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North African campaign

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.

Not to be confused with military operations in North Africa during World War I.

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.

List of British military equipment of World War II

(2004) [2002]. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943. Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11636-9.

Atkinson, Rick

Barclay, Brigadier C. N. . GI – World War II Commemoration. Archived from the original on 21 January 1997. Retrieved 8 September 2010.

"Mediterranean Operations"

Bauer, Eddy (2000) [1984]. The history of World War II (Revised and updated ed.). Great Britain: Silverdale.  978-1-85605-552-9.

ISBN

(1960). Le volpi del deserto. 1941–1943: le armate italo-tedesche in Africa settentrionale [The wolves of the desert. 1941–1943: the Italo-German armies in North Africa]. New York: Bantam.

Carell, Paul

Forty, George (1998). The Armies of Rommel. London: Arms and Armour Press.  978-1-85409-379-0.

ISBN

Jentz, Thomas L. (1998). Tank Combat in North Africa: The Opening Rounds, Operations Sonnenblume, Brevity, Skorpion and Battleaxe, February 1941 – June 1941. Schiffer Publishing.  0-7643-0226-4.

ISBN

(2001). Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280666-1.

Keegan, John

Lewin, Ronald (1998) [1968]. . New York: B&N Books. ISBN 978-0-7607-0861-3.

Rommel As Military Commander

O'Hara, Vincent; Cernuschi, Enrico (Summer 2013). "The Other Ultra: Signal Intelligence and the Battle to Supply Rommel's Attack toward Suez". Naval War College Review. 66 (3): 117–138.

; and Molony, Brigadier C.J.C.; with Flynn RN, Captain F.C. & Gleave, Group Captain T.P. (2004) [1st. pub. HMSO 1966]. Butler, J.R.M (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume IV: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-068-8.

Playfair, Major-General I.S.O.

Walker, Ian (2006). Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts: Mussolini's Elite Armoured Divisions in North Africa. Ramsbury: Crowood.  1-86126-839-4.

ISBN

Willmott, H.P. (1984). . Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8.

June, 1944

Zabecki, David T. (2007). . The War. PBS. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2010.

"North Africa (1940–1943)"

Archived 31 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine an e-Newsletter for Holocaust educators by Yad Vashem

The Jews of North Africa and the Holocaust

BBC's flash video of the North African campaign

Timeline of the North African campaign

Canadian World War 2 Online Newspaper Archives – The North African Campaigns, 1940–1943

North African Campaign Desert War.net