The North African Campaign.

18-10-2017

The North African Campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptain deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morroco and Algeria (Operation Torch) and Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign).

The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis Powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth  and exiles from German occupied Europe. The United States entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942.

Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940. On 14 June, the British Army’s 11th Hussars nicknamed The Cherry Pickers11th Hussars Badge.jpg (assisted by elements of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment RTR cap badge.gif, , 1st RTR) crossed the border from Egypt into Libya and captured the Italian Fort Cappuzzo download. This was followed by an Italian counter offensive into Egypt and the capture of Sidi Barrani in September 1940 and then in December 1940 by a Commonwealth counteroffensive, Operation Compass. Operation Compass was the first large Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign.  During Operation Compass, the Italian 10th Army Flag of Italy (1860).svg under Italo Gariboldi ItaloGariboldi.jpg was destroyed and the German Afrika Korps Afrika Korps emblem.svg commanded by Erwin Rommel, who later became known as “The Desert Fox”—was dispatched to North Africa during Operation Sonnenblume to reinforce Italian forces in order to prevent a complete Axis defeat. Gariboldi died old age 90 on 03-02-1970 in Rome.

A see-saw series of battles for control of Libya and parts of Egypt followed, reaching a climax in the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942 when British Commonwealth forces under the command of Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery delivered a decisive defeat to the Axis forces and pushed them back to Tunisia. After the Allied Operation Torch landings in North-West Africa in late 1942, and subsequent battles against Vichy France forces  (who then changed sides), the Allies finally encircled Axis forces in northern Tunisia and forced their surrender.

Operation Torch in November 1942 was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while allowing American armed forces the opportunity to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany on a limited scale. In addition, as Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, had long been demanding a second front be opened to engage the Wehrmacht Balkenkreuz.svg and relieve pressure on the Red Army, it provided some degree of relief for the Red Army on the Eastern Front by diverting Axis forces to the African theater, tying them up and destroying them there.

Information gleaned via British Ultra code-breaking intelligence proved critical to Allied success in North Africa. Victory for the Allies in this campaign immediately led to the Italian Campaign, which culminated in the downfall of the fascist government in Italy and the elimination of a German ally.

el-alamein-war-cemetery-egypt-the-cemetery-contains-dead-from-ww2-c64xpm

end

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top