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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
North Africa was a major theater of operations in World War II,
and the war shifted three times across the face of Cyrenaica, a
region described by one German general as a "tactician's paradise
and a quartermaster's hell" because there were no natural defense
positions between Al Agheila and Al Alamein to obstruct the tanks
that fought fluid battles in the desert like warships at sea, and
there was only one major highway on the coast along which to supply
the quick-moving armies. The Italians invaded Egypt in September
1940, but the drive stalled at Sidi Barrani for want of logistical
support. British Empire forces of the Army of the Nile, under
General Archibald Wavell, counterattacked sharply in December,
advancing as far as Tobruk by the end of the month. In February
1941, the Italian Tenth Army surrendered, netting Wavell 150,000
prisoners and leaving all of Cyrenaica in British hands. At no time
during the campaign did Wavell have more than two full divisions at
his disposal against as many as ten Italian divisions.
In March and April, Axis forces, stiffened by the arrival of
the German Afrika Korps commanded by Lieutenant General Erwin
Rommel, launched an offensive into Cyrenaica that cut off British
troops at Tobruk. The battle seesawed back and forth in the desert
as Rommel attempted to stabilize his lines along the Egyptian
frontier before dealing with Tobruk in his rear, but in November
British Eighth Army commander General Claude Auchinleck caught him
off balance with a thrust into Cyrenaica that succeeded in
relieving Tobruk, where the garrison had held out for seven months
behind its defense perimeter. Auchinleck's offensive failed in its
second objective--cutting off Rommel from his line of retreat.
Rommel pulled back in good order to Al Agheila, where his
troops refitted for a new offensive in January 1942 that was
intended to take the Axis forces to the Suez Canal. Rommel's
initial attack was devastating in its boldness and swiftness.
Cyrenaica had been retaken by June; Tobruk fell in a day. Rommel
drove into Egypt, but his offensive was halted at Al Alamein, 100
kilometers from Alexandria. The opposing armies settled down into
a stalemate in the desert as British naval and air power
interdicted German convoys and road transport, gradually starving
Rommel of supplies and reinforcements.
Late in October the Eighth Army, under the command of General
Bernard Montgomery, broke through the Axis lines at Al Alamein in
a massive offensive that sent German and Italian forces into a
headlong retreat. The liberation of Cyrenaica was completed for the
second time in November. Tripoli fell to the British in January
1943, and by mid-February the last Axis troops had been driven from
Libya.
Data as of 1987
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