The Battle for North Africa

The war for control of North Africa was fought across thousands of square miles of blazing desert and rocky inhospitable terrain. It began on September 13, 1940, when Italian troops invaded Egypt. It ended on May 13, 1943, with the surrender of all Axis forces in Tunisia. For two and a half years Axis and Allied armies seesawed across North Africa in what was the most dynamic and volatile theater of operations in World War II.

The war itself had two distinct phases. The war in the eastern desert pitted Italian and later Rommel’s Afrika Corp against British forces in Egypt. At stake was the control of the Suez Canal, vital to British shipping and the allied war effort. At one point, in February 1942, Axis forces had advanced to within 50 miles of Alexandria before being decisively stopped at El Alamein.

The second phase began with the landings in Northwest Africa by Allied forces on November 8, 1942. The war in the western desert lasted less than seven months. Caught between two opposing armies, the Afrika Corp retreated steadily in the face of superior Allied forces before finally surrendering on the 13th of May.