North African campaign

North African campaign
Part of World War II

British Crusader tank passes a destroyed and smoking German Panzer IV tank during Operation Crusader, November 1941
Date10 June 1940 – 13 May 1943
(2 years, 11 months and 3 days)
Location
Result Allied victory
Territorial
changes
Italian Libya placed under British and French military administration
Belligerents

Allies
 United Kingdom

 United States[nb 1]
 Free France

 Poland
 Greece
 Czechoslovakia

Axis
 Italy

 Germany


 Vichy France[nb 2]
Commanders and leaders
Casualties and losses
  • United Kingdom British Empire:
    35,478 killed[2]
    220,000 total casualties[3]
  • Free France Free French:
    16,000 killed, wounded or missing[4]
  • United States United States:
    2,715 killed
    8,978 wounded
    6,528 missing[5][6]
  • Material losses:
    2,000 tanks destroyed
    1,400 aircraft destroyed

The North African campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch), as well as Tunisia (Tunisia campaign). The campaign was fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. The United States officially entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942.

Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940. On 14 June, the British 11th Hussars and part of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, 1st RTR) crossed the border from Egypt into Libya and captured Fort Capuzzo. This was followed by an Italian counter-offensive into Egypt and the capture of Sidi Barrani in September. The British recaptured Sidi Barrani in December during Operation Compass. The Italian 10th Army was destroyed and the German Afrika Korps was dispatched to North Africa in February 1941 in Operation Sonnenblume to reinforce Italians and prevent an Axis defeat.

Battles for control of Libya and Egypt followed, with advances and retreats until the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 when the Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery) defeated the German–Italian Panzerarmee Afrika and forced its remnants into Tunisia. After Operation Torch, the Anglo-American landings in North-West Africa in November 1942 and fighting against Vichy France forces (which then changed sides), the Allies trapped about 250,000 German and Italian personnel in northern Tunisia, forcing their surrender in May 1943.

Information gleaned via British Ultra code-breaking was important in the Allied victory in North Africa. The Italian campaign followed, which culminated in the downfall of the Fascist government in Italy and the elimination of Germany's main European ally. German and Italian forces committed atrocities against prisoners of war and Jewish, Berber and Arab populations.

  1. ^ Higgins, Jenny (2007). "Royal Artillery". Newfoundland Heritage Web Site.
  2. ^ Carell, p. 597
  3. ^ Zabecki, North Africa
  4. ^ Cartier, Raymond. La Seconde Guerre Mondiale, vol4: 1943-Juin1944 [The Second World War, vol4: 1943-June 1944]. Press Pocket. p. 40.
  5. ^ Playfair et al p. 460. United States losses from 12 November 1942.
  6. ^ Atkinson, p. 536
  7. ^ Roma: Instituto Centrale Statistica' Morti E Dispersi Per Cause Belliche Negli Anni 1940–45 Roma 1957.
  8. ^ Colin F. Baxter. "The War in North Africa, 1940–1943: A Selected Bibliography". 1996. Page 38. 500,000 prisoners are listed as being taken in North Africa, East Africa, and Sicily; as 150,000 POWs were taken in the Allied invasion of Sicily and about 100,000 in East Africa, this would leave ~250,000 to be taken in North Africa; 130,000 during Operation Compass, and 120,000 afterwards.
  9. ^ Rochat, Giorgio. Le guerre italiane 1935–1943. Dall'impero d'Etiopia alla disfatta [The Italian Wars 1935–1943. From the Ethiopian Empire until defeat]. Einaudi. p. 446.
  10. ^ Carell, p. 596
  11. ^ Barclay, Mediterranean Operations
  12. ^ Porch, Douglas: "The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II", 2004, p. 415.


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