Sunday of the Dead - The Matrix Games version of West Front

El Haiad Plateau, 45km SE of Tobruk, Libya: [Best played as Axis] Sunday 23 November 1941, was the Lutheran "All Saints Day" or "Totensonntag." In the war torn desert of North Africa the Sunday of the Dead could not have been better named. Due to a lack of coordination in the opening days of Operation Crusader, instead of drawing the tanks of the German Afrika Korps into a set piece battle near the airstrip at Sidi Rezegh as planned, the British tank brigades repeatedly clashed with the Axis mobile divisions independently. By the evening of the 22nd Sidi Rezegh's airstrip was back in German hands and losses in the exhausted armored brigades had been high, leaving the Commonwealth infantry to carry on with little support. The Germans were tired too; however, Rommel's presence energized the veteran panzertruppen. Following a thrust south from the airfield, in the afternoon of the 23rd the tank regiments of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions were positioned south of the 5th South African Brigade. The stage was set for the panzers to overrun the isolated South Africans whose only hope of assistance was from the shattered 22nd Armoured Brigade to the west and remnants of the 7th Support Group to the east.