What is the significance of the north african campaign

American forces landed in western North Africa in The Siege of Tobruk took place from April to August The Allied garrison, largely Australian, backed by British artillery and tanks, captured the fortress in the first Allied drive through Libya, and held it against great odds.

Commonwealth forces counterattacked from Sudan in the north and Kenya in the south. Those attacks were successful and resulted in total Italian defeat only 94 days after the initial invasion. Allied forces were greatly outnumbered, but launched a counterattack called Operation Compass. It was more successful than planned and resulted in massive numbers of Italian prisoners of war and the advance of Allied forces up to El Agheila.

However, Adolf Hitler had a plan to aid the Italians. Rommel launched an offensive that effectively returned both sides to their approximately original positions. Allied forces reorganized as the Eighth Army, which comprised units from armies of several countries, including Australia, India, South Africa, and New Zealand.

The new formation launched an offensive and recaptured nearly all of the territory recently acquired by Rommel. After receiving supplies, Rommel attacked again and defeated the Allies.

He drove them back to the border of Egypt, where he was finally stopped. While British troops in Egypt were pushing the Germans west, U. Patton Jr. There were specific objectives to the operation — to gain French-controlled Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia as a base for enlisting the French empire in the war, to assist the British in the Libyan Desert, to open the Mediterranean to Allied shipping, and to provide a stepping stone for subsequent operations.

The Allies hoped to force the Axis armies out of Africa, and also to relieve pressure on the Russian forces, which were struggling with a new German offensive in their homeland. Under continuing pressure from Churchill, Wavell launched his major offensive on June Operation Battleaxe began with a frontal attack on the Sollum-Halfaya Pass axis. Skillfully using the 88mm anti-aircraft guns as anti-tank weapons, the Germans blunted the British attack.

Then Rommel counterattacked. Battleaxe was over by June 17, and Wavell had lost 91 of his new tanks. Rommel continued to grow weaker. By November, he had tanks, aircraft and nine divisions three German , four of which were tied down in the siege of Tobruk.

The British had some tanks, 1, aircraft and eight divisions. The British became increasingly obsessed with eliminating Rommel.

On the night of November 17, , a small commando force, led by year-old Lt. The raid failed—Rommel was not even there—and Keyes died in the attempt. The Germans gave Keyes a funeral with full military honors, and the gallant Rommel sent his personal chaplain to conduct the services.

After a series of fierce tank battles on November 22 and 23, Rommel drove deep into the British rear with two panzer divisions. He attempted to relieve the Axis forces at Halfaya and at the same time cut off the Eighth Army. With his tank losses mounting, Cunningham wanted to halt the operation. Auchinleck immediately relieved him and replaced him with Maj. Neil Ritchie. The British continued to press the attack, and on November 29 they broke through to Tobruk.

By December 7, an overwhelmed Rommel was withdrawing his dangerously depleted forces. In order to avoid encirclement in the Benghazi bulge, Rommel retreated back across Cyrenaica, reaching El Agheila on January 6, Operation Crusader resulted in a clear victory for the British, but one they were unable to exploit due to a lack of reinforcements. Only 30 tons of Axis supplies were shipped to North Africa in November , and 62 percent of them were lost en route.

By mid-January , Rommel was operating on shorter supply lines, and his shipping losses were below 1 percent. He now was ready to return to the offensive. On January 21, , Rommel launched his second offensive and quickly drove the British back almost miles.

The aggressive German commander recaptured Benghazi on January 29 and continued to push east, reaching Gazala on February 4. For most of the next four months, the adversaries sat on either side of the Gazala Line, building up strength. Both forces were roughly equal in strength, but General Ritchie had his armored units widely dispersed, while Rommel kept his concentrated. An Axis secondary attack in the north pinned down the Allied forces there.

By May 28, the Axis armored units behind the Allied lines were in trouble. Rommel had lost more than one-third of his tanks, and the remainder were running short on fuel and ammunition. On the 30th, Rommel consolidated his armor in a defensive position that came to be known as the Cauldron.

The Eighth Army once more started falling back to the Egyptian border. On June 15, German tanks reached the coast and Rommel shifted his attention to the Tobruk garrison.

This time he would not make the same mistake of leaving the thorn in his side. Tobruk fell on June 21, and the Axis forces captured 2. The fall of Tobruk, however, had unforeseen consequences for the Axis. Churchill heard the news during a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States. The American president immediately offered help. The resulting Sherman tanks and self-propelled guns would later play a pivotal role at El Alamein.

The British fell back to defensive positions at Mersa Matruh, about miles inside Egypt. Rommel, who had been promoted to field marshal for his success at Gazala, pursued. Auchinleck relieved Ritchie and personally assumed command of the Eighth Army. With only 60 operational tanks, Rommel attacked at Mersa Matruh on June 26 and routed four British divisions in three days of fighting. The British fell back again, this time to the vicinity of El Alamein, another miles to the east.

Now less than miles from Alexandria, Auchinleck was determined to hold near El Alamein. Rommel attacked on July 1, attempting to sweep around El Alamein. For three weeks, Auchinleck skillfully battled Rommel to a standstill.

Auchinleck launched a major counterattack on July , but gained no ground. Exhausted, both sides paused to regroup. Sir William Gott was promoted to general and given command of the Eighth Army. On August 7, the day after his appointment, Gott was killed when his airplane was attacked by a German fighter during a flight to Cairo.

The relatively unknown Lt. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery succeeded Gott as commander of the Eighth Army. Although Churchill desperately wanted to win a clear victory for political purposes and to raise morale, neither Alexander nor Montgomery was inclined to take the offensive without first amassing an overwhelming advantage. On August 31, , Rommel launched what he believed would be the final attack in the Axis drive to the Nile.

The British, however, had made extensive preparations around El Alamein, based on a plan developed by Auchinleck and adopted by Montgomery.

Rommel planned to sweep south around Ruweisat Ridge, then cut off El Alamein and take it from the rear. In preparation, the British laid extensive minefields and heavily fortified Alam el Halfa Ridge, which was located behind El Alamein to the southeast. By September 3, the Axis attack had run short of fuel and petered out. Montgomery counterattacked immediately, but broke off the operation as soon as the Axis forces were pushed back to the vicinity of their starting positions.

Both sides again hunkered down to build up their strength. Taken together, the battles of Ruweisat Ridge and Alam el Halfa were the real strategic turning point of the war in North Africa. Montgomery used the time after the Battle of Alam el Halfa to rest and train his troops, integrate the new American tanks he had received, and carefully plan his counterattack.

Rommel, meanwhile, became ill and returned to Germany on sick leave. The Battle of El Alamein began on October 23 with a massive artillery barrage fired by British guns. Rommel immediately returned from Germany to resume command. The Allies tried for five days to break through the Axis positions, sustaining 10, casualties in the process.

Critically short on fuel and ammunition, Rommel started to disengage on November 3. It is also significant that German defeat in the battle of Stalingrad on the eastern front, occurred at the same time as defeat in North Africa, further weakening the Axis powers. Italy entered the war in June, , …show more content… This victory was therefore very important in the positive psychology of war. The operation saw strong Anglo-American troops land in Algeria and Morocco.

This was significant in boosting the morale of troops showing that allied forces could co-operate and that allied forces can work together. Hitler had refused. Rommel disobeyed and withdrew his troops anyway.