The Battle of Gazala (near modern town of Ayn al Ghazalah) was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, around the port of Tobruk in Libya from 26 May to 21 June 1942. The combatants on the Axis side were the Panzerarmee Afrika (Colonel-General Erwin Rommel), consisting of German and Italian units and the Allied forces of the Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie) under the supervision of the Commander-in-Chief Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck. The Axis distracted the British with a decoy attack in the north and made the main attack round the southern flank of the Gazala position. The advance succeeded but the defence of the French garrison of Bir Hakeim at the southern end of the line left the Axis with a long and vulnerable supply route behind the British line.