2

The North African Campaign

(Part of the Second World War)

Written by: Serdar Potelli

E-mail: Serdar.potelli@gmail.com
Teacher: Leif Lorentzon

Table of content
Before the North African Campaign.
Annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland
Operation Weserbung

3
3

Battle of France 4
North African Campaign 10 June 1940-13 May 1943. 5
Western Desert Campaign 11 June 1940-4 February 1943.

Operation
Compass
5
Operation
Sonnenblume
6
Siege of
Tobruk
... 6
First Battle of El
Alamein... 7
Second Battle of El
Alamein. 7
Tunisia Campaign 17 November 1942-13 May
1943. 8
Sources
. 9

Before the North African Campaign.

Annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Tensions in Europe were high in 1930s. Austria had joined Germany after Hitler made the
Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg an ultimatum, join the Third Reich or face an invasion.
The Wehrmacht entered Austria the next day and the Austrians greeted them. Hitler also wanted
Czechoslovakia, home of a major German minority. The British and French feared that another
great war could start. They arranged a meeting in 1938 with Hitler where they signed the Munich
Agreement, giving Sudetenland (where the German minority was residing). But just six months
after the agreement was signed Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and annexed all of its
territories in March of 1939. Germany later threatened Poland with war but France and the
United Kingdom swore to go to war with Germany if they attacked their ally. On September the
1st, 1939 German troops marched in to Poland. As a result, both the United Kingdom and France
declared war on Germany for attacking their ally. On the 6th of October, 1939 Germany and the
Soviet Union had captured all of Poland.

Operation Weserbung.
Operation Weserbung was the codename for the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. It
started on 9th of April. The Germans did this to prevent the Allies from establishing a base in
Norway where they could easily land troops and create a new front in the war. The Germans
annexed Denmark within six hours. The Norwegians were a little harder to conquer since they
got support from the allies and the country was much larger than Denmark. On the 10th of June

Germany had annexed Norway and they were now as Denmark under German rule. Before the
invasion the allies had made it clear that they wanted to control Norway and Sweden to create a
second front and also to stop the Germans from purchasing raw materials from Sweden. But with
the German success thing were looking grim for the allies.

Battle of France
Battle of France is the name for the successful German invasion of France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg which started on the 10th of May 1940 and ended in 22th of June.
The Germans knew they couldnt attack their neighbour through the German-French border since
it was heavily guarded thanks to the French Maginot Line. Instead the Germans used the same
tactics as in the First World War where they went through Belgium to invade France. The French
and the Belgians had signed a defensive treaty in 1920 which lasted until 1936 when Belgium
wanted to stay neutral. Maybe if they had not broken the deal France couldve helped them get a
much better defence against the Germans. The Germans conquered Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and Belgium, then went through the Ardennes (forest in Belgium and France). It was
a risky move since the roads were not that big and the German tanks all went in a straight line
behind each other. Had the French destroyed one German tank it would have been very hard for
the tanks behind it to move forward. The Allies felt that it would be impossible to move tanks
through the forest and therefor did not defend it. The Germans used a tactic called Blitzkrieg
literally meaning lightning war. To simply describe put it Blitzkrieg was when the Luftwaffe
attacked the enemies tanks and infantry, leaving them either destroy or heavily damaged. And
after that the superior German tanks rolled in and destroyed what was remaining. And just 1
month and 12 days after the start of the invasion France was lost to the Germans. Vichy France
was created which consisted of the southern parts of France and its colonies as a puppet state to
Germany.

North African Campaign 10 June 1940 13 May 1943

On the 10th of June 1940 Italy joined Germany and declared war on both France and the United
Kingdom. The Allies already had a plan in store to attack Germany through Normandy but felt
that they did not have the manpower and needed help. And thanks to Italys declaration of war
they could seize Italy through the Mediterranean Sea and create a new front after the failure of
Norway. But with the declaration of war they realised that the Axis power could be trying to
seize their Oil field in British Palestine. They knew that they had to win the war in North Africa
at any cost now.

Western Desert Campaign 11 June 1940-4 February 1943.

The Western Desert Campaign is one of two major stages in the North African Campaign and it
took place in the Western Desert in Libya and Egypt. Whilst the British had realised the
importance of securing a victory in Africa, the Germans however were busy trying to come up
with a plan and later executing the invasion of the Soviet Union and did not waste so much effort
as they should have had to win the campaign in Africa. In September 1940 the Italians invaded
Egypt. Whilst the Italians moved in to Egypt they stopped to bring some supplies for the troops.
Whilst they did this the British counter attacked. This later turned into a major offensive known
as Operation Compass.

Operation Compass.
Operation Compass (9 December 1940-9 February 1941) was a counter attack launched
by the British to drive the Italians out of Egypt. In doing so they drove them all the way

to Libya. Several locations were attacked at the same time. They fought for ten weeks.
And after ten weeks the Italian Fifth Army was destroyed. The British captured 130 000
P.O.W. After the Italians Fifth Army was destroyed Mussolini asked Hitler for help. He
sent a few units to Tripoli under the Command of Erwin Rommel one of the most wellknown general in history for his unorthodox tactics. And the way he succeeded with
them.

Operation Sonnenblume.
In early 1941 the Germans had created the Afrika Korps to help the Italians in Africa
and prevent a total loss in that region. The Afrika Korps were under the leadership of
Erwin Rommel also known as the Desert Fox for being so skilled at desert warfare. After
being deployed his orders were to hold a defensive line. However he realised that the
British defences were thin he launched an attack driving the British back to the border
of Sollum. Doing this he had recaptured all of Libya except for Tobruk.

Siege of Tobruk.
Tobruk was a fortified port in Libya. Holding this port was important to the British since
it would slow down the process of the Axis getting their supplies in the desert. Stationed
in Tobruk were 25 000 Commonwealth soldiers. The garrison stationed there prevented
the Axis from going in to Egypt, they had no other choice but to seize control over it.
Rommel attempted to take over the fort but he failed and the Italians who had built the
fortress were slow to provide the blueprints over the fort. The Italians and Germans laid
down a siege that would last for eight months. The British then launched Operation
Battleaxe to chase off the attackers. They failed miserably. After this they launched
Operation Crusader which saw the Germans getting defeated and subsequently retreating
to their defensive lines in El Aghelia about 500km to the west inwards Libya. After

Operation Crusader the siege was lifted and it was a huge success for the Allies, this
being the first time British forces defeated German forces during the war.

First Battle of El Alamein.

With the Axis troops under the command of the Desert Fox advancing rapidly into Egypt
the British face the enemy with a large army consisting of over 150 000 men. The battle
lasted for 27 days during the 1st July-27th July 1942. The battle was a stalemate no side
gained any ground and the British stopped the Axis from reaching Alexandria, Cairo and
ultimately the Suez Canal. General Auchinleck who was in charge of the 8th army which
was the biggest tank division they had in Africa, was relieved of duty for not being able
to draw the Germans further back into Egypt. General William Gott was the one who was
supposed to take over as the commander of the 8th but his plane was shot down and the
role was now passed down to the legendary general Montgomery.

Second Battle of El Alamein.

Now with more equipment as both new American and British tanks arrived to the fronts.
The British now gained access to more modern anti-tank guns and the legendary spitfire.
Montgomery used artillery very well and the Allied air support was fantastic. The
Germans used 88mm Howitzers as anti-tank guns which could now fire on tanks at a
distance of 2 kilometres. Montgomery sends 700 tanks in 2 divisions to deal with German
tanks in the south. Whilst the main tank division moves north to face a German tank
division there. He wanted to capture the strategically important kidney ridge. The
Germans had 47 tanks and 18 anti-tank guns. Montgomery attacked with over 150 tanks.

Despite this the Germans still hold their lines. Rommel expects Montgomerys next
attack to come from the north and he redeploys all of his forces. Rudolf Schneider who
was in Rommels own combat group says the following about the redeployment: [...] we
took position in an area that was very flat. In the east you could see the rising sun. The
sun blinds you and the noise and rumbling was the only our only indication of the
enormous number of tanks and vehicles approaching us. And we saw 450 British tanks
approaching us from the east. Despite major losses Montgomery orders British tanks to
move straight in to the line of German fire. And for the first time the British had the most
powerful tanks on the battlefield with the M4 Sherman. Rommel hold the line for a long
time but by the 1st of November theyre down from 500 tanks to just 35 tanks.
Montgomery realises that victory is within his grasp and launches Operation Supercharge
meant to break Rommels line once and for all. By the 5th of November the Germans had
just fifteen tanks left. On the 11th Rommel retreats, ending the Second Battle of El
Alamein. This was the first major turning point in the war for the Allied forces.

Tunisia Campaign 17 November 1942-13 May 1943.

Operation Torch was meant to secure the Vichy territories in Northern Africa and it was during
this operation that American troops first started landing in massive scale in Africa. Capturing the
territories would also help getting in supplies to the front lines much faster. Both sides fought
long and hard capturing small cities and towns and heavily defending ports. After some time the
Allies managed to capture Tunis. After this over 230 000 German and Italian troops surrendered.
Now that the Allied forces had secured Northern Africa they could move and capture Italy thus
creating another front in Europe making it much more difficult for the Germans to hold it with
war on many fronts.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Torch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Desert_Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia_Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_El_Agheila
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_El_Alamein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Battleaxe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sonnenblume
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_invasion_of_Egypt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Compass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crusader
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tobruk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Weser%C3%BCbung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement
Tank Battles: WWII North Africa - The Desert War | History Channel Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYM5bGeKBY0
http://www.ne.se/lang/andra-v%C3%A4rldskriget?i_whole_article=true