Western Desert Campaign

Western Desert Campaign
Part of the North African Campaign of the Second World War
British infantry advance at El Alamein, October, 1942
Date 11 June 1940 – 4 February 1943 (2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks and 3 days) Location Western Desert, Egypt and Libya 24°N 25°E / 24°N 25°E / 24; 25Coordinates: 24°N 25°E / 24°N 25°E / 24; 25 Result Allied victory
Belligerents
British Commonwealth  United Kingdom  India  Palestine Sudan  Southern Rhodesia  Australia  New Zealand South Africa  Free France French colonial empire Free Poland Free Greece Free Czechoslovakia	Italy  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Archibald Wavell Alan Cunningham Claude Auchinleck Harold Alexander Bernard Montgomery	Italo Balbo † Rodolfo Graziani Italo Gariboldi Ettore Bastico Erwin Rommel Georg Stumme †

British Commonwealth

 Free France

The Western Desert Campaign (Desert War), took place in the deserts of Egypt and Libya and was the main theatre in the North African Campaign during the Second World War. The campaign began in September 1940 with the Italian invasion of Egypt; Operation Compass, a British five-day raid in December 1940, led to the destruction of the Italian 10th Army. Benito Mussolini sought help from Adolf Hitler, who responded with a small German force sent to Tripoli under Directive 22 (11 January). The German Afrika Korps (Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel) was under nominal Italian command but Italian dependency on Nazi Germany made it the dominant partner.

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