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Once it was clear that the French Army was defeated, Mussolini decided to join Hitler and declared war on France and Britain. Even though German armies were pouring through France, Mussolini's attack in the south was unsuccessful. Mussolini also invaded Egypt from Libya, hoping to seize the Suez Canal (September 13, 1940). Although badly outnumbered the British 8th Army not only stopped the Italians but counter attacked (December 9, 1940). The British move toward Benghazi with a series of victories. The Italians are near collapse. Hitler in order to prevent the fall of Libya orders a small armoured force to Libya to support the Italians. The force under Erwin Rommel begins to arrive March 22, 1941. Rommel and his Africa Korps stop the British and even though he has only a small force launches a counter-attack (March 30, 1941). Rommel drives the British back into Egypt. Here Rommel's inovatic tactics and the superority of the German Panzers were critical. ANZAC resistance at Tobruck helps to stop Rommel. A British counter offensive drive Rommel and the Italians back into Libya (November 18, 1941). Rommel strikes and again drives into Egypt (January 21, 1942). This time Rommel takes Tobruk (June 21, 1942). He moves toward Suez, but is stopped after a ferocious battle at El Alemain (July 2, 1942). A standoff occurs as the two armies prepare for a show down. Churchill gives Montgomery command of the 8th Army (August 13, 1942). This is thehighwater of the German war effort. Rommel is only a few miles from Suez and Von Paulitz's 6th Army is investing Stalingrad. Here America's entry into the War begins to swing the ballance. American industry provided Montgomery, with supplies and equipment in massive quantities. The Germans bogged down in the Soviet Union can not devote the men are material needed by Rommel. The British defeat of the Italian Navy in the Mediterrean means that much of the supplies sent to Rommel are sunk. The British are assisted in this effort by Ultra.
American historians comminly refer to the fighting in the Western Desert as the North African campaign. In fact, the British term "Western Desert" confused me because it was fought in eastern North Africa. The British of course adopted the term from their perspective in Suez and Egypt. The Italian attack came out of the Wesern Deseet as seen from Suez.
Once it was clear that the French Army was defeated, Mussolini decided to join Hitler. He declared war on France and Britain on the same day the Germans entered Paris. This was a decession that Mussolini made personally without any real study or assessment by Government ministries. He was convinced that Italy had to enter the war in order to sit at the conference table a share the spoils. Despite more than a decade of Fascist rule, and military posturing, Italy was totally unprepared for war. Italy not only did not have a well-equipped army, but the average Italian conscript had no interest in either the army or the War. The NAZI Party had succeeded in preparing Germans for war, The Fascist Party in Italy had failed in the ideological preparation of the Italian population. Even though German armies were pouring through France, Mussolini's attack in the south was unsuccessful and even driven back by the French.
The aborted invasion of France (June 1940) achieved Mussolini nothing. As Italy had colonies to the west and south of British Egypt, the obvious next step was to seize Egypt and Suez which was protected by only a small British force of about 30,000 men--the Western Desert Force. Mussolini ordered an invasion of Egypt from Libya, hoping to seize the Suez Canal (September 13, 1940). A huge Italian army moved a few miles into Egypt and then set up defensive positions after encountering nimimal Briish resistance. The British simply withdrew in good order. A huge Italian force set up a number of fortified perimiter camps around Sidi Barani, still 300 miles short of Cairo and the Canal. The Germans had offered to assist the Italians, including providing tanks. Mussolini rejected the offere as unecessary even though Italian tannks were small and lightly armored.
The British Western Desert Force launched a surprise counter attack (December 9, 1940). General O'Conner's small force had supplies for only a 4 day action. He noticed that the Italian perimiter were spaced so far apart thatvthey could not support each other. O'Conner attacked from the rear cutting the Italians off from supplies. The Italiand quickly surrendered in large numbers. The British took to calling them "the gentlemem" because they did not seem to interested in fighting.
About 200,000 Italians were taken prisioner. Many seemed quite happy to surender. O'Conner because of the huge supply of Italian vehicles and supplies was able to turn a 4-day attack into a major offensive. The British took Benghazi and El Agheila in a series of quick victories. The Italians were near collapse and Tripoli seemed within reach.
Hitler in an effort to prevent the collapse of the Italians in Libya ordered a small armored forece to Libya to be commanded by Panzer commander Erwin Rommel who made a name for himself in France. Hitler at this time was focused on the upcoming invasion of Russia. He had rejected the suggestions of Admiral Raeder and others who advocated an offensive in the Meditrranean to settle the war with Britain rather than invading the Soviet Union. He was prepared, however, only to spare a very small force to sabalize the situation in Libya. OKW formed the Afrika Korps (February 19, 1941). It was to be a small expeditionary force to support the Italian army and prevent the British from seizing Libya.
The force under Erwin Rommel began to arrive March 22, 1941. Rommel was officially subordinated to the Italian coomander in North Africa, although he often ignored the chain of command. His orders were to support the Italians and hold Libya. He was not authorized to launch an offensive into Europe. Rommel was given only a small German force. His initial forcee was the 5th Panzer Regiment and a collection of small units. (The 5th Light Division was later redesignated the 21st Panzer Division.) Rommel organized his force into the 5th Light Division. Rommel struck even before all his force had arrived in Libya. His Africa Korps stopped the British and even though he has only a small force launched a counter-attack (March 30, 1941). Rommel drove the British back into Egypt. Here Rommel's innovatic tactics and the superority of the German Panzers were critical. At this stage of the War, the Germans had mastered armored warfare and the British despite the figtingbin Poland and France had not. Rommel was soon reinforced with the 15th Panzer Division. This provided Rommel's Afrika Korps with two German divisions and various small support units to support the Italian units. The Italians seemed unwilling to fight on gtheir own, but along side German units many Italian units did stand and fight.
Mussolini invasion of Greece from Albania destabilized the German southern flank. The invasion failed anf the Greeks drove the Italians back into Albania. The invasion caused the Greeks to seek support from the British, this endangered the German position in Romania. Romania was critical to the German war effort because it was their promary source of petroleum. Hitler decided to secure his southern flanl before invading the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia which had been finally enduced to join the Axis, suddenly pulled out when a coup deposed the government. Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Yugoslavia and Greece. The Greeks turn to the British for assistance. It is at this time that Churchill honored a pledge to assist Greece weakens the 8th Army in Egypt.
Rommel's successes caused some reevaluation at OKW. Rommel's force was redesignated Panzer Group Afrika (August 15). Rommel was made the Group commander. Command of the Afrika Korps was given to Ludwig Crüwell. The Panzer Group consisted of the Aftrika Korps and various German support units and two corps of Italian units, none with heavy armor. Panzer Group Afrika was redesignated as Panzer Army Afrika (January 30, 1942.) The Italian Army had desinigrated whwn attacked by the British. Under German leadership the Italians did fight, not as effectively as the Germans, but they did fight. The DAK's successes also brought considrable German media attention.
Malta was the cornerstone of the British campaign in the Western Desert. British possession of Malta and the invaluable naval and air bases there played a major role in interdicting Italian and Germany supply convoys to Libya. And it was supply shortages that played a key role in defeating Rommel and the Afrika Korps. Malta became the most bombed place on earth. German and Italian air forced relentlessly pounded the island. The island somehow managed to with tand the fiercest air assault of the War. The Italians began bombing Malta in 1940. The Luftwaffe joined in the campaign (January 1941) even before Rommel arrived in North Africa. Malta by March 1942 was enduring an average of 10 air raid alerts daily and there had been 117 straight days of bombing. The bombing was devestating. It also prevented supplies, food, and fuel from reaching the island. At one point Malta was near to capitulation, left virtual no fuel, food, or fighters. It was a convoy with an American carrier that finally succeeded in getting needed supplies through. Civilians suffered teribly. They had to move underground. Newsreels in Britain and America showed school children moving rapidly into undergrond bunkers when the air raids sireens sounded. The population was near starvation at one point. The Axis did not, however, launch a parachute assault on the island. They had the capability as shown in Crete. Senior Axis commanders advised just sych an action. After the German terrible losses suffed by the German parachute units on Crete, however, Hitler demured, After the War, historians have taken to summrizing the assul on Cretr as "the wrong island". The Axis seige was not fully lifted until July 1943 after the Axis surrender in Tunis and the invasion of Sicily. [Holland] Operaions from Malta also played an important role in interducting Axis supply lines to Tunis, fforcing the surrender there. Some orphaned children were sent to Australia.
ANZAC resistance at Tobruck helps to stop Rommel.
A British counter offensive drove Rommel and the Italians back into Libya (November 18, 1941).
Rommel strikes and again drives into Egypt (January 21, 1942). This time Rommel takes Tobruk (June 21, 1942). Churchill who was in Washington conerring with President Roosevelt is stunned. The President asks how he can help. Churchill requested tanks. President Roosevelt orders 300 Sherman tanks to be immediatly dispached to Egypt.
German victories early in the war came in large measure because they had developed the techniques of modern war, called at the time Blitzkrieg. This involved the use of rapidly moving armored formations supported by close air support. The British had scored some successes in the western desert, but against the Germans it was generally becaue they had superior forces. One mistake the Btritish constantly made was to expose their armor to extremely effective German 88mm anti-tank guns. Against other opponents the Germans had defeated them before they could develop these tactics and necessary counter measures. One of the maxims of warfare is to avoid multiple engagemenrs with the same ememy as he learns your tactics and how to counter them. Blitzkrieg involved using air power for tactical support and concentrating armor forces.
Rommel moves toward Suez, but is stopped after a ferocious battle at El Alemain (July 2, 1942). A standoff occurs as the two armies prepare for a show down.
The North African campaign is usually discussed in terms of the strategic importance of Suez, Middle Eastern oil, and India. This is of course true, but North Africa was where the Allies learned to fight the NAZIs. The French had not learned the lessons of Blitzkrieg from Poland. Neither did the British from the fighting in France. The Soviets were also unprepared. NAZI strategy was to quickly defeat an opponent before he was fully prepared for modern war. It was a slow learming process, but by mid-1942 the lesssons had been learned. [Barr] Thankfully the lessons were learned in time. In many ways this is the most important aspect of the Dessert War. First the British and then the Americans learned the tactics of modern war. These lessons would have been much more costly had they not been learned in a theater where the Germans fielded a relatively small force and had great difficulty supplying even their small force. One of the most difficult lessons to learn was how to use tanks. The Germans found that head long tank charges were not the most effective. It was better to allow the opponent to commit his tanks and destroy them by angti-tank guns and then deploy your tanks. The British survived because of the Channel. The Soviets because of the huge expanses of the Soviet union, weather, Hitler's mismanagement and the timely appearance of the T-34 tank (which was at firfst poorly used). It was during the fighting in North Africa that the British and Americans learned effective battlefield tactics. Luckily for the Allies they were able to learn at the maximum extension of Axis power where the Germans were not strong enough to force a decisive conclusuion to the campaign. The First Battle of El alemain was the first use by the British of these effective tactics. It was in effect Erwin Rommel himself who taught the Allies how to fight.
Churchill gives Montgomery command of the 8th Army (August 13, 1942). This is the highwater of the German war effort. Rommel is only a few miles from Suez and Von Paulitz's 6th Army is investing Stalingrad.
Rommel's tactical brillance in the end could not overcome the Afrika Korps logigistical problem. Rommel in fact not infrequently ignored seemingly obvious logistical contstraints, seeing them as the responsibility of the High Command. (This was one reason he did not focus on Malta.) The Afrika Korps required about 70,000 tons of supplies every month. Obtaining those supplies proved to be a logistical nightmare. Logistics presented special problems in the Western Desery because of the harsh environment. The combatants could not source critical materials locally. Here the British were at a great advantage. An oil pipelibe from northern Iraq provided fuel in abundance. Fuel was a huge constraint for Rommel. Rommel was never given the material support needed to achieve victory in the Desset War. The Germans bogged down in the Soviet Union could not devote the men are material needed by Rommel. And a very substantial part of what was sent was interdicted by the British through air and sea attacks. Virtually all od Rommel's supplies were delivered by Italian merchant vessels. Supplying Rommel involved four steps: 1) loading trans portsin Italian ports, 2) crossing the Mediterrean, 3) unloading in North Africa, and 4) moving the supplies forward to front line units. Each of these steps involved substantial problems. The Germans made some progress in addressing these problems at various times, but never solved all four at the same time. The Italian ports were notoriously inefficent. The Italian merchant marine had been substantially reduced by Mussolini's rash entrance into the War. The Royal Navy sevely damaged the Italian Navy in major engagements, sevely impairing its ability to protect shipping across the Meiterrean. Armed with Ultra, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force had great success in interdicting the supply ships. The Italian ports in Libya had a limited capacity. The ports in Tunisia were much larger, but as Vichy was officially neutral, they were off limits. Finally there was the huge problems of moving the supplies forward. As Rommel fought many of his important supplies at considerable distance from his Libyan ports, considerable quantities of the supplies delivered, especial the petrol, had to be expended just in transporting the supples. Here America's entry into the War begins to swing the ballance. While the Afrika Korps was a theater of secondary importance for the German High Command, for a time it was the main theater for the Allies. This meant a torrent of arms and material was dlivered to the British 8th Army. American industry provided Montgomery, with supplies and equipment in massive quantities.
Barr, Niall. Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein (Overlook, 2005).
Holland, James. Fortress Malta: An Island Under Seige 1940-43 (Miramax, 2003).
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