North Africa Campaign (General knowledge)

Just as it had been in the first world war. The outbreak of war in Europe again saw the fighting spill over into the territories. But European imperial powers held control of elsewhere around the world. Britain and France held territory across Africa, which Italy's Mussolini eyed jealously and when Italy declared war on Britain and France in support of Germany, it gave him the opportunity to invade those territories from Italian possessions. Such as Ethiopia, Somali land and most significantly Libya which bordered British Egypt. Egypt was vital to British interests because of the Suez Canal. Which linked Britain to its far East possessions such as Hong Kong and India as well as the oil rich middle East which both sides desperately needed access to. On September the 13th 1940, Italian forces launched an invasion in Egypt. With Britain herself still preparing for an invasion, it was left to the small contingent of British and Commonwealth troops stationed there to defend the large border against the numerically superior Italians. At first the Italians made good progress eventually capturing the important airfield at Sidi Bharani. However when Hitler forced to cancel the invasion of Britain fresh troops and equipment began to be mobilized for North Africa under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Richard O'Connor. Firstly however they would have to make the Paradis sea voyage down the North Atlantic and into the Mediterranean sea. Where the Italian fleet was still the dominant air force after Frances surrender. Heavily outnumbered the British concocted a daring plan to attack the Italian fleet while it was still moored in Port Toronto using obsolete Swordfish biplane bombers. On the night of November the 11th 1940, the forces of swordfish bombers took off from HMS Illustrious and caught the Italians completely by surprise. The attack inflicted severe damage on a large number of the Italians capital ships taking them out of the war for several months in order to be repaired and their severly hampering Italy's efforts to disrupt supplies to North Africa. Unfortunately the British still had to contend with air and submarine attacks, the task of expelling Italian forces from Egypt seemed immense in the late in 1940 and yet, the newly British forces managed to achieve just that. The British retook Sidi Bahrani and by January the 3rd 1941 were already pushing forward into Libya. In two months a British force comprising of just two whole divisions had advanced 500 miles destroyed 10 Italian divisions and taken 130,000 prisoners as well as capturing over a thousand tanks and artillery pieces. Operating from Italy the German Luftwaffe began supporting the Italian operations from the air. But things on the ground continue to go badly for the Italians with British forces capturing the strategic port of Tobruk on January the 22nd. Confident of Italian defeat Churchill began his plans for helping to defend Greece and the Balkans from a joint German and Italian invasion. However Germany decided to send two of its own divisions to help shore up Italian forces in North Africa, which would form the nucleus of its Africa core under the command of Erwin Rommel. Rommel was a gifted leader and tactician who understood tank warfare better than most general in 1941. The plans of North Africa were ideal for tank combat and Rommel's influence was almost immediately felt. He attacked El Agheila on March 24, and then pushed East across Libya back towards Egypt. However, he failed to retake Tobruk and instead laid siege to British garrison there, which held out for a staggering two hundred fourty days. Providing a severe thorn in the side of the Axis forces and tying up resources. On April the 14th British and Commonwealth forces had been pushed back to the border and had even captured General Connor and his replacement General Neem. But Rommels forces were struggling with the logistic problems, which Hitler feared the British could take advantage of. Fuel was such a concern for the Germans that they began efforts to steal it from the British which resulted in British troops referring to their fuel cans as jerrycans. By May Rommel was forced to halt his advance at hellfire pass in Egypt while he resupplied his forces. Under General Wavell the British did indeed counterattack in June hoping to cut off Rommel's supplies and force him to surrender. But Rommel outmaneuvered him and the attack failed. As the year went on the British became obsessed with killing Rommel, and had earned him the nickname dessert fox and even send a commando raid to assassinate hi which ultimately failed. For the next few months the battle lines fluctuated but Rommel's logistical problems continued to hold him back and worsened when Hitler began to focus more on other fronts.