North African Campaign Research Paper

The North African Campaigns took place in the North African desert between 1940 and 1943. North Africa is a region that includes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and the Western Sahara. The North African Campaigns were fought for two main reasons. The first reason was the Suez Canal. The canal was extremely important when it came to controlling the Middle East. The second reason was the Middle Eastern oil resources. Egypt was especially important because of its location; it sat at the center of a vital strategic network. The North African Campaigns were also very important because it was the only land based fight where the Allies could take to the Axis powers from 1940 up until 1943, when the invasion of Sicily occurred. It was
vitally important in strategic terms because the Mediterranean and British empires were at stake. In North Africa the Germans and the Italians controlled a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast. This strip of land stretched form Tunisia to Egypt. There were a total of 100,000 men under field marshal Erwin Rommel. The French forces in North Africa also numbered roughly 100,000, but they had a considerable naval strength as well. The allies had a plan called “plan torch”. The plan involved centralized attacks. Harold Alexander was the British commander in chief of the Middle East. He was supposed to strike west from Egypt with General Montgomery and the eighth British army. While these strikes were occurring, the combined Anglo-American forces were supposed to invade French North Africa and hit the enemy form behind. Both the British eighth army and the invasion forces converged in Tunisia. The allies planned there different landings; one was outside the straight of Gibraltar and two were inside the straight in Algeria.
When these landings were successful, more troops landed near the border of Algeria and moved quickly into Tunisia before the Germans could block there move. The British eighth army opened an offensive at El Alamein after defeating a prior Axis offensive. In November of 1942 the US Navy put the army forces on land near Casablanca. While troops were being released into Casablanca by the US Navy, the British Navy was unloading troops near Oran and Algiers. The total invasion consisted of more than 400 ships, 1000 planes and roughly 107,000
men. The allies achieved strategic surprise, but the whole operation was delayed by the French forces. In November of 1942, negotiations had been made and these negotiations ended French resistance and won French cooperation. By this time the Germans had moved into Tunisia in force by water from Sicily. The Germans were even able to stop the allied drive short of the capital in Tunisia. Now the Axis had brought in roughly 150,000 troops from Sicily. Rommel’s troops established themselves behind the “Mareth Line” in eastern Tunisia in contact with German reinforcements. In February of 1943 Rommel continued with his offensive.
Now powerful German armored units came from central Tunisia and were trying to turn the south flank of the British army, and capture an allied base of operations around Tebessa. At this time, the Germans ended up defeating the allies during a series of sharp armored actions. These actions forced the withdrawal of American troops, and gave the Germans a superb advancement of roughly one hundred miles. Determined to stop them, the Allies brought them to a halt. When brought to a halt, the Germans withdrew to their original positions. At the beginning of March the Germans tried twice to battle the Allies and both times they failed. At this point in time, the Allies were now able to get back to their offensive. General Pattern’s men attacked towards the flank and rear of the Mareth Line, and the British eighth army outflanked the Axis position. Within a month all Axis troops had been pushed into a small bridgehead covering the Cape Ben
Peninsula. In May of 1943 the Allies captured the capital of Tunisia, and the captured Bizerte, the last port the Axis had. The Axis forces finally surrendered on May 13, 1943. In Tunisia alone they suffered 40,000 casualties. At the time of the surrender, the Allies captured 261,000 German and Italian soldiers and declared the Prisoners of War. Both Rommel and Montgomery were looked at as tactical geniuses. They were known to turn expected defeat into victory. Rommel was an excellent tactician and a great commander but he lacked as a strategic thinker. He also had many problems with his supplies. This was a huge problem as we will discuss later. Montgomery was a very distinguished commander. His tactics were precise, he trained intensively, and he used extreme caution. During the North African Campaigns, Rommel and his troops had equipment that was much more advanced and much more effective than the British army. In late 1941 the British launched “Operation Crusader”. During this operation the British 8th Armies outnumbered the Axis, had 680 tanks compared to the Axis 390, and had 1000 planes compared to the Axis 320. Although the Allies had more planes, tanks, and men, the quality of there equipment was much less effective. The anti-tank guns used by the Axis powers proved to be very efficient. The Axis number of tank loses was much less than that of the Allies. For every eight tanks the Allies lost, the Axis lost one. The technical advantages that Rommel had over the Allies helped him win many battles.
Many people believed that it was the field of supplies that was the most crucial factor for both the Allies and the Axis during the North African Campaigns. Supplies were the single most important factor that determined the outcome of the North African Campaigns. This is because; both superpowers from both sides were fighting on grounds pretty far from their home nations. (Germany and Britain) so because of the distance, supplies had to be delivered using the Mediterranean Sea. Using the Mediterranean to get supplies form the home land to the place of battle was a very difficult task. The Mediterranean Sea was under constant threat. Air forces and naval forces were constantly patrolling the Mediterranean Sea. Both armies totally and constantly relied on their supplies for fuel, equipment, tanks, guns, food, and even uniforms. Every single thing that the soldiers needed was transported through the Mediterranean Sea. Rommel was constantly requesting more supplies and stressing the fact that he could not fight efficiently without supplies. Instead of being a decisive factor, intelligence played a supplementary role during the North African Campaigns. The two key roles that intelligence had was to aid the fight for supremacy in the desert, and to contribute to supplying the armies. Intelligence, although not a crucial aspect of the North African Campaigns, it did aid both the Allies and the Axis. Knowing of the enemy’s weakness means nothing unless you are able to do something about it. This was one of the important reasons why intelligence did not play a very important role during the North African Campaigns. The Tunisian Campaign started when the Allies landed near Sfax in eastern Tunsla in January of 1943, and when they attacked the Germans at Gafsa in March of 1943. Rommel became stuck between British and US forces and he was cut off from this supply bases. He tried to stall the allies with defensive operations. The Axis forces were greatly outnumbered and out gunned. The Allies made slow yet steady progress and forced the Axis into a pocket along the central Tunisian coast. The basic military tactics used in World War Two was called Blitzkrieg. The elements of Blitzkrieg directly obey all the principles of war and that’s one of the reasons it was so successful. The Germans mastered this tactic of rapidly advancing armored forces and massive amounts of air support. This method included lightning fast rapid advances on the enemy. The most of the German military battles were won due to their Blitzkrieg tactic. Armor concentrations, massive precise air support, paratroopers, radios, flexibility, initiative and surprise, simplicity, air superiority, and logistics are the elements used that made Blitzkrieg so successful. It would obviously get the best results when fighting against a country that was less modern or less prepared, but, it could also win against equally equipped armies that used lesser tactics. Military strategy is basically the planning, coordination, and general direction of military operations to meet overall political and military objectives. Tactics will implement strategy by decisions on the movement of troops and use of weapons on the battle field. “Strategy is the art of using battles to win the war”.- Cark Von Clausewitz. The overall US strategy of the war was to put the most military emphasis on Germany. Germany was obviously the most powerful country the allies had to worry about. Other than solely emphasizing on Germany, the American strategy was to take the fight to the enemy as quickly as possible. So Americans were basically thrown into battle in North Africa, and they wanted to invade France. They wanted to put a lot of pressure on their enemies and force them to defeat. The Americans had a very powerful air force and teamed up with the British to start a major bombing campaign against German industries and German military targets. The US excelled in supply and logistics, so a large attempt was made to supply the Soviets with all kinds of equipment. Trucks, tires, boots, and food were the main products that the US was sending to the Soviets. Overall the US strategy was a great success. Infantry during the period of the Blitzkrieg fights tanks, planes, and ground trops. An army is much more successful when given new weapons. This includes explosives, anti-tank mines, grenades, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, and field guns are all types of infantry weapons used during WWII. Obviously the weaponry used during the war was a huge part in determining the success of each army. The world was eeing newer and better weapons then used during WWI and the battle fields were proof of this. Revolvers, semi automatic pistols, sub-machine guns, bolt action rifles, semi automatic rifles, assault rifles, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, grenades, mortars, infantry anti-tank weapons, light anti-aircraft weapons, and flame throwers are all the different types of infantry used throughout the war. Artillery played a vital role during WWII. Specified areas could be “cleared out” before an attack. When the artillery moved, field guns could be could be calle din at any minute by frontline troops and they would offer support when they faced heavy opposition or counter attacks. Different types of projectiles were fired form the wide rang of artillery. There were highly explosive rounds of artillery, smoke covering artillery, anti air craft artillery, armor piercing artillery and anti tank artillery rounds. The artillery guns could be used in many different tactical ways. Mostly all forces use easily concealed, large bored artillery. It could be called in from far distances and was very crucial during battle. In aviation, there were fighter planes and there were bomber planes. Fighter planes responded quickly and were able to intercept actions at a moments notice. They were powerful support weapons for ground troops, bombers, and ships. Fighters gave air dominance opening the way for advancing ground troops. Bombers were able to destroy and demobilize people and structures from great distances. On the battlefield, accurate bombing would be very helpful for the ground troops. Clearly you can see a lot of what went on during WWII. The weapons, aviation, strategies, tactics, logistics, and the artillery are all talked about. You can also see the importance of the North African Campaigns.