North African Campaign (in depth I)

When Benito Mussolini rose to power in 1922 he began to pursue one of his primary or not so be realistic goals the resurrection of the glory Roman Empire. Mussolini recognize that this would be a long and urge its process Italy's industrial capacities and military are in no position to compete with the superior European power of Great Britain and France. The British in particular represent a significant obstacle in control of the Suez Canal and Gibraltar the only ways connecting the Mediterranean to the Indian and Atlantic ocean. This provide the Britain a single transport efficient mean in goods from South Asia to Europe. If the British lost the Suez Canal, naturally they would suffer a huge blow to trade and colonial management. When Hitler reputed the treaty of Versailles the Italians felt confident enough to invade Ethiopia in 1935 which put them closer enough to the strategic waterway in Egypt. The Italians could not openly declare war on Britain just yet, but in 1940 they saw their moment after German's troops entered France. Mussolini promptly direct the forces in West Libya to mess on the Egyptian border. Before we get in to the detail of the ensuing military campaign we should spend few minutes talking about the tactical aspect that makes this campaign so fascinating. Before commands the war in the dessert Northern Africa was sometimes referred to as a tactician dream. There were a lot of lofty ideas about how the flat and mostly featureless terrain would provide a sort of real world chessboard where military theory about mechanized warfare could be put on test. Some military planners even believe that the open country would let tanks glide around like warships on the open ocean. That is the plot of a fantasy novel not the reality of combat in World War 2. Food, water and gasoline had to be hauled over a large distances in enormous quantities to even begin to meet the combatants, now lets get back to the front-line. Expecting a quick Germans victory against the Allies, Benito Mussolini wanted "A few thousand deaths" to gain a seat at the negotiating table therefore his instruction to marshal Rodolfo Graziani Governor General of Libya and the commander of Italian 10th army were as briefed as they were unhelpful "Attack the British in front of you!" Graziani who had earned the nickname of Butcher of the Dessert hesitated to go through with Mussolini's very elaborate plans. In early September of 1940 he was short on equipment and British hit and run tactics had cost him nearly 3,500 men, while the Royal Navy harassed his supply ports at Benghazi and Tobruk. By mid September Graziani was forced by Mussolini to make his move and actually managed to penetrate 100 km into British territory. Portion of Italian 10th army totaling 80,000 of his 250,000 men got as far as the city of Sidi Barrani in North West of Egypt which they captured on September 16th. Unfortunately for the bumbling butcher that's when all his logistical issues that i mentioned before really caught up with him. Graziani ended up spending more than 2 months waiting for resupply a period that the Allied mockingly referred as his sits kriegs. And while Graziani was trying to get organized, his enemy were successfully doing just that. Sir Archibald Wavell who commanded the British army in the Middle East had thus far bluffing quiet successfully. Italian forces in the North consisting of 250,000 men and in the South 350,000 men, Wavell had just 36,000 men in the North and 50,000 men in the South. It was only trough numbers of elaborate ruses including inflatable tanks and false tracks that he was able to hold the Italians at bay. With more material and manpower freed up at the battle of Britain, Wavell decided it was time to stop using balloon tanks and starting to use a real one. Under the commands of Major General Richard O'connor plans were made for an invasion code name Operation Compass. Just before dusk on December 7th the British 7th armored division and 4th Indian division set out for the Italians front-lines. For days the advanced continued undetected by Italian forces, on the 9th British western force ambushed the Italian garrisons at Nabewa taking approximately 2000 prisoners. Despite Graziani's overwhelming numerical advantages, O'connor consistently brought more tanks on any given engagement by massing his forces together against Graziani's spread out defensive perimeter. Within days Graziani's front-line was broken and immediately ordered a retreat back to Bardia in Libya. Just three days after the start of operation compass, Italian forces were completely withdrawn from Egypt and O'connor pushed on. Despite their victory the British military suffered significantly step backs during the pursue. The 7th armored division suffered a critical loss of vehicles and the 4th Indian division was send to garrison in Sudan being replaced by the more in experienced 6th Australian division. None the less O'connor was able to capitalized on captured Italian vehicles and fuel to move forward. When he arrived at Bardia on December 27th he found it well prepared protected by mines, barbed wires, machine guns nest and anti-tank ditches constructed a long 30 km defensive line. With his fresh Australian troops taking point he launched his assault. The attack was supplemented by the air attack of RAF and bombardment by the British Royal Navy. On January 5th 1941, the town was occupied by British and two thirds of the Italian 10th army had been killed or captured. Promptly after this victory the 7th division cut off Tobruk and the Australians 6th Australian division comes to laid siege. By late January 1941, the Italian garrisons of 25,000 men surrendered, the remainder of the 10th army retreated as fast as it could with the British in hot pursue running almost entirely of captured gasoline. When the Italians were close to escaping the grasp of the 7th armored division, a detachment of an armored vehicles was dispatched to raise ahead of the Italian troops at Beda Fomm. Italian forces heading from Benghazi were ambushed and stalled by this detachment which bought enough time for the rest of the British tanks to arrived. After the defeat of the Italian army, the British goverment confident that there would be no counterattack soon relocated most of the British troops stationed in the North Africa in an attempt to hold off Axis invasion in Greece. But all this time across the sea Adolf Hitler had been keeping weary eye on the repeated defeat of his allies. With about as much fate in Mussolinni's strategic mind as probably warranted he dispatched one of his most valuable generals a man that had distinguished him self as a tank commander at the battle of France. That man was Erwin Rommel and he brought with him a reckoning. Operation compass the code name for the first Allied military operation of the Western Dessert campaign had been a really successful for the British thanks to the General Sir Archibald Wavell and his sub ordinate Richard O'connor. However the Allies winning streak was about to come to an end. On February 9th 1941, Winston Churchill ordered the 6th Australian to cross the Mediterranean and joined the Allies defensive troops in Greece at nearly the same moment the newly German Africa core began to deploying in Libya. Since the British did not expect a counterattack in Libya, most of the 7th armored division returned to Egypt to defend his majesty's holdings there. As results when Erwin Rommel arrives with 65,000 German troops in addition to the 55,000 Italian troops, he was able to bring 120,000 hammer to the dangerously stronger Allies. In the entirety of the African Theater Wavell had around 180,000 troops under his command as a part of newly reformed 8th army. They were supported by the large quantities of aircraft and the superior British Navy, however the British forces over extended ment that they were unprepared for the concentrated Axis assault. Despite Rommel's order to take a defensive stance until more reinforcement arrives in May of 1941, the ambitious commander took action after remarkably easy early offensive victories at Al Aghelia and Mersa brega. Before long he put the Germans plan for operation sunflower into action early. Like O'connor did before him Rommel splits his forces in an attempt to cut the enemy off, ordering some troops to take the costal route and ordering others to go through the desserts. As for the O'connor himself in an unbelieavable blunder, the British officer and the staff escorted him make a wrong turn and drove right into Axis forces. He and his intended replacement along with the man who ambushed the Italian men in 1940 were captured and Wavell was down three of his most experienced senior officers. By mid April, the Benghazi had fallen and nearly all of the British forces in Libya had been successfully pushed out of the Libya and back to the Egypt with one note able exception those at Tobruk.