North Africa: A Tale of Ends and Beginnings

Italian tanks in the desert circa 1941

If one were to consider one film that captures the essence of World War II in North Africa, probably everyone would name "Casablanca". This is certainly a classic movie, and it certainly does expose certain nuances about the North Africa campaign. However, something is missing from "Casablanca", an aspect of North Africa that is vitally important: how it all got started. You may think that the Germans were the only combatants in North Africa, but you would be wrong. In our continuing series of Italian actions in World War II, we will now expose the start of the North Africa campaign, and how it ended one aspect of the war and gave others their beginning.

It was after Germany had invaded Poland and had started on the Low countries and France. Italy had successfully taken Abyssinia and planted the seed for his new Italian Empire. However, Mussolini was no fool; he could see that once mainland Europe was conquered, Britain would be all alone. However, Britain was a mighty adversary for Germany, not only because of its geography and its mighty navy, but also because of its vast empire that it could call upon. The keystone for communication with the rest of the empire was the Suez canal in Egypt.

Italy came up with a plan to move troops north from Abyssinia, south through Greece, and east through Libya in order to capture the Suez Canal and effectively cut off the vast resources and manpower of imperial holdings such as India. The concept was strategically sound, and at least on paper the odds were stacked in Italy's favor. In terms of manpower, Italy outnumbered the British forces in Egypt and the Middle East anywhere from 4-30:1! Also, the Italian air force had overwhelmingly more planes than the British, and considerably more advanced. In terms of the naval powers, the British had Force H based out of Malta, and the Italians had their entire navy to rule the Mediterranean. It looked like Italy could easily accomplish their goals, at least on paper.

In reality, it was a different story. One bit of good news for the Italians was that their naval assets were just as good as anything the British could send against them. Indeed, the British resorted to setting traps around decoy supply convoys, which the Italians repeatedly attacked, in order to lure their ships out of their home harbor. However, as discussed in greater detail in the blog post on Taranto, the Italian navy was eventually crippled.

The Italian land army certainly had more troops, but their commanders were not as experienced as their British counterparts. Indeed, with only about 73,000 troops the British were able to fend off the Italians long enough for reinforcements to arrive, at which point all of the Italian advances had been haled and reversed, and their armies decimated. Even with antiquated biplanes the British air presence was enough to fend off the Italians until more modern planes could be delivered, which were understandably held in England during the Battle of Britain.

As the title of this post implies, the North Africa campaign is a tale of beginnings and ends. It was effectively the end of the Italians as a formidable foe for the Allies, and their armies were eventually slaved to German control. However, the North African campaign was the beginning of legendary careers. With the Italians in disarray, Hitler decided to lend them aid in the form of materiel and manpower, in the form of the Deutshe Afrika Korps, led by the soon-to-be Desert fox himself Erwin Rommel. Also, the desert would prove to be the kick start to British General Bernard Law Montgomery and General George S. Patton, and their legendary rivalry. All of these things, of course, would go on to affect many other event sin the war, but until next time take care, and thanks for reading.