At the same time his old Panzerarmy Africa became the First Italian Army, under The battle of the Kasserine Pass was very sobering for the Americans. The The failures at Gazala, Tobruk and Mersa Matruh sealed Auchinleck's fate. Battleaxe was an enormous British offensive undertaken in June 1941, following a sound defeat during a slightly smaller offensive, called Brevity, during the previous month. On December 9, the Western Desert Force, under Lt. Gen. Sir Richard O’Connor, attacked the Italians at Sidi Barrani.One of the Bren gun carriers used by Australian light horse troops in Northern Africa, on January 7, 1941.The British pushed the Italian Tenth Army out of Egypt and then, on January 3, 1941, scored a major victory at Bardia, just inside Libya. On the night of November 17, 1941, a small commando force, led by 24-year-old Lt. Col. Geoffrey Keyes, tried to penetrate Rommel’s headquarters and assassinate the Desert Fox. Sir William Gott was promoted to general and given command of the Eighth Army. We knew from experience that Italian Headquarters cannot keep things to themselves and that everything they wireless to Rome gets round to British ears.
By May 27 the Germans had recaptured Halfaya Pass. It was a decision Rommel later regretted. At first, Hitler insisted on his usual no-retreat orders. In preparation, the British laid extensive minefields and heavily fortified Alam el Halfa Ridge, which was located behind El Alamein to the southeast. The British continued to press the attack, and on November 29 they broke through to Tobruk. The most important success came through Colonel In addition, the Afrika Korps had the intelligence services of the 621st Signals Battalion mobile monitoring element commanded by Hauptmann Alfred Seeböhm. Driving into Cyrenaica (eastern Libya), the British took the vital port of Tobruk on January 22. Shown here is one roundup of thousands of German and Italian soldiers in Tunisia seen in an Army Air Forces aerial shot, on June 11, 1943.Actress-comedian Martha Raye entertains servicemen of the U.S. Army 12th Air Force on a makeshift stage on the edge of the Sahara Desert in North Africa in 1943.After the defeat of Axis forces in Northern Africa, Allied troops prepared to use the territory to launch attacks on Italy and other parts of southern Europe. For three weeks, Auchinleck skillfully battled Rommel to a standstill.
Rommel probed El Agheila on March 24. The resulting 300 Sherman tanks and 100 self-propelled guns would later play a pivotal role at El Alamein.Experienced in desert weather flying, a British pilot lands an American made Kittyhawk fighter plane of the Sharknose Squadron in a Libyan Sandstorm, on April 2, 1942. The Italian entry into the war made the British position in Egypt very vulnerable. By the new year, the The Axis had considerable success in intelligence gathering through radio communication intercepts and monitoring unit radio traffic. A largely German blocking force held up Montgomery's men at El Hamma, and most of Messe's army managed to escape. The North Africa campaigns were a series of World War II battles for control of the Suez Canal, a vital lifeline for Britain’s colonial empire, and the oil resources of the Middle East. Critically short on fuel and ammunition, Rommel started to disengage on November 3. The British, however, had made extensive preparations around El Alamein, based on a plan developed by Auchinleck and adopted by Montgomery. Throughout December, Rommel’s resupply situation improved significantly, with shipping losses dropping to 18 percent. The Italian First Army and the remainder of the Afrika Korps were forced back.
The Axis bridgehead now ran from Enfidaville on the coast south of Tunis, through fairly mountainous countryside, to a position on the north coast about twenty miles to the west of Bizerte.
Eisenhower became Supreme Command in North Africa, with General Alexander, until then the British Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, as his deputy.
Australian troops approach a German-held strong point under the protection of a heavy smoke screen somewhere in the Western Desert, in Northern Africa on November 27, 1942.The struggle for control of North Africa began as early as October 1935, when Italy invaded Ethiopia from its colony Italian Somaliland. That opening became a lifeline to Rommel’s panzers. The French surrender on June 25, 1940, placed the entire burden of controlling of the Mediterranean sea lanes on the Royal Navy.The Royal Air Force (RAF) was in a slightly better position, with 205 aircraft against the Italian air force’s 313 planes. Only 30 tons of Axis supplies were shipped to North Africa in November 1941, and 62 percent of them were lost en route. And yet this is the biggest monster game out there for a number of reasons.