NORTH AFRICA

US soldiers march through the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, February 1943

NORTH AFRICA

Barely one year into the war, a new flash point emerged in North Africa, where many of the belligerents had longstanding colonial interests. Britain was among them, with substantial ground and naval forces in Egypt safeguarding the Suez Canal. The artificial waterway was an essential link to British Commonwealth territories and resources in the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was aware of the canal’s importance, and eager to become a factor in the war. He had built up a substantial army in neighboring Libya, and in September 1940, his forces invaded Egypt. After early progress, the Italians struggled against their Commonwealth foes, ultimately falling back to Libya and surrendering 130,000 troops. The defeat prompted Adolf Hitler to dispatch one of his most capable field commanders—Major General Erwin Rommel—to the continent to aid his Axis cohorts.

Rommel arrived in early 1941 and tallied several early wins behind a force of German and Italian armor and mechanized infantry known as the Afrika Korps. After earning the nickname “Desert Fox” for his battlefield wizardry, the pinnacle of Rommel’s success came in June 1942, when he was promoted to field marshal after capturing the port of Tobruk, caches of precious fuel, and 30,000 prisoners. Reeling from the losses, the retreating British established a defensive line in Egypt, where a newcomer, Lieutenant General Bernard Law Montgomery, was appointed command of a demoralized British Eighth Army. Montgomery gradually restored their fighting spirit, and with an infusion of American-built tanks and aircraft, led a counteroffensive against the Germans at El Alamein. The British success there marked a turning point in the fighting in North Africa.

Rommel retreated to Libya, then Tunisia, battling the British as well as constant shortages of fuel and supplies. In November 1942, his forces faced a new threat to the west when a combined Anglo-American force landed along the coasts of French Morocco and Algeria. Operation Torch was led by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a relatively obscure figure within the US Army hierarchy, but he was considered intelligent, amicable, and a superb organizer – all qualities needed to effectively lead a multinational coalition.

After battling past the Vichy French defenses in Morocco and Algeria, the Allies drove east into Tunisia. They suffered an early setback when Rommel routed an inexperienced American force at Kasserine Pass, but the Allies regrouped, pursuing the supply-starved Rommel across Tunisia. Sensing defeat, Hitler ordered his favorite field marshal to evacuate to Europe, and in May 1943, some 250,000 Axis troops surrendered, ending the clash in North Africa.

Destroyed German tank in the North African desert, 1942

Tanks of the British Eighth Army in Tripoli Square, early 1943

Allied intelligence was an ongoing advantage throughout the war, including in North Africa after British codebreakers learned about plans for re-supplying Rommel by sea. The intelligence allowed Allied air and naval forces to disrupt shipments of supplies, depriving Rommel’s Afrika Korps of needed fuel and other stores throughout the campaign and contributing to the eventual Axis defeat.

Kasserine Pass

The long-anticipated opening bout between the Germans and Americans came in February 1943 in the Kasserine Pass, a corridor in the western Dorsal mountains of Tunisia. It was a trouncing, with Rommel’s Afrika Korps chasing elements of the American II Corps from the battlefield, destroying 183 American tanks, and losing just twenty of their own. The debacle left more than 6,000 Americans killed, wounded, or missing, and led to the dismissal of the senior American field commander on the ground. Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., an aggressive and hardnosed disciplinarian, was selected to take his place.

Rommel’s first attempt to capture the critical port of Tobruk was foiled by a plucky, Australian-led garrison that held out for eight months despite severe shortages of food, water, and ammunition. When Nazi propaganda described their stand as futile and likened them to “rats caught in a trap,” the Australians embraced the moniker, referring to themselves as the “Rats of Tobruk.”