Halfaya Pass ( ar, ممر حلفيا, translit=Mamarr Ḥalfayā ) is in northwest

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, 11.5 kilometres east of the border with Libya and 7.5 kilometres south of the other, more major pass in the ridge today. A high, narrow

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

extends south then southeastwards for a total of from a short distance east of the border. It hems in east-facing small harbour town of as-Salum ( various transliterations include ''el-Salloum, Saloum, Solum, Sollum''), continuing as an east-facing

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

cliff further north. Land to the east is lower than that to the west and the east side has steep slopes. The pass is centred inland from the closest part of the shore. It makes for a subtle

wind gap A wind gap (or air gap) is a gap through which a waterway once flowed that is now dry as a result of stream capture. A water gap is a similar feature, but one in which a waterway still flows. Water gaps and wind gaps often provide routes which ...

in the escarpment for the east-west land route. It made for the southern Mediterranean coastal road useful to

Mediterranean civilization The Mediterranean race (also Mediterranid race) was a historical race concept that was a sub-race of the Caucasian race as categorised by anthropologists in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. According to various definitions, it was said to be ...

s until the pass at as-Salum was enlarged after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. From 15 June 1941 and among veterans of Allied forces thereafter it was nicknamed Hellfire Pass. The escarpment is known as ' (') "great ascent". To El-Edrisi/Idrisi (died 1165) it was known as (', sometimes transliterated as ''Akabah el Solum'') "graded ascent", whence the modern name of the gulf/bay and the town of Salum. To

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

it was known as ''Catabathmus Magnus'', in the peak of whose empire it divorced Ptolemaic Egypt, Aegyptus from Marmarica. The range was seen as a demarcator of Africa and Asia in some Hellenistic geography.

World War II

, the engineered route up the escarpment had been destroyed and the pass had great strategic importance. The only ways westwards into Libya were to assault the pass or to out-flank it to the south. After the defeat of the Tenth Army (Italy), 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 Siege of Tobruk, besieged garrison at Tobruk. On 14 April 1941, Rommel's main force reached Sollum and occupied the Halfaya Pass. Allied attempts to recapture the pass and relieve Tobruk followed. The first attempt, on 15 May, was Operation Brevity. 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. Supply shortages obliged the Germans to curtail their advance, so they dug in and fortified their positions at Halfaya with 88 mm gun, 88 mm guns. This was the anchor for the Axis Powers, Axis positions, which opposed the Allies (World War II), Allied forces during the next allied attack. This was Operation Battleaxe on 15 June. 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". The German commander, Major Wilhelm Bach, in his conduct of the Axis defence of Halfaya Pass earned himself the nickname German language, German: (an allusion to his peacetime occupation as a Lutheran minister and the English nickname ''Hellfire Pass''). 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 of the Iron Cross, Knight's Cross for the defense he conducted. A British tank commander was last heard on the radio reporting, "They are tearing my tanks apart." The third attempt, Operation Crusader opened on 18 November, with an attack on Sidi Omar to the west of the pass and an attempt to outflank Rommel to the south and relieve Tobruk. This was achieved on 29 November. Rommel, now under pressure, on 7 December withdrew to El Agheila. Axis garrisons at Sollum, Bardia as well as the Pass were left behind, a temporary thorn in the Allies side. Isolated after the fall of Bardia on 2 January 1942, besieged by Commonwealth forces, cut off from supplies, and bombarded from the air and the sea, Bach and de Giorgis finally surrendered the Halfaya garrison of 4,200 Italians of the 55th Savona and 2,100 Germans,Playfair, p. 95. to the 2nd Infantry Division (South Africa), South African 2nd Infantry Division on 17 January 1942. The pass was scene of the accidental death of Major-General Jock Campbell (British Army officer), 'Jock' Campbell (VC), then commander of the British 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom), 7th Armoured Division. On 26 February 1942, a month after assuming command, his staff car overturned on the newly laid clay surface, killing him outright.

In Popular Culture

The pass and its according battles play a role in the Sniper Elite III game plot. The pass inspires a Battlefield V map, Hamada.

References

Bibliography

* {{Egypt topics World War II sites in Egypt Mountain passes of Egypt Egypt–Libya relations Escarpments of Africa Landforms of Egypt