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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Reg Reid and has been added to the site with the author's permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The Lighter Side of War

By
Don Alexander

CHAPTER 12: Notes on the war in North Africa prior to 133's landing

The Suez canal in Egypt was regarded as the lifeline of the British Empire but in 1940, it was defended by only 36,000 British troops backed up by a further 9,000 in Sudan and Kenya.
The Italians under Mussolini, keen to establish an Empire in Africa, had invaded Abyssinia and Eritrea and with 200,000 troops there and 250,000 in Cyrenaica, (Libya) outnumbered the British overwhelmingly.

Mussolini decided to invade Egypt but Marshal Graziani got no further than Sidi Barrani, just over the Egyptian border. The British commander-in-chief, General Wavell, and General O'Connor counter-attacked using the small number of tanks at their disposal for a series of lightning left flanking movements, between December 1940 and February 1941, out into the desert at the rear of the Italians. Within weeks they had advanced 800 kilometres to the south of Benghazi and had captured many thousands of Italian troops.

At the same time British troops from Sudan and Kenya defeated the much larger numbers of Italians in Abyssinia and Eritrea. In May 1941, thanks to the British army, the Emperor of Abyssinia re-entered his capital Addis-Abbaba.

As with the Germans in Europe and the Japanese at Singapore, much bigger concentrations of troops had been defeated by brilliant strategy and lightning armoured (blitzkrieg) offensives.
At sea the British mounted a successful air attack on Italian battleships at Taranto in November 1940, and won a sea engagement at Cape Matapan in March 1941, helped by the boffins at Bletchley Park who had cracked the Enigma code.

It was a brilliant victory, leading Churchill to say words to the effect that, when the history of the Second Roman Empire was written by a future Gibbon, it would be a much slimmer volume than the original!

There had been a rapid build up of British and Empire troops, but in February 1941, their advance from Benghazi was stopped on Churchill's orders, so forces could be diverted to Greece, now threatened by Hitler.

At the same time, German General Rommel arrived in Tripoli, in turn launched lightning attacks when the British were in the middle of reorganization, and drove them right back to the port of Tobruk in Libya, just west of the Egyptian border. General Wavell was replaced by General Auchinleck who fought a swift moving duel with Rommel in the desert until August 1942. Both Generals had supply problems - Auchinleck's supplies came right round via the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (though Churchill had risked a convoy through the Mediterranean and four out of five ships reached Alexandria, Egypt, with 238 tanks).

Rommel's supplies came across the Mediterranean, harassed by attacks from Malta, where the command there knew of the convoys sailing thanks to Bletchley...

In April 1942, Hitler contemplated a landing in Malta, but heavy losses in Crete of his elite airborne troops (though they took the island), coupled with his mistrust of the Italians made him abandon the idea.

The British 8th Army was getting battle-hardened, but the port of Tobruk fell to the Germans in June 1942, and the British withdrew to El Alamein, only 240 kilometres west of Cairo. It was a good spot to confront Rommel since the huge Quattara depression of quicksand to the south prevented outflanking movement.

In August 1942 Churchill, on his way to Moscow, flew to Cairo and replaced General Auchinleck with General Sir Harold Alexander as commander-in-chief, while General Sir Bernard Montgomery took over command of the 8th Army (Monty was second choice. General Gott was to have commanded the 8th Army but was shot down in the aircraft bringing him to Cairo).

Monty was worshipped by most and detested by a few even among some of his own men in the 8th Army. The British had beaten the Italians, but there was the myth of German - of Rommel's - invincibility. Withdrawals were expected if and when Rommel counter-attacked. There were rumours that lorries were lined up with seats booked for retreat to Cairo!
Monty scotched these rumours by sending the lorries back empty to Cairo. There would be no retreat. No more withdrawals.

Both Alexander and Montgomery had known the carnage of the first world war - they had seen how the generals of the War to End Wars had lived in French chateaux, far from the troops on the front line. Alexander established an HQ, 'Caledon Camp', named after his home in Northern Ireland near the front and near Monty's 8th Army HQ. They visited the troops - Monty inspired them - they were going to deal the Germans a blow from which they would never recover. There would be no undue risks. It would be hard pounding.
El Alamein would be a milestone - the first defeat of the German army - a turning point in the war. Perhaps the turning point.

It was in fact Monty v General Stumme but on the first day, 23rd October 1942, when the Frontal attack by British and Empire and Commonwealth troops was preceded by an immense bombardment, the German General suffered a heart attack and died. Rommel was ill but took over command. The British troops broke through at three points to create a gap for the armoured divisions to pour through. Within twelve days the Germans were in disarray and retreated westwards. The Rommel myth, the Wehrmacht invincibility myth, had been laid.

When 133 Company landed in Algiers, they were buoyed up by this famous victory. El Alamein came at huge cost, not like the Somme in World War I, when 60,000 British troops died on one day, the 1st of July, 1916; but 10,000 men died at El Alamein in one week and nine out of every ten men who died were infantrymen. When he knew of this, Butch gave inward thanks to his dad for his advice to avoid the Infantry.

Butch didn't find out until the end of the war that his old friend Ron Gregory, a commissioned officer in an Infantry Regiment, was killed there. A lad had fallen off a lorry, Ron jumped off to pick him up and was carrying him back when he trod on a mine.

Butch didn't know it but there'd be no more bike trips to Bakewell together after the war.

Pr-BR

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