Katana VentraIP

Italian invasion of Egypt

The Italian invasion of Egypt (Operazione E) was an offensive in the Second World War, against British, Commonwealth and Free French in the neutral Kingdom of Egypt. The invasion by the Italian 10th Army (10ª Armata) ended border skirmishing on the frontier and began the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) proper. The Italian strategy was to advance from Libya along the Egyptian coast to seize the Suez Canal. After numerous delays, the scope of the offensive was reduced to an advance as far as Sidi Barrani and the engagement of any British forces in the area.

The 10th Army advanced about 65 mi (105 km) into Egypt against British screening forces of the 7th Support Group (7th Armoured Division) the main force remaining in the vicinity of Mersa Matruh, the principal British base in the Western Desert. On 16 September 1940, the 10th Army halted and took up defensive positions around the port of Sidi Barrani. British casualties were 40 men killed and the Italians suffered 120. The army was to wait in fortified camps, until engineers had built the Via della Vittoria (Victory Road) along the coast, an extension of the Libyan Via Balbia. The Italians began to accumulate supplies for an advance against the 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Division at Mersa Matruh, about 80 mi (130 km) further on.


On 8 December, before the 10th Army was ready to resume its advance on Mersa Matruh, the British began Operation Compass, a five-day raid against the fortified Italian camps outside Sidi Barrani. The raid succeeded and the few units of the 10th Army in Egypt that were not destroyed were forced into a hurried retreat. The British pursued the remnants of the 10th Army along the coast to Sollum and across the border to Bardia, Tobruk, Derna, Mechili, Beda Fomm and El Agheila on the Gulf of Sirte. The British suffered casualties of 1,900 men killed and wounded during Compass and took 133,298 Italian and Libyan prisoners, 420 tanks, over 845 guns and many aircraft.

Prelude[edit]

10th Army[edit]

The ten divisions of the 10th Army (Lieutenant-General Mario Berti) comprised the XX Corpo d'Armata (XX Corps), XXI Corpo d'Armata (XXI Corps), XXII Corpo d'Armata (XXII Corps, Lieutenant-General) Enrico Mannella), XXIII Corpo d'Armata (XXIII Corps, Lieutenant-General Annibale Bergonzoli). The army comprised metropolitan infantry divisions, Blackshirt (Camicie Nere [CC.NN.]) infantry divisions and Libyan colonial divisions.[16] XXIII Corps, with the metropolitan divisions "Cirene" and "Marmarica", the Blackshirt Division "23rd Marzo", the 1st and 2nd Libyan divisions (Lieutenant-General Sebastiano Gallina) and the Maletti Group was to conduct the invasion.[17] Bergonzoli had about 1,000 lorries, first to move the "Cirene" and "Marmarica" divisions, followed by the "23rd Marzo". The Libyan divisions had 650 vehicles, enough to move equipment, weapons and supplies but the infantry would have to walk; the Maletti Group had 450 vehicles, enough to move its troops. The Maletti Group comprised three battalions of Libyan infantry, additional artillery, much of the Italian armoured vehicle element in Libya and almost all of the M11/39 medium tanks. XXI Corps, with the Sirte and "28th Ottobre" divisions formed a reserve and XXII Corps with the "Catanzaro" and "3rd Gennaio" divisions were left at Tobruk because of the transport shortage.[17]

Orders of Battle 10 June 1940[edit]

5th Army[edit]

Air Marshal Italo Balbo, Supreme Commander Italian Forces in North Africa. Details taken from Christie (1999) unless specified.[49]

10th Army

LX Tank Battalion "L"

Libyan Tank Command

4th Tank Infantry Regiment

List of Italian military equipment in World War II

List of British military equipment of World War II

List of World War II battles

North African campaign timeline

Bauer, E. (2000) [1979]. Young, Peter (ed.). The History of World War II (Orbis: London, rev. ed.). New York: Galahad Books.  978-1-85605-552-9.

ISBN

(2003). World War Two: A Military History. Warfare and History. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-30535-8.

Black, Jeremy

(1986) [1949]. Their Finest Hour. The Second World War. Vol. II. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-41056-1.

Churchill, Winston

Dando, N. (2014). (PhD). Plymouth University. OCLC 885436735. Retrieved 25 March 2015.

The Impact of Terrain on British Operations and Doctrine in North Africa 1940–1943

(1970) [1948]. British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa during the Years 1941–1947 (2nd, Greenwood Press, CT ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 1056143039.

Rodd, F.

Titterton, G. A. (2002) [1952]. Brown, David (ed.). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean: September 1939 – October 1940. Naval Staff Histories. Vol. I. Frank Cass.  978-0-7146-5179-8.

ISBN

Walker, Ian W. (2003). Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts: Mussolini's Elite Armoured Divisions in North Africa. Marlborough: Crowood.  978-1-86126-646-0.

ISBN

The Italian Army in Egypt during World War II

. Time Magazine. 12 August 1940. Archived from the original on May 4, 2008. Retrieved July 15, 2009.

"Bush Battles"