The Essential Role Played by The Mediterranean Front In The Axis Defeat | Battlefield | War Stories

he on June 10, 1940 Bonito musolini declared war on France and Britain brought war to the Mediterranean this was melini's war it was one in which Hitler was worried about his ambitions in Eastern Europe he had little interest in Hitler he was happy Musini took the initiative and Germany became involved only when the capabilities of the Italian Armed Forces could not match Uche's ambitions. The Italian declaration of war was prompted by Bonito Melini's fear that he had left it too late to share the spoils of the German Blitz across the country. countries and France as France collapsed Musolini rushed his ill-prepared Armed Forces into war in his determination to seize control of the Mediterranean and turn it into an Italian lake.

Melini's dream of a new Roman Empire in the Mediterranean aimed at conquering the lands that were under British and French control Musolini told Hitler that he wanted Corsica, Malta, Tunisia, parts of Algeria, an Atlantic port on the Moroccan coast and French lands in Somalia, as well as replacing the British in Egypt and Sudan. It was a war that would be fought on land, sea and in the air and throughout the campaign, land battles were often determined by what happened at sea. On 9 July 1940, the Italian Battle Fleet under Admiral Campioni and the British Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral Andrew Cunningham clashed near Cape Spartivento on the southern coast of Sardinia.

The fleet was an impressive force consisting of two of Italy's modernized fast battleships, Julio Chisari and Cavor, and 16 cruisers. Their objective was to protect an important convoy of five merchant ships carrying supplies to Italian forces in Libya. The British had violated Italian naval codes and Italian intentions were confirmed when RAF reconnaissance planes reported that the Italian fleet was at sea. The British Mediterranean Fleet based in Alexandria set sail to intercept them. It was also intended to protect two convoys evacuating civilians and garrison families from Malta to Alexandria, true to Cunningham's character. He was determined to lead the Italians into battle.

He headed toward the Italian naval base in Toronto, hot on Italy's heels, hoping to get between the Italian ships and their main naval base. The Italians had also broken the British signal codes and knew that Cunningham's ships were at sea. The plan was to lure Cunningham's ships within range of Italian land bombs and Campion was under orders to avoid battle until the British fleet was within range of aircraft operating from the Italian mainland in daylight. Cunningham's fleet of three battleships surrounded by his protective shield of cruisers and destroyers were attacked by the Italian Air Force. The fleet included Cunningham's flagship HMS War Spite and the battleships Mala and Royal Sovereign.

His only carrier, the 20-year-old HMS Eagle, had 17 swordfish torpedo reconnaissance planes and three antiquated Gloucester Gladiator beep planes that were the fleet's only fighter protection as waves of bombers flew overhead. Cunningham's gray warships were enveloped in tall black towers of water that gushed around them from the carpet of bombs dropped by the royal aeronautical force. Italian three-engine bombers using level bombing mainly dropped 110-pound and 220-pound bombs, but they were not powerful enough to have a critical hit; even when occasionally hitting the target, the bombers had not practiced attacking the ship and showed its general ineffectiveness. HMS Gloucester was only hit on her Compass bridge, killing her captain and six of her officers, but despite this the cruiser was able to remain with the fleet on the morning of 9 July, the Italian fleet being located about 145 miles away. west of Cunningham's Force by a seaplane from RAF Sunderland at noon the two fleets were 80M apart and the Eagles swordfish followed the Italian fleet.

By this time, the Italian Air Force had lost contact. Campion launched a reconnaissance plane from his flagship Julius Chesar and found Cunningham's ships in the hope that the bombing raids had reduced Cunningham's force. Campion pressed towards the British. Force knowing that his two battleships could outrun and outgun those of the enemy, his six heavy and 10 light cruisers were superior to Cunningham's four effective light cruisers, especially with the damaged gluster being held back from the action to protect the Eagle at 11:45 a small attacking force of five swordfish flew out of the eagle but failed to make any impact;

It was a problem that the British were going to face again and again, as there were simply not enough British aircraft to launch an effective attack at 300 p.m. On a clear blue Mediterranean day, the enemy fleets saw each other. The Italian heavy cruisers turned their 8-inch guns and opened fire on the British cruiser's screen at a distance of about 13 miles. The British responded with their 6-inch guns, but were outmatched. by the Italian cruisers until the rancor of war raged and fired their 15-inch guns, the Italians moved away covered in a screen of smoke, now it was the battleships' turn to approach at 353 p.m.

The war rancor opened fire at 26,000 and with its 15-inch guns at maximum elevation. Campion's two battleships responded at Earnest in a mixture of water jets and smoke. Both sides clashed. It was a classic sea battle. Cunningham was rewarded with the sight of a large orange. A flash of FL color at the base of the Julio Chisar funnel was an impact that caused fires to break out. Below decks of Campion's flagship, the Julio Chesare was damaged but not fatally and the Italian fleet turned around under a dense screen of smoke in the confused action that The ships that followed Cunningham could not match the speed of the faster Italian ships and lost contact.

It was only now that Italian Air Force bombers appeared for Campion's Fury, mistaking the Italian fleet for that of the Royal Navy and repeatedly bombed their ships as they returned to mainland Italy over the next 4 days. As they returned to Port, the British fleet came under intense aerial bombardment with 22 attacks and over 300 bombs dropped on 12 July alone, 36 of them falling within 200 yards of the Despite the war, the three Eagle Gladiators, outmatched in numbers, they performed miracles and shot down five of the attacking bombers while covering the fleet's retreat to Alexandria. This first brush between the Italian and British fleets, although brief and inconclusive, foreshadowed the pattern of war in the Mediterranean, demonstrated the importance of cipher warfare and how the interception and decryption of signals would dictate the attack and counterattack of both. sides.

This war went to the Allies thanks to the ultra-decryption of German and Italian Enigma traffic. It showed what happened in The land would be determined by the efficiency of supply and logistics by sea. The campaigns in Greece and Creit and the Battle of the Seesaw along the North African coast would depend on what happened to the convoys bringing supplies by sea. Successful access depended on oil and supplies reaching their destinations. forces in North Africa and likewise Britain's ability to prevent this depended on its ability to sustain the strategic island of Malta with jet fuel, food and supplies.

The Battle of Cape Spartivento also demonstrated that what happened at sea was determined by who had it. Air control demonstrated that the greatest risk to ships was air attack and that a fleet could operate at sea only with its own cover of hunt. This had to be substantially larger than the three old biplanes that defended Cunningham's ships at Spart Vento from the ace. However, the ineffective tactics and inadequate links of the Italian Air Force, three former biplanes were also no match for the much-feared Luft buffer. The first battle demonstrated how difficult it was for warships to intercept and synchronize convoys without putting themselves at risk.

Attacking the convoys was found to be best left to aircraft and submarines, but as yet Malta, the most likely British base to carry out these offensive operations, was not equipped with the resources in the form of aircraft and submarines to do so. . Malta was Britain's unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean anchored off the south. foot of Sicily and in an ideal position to fly reconnaissance aircraft over convoy routes between the Italian mainland and North Africa, it could play a war-winning

role

as a base to intercept Italian convoys, but it still lacked the offensive resources to bring the war to the enemy. she also lacked resources to protect herself in the event of an invasion;

Its potential was evident, but after the fall of France, Britain had lost the equipment of an army on the roads leading to Dunkirk, its concern was to avoid a German invasion and Malta had to settle for the little that could be mustered. battle for Malta would determine the course of the war in the Mediterranean the fight was determined by the British ability to build and preserve Malta as an offensive base in waters where the proximity of sic and the Italian mainland meant it should have been dominated by power air and maritime of the

axis

. The British faced a constant struggle to manage fast ships and convoys to maintain their island stronghold while the Axis decided how best to eliminate it or at least neutralize it.

This fight determined success. of the campaign in North Africa and the fate of the campaign in the Mediterranean, discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians, all on History hit, watch on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile phone. device download the app now to see everything from the gripping story of Band of Brothers to Operation Barbarosa and D-Day. Immerse yourself in the dramatic

stories

of this extraordinary era by signing up via the link in the description. The founder of Italian fascism was Bonito. musolini or Uche means leader musolini was prime minister of Italy from 1922 until his overthrow in 1943 his ambitions are fundamental to understanding the course of the Mediterranean campaign musolini was an excellent organizer and a fascinating orator who founded the modern Italian state a veteran of the first World War II who had been wounded in combat with the Seeri elite on the Italian

front

, Musolini established a blackshirt militia whose insignia and name were taken from the bundle of reeds or phases used as a symbol of office by ancient Roman officials. administrator who won his country's approval for a series of large-scale social improvements and public works and is still known as the man who made trains run on time Hitler admired what Musolini had achieved in Italy and copied the modern Roman salute and the black shirts of the IST.

For his own Nazi party, Musolini dreamed of reestablishing the Empire of Rome in the Mediterranean. Sea Nostrom embarked on a series of military adventures to achieve this goal, dragging a reluctant country into World War II but lacking the resources and the industrial base to achieve its ambitions. Uche's forces suffered military humiliations on land and at sea, his campaigns in North Africa, Albania and Greece having to be rescued from utter disaster by German intervention as the war progressed. However, Musolini lost Hitler's respect and increasingly became a liability within the Axis. Musolini alliance was deposed when the Allies invaded Sicily in 1943 he was rescued from imprisonment by a daring raid by German special forces he headed a puppet government in northern Italy until the last days of the war he was captured by communist partisans while trying to escape with his lover to Germany Musolini was shot dead and hanged by his ankles from a meat hook in a public square in Milan.

He was determined to establish Italian control over the Mediterranean, but despite the

defeat

of France and the weakness of Britain after Dunkirk, he still faced potential rivals under the fascist government of General Franco. Spain also had ambitions in the Mediterranean Franco wanted to expand the Spanish Empire with the incorporation of Gibraltar into French Morocco and parts of French West Africa, as well as guaranteed supplies of food and weapons from Germany Hitler encouraged Franco to join in a joint attack against Jalter to close Britain's western gateway to the Mediterranean, but Spain was exhausted by the Spanish Civil War and reluctant to commit to another war.

Hitler considered Franco to be a tone-deaf negotiator and, after an intense meeting between the two in October 1940, he commented that he would preferhave three or four extracted teeth than to have another similar meeting Franco expressed his support but promised nothing other than aware of his country's dependence on imported food Franco was willing to assist Hitler's ambitions in Russia but refused to act against Jalter the theater of war in the Mediterranean was central to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's strategic concept for waging World War II after the fall of France. Churchill's only means of attacking Germany was the RAF bombing campaign and this remained the cornerstone of his strategy throughout the war as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Churchill, who participated in both wars and is a fervent believer in the importance of naval power, firmly believes that Britain should deliberately wage a campaign on the periphery such as the Mediterranean as part of the process of attriting the Axis powers before con

front

ing them in northwest Europe. The Mediterranean depended on its naval bases at Jalta Malta and on Cyprus, which gave it strategically important positions in the western and eastern central Mediterranean with support from the Royal Navy's main base at Alexandria in Egypt after the fall of France. Churchill's military advisors regarded the Mediterranean as unimportant. and recommended that Jalter retreat Churchill did not want Churchill to fight a campaign in the Mediterranean it fitted with his strategic vision of winning the war it offered the prospect of invading Sicily or Sardinia and putting Italy under pressure he was always looking for options in which Churchill saw success the Mediterranean as a means of persuading Vichy France to change sides and Franco's Spain to remain neutral Churchill's strategy was to wage a three-stage war in which the bombing and naval blockade of 1940 would be followed by medium-sized amphibious operations in the Mediterranean in 1941 against targets such as Sardinia and Sicily, until reaching larger scale attacks on the European coast.

In 1942, German success in North Africa and the Balkans, followed by Japan's entry into the war, would modify this, but by 1940 the Mediterranean was the only theater where Britain had the resources to make the first stage of war possible. your strategy. Much would depend on the ingenuity of Admiral AB Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Cunningham faced a now superior Italian fleet consisting of seven battleships, including the two impressive new battleships Vitorio Venito and Loro, seven heavy cruisers. and 11 light ships, 61 destroyers and more than 100 submarines. four battleships, three of which were not modernized and were slower and outgunned by their Italian counterparts, six light cruisers and 20 destroyers, the Vichi government of

defeat

ed France was still a viable Mediterranean power and was positioned in Algeria , whose Mediterranean coast was part.

From metropolitan France, French Morocco and Tunisia, as well as the mandated territories of Syria and Lebanon, the French army in Africa was also well armed with modern weapons and fiercely loyal to the Vichi regime in 1939. The French navy al Admiral Dara's command was the fourth largest in In the world it was very modern and professionally manned. After the fall of France, an ad hoc force called Force H under the command of Admiral Somerville was assembled at jiar to fill the gap left by the French in the western Mediterranean. A powerful force of four capital ships. somehow managed to restore balance.

It consisted of the flagship Somerville, the battlecruiser Hood, the battleships Valiant and Resolution, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the light cruiser Arathusa, and four destroyers. Its main task was to ensure that the French fleet did not fall into German hands in the On 3 July 1940, Force H attacked the French naval base at Mel Kabir, near Oran, in Algeria. It was a gamble that risked returning France to the war on the Axis side. After protracted negotiations, the French still refuse to immobilize their powerful fleet of two battleships, two modern battlecruisers, 13 destroyers and four submarines. Somerville opened fire and followed up with swordfish torpedo attacks from the Royal Ark.

The battleship Britain exploded with huge explosions. loss of life Torpedoes in a second attack crippled a second battleship the French flagship dun Kirk, three days later, on 5 July, the battleship Risha was attacked and damaged in Dhaka harbor by torpedo boats from the aircraft carrier Hermes. These naval attacks created enormous tension between Britain and the Vichi government of France and confirmed in the Vichi mind the image of The Perfidious Albian who had abandoned France at Dunkirk and was now prepared to attack and kill the French in pursuit of a war which he believed Britain could not win, was Churchill's signal to the world that, despite all odds, Britain, although alone in Europe, would stop at nothing to win the war in the Mediterranean this decision had a positive and important impact on public opinion in the United States, it was this determination to win American public support that would underpin the expedition to Greece, a task that in military terms in itself was a gamble against all odds but which was It was carried out because it fit with Churchill's determination to build a Bulan coalition and win American support.

General W was Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East from the outbreak of war until July 1941, when General C Claude Orin replaced him with General Harold. Alexander, who along with Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery formed a formidable partnership that engineered the defeat of RL in North Africa, would in turn replace Orin Le with his equivalent in the Air Force and Navy, waval formed a responsible senior command before the British Chiefs of Staff of the area for which he was responsible. It was vast and included British ground forces in Egypt, Sudan and Palestine, Jordan, East Africa and British lands in Somalia, as well as any forces that might be sent to Turkey, the Balkans, Iraq, Aiden or the Persian Gulf after the fall of France. .

Wal's command was the only one. one was fighting a land war against the Axis powers in early 1941 was fighting three separate campaigns with limited resources the Western Desert the Balan and East Africa campaigns the success of each was determined by events in the Mediterranean Admiral ABC Cunningham was Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet at the outbreak of war in September 1939, Cunningham was the image of a fighting admiral with piercing blue eyes, a ruddy complexion and a surefire keepsake for former shipmates during the worst days of the war. battle for Creit. One of his members commented that fighting the LT buffer was like hitting your head against a wall.

Cunningham replied that what you have forgotten, you miserable undertaker, is that you may be loosening a brick. Cunningham's determination to maintain British naval supremacy was the crucial factor in winning the battle for the Mediterranean. He was prepared. Take the battle to the enemy if he defeated the axes. His air attack on the Italian fleet at Toronto in November 1940 was a masterstroke and he always sought to get the more powerful Italian fleet to support the battle and did so successfully, especially at Cape Matapan. After a period in Washington, Cunningham returned to the Mediterranean, where he was appointed Allied Naval Commander of the Expeditionary Force for the Anglo-American Torch Landings in November 1942, he was Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean and Allied Naval Commander for the Sicily campaign in July 1943 and the Ceno landings in September 1943, Air Marshal AR Longmore became the scapegoat for the RAF's lack of resources in the Mediterranean and in May 1941 his Deputy Air Marshal Arthur Teda replaced him.

Both men recognized the need to maintain Malta's air resources as well as improve the army's air and maritime cooperation, however, after their arrival in July 1942, it was Air Vice Marshal Keith Park who revolutionized the tactical battle fought in Molter. It was he who was able to capitalize on the increase in air resources to win the air war. and increase the effectiveness of the Malta attack during the critical battles on the Alaman Line from July to November 1942 the small island of Malta With a civilian population of 27,000, three airfields and the port of Valletta was the only British port between Jala and Alexandria, 60 miles from Sicily and 1,000 miles from the nearest British base at Jalter, was vulnerable to attack and difficult to supply, but its position made it an important base for both air and sea attacks on shipping. of the

axis

that supplied forces to North Africa.

Italian planes attacked Malta for the first time. On June 11, 1940, attacking bombers flying in formation over the island engaged three obsolete Gloucester Gladiator biplanes, aptly named Faith, Hope and Charity, as the island's only air defense. Malta also lacked the means to attack and in these first months Molta was unable to interfere. With supply and reinforcement convoys sailing from Italy to North Africa in 1940, Malta had six of the seven infantry battalions assessed as necessary for its defense against invasion, but lacked anti-aircraft and air defenses on a rockier island. Smaller than White's corridor traversed by ravines and ravines with limited flat terrain, the three available airfields had a capacity of five squadrons, two of them were reconnaissance, one of Wellington bombers and the last Swordfish torpedo bombers, a fighter squadron Hurrican reinforced the original biplanes and a constant stream of mortar Hurricanes were deployed.

When they became available, the island was only a 20-minute flight from enemy airfields in Sicily and there was no space on the island to give depth to the defences; It lacked both an efficient radar and an observation system, so the fighter defenses had to be scrambled. Once the enemy was on the island, the initial vacuum left by the French in the western Mediterranean, IR Anan, and the fact that Malta initially lacked the ability to interfere with Italian convoys, had allowed Musolini to reinforce his armies in Libya and Sirena, driven by Melini's dream. of riding Triumph on a white steed towards Cairo an Italian offensive was launched against Egypt Italian forces attacked first under the command of Marshal Balbo and then under the command of Marshal Graziani on September 13, 1940 this and the Italian attack on Greece in October 1940 they dictated Churchill's first Grand Steps in War after the fall of France The Italian offensive in Egypt was a cautious affair Gran's 10th Army advanced some 62 miles with its infantry supported by 72 M11 tanks of design Italian, generally considered one of the worst tanks of World War II. and inferior in speed of armor and armament to his opponent British tank cruiser after occupying a line of forts Graani halted on the defensive his army of 250,000 faced a British and Commonwealth force of only 36,000 a similar offensive was launched from Italian East Africa, where the Duke of Aosta invaded Sudan and Kenya and captured British Somali lands with a force of 91,000 Italian soldiers backed by 200,000 Abyssinian soldiers and 350 two obsolete Italian Air Force aircraft, although opposed by less than 40,000 British soldiers and less than 100 aircraft, the Italian forces failed.

To besiege the initiative and after an equally cautious advance went on the defensive, Musolini followed these offensives with an invasion of Greece from occupied Albania. Britain immediately supported the Greek forces with five RAF bomber squadrons under the 1939 Anglo-French agreement that had guaranteed Greek independence. The bombers aided the Greeks in their spirited resistance to the Italian army which, although impressive on paper, lacked the supplies, ammunition and will to match the outnumbered and IL-equipped Greek army and the Italian offensive collapsed. The Greeks counterattacked in November 1940, pushing the Italians back into Albania and it appeared that for a time the Italians would lose control of the Adriatic ports that were critical to the resupply of their armies in Albania.

It was a humiliating defeat by a partially trained and ill-equipped Greek army that encouraged Churchill to offer support. Greek success was Along with Cunningham's willingness to take the war at sea to the Italians, ships of the Mediterranean Fleet carried out night bombardments of Italian-controlled Adriatic ports, as is the case with everything in the Mediterranean. , seemingly separate campaigns were interconnected, one feeding off the other and at this stage of the war. Critically scarce British resources would be juggled around and across the Mediterranean to meet each crisis. The Greek success in Albania and the passivity of the Italian armies on the Egyptian border and in Abyssinia convinced Wavalto go on the offensive in North Africa.

Wal's counterattack. Gran's army was boosted by the success of Admiral Cunningham's brilliant attack against the Italian fleet anchored at Toranto. The Italian declaration of war on Greece had increased Cunningham's burden with his need to escort supply convoys to pyas in Greece; However, it also gave Cunningham the use of Suda Bay's deep-water port at Creit, this, along with the arrival at Malar of three Glenn Martin Maryland reconnaissance aircraft that could fly faster and higher than the Sunderland seaplanes, allowed Cunningham to maintain his reconnaissance of the main Italian naval ports. Guided by this reconnaissance information and with feedback from Ultra interceptions of Italian signal traffic, Cunningham combined the movement of his ships and those of Force H to cover critical convoys transporting reinforcements to Malta and, to create, he also planned to mount a attack with torpedo boats against the Italian naval base.

In Toronto, Cunningham knew that all the important eggs, namely six Italian battleships, were in one basket at the Italian Navy's main base at 8:35 p.m. On November 11, 1940, the first wave of 12 string bags, as the swordfish was known, were deployed from the deck of the illustrious led by Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Williamson of the Fleet Air Arm of No. 815 Squadron. One hour later nine yarnbags from No. 819 Squadron led by Lieutenant Commander JW, hail followed them before nightfall. Cunningham had pointed out the illustrious while he sailed with his escorts to take position for the raid 180 miles south of Toranto.

It was on the shoulders of this small group of 42 naval aviators in their obsolete aircraft that the Over the course of the war in the Mediterranean, the planes that buzzed through the night toward mainland Italy carried a mix of torpedoes, while others carried flares and bombs, the bombs were to be used against the cruisers and destroyers and thus divert the attention of the Italian defense. -aircraft defenses, while magnesium flares would illuminate the battleships for the torpedo attack, Malta's Maryland reconnaissance planes had plotted the location of the bombardment balloons protecting the port, however, the slow swordfish would have Having to face the combined firepower of six battleships, nine cruisers and a large number of destroyers, as well as some 21 batteries of heavy anti-aircraft guns and some 200 short-range automatic weapons, guided by low beams, the bags of rope flew into a firestorm, but sank and zigzagged toward illuminated targets. two were shot down, but by the time the last plane flew out of the anti-aircraft bombardment, three Italian battleships were spilling oil in the harbor, the new battleship Lorio had suffered three torpedo hits, and the Dulio had been hit once they would be out of action.

For 5 to 6 months, the third battleship Cavor was stranded and a stream of water lapping at the forward turrets of her was never seaworthy again in one fell swoop, the battleship force of the Italian fleet had been attacked. Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Williams, who led the first wave, was shot. and he and his Observer were taken prisoner, a second swordfish was also destroyed and the two-person crew were killed at 2:50 a.m. m. on the 12th.By November 1940, all remaining aircraft, some riddled by shrapnel, had returned to the illustrious due to the loss of two British aircraft. The balance of naval power in the battle for the Mediterranean had tilted in favor of the Royal Navy.

The next day, all Italians were seaworthy. The ship in port departed for safer births on the Italian west coast, reducing the threat to British convoys. It was a daring and successful operation that proved to be a turning point in naval history. It was a blow to Italian pride and morale, but while the battleship force had turned in favor of the Royal Navy, this was less significant than it seemed, indicating the arrival of air power as a decisive element in the maritime strategy. Cunningham's success at Toranto would be a strong influence on Japanese planning for their attack on Pearl.

Harbor together Toranto and Pearl Harbor signal the end of the era of battleship supremacy. From now on, navies could sail with impunity only if they controlled the skies above them. Britain had somehow managed to neutralize the Italian fleet and Cunningham's fleet could operate at will in the central Mediterranean. Campion made a half-hearted attempt to prevent the convoys from reaching Malta from Alexandria and Jalta, but although the warships of each fleet once again came within range of Cape Spavento's guns, Campion was unwilling to risk Italy's two available sea battleships against the Mediterranean. Fleet and retreated to Naples was Campion's swan song and a dissatisfied Musolini replaced him as commander-in-chief with the Japanese admiral whose management of the Italian cruiser squadron had given him a reputation for daring even though Britain lacked the resources to equip Malta with the fighters and torpedo attack aircraft needed to ensure maritime supremacy, the RAF concerned with strategic bombing and the defense of Britain lacked resources to support the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean and this deficiency would have a critical impact on Malta's

role

in the following months in North Africa British and Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt pushed back the much larger Italian army through Libya in February 1941 The land battle became a back-and-forth affair dominated by the fight for air and sea superiority in the battle.

In the case of the Mediterranean, it was also overshadowed by the logistical stretch of trying to sustain armies advancing along a single axis parallel to the Mediterranean Sea and being supplied by trucks along hundreds of miles of desert roads or through of small inadequate ports with few or destroyed facilities. The difficulties of advancing by road were exhausting enough without the added stress of fighting an enemy operation. Compass was planned as a limited offensive and its purpose was to protect Egypt against any Italian advance, but Churchill also saw the prospect of opening Benghazi as a port to supply British forces and provide airfields to support Malta and ensure that the Mediterranean could remain open to British shipping.

The resources available to Lieutenant General O'Conor's Western Desert Force were always limited and were allocated by waval to other contingents on 9 December. General Richard OK Conor launched a successful attack against the Italian positions at the town of Barani and the series of Italian garrison forts along the border. Okon's success in driving the Italians from the Egyptian border was achieved with an ad hoc group of Indian infantry brought in on loan from New York. Zealand Transport supporting British Armor After this initial success, the Indian brigades were redirected to the campaign in Abyssinia and Som Land and were replaced in the Western Desert by Australian soldiers of the 6th Australian Division who fought their way to Bardia in the late December 1940.

British Intelligence. He had greatly underestimated the strength of General Bonzo's 23rd Italian core, which outnumbered his attackers. Fierce Italian resistance led to days of intense fighting before the two brigades of the 6th Australian Division captured the town, taking 40,000 prisoners, 400 GS 13 medium guns and 117 light tanks and hundreds of serviceable motor vehicles, many of them which, along with some of the tanks, were pressed into service by the attackers. The fortified port of T Brook fell to the Australians after equally heavy fighting on 21 and 22 January 1941, supported by bombing raids by Blenin bombers. and with naval support offshore, the Australians under Major General Ivan McKai dominated the defenses and by late afternoon of the second day the 25,000-strong garrison had surrendered with 208 guns and 87 tanks.

Casualties in Okon's 13 centers amounted to just over 400, of which 355 were Australian. who demonstrated that their fighting prowess was equal to the reputation earned by their fathers in 1914. In 1918 immediate repairs were carried out to the port facilities and Brook was ready to receive shipments on 24 January, underpinning the importance of these Mediterranean ports on the North African coast provided critical relief to overloaded motor shipping facing a journey of up to 500 thousand on the only metal coastal road and enabled the establishment of air bases and facilities to help protect shipping at high altitudes. sea. The scale of Okon's success took both Waval and Churchill by surprise; their concerns focused on events in the Balkans and Gree's successes against the Italian army in Albania and they were less willing to focus on the possibilities of further advance. over Tripoli.

Churchill was the driving force behind the commitment to Greece, although it was acknowledged. that Greece's heroic defense against the Italians in Albania would be useless against the superior German power Churchill still dreamed of a massive front against Hitler. He was also aware of the formal commitment that Britain had made to Greece in April 1939, when Italy invaded Albania. Greek President General Maxis dismissed initial offers of aid to Greece as inadequate and believed that the British offer would only increase Greece's problems by giving the Germans a pretext to attack Papagos. The Greek commander-in-chief assessed that British aid would not only be unable to achieve the military objective. and policies Solutions are needed, but they would be strategically flawed; in fact, the Papagians believed that the two or three divisions they proposed withdrawing from the army in Egypt and sending to Greece would be more usefully employed in Africa to achieve a strategic result by advancing towards Tripoli.

In strictly military terms, Papagos was right, but Churchill was looking at the bigger picture; He intended to demonstrate British determination to wage war to President Roosevelt and the American public, after some initial skepticism. Waville finally accepted that Greece had to become a priority over all operations in the Middle East after the capture of T Brook, he made Oconor aware that the advance towards Sanik was conditional on the use of resources that were destined to be released in the Balkans once they were needed. OK, Conor would have to stop him from advancing. Okon's bold coup of attacking the South across the desert bypassed Benghazi and established a blockade on the coastal highway at BEDA.

On February 7, 1941 he cut off the retreat to Tripoli of Marshal Gratian's Italian 10th Army. 25,000 prisoners were taken in bed by a small British force formed by the 4th Armored Brigade which had less than 40 tanks with a single infantry brigade the rifle brigade was supported by a cannon regiment she herself made the cork from the bottle and This brilliant victory was the climax of a campaign that destroyed an army. The campaign at Serenica was the first British victory. During the war, Okon's Western Desert Force had advanced more than 600 thousand on a single metal coastal road and rugged country roads. desert, the Italian army and its commanders had been surprised by the mobility of the much smaller British force on which the Italians had relied, ports defended with imp.

WI locations and mines covered by machine guns and artillery once bypassed or surrounded Italian infantry without transport and became hostages of Fortune. The result was the destruction of the Italian 10th Army and Air Force resources trapped in Sanik, a British force never larger than two divisions one. The armored vehicles had advanced more than 500 thousand and completely destroyed an Italian army of 10 divisions with a loss of 500 dead, 1,375 wounded and 55 missing. Italian casualties included 130,000 prisoners. 380 light and medium tanks and 845 guns. Around 150 Italian aircraft had also been destroyed or captured. Graziani did not share the fate of his army with his destroyed reputation, citing a nervous breakdown and retreating into private life, while a subsequent commission of inquiry reported negatively on his conduct of the campaign.

Barm offered the prospect of an advance on Tripoli that would secure the northern African coast and put pressure on the Vichi government in Algeria and Tunisia, it was accompanied by a successful campaign in Abyssinia and Somali land that saw the surrender of Italian forces in May 1941. The complete defeat of Italy in North Africa was only averted by Churchill's determination to assist Greece with forces that were stripped from North Africa and by the reluctant decision ofHitler to reinforce the weakened Italian forces with German reinforcements under the command of one of his favorite generals, General Irn Romel, on February 12, 1941, Churchill warned Waval that his first priority was to help.

Greece, Türkiye or both, this ruled out any serious effort against Tripoli and a critical strategic opportunity was lost. Maxas's death caused a change of heart on the part of the Greek government, which now accepted with deep gratitude the offer of an expeditionary force. Churchill did not fool Waville. By agreeing to compromise with Greece, he also believed that Britain had to show its intention to forge a Bulan Alliance to win American support. Wavel was not blind to military risks; He saw it as a gamble, but believed that for political reasons it was one that had to be taken, however, the commitment of Luster Force, the name given to the force sent to assist Greece, was based on the belief that the Greek army would withdraw from the Bulgarian-Albanian border to the more defensible Aliakmon line, the The reality was that the Greek Pride would not see a territory abandoned nor would it contemplate surrendering the plains of Thessaloniki to the enemy without a fight.

The British mission in Greece also never appreciated the extent of the Greek armies that had fought so bravely in Albania and that the mere process of withdrawal risked their collapse, the worst was that the commitment of a British expeditionary force in Greece dispossessed almost all the resources available in Egypt and the Western Desert. OKAY. Conor's 13 central headquarters, now veteran and experienced, were disbanded and all available resources were allocated to Greece. Leftist General Maand Wilson, who had served with the New Zealand Division in World War I, commanded the brilliant force that would consist of the New Zealand Division and the 6th and 7th Australian Divisions of the First Australian Core with the British.

Hitler's First Armored Brigade, intending to secure its southern flank before advancing against the Soviet Union, crossed into Bulgaria on 1 March 1941. The first elements of the Ler Force's First Armored Brigade and the leading Infantry Brigade of the New Zealand Division would not be in position until the third week of March and would not be joined by the rest of the New Zealand Division and the first brigade of the 7th Australian Division before the end of the month would be a race between the Germans and the allies to see who could reach the aliakmon line. Firstly, this was compounded by the news that the Greek army had decided not to withdraw from its border positions.

Waval had to accept that when his troops landed in Greece his chances of maintaining the German advance had disappeared and he made plans for the evacuation of the British position. in the Mediterranean was seriously weakened by its commitment to Greece and by the arrival of the LVFA in the region from January 1941. Hitler assigned Flea Nucleus 10 to assist the Italian Air Force and directed the formation of a Corps African under the command of General Irwin Rommel to toughen the situation. The Italian defense of Tripoli would have an immediate impact on the situation in the Mediterranean. General Geisler's Fleer Core 10, LT vaffa anti-ship specialists were transferred from Norway to Sicily.

His arrival had an immediate impact on escorting a trip to molter. Cunningham's fleet was captured. off Panaria in the early afternoon of 10 January 1941, compared to the comparatively ineffective bombing of the regia aeronautica, LT Vaffa's tactics were a revelation: Stoker dive bombers arrived simultaneously in groups of three from three directions, perfectly fitted together, in the shape of a cloverleaf, plunging through the 4.5 in barrier and pom-pom gun screen the illustrious aircraft carrier disappeared in a cloud of spray in smoke bombs hit the pom-pom gun batteries killing and Injuring the crews, a bomb fell into the lift shaft of the AR aircraft, setting fire to the aircraft in the hangar.

More bombs followed below, destroying aircraft, disabling weapons and killing the crew with their steering out of action. Its lower decks are in disarray. Her Captain driving on main engines alone took the leaning aircraft carrier into Grand Harbor in morose under heavy air attack. One of the ESC convoys courting the cruiser Southampton was also hit and disabled and had to be sunk. Damage to the illustrious meant that Conningham had lost its

essential

Fleet air support and the formidable carrier was sent as a replacement. Air raids on Malta intensified between January and April 1941 during the Greek War and campaigns.

The first strong attacks were on January 16 in an attempt to destroy the illustria. 40 to 80 aircraft attacked at any time from their bases in Sicily. 20 minutes away, the Illustria were hit but not seriously damaged, but the dock facilities were destroyed, although The Illustrious escaped from Malar on 23 January and reached Alexandria despite the air attack. From now on, any naval movement required concentrating all available resources and the lack of air cover made them vulnerable to attack. The arrival of the LT buffer had closed the Mediterranean to traffic.