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The Western Desert Campaign took place in the Egypt and Libyan deserts 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 (a British protectorate (1882–1952). The British responded In December with Operation Compass which led to the destruction of the Italian 10th Army (The Western Desert Force). Lieutenant Richard O'Connor with about 30,000 men, advanced from Mersa Matruh in Egypt on a five-day raid against the Italian positions of the 10th Army of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, which had about 150,000 men in fortified posts around Sidi Barrani and in Cyrenaica. The 10th Army was swiftly defeated and the British continued the operation to pursue the remnants of the 10th Army to Beda Fomm and El Agheila on the Gulf of Sirte. The British took 138,000 Italian and Libyan prisoners; hundreds of tanks and over 1000 guns and aircraft for a loss of 1,900 men, but the British were unable to continue beyond El Agheila due to broken down and worn out vehicles..
Benito Mussolini sought help from Adolf Hitler, who responded with a small expeditionary force sent to Tripoli in January 1941. The Afrika Korps (Deutsches Afrikakorps, DAK) first sent as a holding force to help shore up the Italian defense of their African colonies and the unit's best known commander was Generalleutnant Rommel, who was later to be promoted to Field Marshal. This force at first was under Italian command, but Italian dependency on Nazi Germany soon made Rommel’s Afrika Korps the dominant partner.
In the spring of 1941, Axis forces under Rommel pushed the British back to Egypt except for the port of Tobruk, where the Siege of 241 days took place until it was relieved during Operation Crusader. The Eighth Army tried to destroy the Axis armoured force before advancing its infantry but the plan failed after a number of inconclusive engagements and the British 7th Armoured Division was severely weakened by the 88mm guns of the Afrika Korps at Sidi Rezegh. .Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel ordered German armoured divisions to the Axis fortress positions on the Egyptian border but failed to find the main body of the Allied infantry, which had bypassed the fortresses and headed for Tobruk. Rommel achieved some tactical success in costly fighting but had to withdraw, the need to preserve his remaining forces from destruction prompted him to withdraw his army to the defensive line at Gazala, west of Tobruk and then all the way back to El Agheila. It was the first victory over the German ground forces by British forces in the war. The Axis forces were forced to retire to where they had started by the end of the year.
In 1942 Axis forces drove the British back again and captured Tobruk after the Battle of Gazala. The Axis distracted the British with a decoy attack in the north and made the main attack round the southern flank of the Gazala position. The advance succeeded, but the defense of the Free French garrison of Bir Hakeim, at the southern end of the line, left the Axis with a long and vulnerable supply route around the Gazala line. Rommel retired to the Cauldron, a defensive position backing onto British minefields, forming a base in the midst of the British defenses, Italian engineers lifted mines from the west side of the minefields to create a supply route through to the Axis side.
The Eighth Army counter-attack, Operation Aberdeen, was poorly co-ordinate and many tanks were lost and the Axis were able to regain the initiative. The British withdrew from the Gazala Line and the Axis troops overran Tobruk in a day. Rommel exploited the success by pursuing the British into Egypt, denying them time to recover from the defeat. The battle is considered the greatest victory of Rommel's career, but Operation Herkules, a plan to attack Malta, was postponed to concentrate on the pursuit. The British managed to supply Malta and revived it as a base for attacks on Axis convoys to Libya, greatly complicating Axis supply difficulties. On the final Axis push to Egypt, the British retreated to El Alamein, as both sides neared exhaustion the Eighth Army managed to check the Axis advance at the First Battle of El Alamein.
The Second Battle of El Alamein the Eighth Army defeated the Axis forces, The British were now receiving large amounts of equipment and reinforcements, they also had an intelligence advantage: signals intelligence from Ultra and local sources exposed the Axis order of battle. The British victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign and ended the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal and the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields via North Africa. The Second Battle of El Alamein revived the morale of the Allies, being the first major success against the Axis since Operation Crusader They were driven out of Libya to Tunisia, where they were defeated in the Tunisian Campaign.