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 September 13 1940 to May 13 1943. The United States began to directly supply the British in the effort on May 11, 1942. The US Army officially does not list a single “North African Campaign” but subdivides its effort into some of the smaller campaigns described here.
| Western Desert Campaign |
|---|
| Compass – Sonnenblume – Tobruk – Brevity – Battleaxe – Crusader – Gazala – Bir Hakeim – 1st Alamein – Alam Halfa – Agreement – 2nd Alamein |
Fighting in this region started with Italian attacks on British occupied areas. When the Italians suffered terrible reverses, 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.
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[edit] 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 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 13th, Italian forces stationed in Libya launched the Tenth Army in a tentative, 100,000 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 to 500,000, and only half of the British were combatants. Nevertheless they launched a counter-attack, Operation Compass. It was far more successful than expected and resulted in the surrender of the entire Italian army and the advance of the Allies to El Agheila. The stunning defeat of the Italians did not go unnoticed and soon German troops, the Deutsches Afrikakorps under Rommel (The Desert Fox), were sent in to reinforce them.
Although ordered to simply hold the line, Rommel launched an offensive from El Agheila which, with the exception of Tobruk, managed to press the Allies beyond Salum, effectively putting both sides back at their approximate original positions.
During the following stalemate, the Allied forces reorganised as the Eighth Army, which was made up of units from the armies of several 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 and recaptured almost all of the territory recently acquired by Rommel, failing only to take the garrison forces at Bardia and Salum. Once again, the frontline was at El Agheila.
After receiving supplies from Tripoli, Rommel again attacked. Defeating the Allies at Gazala and capturing Tobruk, he drove them back to the border of Egypt where his advance was stopped in the First Battle of El Alamein.
At this point General Bernard Montgomery took over as commander of Allied forces in North Africa and, after victory in the battles of Alam Halfa and Second El Alamein, Montgomery began to push the Axis forces back, going as far as capturing Tripoli.
[edit] Algeria-French Morocco Campaign (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 (primarily American, with a smaller British contingent) 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 (Operation WOP)
The Tunisia Campaign started on November 17, 1942, and terminated on May 13, 1943, and was designed to accomplish three things:
- an Allied amphibious landing (Operation Largesse) near Sfax on the Gulf of Gabes in eastern Tunisia to cut the Italian supply lines on January 5, 1943.
- An eastward attack by the US II Corps from the termination line of Operation TORCH to assault German positions at Gafsa on March 17, 1943 in support of Operation Pugilist;
- Give US troops that just finished the Torch landings and the follow-on troops that arrived after that operation concluded a chance to get their feet wet in European-style warfare.
Though Rommel was now pincered between American and Commonwealth forces, he did manage to stall the Allies with a series of defensive operations, most notably in routing the US II Corps at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, but overall Rommel was flanked, outmanned and outgunned. After The British eighth army shattered the Axis defense on the Mareth Line, the Allies squeezed Axis forces until their resistance in Africa collapsed, ending with the surrender on May 13, 1943 of over 275,000 prisoners of war. This huge loss of experienced troops greatly reduced the military capacity of the Axis powers.
This operation was finalized by Operation Retribution, which was designed to prevent the evacuation of the German and Italian forces from Tunisia. This operation 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 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
- North African Campaign timeline
- East African Campaign
- Afrika Korps (game)
- Military history of Germany during World War II
- Military history of Britain during World War II
- Military history of Italy during World War II
- Military history of Egypt during World War II
- Military history of the United States during World War II
- Military history of France during World War II
[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
| Campaigns and theatres of World War II |
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| Eastern Front 1941-45 | Continuation War | Western Front 1944-45 |
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| China | Pacific Ocean | South-East Asia | South West Pacific | Manchuria 1945 |
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| Other |
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| Contemporary wars |
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