World War II

DESERT WAR
REASONS:
 control of the Suez Canal
 access to oil from the Middle East
 raw materials from Asia
 Italy did remain neutral when Germany invaded Poland in
September 1939. When Germany invaded France in
June 1940, however, Benito Mussolini could not resist the
opportunity to grab his share of the spoils. On June 11,
1940, six days after the British evacuation at Dunkirk,
France, Italy declared war on Britain and France. Britain
and Italy were now at war in the Mediterranean.
KEY PERSONS
 AXIS  ALLIED
 Italian  British
 Benito Mussolini  Winston Churchill
 Rodolfo Graziani  Percival Wavell
 Erwin Rommel  Bernard Montgomery
1940
 In July, Benito Mussolini declared war on the Allies
 South Africa declares war on Italy.
 Turkey announces that she will stay out of the war
 Marshal Graziani is appointed as C-in-C of the Italian forces
in Libya.
 OPERATION CATAPULT
 British battleships from Force H bombard the French fleet

harboured at Mers-el-Kebir, near Oran on the Algerian

coast
1940
 Graziani reluctantly invaded Egypt under pressure from
Mussolini.
 On 13th September, Marshall Rodolfo Graziani and five
Italian divisions began a rapid advance into Egypt but halted
in front of the main British defences at Mersa Matruh.
 On the ground, Italian Marshal Rodolfo Graziani more
troops than General Lord Archibald Percival Wavell
 The British ground forces were far better organized,

trained and equipped and had superior leadership.

1940
 OPERATION COMPASS
 Although outnumbered, General Archibald Wavell

ordered a British counter-offensive on 9th December,

1940.
 While pursuing the retreating Italians, the British forces in

North Africa take Sollum, Fort Capuzzo and several other

crucial Italian defensive positions.
 By December, no Italian troops were left on Egyptian soil,

except as prisoners.
 The Italians suffered heavy casualties and were pushed

back and captured the port of Tobruk in Libya

1941
 OPERATION SUNFLOWER
 The Adolf Hitler was shocked by the defeats being

suffered by the Italian Army and in January 1941, sent

General Erwin Rommel and the recently formed
Deutsches Afrika Korps to North Africa and support to the
Italians in Libya.
 Rommel mounted his first attack on 24th March 1941,

and after a week of fighting

 Rommel pushed Archibald Wavell and the British Army

out of most of Libya

1941
 OPERATION EXPLORER
 In June, British, Commonwealth and Free French forces

invade Syria and the Lebanon with air and naval support.
 The British offer Syria independence in an effort to

stimulate Syrian revolt against their Vichy rulers.

 Vichy France protests vigorously at these British

proposals.
1941
 OPERATION BATTLEAXE
 When the Afrika Korps beats back the British attack at

Sollum, British call off ‘Operation Battleaxe to relieve

Australian held Tobruk and then advance towards Derna.
 However, they meet fierce counter attacks by the Afrika

Korps and are unable to make any headway.

 Archibald Wavell was replaced by General Claude

Auchinleck.
1941
 OPERATION CRUSADER
 In September, Sir Claude Auchinleck issues his first

directive in respect to the forthcoming British Offensive

by ordering his general to produce a plan for the relief of
Tobruk and the re-conquest of Cyrenaica.
 Operation to be launched on the 11th November.

 'Oasis Force‘ - A smaller element that would advance

further west in to Libya than the main force, in order to

deceive Rommel
 In November, Auchinleck and the Eighth Army went on

the offensive.
1941
 'dash for the wire‘ - Rommel gives orders for his tanks to
cut off the British supply routes by thrusting towards the
Egyptian frontier
 Auchinleck drove Rommel back against El Agheila, and
destroyed a quarter of the Afrika Korps and almost half of
the Italian Army in Libya.
 Erwin Rommel was forced to abandon his siege of

Tobruk on 4th December, and the following month had

moved as far west
1942
 Aware that Wavell's supply lines were now overextended,
Rommel launched a counterattack.
 After losing Benghazi on 29th January, 1942, Claude

Auchinleck ordered his troops to retreat to Gazala.

 Over the next few months the Eighth Army established a

line of fortifications and minefields.

 But the British were hard pressed to supply both

Auchinleck and the island of Malta. 

 Rommel consolidated his forces, resupplied, and burst

forth from El Agheila driving on Tobruk. 

 The British fell back on the Gazala Line, a series of forts

linked by minefields. 
1942
 OPERATION VENEZIA
 In May, the battle for the Gazala line begins as the Afrika

Korps thrusts south with 560 tanks and around the

southern end of the Eighth Army's defensive positions
towards Tobruk.
 Rommel renewed the attack, but was blocked by strong

resistance and caught between two strongpoints on the

Gazala Line. 
 Living up to his nickname of the “Desert Fox,” Rommel

wheeled on the British

 British outnumbered Rommel by two to one but he

wasted his advantage by not using his tanks together.

1942
 After defeating a series of small counter-attacks, Rommel
was able to capture Sidi Muftah.
 On 12th June, two of the three British armored brigades

were caught badly defeated.

 Rommel returned to Tobruk and took the port on 21st June,
1942. However, Rommel now only had 57 tanks left and
was forced to wait for new supplies to arrive before heading
into Egypt.
 Hitler promoted Rommel to Feldmarschall.
 In June, Rommel spearheads reaches El Alamein.
1942
 In July, General Erwin Rommel and the Italo-German
Panzer Armee Afrika, were only 70 miles from Alexandria.
 The situation was so serious that Winston Churchill

(Britain's prime minister) the long journey to Egypt to

discover for himself what needed to be done. Churchill
decided to make changes to the command structure.
 Churchill sent precious military supplies and weapons to

Wavell, who tried twice to beat his way through Rommel

to Tobruk. 
 General Harold Alexander was placed in charge of British

land forces in the Middle East and Bernard Montgomery

became commander of the Eighth Army.
1942
 In August, 30th August, 1942, Erwin Rommel attacked at
Alam el Halfa but was repulsed by the Eighth Army.
 Churchill, shaken by the fall of Tobruk, chose

Montgomery for changing and retraining the Eighth Army.

 On August 31, 1942, Rommel struck the El Alamein line,

and was repulsed by heavy artillery fire. 

 Rommel developed new doctrines of desert warfare, using
antiaircraft guns against tanks and employing Blitzkrieg
tactics to outflank the British.
 Montgomery responded to this attack by ordering his troops
to reinforce the defensive line from the coast to the
impassable Qattara Depression.
1942
 OPERATION LIGHTFOOT
 In October, Montgomery issues the final plan to senior

commanders for the Second battle of El

Alamein.Montgomery began to stockpile vast quantities
of weapons and ammunition.
 In October, Montgomery launched the largest artillery

attack since the 1st World War.

 Erwin Rommel was on sick leave in Austria.
 Adolf Hitler phoned Rommel to order him to return to

Egypt. The Germans defended their positions well and

after two days the Eighth Army had made little progress
and Bernard Montgomery ordered an end to the attack.
1942
 When Erwin Rommel returned he launched a counterattack
at Kidney Depression
 Montgomery now returned to the offensive and the 9th

Australian Division created a salient in the enemy

positions.
 Winston Churchill was disappointed by the Eighth Army's

lack of success and accused Montgomery of fighting a

"half-hearted" battle.
1942
 OPERATION SUPERCHARGE
 On 1st November 1942, Montgomery launched an attack

on the DAK at Kidney Ridge.

 After initially resisting the attack, Rommel decided he

no longer had the resources to hold his line and on the

3rd November he ordered his troops to withdraw.
 However, Adolf Hitler overruled his commander and

the Germans were forced to stand and fight.

 the breakout at El Alamein gets under way
1942
 The next day Montgomery ordered his men forward. The
Eighth Army broke through the German lines and Erwin
Rommel, in danger of being surrounded, was forced to
retreat.
 For a while it looked like the the British would cut off
Rommel's army but a sudden rain storm on 6th
November turned the desert into a quagmire and the
chasing army was slowed down.
 Rommel, now with only twenty tanks left, managed to

get to Sollum on the Egypt-Libya border.

1942
 OPERATION TORCH  
 Rommel learned of the Allied invasion under the

command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His

depleted army now faced a war on two front.
 The British Army recaptured Tobruk on 12th November

 Winston Churchill was convinced that the battle of El

Alamein marked the turning point in the war and ordered

the ringing of church bells all over Britain
 Allied troops continued to advance on Tunis, the capital

of Tunisia
1943
 General Arnium was joined by General Erwin Rommel and
his army to take control of the German forces in Tunisia.
Rommel was in retreat from Egypt and was being chased by
General Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army.
 Montgomery now spent several weeks in Tripoli building up
his supplies.
 Arnium and Rommel decided to take this opportunity to

attack Allied forces. The Deutsches Afrika Korps then

headed for Thala but were forced to retreat after meeting
a large Allied force on 22nd February, 1943.
 Arnium launched a five-day counter attack in northern
Tunisia.
1943
 OPERATION PUGILIST
 Montgomery issues the plan which is to smash the

Mareth defensive Line in southern Tunisia.

 General Alexander was now sent to oversee Allied

operations in Tunisia whereas General Erwin Rommel

was placed in command of the German forces.
 On 6th March 1943, Rommel attacked the Allies at

Medenine.
 General Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army fought

off the attack and the Germans were forced to

withdraw.
1943
 Rommel now favored a full retreat but this was rejected
by Adolf Hitler.
 On 9th March, Rommel left Tunisia on health grounds

and was replaced by General Jurgen von Arnium as

commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps.
 By April 1943 the Allies had over 300,000 men in Tunisia.
This gave them a 6-to-1 advantage in troops and a 15-to-1
superiority in tanks.
1943
 The Allied blockade of the Mediterranean also made it
difficult for the German Army to be supplied with adequate
amounts of fuel, ammunition and food.
 The Allies now decided to make another effort to take Tunis.
 On 23rd April, Montgomery’s 300,000 man force advanced
along a 40 mile front. At the same time there was a
diversionary attack by the 8th Army at Enfidaville.
1943
 On 7th May 1943, British forces took Tunis and the US Army
captured Bizerte.
 By 13th May all Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered and over
150,000 were taken prisoner.
 US troops take Mateur, less than 50 miles Northwest of
Tunis.
 British forces break through the defenses of the 5th
Panzerarmee to the South of Tunis.
 Tunis falls to British First Army.
1943
 The unconditional surrender of all axis troops in Tunisia
takes at 11am. 10/05/1943 The British First Army reaches
Hammamet.
 Surrender of all German and Italian forces in Tunisia
(130,000 German and 120,000 Italian prisoners). General
von Arnim and 25 other axis generals are claimed captured,
so ending the life of the once mighty 'Afrika Korps' and
marking the end of the three-year North African campaign.
 Marshal Messe, the Italian C in C of Tunisia, surrenders to
Montgomery.