II.

Course of the Campaign

Mussolini’s ambitions were soon frustrated. French North Africa remained in the hands of the Vichy French regime after the armistice with Germany, while British defense of Egypt proved tougher than expected. Italian Army Marshal Rodolfo Graziani invaded Egypt from Libya in September 1940 with 150,000 men, but his advance halted at Sidi Barrani, just 100 km (60 mi) inside the frontier. The British reaction was long delayed, but when its Operation Compass was launched in December 1940, it soon resulted in the destruction of the Italian forces in Egypt. The Western Desert Force, under Britain’s Lieutenant-General Richard O’Connor, followed up the success, seizing Bardiyah and Tobruk and finally destroying the Italian Tenth Army at Beda Fomm in February 1941.

It appeared that the British might go on to capture Tripoli and eject the Italians from North Africa. German dictator Adolf Hitler had, up until this point, seen North Africa, and indeed the entire Mediterranean theater, as a distraction from his much larger ambition to defeat the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Indeed, this remained his view of the conflict throughout the following two years of fighting. Nonetheless, he decided to send the already-famous Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel to command a small German mechanized force to shore up the Italian position in Libya. These troops became known as the Afrika Korps (Panzerarmee Afrika), and Rommel soon earned a reputation as a master of desert warfare.