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Line 3: − The first attempt against Tobruk took place on 11 April. It was to be led by General Heinrich von Prittwitz but he was killed by an anti-tank shot and replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Heinrich. Lieutenant-Colonel Gustav Ponath's 8th Machinegun Battalion, supported by an Italian anti-aicraft unit fighting as infantry attacked the Australian defences. It was a defeat for the Axis who didn't know anything about Tobruk defences for an Italian map would only become available on 12 April.+ − + + + + + + + + +
Easter Battle nearly completed
==Easter Battle==
==Easter Battle==
On 10 April, under pressure from Rommel, the 15 Panzer Division's commander, Major-General Heinrich von Prittwitz was killed along with his driver by an anti-tank shot, while conducting a reconnaissance near Tobruk. Upon finding out the loss, the commander of the 5th Light Division, Major-General Johannes Streich drove up angrily in a commandeered British vehicle to chastise Rommel, only to be warned that he could also have been killed in a case of mistaken identity by 20mm fire, to which Streich responded that in that case Rommel would've killed two German generals in just one day.
At the El Adem road, Axis tanks clashed with reinforcements from the [[1st Royal Tank Regiment]], and four Italian tanks and one German panzer were lost. Two British tanks were also lost, but the British forced the Axis force to withdraw.
On 11 April, the 5th Panzer Regiment probed the Australian defences around stongpoints R59 and R63, losing five panzers in the process. Nevertheless, 700 supporting infantry got within 400 yards of the 2/13th Battalion's positions. Axis infantry also attacked the 2/17th Battalion's sector near strongpoint R33. Artillery fire stopped the attacking infantry, but 70 tanks got through and attempted to overrun Captain Baffe's D Company as the company commander recalls:
''"About 70 tanks came right up to the antitank ditch and opened fire on our forward posts. They advanced in three waves of about twenty and one of ten. Some of them were big German Mark IVs, mounting a 75-mm gun. Others were Italian M13s and there were a lot of Italian light tanks too. The ditch here wasn't any real obstacle to them, the minefield had only been hastily rearmed and we hadn't one antitank gun foward. We fired on them with antitank rifles, Brens, and rifles and they didn't attempt to come through, but blazed away at us and then sheered off east towards the 2/13th's front."''<ref>[file:///C:/DOCUME~1/1/LOCALS~1/Temp/9AustralianDivVsAfricaCorps_Miller.pdf The Australian 9th Division Versus the Afrika Corps by Colonel Ward A. Miller]</ref>
German infantry attacked again, in battalion strength as Baffe recalls:
''"When the infantry were about 500 yards out we opened up, but in the posts that could reach them we had only two Brens, two antitank rifles and a couple of dozen ordinary rifles. The Jerries went to ground at first, but gradually moved forward in bounds under cover of their machine guns. It was nearly dusk by this time, and they managed to reach the antitank ditch. From there they mortared near-by posts heavily. We hadn't any mortars with which to reply, and our artillery couldn't shell the ditch without risk of hitting our own posts."''<ref>[file:///C:/DOCUME~1/1/LOCALS~1/Temp/9AustralianDivVsAfricaCorps_Miller.pdf The Australian 9th Division Versus the Afrika Corps by Colonel Ward A. Miller]</ref>
At the El Adem road, Axis tanks clashed with reinforcements from the [[1st Royal Tank Regiment]], and four Italian tanks and one German panzer were lost. Two British tanks were also lost, but the British forced the Axis force to withdraw. The 2/13th Battalion's mortar platoon, equipped with two Italian 47mm antitank guns, also knocked out two Italian tanks in the El Adem road action.
That night, Axis tanks along with pioneers again probed the Australian defences, but were driven off by the 2/17th Battalion.
That night, Axis tanks along with pioneers again probed the Australian defences, but were driven off by the 2/17th Battalion.