership was shown by the Italian General de Giorgis, who commanded this German-Italian force in its two months' struggle".[105]

On 21 January, Rommel launched a surprise counterattack from El Agheila. Although the action had originally been a "reconnaissance in force", since Rommel found the Eighth Army forward elements to be dispersed and tired, he took advantage, in his typical manner, of the situation and drove the Eighth Army back to Gazala where they took up defensive positions along Rommel's old line. A stalemate set in as both sides regrouped, rebuilt and reorganised. It may have proved a limited success, but Operation Crusader showed that the Axis could be beaten and was a fine illustration of the dynamic back-and-forth fighting that characterised the North African campaign. Geoffrey Cox wrote that Sidi Rezegh was the "forgotten battle" of the Desert War. Crusader was "won by a hair’s breadth" by the Eighth Army but "had we lost it, we would have had to fight the battle of Alamein six months or a year earlier, without the decisive weapon of the Sherman tank".[106]