On the Axis side, there were heavy casualties. 3,300 men had been killed, were wounded or gone missing, 277 had been captured, 51 tanks, 13 halftracks and a hundred other vehicles had been destroyed. The Luftwaffe had lost 7 aircraft, taken down by the French AA-guns, while 42 Stukas had been destroyed by RAF fighters. French losses were considerably lighter, with 99 killed and 19 wounded during the siege; 42 killed, 210 wounded, and 814 POWs during the evacuation, along with 40 75 mm, and 5 47 mm destroyed cannons, 8 Bofors AA-guns and about fifty destroyed vehicles. All in all, 2,619 out of 3,703 French Free men would rejoin the British lines.
This feat of arms was for many a significant proof of the valor and courage of the French soldiers, bitterly criticized since June 1940. British General Playfair wrote: "The lengthened defense of the French garrison played a major role in the re-establishment of the British troops in Egypt. The free French gravely disrupted, from the beginning, Rommel's offensive, resulting on a disturbed supply line of the Afrika Korps. The growing Axis troop concentration in the sector, needed to subjugate the fort, saved the British 8th Army from a disaster. The delays in the offensive caused by the relentless French resistance increased the British chances of success and eased the preparation of the counter-offensive. On long term, holding back Rommel allowed the British forces to escape from its meticulously planned annihilation. That's why we can say, without exaggerating, that Bir Hakeim greatly contributed to El-Alamein defensive success." On June 12th, marshal Claude Auchinleck would release a statement: "The United nations must be full of admiration and gratitude towards those French troops and their valiant General [Koenig]".[5] Winston Churchill would be more terse: "Holding back for fifteen days Rommel's offensive, the free French of Bir Hakeim had contributed to save Egypt and Suez canal's destinies."
Even Adolf Hitler would answer to the journalist Lutz Koch, coming back from Bir Hakeim: "You have heard, gentlemen, what Koch recounts. It is a new proof of the thesis I've always supported; namely, that French are still, after us, the best soldiers in Europe. France will always have the possibility, even with its current birthrate, to raise a hundred divisions. We will definitely, after this war, have to set up a coalition able to military control a country capable of such impressive military feats." As a consequence, the Führer gave the order to execute the Free French prisoners, an order that Rommel refused to carry out. Anecdotally, Rommel, impressed by the French resistance, and understanding that the prisoners suffered of thirst, ordered that French prisoners and Axis soldier would receive the same water ration. It matched with Mussolini wills, whose orders to its troops were to treat particularly well the French prisoners