Western Desert Campaign
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The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War was the initial stage of the North African Campaign of The Second World War.
It was continuous back-and-forth struggle with the first major move initiated in late 1940 by Italian forces in Libya against Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt. This attack was quickly halted and countered, resulting in massive losses (primarily as prisoners of war) for the Italian forces. To prevent total collapse, the Italian's Axis partner, Germany, provided a contingent of land and air forces which soon became the dominant partner. Axis forces would twice more launch large-scale assaults against their Allied opponents, each time pushing Allied forces back to Egypt; both times though, the Allies retaliated and regained lost ground. On the last such assault, in early 1943, the Allies managed to drive Axis forces west out of Libya and into Tunisia, setting up the following Tunisia Campaign.
The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allies, operating from Malta to interdict Axis convoys was critical, denying the German commander, Rommel, fuel and reinforcements at critical moments.
In early 1942, the United States supplied a small US air force bomber contingent in support of the campaign, referring to it as the Egypt-Libya Campaign.
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[edit] Pre-War
The United Kingdom had had forces in Egypt since 1884, but much reduced as a result of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The relatively modest forces were primarily to protect the Suez Canal, which was vital to Britain's communications with her Far Eastern and Indian Ocean territories.
However, since 1938, they had included "Mobile Force (Egypt)", one of the two British armoured training formations, under Major General Percy Hobart. On the outbreak of war this was renamed Armoured Division (Egypt) and then 7th Armoured Division (later to become known as the "Desert Rats") and served as the principal force defending the Egypt-Libya border at the start of the war.
Libya had been an Italian colony since its conquest from the Ottoman Empire in 1911-1912. The principal force on the border there was Tenth Army at the outbreak of war. The Italian land and air forces greatly outnumbered the British in all respects. The British, however, had an advantage in better quality.
[edit] Raids
On 11 June 1940, the day after Italy declared war on the Allies, Italian and Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt began a series of raids on each other. Among the more notable achievements of this were the capture of Fort Capuzzo by the British Army's 11th Hussars and the death of Libyan Governor-General, Marshal Italo Balbo, in a friendly fire incident. Sixty-three Italians were taken prisoner on 12 June.
[edit] Italian invasion of Egypt
Benito Mussolini, anxious to link Libya with Italian East Africa and to capture the Suez Canal and the Arabian oilfields, ordered the invasion of Egypt on August 8. On 13 September 1940, Italian forces under the command of General Rodolfo Graziani, consisting of seven Italian divisions with 300 tanks and two Libyan infantry divisions and two Libyan motorized regiments (some 200,000 men), invaded Egypt from their base in Cyrenaica. Sollum was taken, but after 4 days Graziani halted the advance, citing supply problems. Despite Mussolini urging Graziani to continue the advance, the Italians dug in at Sidi Barrani and established several fortified camps (represented on the adjacent map as small red circles). Graziani was now 80 miles west of the British defences at Mersa Matruh and he planned to return to the offensive after his troops had been resupplied.
[edit] Allied offensive
The Allied Western Desert Force, under Lieutenant General Richard O'Connor and his Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, General Sir Archibald Wavell, numbered around 30,000 men — including portions of the Indian 4th Division and the British 7th Armoured Division — launched their counter-attack (Operation Compass) on 9 December. The Italians were caught completely off-guard and, by 10 December, the Allies had taken more than 20,000 prisoners. The following day, the Allies then struck against Sollum, shelling it from ships of the Mediterranean Fleet; Sidi Barrani fell on the same day.
To O'Connor's shock, Wavell replaced the experienced 4th Indian (who were immediately rushed to Port Sudan - see East African Campaign) with the newly arrived Australian 6th Division. They then pressed on to capture Bardia and Tobruk, with little or no opposition. In early February, the Italians were in headlong retreat along the coast, pursued by the Australians. O'Connor ordered the 7th Armoured to advance overland through Mechili to Beda Fomm and cut-off the Italian's line of retreat. It was a close-run thing but the Allies successfully did so, capturing around 25,000 men, 200 artillery guns, 100 tanks and 1500 vehicles after a hard and narrowly won battle on 6 February. All through this operation, the Italians had convinced themselves that they were heavily outnumbered, when the reverse was the case. Swift action by the British lead to the capture of 130,000 Italians at a cost of 2,000 British casualties. Anthony Eden, The British War Secretary, reworked his Prime Minister's famous tribute, "Never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few." The remaining Italian forces retreated to El Agheila by 9 February 1941.
During the course of this battle, the Western Desert Force had been renamed as XIII Corps.
[edit] Rommel's first Axis offensive
- Further information: Siege of Tobruk
After this decisive Allied victory, the military position was reversed. Wavell ordered a significant portion of O'Connor's corps to support Greece. Hitler responded to the Italian disaster and ordered Operation Sonnenblume, the deployment of the newly formed Deutsches Afrikakorps as reinforcements to prevent total Italian collapse. The Germans were fresh troops with better equipment and a charismatic general, Erwin Rommel.
When Rommel arrived in North Africa, his orders were to assume a defensive posture and hold the front-line. Finding that the British defenses were thin, he quickly defeated the Allied forces at El Agheila on March 24. He then launched an offensive which, by 15 April, had pushed the British back to the border at Sollum, recapturing all of Libya except for Tobruk which was encircled and besieged. During this drive, XIII Corps' new field commander, Lieutenant General Philip Neame, and O'Connor himself, who had been recalled to assist, were captured as was Major-General Michael Gambier-Parry, commander of the newly arrived British 2nd Armoured Division.
Several attempts to seize Tobruk failed and the front lines stabilised at the border.
[edit] The siege of Tobruk
XIII Corps launched Operation Brevity in May. This was an inconclusive attempt to secure more ground to launch the main effort to relieve Tobruk; Operation Battleaxe, launched in June. After the failure of Battleaxe Wavell was replaced by Claude Auchinleck as Commander in Chief, Middle East and the British forces were reinforced with XXX Corps.
The overall Allied field command now became British Eighth Army, formed from units from many countries, including 9th Division and 18th brigade from the Australian Army and the Indian Army, but also including divisions of South Africans, New Zealanders, a brigade of Free French under Marie-Pierre Koenig and the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade.
[edit] Operation Crusader
Eighth Army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Alan Cunningham launched Operation Crusader on November 18, 1941. Although the Africa Korps achieved several tactical successes (which caused a disagreement between the British army commanders and led to Auchinleck replacing Cunningham with Major-General Neil Ritchie), it was in the end forced to retreat and all the territory gained by Rommel in March and April was recaptured, with the exception of garrisons at Bardia and Sollum. Most significantly the Axis siege of Tobruk was relieved. The front line was again set at El Agheila.
[edit] Rommel's second offensive
After the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the Australian forces were withdrawn from the Western Desert to the Pacific theater, while the 7th Armoured Division was withdrawn[citation needed] and 7th Armored Brigade was transferred to Burma.
The relatively inexperienced British 1st Armoured Division, which formed the principal defense around El Agheila, were spread out rather than concentrating its armour, as more experienced units had learned from earlier campaigns. Rommel's Afrika Korps attacked on the January 21 scattering the British 1st Armoured Division's units. The 2nd Armored Brigade was also committed piecemeal and easily defeated by Rommel's more concentrated forces. Both units were forced back across the Cyrenaica line, along with the 201st Guards Motor Brigade, in the process giving up both Msus and Benghazi to the German forces.[1]
From February to May 1942, the front line settled down at the Gazala line, just west of Tobruk, with both armies preparing an offensive.
Rommel managed to get his offensive off first in June 1942. After a lengthy armoured battle, known as "the Cauldron", he defeated the Allies in the Battle of Gazala and captured Tobruk. Auchinleck fired Ritchie and took personal command of Eighth Army, halting Rommel at the Alamein Line only ninety miles from Alexandria in the First Battle of El Alamein.
[edit] Montgomery's Allied offensive
Churchill had, despite the circumstances, become disenchanted with Auchinleck. He was replaced by General Harold Alexander as Commander in Chief Middle East Command and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, who became commander of the Eighth Army. In this way, the new army commander was free of responsibilities stretching from Cyprus to the Sudan and eastwards to Syria. Alexander was also an effective buffer against political interventions from London.
Montgomery won a comprehensive defensive victory at the Battle of Alam Halfa in August 1942 and then built up the Allied forces before returning to the offensive in the Second Battle of El Alamein in October-November. It's notable that he had resources far in excess in quantity and quality to those of his predecessors. Second Alamein proved a decisive victory. In spite of a brilliant rearguard action by Rommel, the Allies retook Egypt and then advanced across Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, capturing Tripoli in February 1943 and entering Tunisia in March.
An attempt to encircle the axis forces at Marsa Matruh was frustrated by rain and they escaped by 7 November. The coast road had been cut, but the Halfaya Pass was easily captured and Egypt was cleared. Tobruk was retaken on 13 November, again Rommel's forces escaped the trap, and Benghazi on 20 November. These two port towns were essential to the resupply of the campaign and an opportunity to outflank Rommel at Agedabia was cautiously declined, in case of counter-attack.
The Germans and Italians retired to a prepared defence line at El Agheila. Axis supplies and reinforcements were now directed into Tunisia at Rommel's expense: he was left with no capacity to counter-attack and was critically short of petrol. Hitler ordered that the El Agheila line should be held at all costs, whereas Rommel's view was for a fighting retreat to Tunisia and a strong defensive position at the Gabès Gap. Permission was granted for a withdrawal to Buerat, 50 miles east of Sirte. An attempt to outflank El Agheila on 14th - 16th December once again failed to encircle the enemy - Rommel had exercised his authority to withdraw and his line of retreat was adequately defended.
At this stage, the front was over 400 miles from the nearest usable port at Tobruk and the difficulties of supply now hampered Montgomery's ability to deploy his full strength. Allied pressure continued as the axis forces reached Buerat. This line was not strongly defended, however, and the pursuit continued. Tripoli was captured on 23 January 1943. The port was brought into use and, by mid-February 1943, nearly 3,000 tons of stores were landed daily.
Rommel's retreat continued, despite Italian dissent. On 4 February, allied units entered Tunisia. Soon after, Rommel was recalled to Germany, on health grounds.
Montgomery has been criticised for his perceived failure to trap the axis armies, bring them to a decisive battle and destroy them in Libya. His tactics have been seen as too cautious and too slow. The counter arguments point out the defensive skills of German forces generally and the Afrika Korps in particular, and Montgomery's need not to relapse into the "see-saw" warfare of previous north African campaigns. Warfare in the desert has been described as a "quarter-master's nightmare", given the conditions of desert warfare and the difficulties of supply. Montgomery is renowned for fighting "balanced campaigns" and husbanding his resources: no attack until his troops were prepared and properly supplied. 8th Army morale greatly improved under his command.
[edit] Conclusion
With the Axis forces driven out of Libya, they would soon find themselves trapped, in the Tunisia Campaign, between the recently landed Anglo-American forces of the British First Army to the west and the Eighth Army pursuing from the east.
[edit] Sources
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[edit] Footnotes
[edit] External links
- Paterson, Ian A.. History of the 7th Armoured Division: Engagements - 1942.
- Roberts, Major-General G.P.B.; Bayerlein, Generalleutnant Fritz. Basil Liddell Hart:U.S. Combat Studies Institute Battle Report: Alam Halfa. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
- AFRIKAKORPS.org/AANA Research Group
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