North African Campaign

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During World War II, the North African Campaign, also known as the Desert War, took place in the North African desert from June 10, 1940 to May 16 1943. It included campaigns in Libya and Egypt (Western Desert Campaign—most of which antedated involvement by any armed forces of the United States), Morocco & Algeria (known to the Allies as Operation Torch—primarily United States led operations keyed by amphibious landings staged directly from United States ports and territories) and the Tunisia Campaign (17 November 1942 - 13 May 1943) as First Army pushed east and the Eighth Army pushed west in converging pincer movements concluding with a complete defeat of the German and Italian forces in North Africa.

The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from Occupied Europe, until the United States entered the war, in 1941, and began direct assistance to Allied forces in North Africa, on May 11, 1942.

Fighting in North Africa started with the occupation of Italy's Fort Capuzzo, in Libya by British forces in June 1940. This was followed by an Italian offensive and a Commonwealth counteroffensive. When the Italians suffered terrible losses, the German Afrika Korps commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel came to their assistance. After a back-and-forth series of battles for control of Libya and parts of Egypt, British Commonwealth forces under the command of General Bernard Montgomery eventually pushed the Axis forces back to Tunisia. Following on the Allied Operation Torch landings in north west Africa in late 1942 under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower, and after Allied battles against Vichy France forces (which subsequently joined the Allies), Commonwealth and US forces finally pincered the Axis forces in northern Tunisia and forced their surrender.

By making the Axis powers fight on a second front in North Africa, the Western Allies provided some relief to the Soviet Union fighting the Axis on the Eastern Front. Information learned from the British Ultra codebreaking operation was a major contributor to Allied success in the North African campaign.

[edit] Western Desert Campaign

Main article: Western Desert Campaign

The Northern African Campaign was strategically important for both the Allies and the Axis powers. The Allies used the campaign as a step towards a second front against the Axis powers in "Fortress Europe", and it helped to ease Axis pressure on the Russian front. The Axis had planned to dominate the Mediterranean through control of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal and planned to follow a successful campaign in North Africa with a strike north to the rich oil fields of the Middle East. This would have cut off nearby oil supplies to the Allies, and would have tremendously increased the oil supplies available for the Axis war machine.

On September 13, 1940, Italian forces stationed in Libya launched the Tenth Army in a tentative, 200,000 troop invasion into British-held Egypt and set up defensive forts at Sidi Barrani. The army was largely un-mechanized and Italian general Graziani, with little intelligence on the state of British forces there, chose not to continue further towards Cairo.

The British forces were greatly outnumbered, 35,000 compared to a total of 200,000, and only half of the British were combatants. Nevertheless at the end of 1940 they launched a counter-attack, Operation Compass. It was far more successful than expected and resulted in the surrender of the entire Italian Tenth Army and the advance of the Allies to El Agheila. The stunning defeat did not go unnoticed and fresh Italian troops together with German troops, the Deutsches Afrikakorps under Erwin Rommel (nicknamed "The Desert Fox"), were sent in to reinforce the remaining Italian Armies in western Libya. At the same time Allied units were withdrawn from the Western Desert to reinforce the Greek armies fighting the Axis invasion of Greece.

Although ordered to simply hold the line, Rommel launched an offensive from El Agheila in March 1941 which, with the exception of Tobruk, managed to press the Allies beyond Salum back into Egypt, effectively putting both sides back at their approximate original pre-war positions.

During the following stalemate, the Allied forces reorganised as the British Eighth Army, which was made up of units from the armies of Britain and several other countries, especially the Australian Army and the Indian Army, but also including divisions from the South African Army, the New Zealand Army and a brigade of Free French under Marie-Pierre Koenig. The new formation launched a new offensive, Operation Crusader, in November 1941 which by January 1942 recaptured all of the territory recently acquired by Rommel. Once again, the front line was at El Agheila.

After receiving supplies from Tripoli, Rommel again attacked. Defeating the Allies at Gazala in June and capturing Tobruk, he drove them back past the border of Egypt where his advance was stopped in July only 90 miles (140 km) from Alexandria in the First Battle of El Alamein.

At this point General Bernard Montgomery took over as commander of the Eighth Army and, after victory in the battles of Alam Halfa and Second El Alamein in late October 1942, pushed the Axis forces back, capturing Tripoli in mid January 1943. By February Montgomery's Eighth Army was facing the Rommel's German-Italian Army near the Mareth Line and came under General Harold Alexander's 12th Army Group for the concluding phase of the Tunisia Campaign.

[edit] Algeria-French Morocco Campaign
(Operation Torch)

Main article: Operation Torch

The Algeria-French Morocco Campaign started on November 8, 1942, and terminated on November 11, 1942. In an attempt to pincer German forces, Allied forces (American and British Commonwealth) landed in Vichy-held French North Africa under the assumption that there would be little to no resistance. Nevertheless, Vichy French forces put up a strong and bloody resistance to Allied forces in Oran and Morocco. But not in Algiers, where a coup d'état by the French resistance on November 8 succeeded in neutralizing the French XIX Army Corps of Algiers before the landing, and arrested the Vichyist commanders. Consequently the landings met no practical opposition in Algiers and the city was captured on the first day with the whole Vichyist African command. After three days of talks and threats, General Mark Clark, an Eisenhower assistant, compelled the Vichyist Admiral François Darlan (and the chief commanding General Alphonse Juin) to order French forces to cease armed resistance in Oran and Morocco, on November 10 and 11, providing Darlan would remain the head of a Free French administration.

The Allied landings prompted the German occupation of Vichy France (Case Anton). In response, the French Fleet was scuttled at Toulon and the Vichy army in north Africa joined the Allies (see Free French Forces).

[edit] Tunisia Campaign

Main article: Tunisia Campaign

The Tunisia Campaign started on November 17, 1942, and terminated on May 13, 1943.

Following the Operation Torch landings, from early November 1942, the Germans and Italians initiated a build up of troops in Tunisia to fill the vacuum left by the Vichy troops which had withdrawn. During this period of weakness, the Allies decided against a rapid advance into Tunisia while they wrestled with dealing with the Vichy authorities. Many of the Allied soldiers were tied up in garrison duties because of the uncertain status and intentions of the Vichy forces.

By mid-November the Allies were able to advance into Tunisia but only in single division strength. In early December the Eastern Task Force of British 78th Infantry Division and elements of U.S. 1st Armored Division had advanced eastwards to within 30km of Tunis. However, by this time the Axis had three German and two Italian divisions under command and the Allied advance was beaten back.

During the winter there followed a period of stalemate during which time both sides continued to build up their forces. By the new year, the Allied task force had become British First Army with two British, one U.S. and one French Corps under command, totalling the best part of thirteen divisions.

In the second half of February, in eastern Tunisia, Rommel had some successes against the mainly inexperienced French and U.S. Corps, most notably in routing the US II Corps at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass.

However, by the beginning of March the Eighth Army, advancing westwards along the North African coast, had reached the Tunisian border and Rommel found himself in an Allied two army pincer. He was outflanked, outmanned and outgunned. The British Eighth Army shattered the Axis defense on the Mareth Line in late March and First Army in central Tunisia launched their main offensive in mid April to squeeze the Axis forces until their resistance in Africa collapsed. The Axis forces surrendered on May 13, 1943 yielding over 275,000 prisoners of war. This huge loss of experienced troops greatly reduced the military capacity of the Axis powers and had been significantly influenced by the impact of Operation Retribution, which had been designed to prevent the evacuation of the German and Italian forces from Tunisia. This operation had started on May 7, 1943, and focused on attacking the German evacuation fleet as it crossed from Tunisia to Sicily and Italy. It is known that 897 Germans were captured at sea, while an additional 653 escaped. The remainder are assumed to have drowned.

[edit] Conclusion

After victory by the Allies in the North African Campaign, the stage was set for the Italian Campaign to begin. The invasion of Sicily followed two months later.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

• BBC's flash video of the North African Campaign
• Timeline of the North African Campaign
• General sites on the North African Campaign [1][2][3][4]
• Canadian World War 2 Online Newspaper Archives - The North African Campaigns, 1940-1943
• Redoubt Fortress Museum Home of General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Staff Car
• Eastbourne Redoubt
• The Royal Sussex Regimental Association [5]

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