Video: '117 - Surprise Attack On Rommel! - Operation Crusader Begins - WW2 - November 21, 1941' (Nov. 18, 1941, at 5:51)

(Tuesday, November 18, 1941, at around 6:00 a.m. Central European Time; during Operation Crusader, part of the Western Desert Campaign in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II) — The British Eighth Army (with Commonwealth, Indian and Allied contingents), commanded by General Alan Cunningham, launched a surprise attack today against the Axis forces (German and Italian) in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel.

Video: 'The World at War: The Desert: North Africa - 1940-1943 (8 of 26)' (Operation Crusader at 20:02)

Operation Crusader was intended to bypass Axis defenses on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armored forces and relieve the 1941 Siege of Tobruk.