North Africa Campaign

June 10, 1940 – May 13, 1943 · North Africa Theater

Phases

1. 11940–41 — Compass: The Italians RoutSeptember 1940 – February 1941
2. 21941–42 — Rommel’s SeesawFebruary 1941 – July 1942
3. 3Oct–Nov 1942 — El AlameinOctober 23 – November 11, 1942
4. 4Nov 1942 – May 1943 — Torch to TunisNovember 8, 1942 – May 13, 1943

September 1940 – February 1941

Mussolini’s quarter-million-man army invades Egypt sixty miles and digs in. O’Connor’s 36,000-strong Western Desert Force answers with a five-day raid that never stops: in two months it destroys ten Italian divisions, takes Tobruk and Benghazi, and bags 133,000 prisoners at a cost of 500 dead — culminating at Beda Fomm, where the fleeing Italian army finds the road blocked. “Fox killed in the open,” O’Connor signals.

• ➤O’Connor’s Western Desert Force — The five-day raid that ran 500 miles
• ●Beda Fomm — “Fox killed in the open”
• ●Tobruk — taken with 25,000 prisoners, Jan 22