North African campaign

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of about 35 million and an area of... 710,850 km², including the disputed region of the Western Sahara, seen by and mostly administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. Morocco is part of the Maghreb region, in addition to Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, with which it shares cultural, historical and linguistic ties. Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive powers, including the power to dissolve the parliament. Executive power is exercised by the government but more importantly by the king himself. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors. The king can also issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. The latest Parliamentary elections were held in November 25, 2011, and were considered by some neutral observers to be mostly free and fair.
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Egypt /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic:  جمهوريّة... مصر العربيّة , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers , Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers , where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
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Tunisia , officially the Republic of Tunisia , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is an Arab Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the... west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165,000 square kilometres , with an estimated population of just under 10.7 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the northeast. Tunisia is the smallest of the nations situated along the Atlas mountain range. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1,300 kilometres of coastline. Tunisia has relations with both the European Union—with whom it has an association agreement—and the Arab world. Tunisia is also a member of the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab League, and the African Union. Tunisia has established close relations with France in particular, through economic cooperation, industrial modernization, and privatisation programs.
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Algeria /ælˈdʒɪəriə/ , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the... Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a large country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital. When referring to its land area, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, Maghreb and the Arab World. It is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea; it is also the tenth-largest country in the world. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Its size is almost 2,400,000 square kilometres with an estimated population of 37.1 million as of 2012. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC and the United Nations. The country is also a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union. The country's name is derived from the city of Algiers.
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World War II, or the Second World War , was a global war that was under way by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved a vast majority of the... world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make the war the deadliest conflict in human history. Although Japan was already at war with China in 1937, the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth.
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The Middle East Theatre of World War II is defined largely by reference to the British Middle East Command, which controlled Allied forces in both... Southwest Asia and eastern North Africa. From 1943, most of the action and forces concerned were in the adjoining Mediterranean Theatre. The region was quiet for the first few months of the war, until Fascist Italy declared war against France and Britain on June 10, 1940. It remained a major active theatre for two and a half years until the British Commonwealth Eighth Army crossed the border from Libya into Tunisia. In February 1943, command of the Eighth Army passed from the Middle East Command to the Allied Joint command for the Mediterranean, AFHQ. The Middle East Theatre remained quiet for the remainder of the war. The Allies initially believed that the Middle East could become a major operational theatre, because they thought that the Germans might invade the area. This did not materialise, although when Allied forces occupied much of the area, in anticipation of such an invasion, there was fighting against Vichy French forces in Lebanon and Syria, and against Iraq in the Anglo-Iraqi War.
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The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The battle took place over 13... days from 23 October – 4 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance. Thereafter, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Eighth Army from General Claude Auchinleck in August 1942. The Allied victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign. It ended Axis hopes of occupying Egypt, taking control of the Suez Canal, and gaining access to the Middle Eastern oil fields. By 12 July 1942, after its success at the Battle of Gazala, the Panzer Army Africa , composed of German and Italian infantry and mechanised units under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, had struck deep into Egypt, threatening the British Empire's control of the Suez Canal. General Auchinleck withdrew the Eighth Army to within 50 mi of Alexandria to a point where the Qattara Depression came to within 40 mi of El Alamein on the coast. This gave the defenders a relatively short front to defend and secure flanks, because tanks could not traverse the Depression.
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Bir Hakeim is a remote oasis in the Libyan desert, and the former site of a Turkish fort. During the Battle of Gazala, the 1st Free French Division... of Général de brigade Marie Pierre Kœnig defended the site from 26 May-11 June 1942 against attacking German and Italian forces directed by Generaloberst Erwin Rommel. Resisting the much larger Axis forces for 16 days was certainly an enormous achievement of Kœnig and his men. The battle was later greatly used for propaganda purposes by all involved parties which explains the mystification of it. Tobruk was taken 10 days later by Rommel's troops. Rommel continued to advance against delaying actions by the British until halted at First Battle of El Alamein in July. Général Bernard Saint-Hillier said in an October 1991 interview: "A grain of sand had curbed the Axis advance, which reached Al-Alamein only after the arrival of the rested British divisions: this grain of sand was Bir Hakeim.
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Operation Compass was the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during World War II. British and Commonwealth forces... attacked Italian forces in western Egypt and eastern Libya in December 1940 to February 1941. The operation was a complete success. Allied forces advanced from inside Egypt to central Libya, captured 115,000 Italian prisoners, and destroyed thousands of tanks, artillery pieces, and aircraft, while suffering very few casualties. Italy declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940. During the next several months there were raids and skirmishes between Italian forces in Libya and British and Commonwealth forces in Egypt. Marshal Italo Balbo was Governor-General and military commander of Italian North Africa . Italian dictator Benito Mussolini urged Balbo to attack the British in Egypt. Mussolini's aim was to capture the Suez Canal and link up with Italian East Africa. But for many reasons, Balbo was reluctant. After Balbo's death in a mysterious "friendly fire" accident on 28 June, Mussolini urged his replacement, General Rodolfo Graziani, to attack.
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Operation Agreement comprised a series of ground and amphibious operations carried out by British, Rhodesian and New Zealand forces on German and... Italian-held Tobruk on 13 September 1942, during the Second World War. A Special Interrogation Group, fluent in German, also took part in missions behind enemy lines. The attacks extended to Benghazi , Jalo oasis and Barce . The assault on Tobruk ended in disaster; the British lost three warships, seven motor torpedo boats and dozens of small amphibious craft and several hundred soldiers and marines. The objective of Operation Agreement was to undermine the Axis war effort in North Africa by destroying airfields, harbour facilities, ships, vehicles and large oil stores. The Allies also intended to capture Jalo oasis, which was to be used as a gathering point for the retreating ground forces involved in the other operations. G1 and T1 patrols of the Long Range Desert Group successfully assaulted Barce and its airfield, destroying 16 aircraft and damaging seven more. The main barracks there were also attacked.
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