Chapter Two
Churchill was not blind to the very real danger that Mussolini might drive the under-strength British forces out of western Egypt and back across the strategically vital Suez Canal. In reality, Mussolini’s Italian panzers were to prove a pale shadow of their German cousins wreaking havoc throughout Europe, but at the time Churchill had no way of knowing this. Ironically, it was the inadequacy of Mussolini’s armour that was to embroil Hitler in this secondary theatre of operations. What Churchill did know was that Hitler was threatening Britain from across the English Channel, while Mussolini was greedily eyeing British interests in Africa.
Following the 1938 ‘Munich Crisis’ a British mobile force had been put together in Egypt, but its capabilities were so limited that it had been dubbed the ‘immobile farce’. By the following year it was supposed to be an armoured division, but equipped as it was with various marks of Vickers light tanks, some 1920-pattern Rolls-Royce armoured cars and a few old Vickers medium tanks, it clearly lacked punch. One armoured regiment had to make do with machine-guns, lorries and 3.7-inch mountain guns towed by tracked ‘Dragons’.
By the time war broke out the Western Desert Force (the predecessor of the Eighth Army), under Major General Richard O’Connor (who answered to General Archibald Wavell as Commander-in-Chief Middle East), had expanded to include the 7th Armoured Division, soon to become known as the ‘Desert Rats’, equipped with A9 and A10 Cruiser tanks as well as Mk VI light tanks. Most notably the 7th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) was equipped with the much heavier Matilda infantry-support tank. Prior to the Italian offensive, the Cruiser tanks were withdrawn from the frontier. Amidst sporadic skirmishing, a lone squadron of tanks was left behind to watch the border, along with some armoured cars.
At the outbreak of hostilities Churchill had fewer than 10,000 men available to protect Egypt, so a series of aggressive operations were conducted to keep the Italians firmly off balance. Maddalena and Capuzzo were temporarily seized on 14 June 1940. Three days later the Western Desert Force was created out of the HQ of 6th Division under Major General Richard O’Connor. He had only the 4th Armoured Brigade, comprising two tank and two artillery regiments, and two infantry battalions in the immediate vicinity of Mersa Matruh.
When Italy declared war, the RAF’s Desert Air Force (DAF) could muster a few Gladiator fighters, some Blenheim medium bombers and a few Wellington and Bombay medium bombers based in Egypt. From the start they aggressively attacked enemy airfields, the Italian air base at El Adem outside Tobruk being raided on the first day of the war.
By the summer of 1940, despite the low priority placed on tank production in British factories, Britain’s armoured units possessed about 240 medium and 108 Cruiser tanks, as well as 514 light tanks. As the fighting with the Italians in North Africa escalated, many were dispatched to Egypt. In October 1940 Churchill’s reinforcements began to arrive in Egypt, the most significant of which were fifty Matilda infantry-support tanks. This was the most powerful weapon in the British tank inventory and its 80mm frontal armour could withstand every Italian gun in service.
Churchill’s ill-fated attempts to help Greece as well as distract Mussolini and Hitler from North Africa meant that he effectively threw away the victory at Beda Fomm. The 1st Armoured Brigade, the New Zealand Division and the 6th Australian Division, fully equipped at the expense of those forces in North Africa, were dispatched to Greece in early March 1941. The 1st Armoured Brigade consisted of the light tanks of the 4th Hussars and the Matildas of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, plus infantry, anti-tank guns and artillery. Mussolini’s armour may have been no threat to Churchill’s tanks, but the Greek terrain and Hitler’s panzers proved fatal.
Following its victory over the Italians in North Africa in early 1941, the British 7th Armoured Division was withdrawn to Egypt for a refit just as General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps was arriving in Libya. The replacement 2nd Armoured Division comprised the Divisional Support Group and the 3rd Armoured Brigade, the latter with just eighty-six of its 156 tanks. There could be no hiding the fact that the 2nd Armoured Division was an improvised formation equipped with a regiment of inadequate Cruiser tanks, a regiment of equally useless light tanks and a regiment using captured Italian tanks. In particular, the 6th Royal Tank Regiment (6RTR) was issued with Italian M13s, which had been repaired but lacked radios. All of this equipment was swiftly to end up in Rommel’s hands.
In mid-May 1941 Wavell’s tank force was increased by 135 Matildas, eighty-two Cruisers (fifty of which were brand-new Cruiser Mk VI (A15) Crusader Is – enough to re-equip a whole tank regiment), and twenty-one light tanks. All these tanks except the Crusaders were slow. While the Germans and Italians respected the Matilda, the Crusader I, which came with Churchill’s ‘Tiger’ convoy, carried the same inadequate 2-pounder gun and its superior cross-country handling was nullified by niggling engine problems. The Crusader had been rushed into service before its teething problems could be ironed out, and it suffered from the same defects as its predecessors, principally thin armour and mechanical unreliability. While it was fast (with the right modifications it could manage up to 40mph in the desert), the engine was elderly and suffered from clogged air filters and other cooling problems, especially with the fan’s drive shafts.
Churchill was keen to strike back at Rommel immediately, but to his irritation he found that once in Egypt his ‘Cubs’ had to be worked up in the workshops, with sand filters fitted and the cooling systems modified. The mechanics had to wade through voluminous manuals to pick up all the important manufacturers’ do’s and don’ts. Despite the Crusaders’ and Mark IV’s (A13) shortcomings, these tanks were issued to Major General Michael O’Moore Creagh’s 7th Armoured Division. This unit had been without tanks for four months, so needed time to familiarise itself, particularly with the Crusader.
By September 1941 13 Corps had been reinforced by 30 Corps to form the Eighth Army under General Cunningham. The 7th Armoured Division was now mainly composed of Crusaders, but still had some A13s and some even older Cruiser tanks, while the 4th Armoured Brigade consisted entirely of American-supplied Stuart light tanks known by the British as ‘Honeys’. The two army tank brigades (one with 13 Corps and the other with the Tobruk garrison) had a combination of Matilda and Valentine tanks. The South African Marmon-Herrington Mk II was the main armoured car, while American and Canadian vehicles were gradually introduced to phase out older British models. By November 1941 the second generation of British infantry and Cruiser tanks, along with American light tanks, had reached North Africa.
The 1st Armoured Division learned the hard way not to under-estimate Rommel’s capabilities. In January 1942 his forces first enveloped and then put to flight its divisional combat group, which lost three-quarters of its 150 tanks along with eighty-five guns. While most armoured units moved as whole divisions or tank brigades, part of the ill-fated 2nd Armoured Division ended up in Greece and a brigade from the 1st Armoured Division was incorporated into the 7th Armoured Division for the Crusader operation. Likewise, heavy losses sometimes meant the end of units, such as the 7th Armoured Brigade in early 1942 and the 8th Armoured Division just before Alamein (where its HQ was used to fool Rommel). By the time of Alamein the Eighth Army included the 1st, 7th and 10th Armoured Divisions.
Commonwealth support for the war in the Western Desert was considerable, with the 6th and 9th Australian Divisions, the New Zealand Division, the 1st and 2nd South African Divisions and various aviation and naval units all seeing action. Likewise the Indian Army supplied the 4th and 5th Indian Divisions under British officers. They all included armoured support units.
‘In June 1940, when the British Empire seemed to Fascist eyes reeling to ruin, and France was almost prostrate, the Italian Empire in Africa spread far and wide,’ warned British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. ‘Libya, Eritrea, Abyssinia [Ethiopia], Somaliland, … comprised a vast region … under the protection of more than 400,000 Italian and native troops.’ (Author’s Collection)
Britain’s paucity of tanks at the outbreak of war was a glaring deficiency for the British Army. Those tanks available were too lightly armoured and their guns lacked the punch necessary to tackle Hitler’s panzers on anything like equal terms. Most of the British Expeditionary Force’s tank strength deployed in France in 1940 comprised the Mk VIB light tank. Although designed for reconnaissance, it was often used in a Cruiser role, its inadequate armour and armament invariably leading to heavy losses when facing anything heavier than a Panzer Mk I. (Author’s Collection)
The Matilda Mk II infantry tank was the best tank in the British inventory. Designed in the mid-1930s by Colonel Hudson’s team at the Mechanisation Board, it benefited from work conducted on the A7 medium tank (which never saw the light of day). In late 1937 some 165 Matilda IIs were ordered, but due to the shape and size of the armour castings the tank was not easy to mass-produce. When war broke out in 1939 there were just two in service. Although heavily armoured (with some 78mm of armour on the front, more than twice as much as the Panzer II and III), across country it was slow and its 2-pounder (40mm) main armament lacked real penetrating power. However, in North Africa it was to prove the British Army’s saviour against the Italians. (Author’s Collection)
The Mk VIB, armed with just two Vickers machine-guns, was the most numerous British tank by the late 1930s and it provided the majority of the tanks in service with the British Army in France and the Western Desert. (Author’s Collection)
This side view of the Mk VIB light tank is believed to have been taken in the Western Desert. This was the final development of the Carden-Loyd series, mounting one .50-inch and one .303-inch Vickers machine-gun in the turret which this crewman is sitting on. (L.J. Alexander/Corporal Eric Evans RASC)
The early British Cruiser tanks, the A9, A10 and A13, were too slow and too thinly armoured. This A13 Mk II was the last of the series to see combat and the type was issued to the 7th Armoured Division (the Mk III Covenanter was relegated to training duties in the UK). Britain’s Cruiser tanks were withdrawn from the Egyptian–Libyan frontier in anticipation of an attack by Mussolini. (Author’s Collection)
At the outbreak of war the British Army had seventy-six First World War vintage Rolls-Royce armoured cars still in service, some of which were in Egypt. These included the 1920 (seen here) and 1924 Pattern variants, though these were withdrawn from the front line at the end of 1941. Some thirty-four vehicles in service with the 11th Hussars had an open-topped turret fitted to allow them to carry the Boys anti-tank rifle and the Bren light machine-gun. Amidst sporadic skirmishing, a lone squadron of British tanks was left behind to watch the border, along with some armoured cars. (Paul Lazell/Sergeant Bill Lazell RA)
The British Army went to war with wholly inadequate anti-tank guns, principally the 2-pounder (40mm) developed in the mid-1930s and the 6-pounder (57mm) developed in the late 1930s. Crucially the latter did not enter production until 1941 because the War Office insisted on replacing those 2-pounders lost in France. This gun belonged to Private Adam Wakenshaw, who gained a posthumous VC for knocking out a German self-propelled gun. (Steve Hunnisett/Ron Hunnisett RA)
The very advanced 25-pounder had replaced the First World War vintage 18-pounder field gun and the 4.5-inch howitzer as the standard field artillery weapon by the time of the North African campaign. It could be emplaced in one minute, and had a lightweight firing platform which allowed a rapid all-round traverse (a valuable asset when fighting tanks). This particular gun was knocked out during the battle of El Alamein. (Steve Hunnisett/Ron Hunnisett RA)
Along with Gibraltar and Malta in the Mediterranean, the Egyptian port at Alexandria (seen here) provided key naval facilities for the Royal Navy and was vital in keeping the British Army in North Africa resupplied. Similarly, once Hitler committed his forces to support Mussolini in North Africa, Rommel became reliant on the port of Tripoli. (Author’s Collection)
Getting troops and supply ships to Alexandria became a major preoccupation for Churchill and his commanders. (Author’s Collection)
The island of Malta, sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean, made it a key Royal Navy communications hub for the British convoys en route to Alexandria, which normally stopped off here. Sustaining the island became a major task in itself. Here supplies are hurriedly unloaded at night by arc-light from a freighter docked in Malta’s Grand Harbour. (Author’s Collection)
Malta’s proximity to Sicily ensured that it became one of the most heavily bombed places on the face of the Earth thanks to the Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force). Valletta and the docks at Grand Harbour suffered intensive bombing. Here the island’s anti-aircraft batteries ward off yet another attack. (Author’s Collection)
At the far end of the Mediterranean Britain also had bases on Cyprus and in Palestine. These locally raised infantry were drawn from Arab and Jewish volunteers. This helped facilitate British attacks on pro-Nazi Iraq and Vichy-controlled Lebanon and Syria. (Author’s Collection)
The British Army had a liking for tracked carriers. The first, bearing the Vickers machine-gun, appeared in 1935, and the subsequent Carrier Bren was then superseded by the Carrier Universal from 1940, though the generic name ‘Bren Carrier’ stuck. It was directed by a steering wheel, which made driver training much easier. Maximum hull armour went up to 12mm, though the crew and passenger compartments remained open. Other variants included the Cavalry Carrier and the Scout Carrier (only fifty of the former were built, whereas the latter numbered 667). The British Carrier was used widely by units in North Africa. (Author’s Collection)
A South African-built Mk II Marmon-Herrington armoured car serving with the French Flying Column No. 1. Two variants of the Mk II were built, the MFF type, which numbered 549 for the Union Defence Force’s Mobile Field Force (hence MFF), and the ME type, which totalled 338 built for the Middle East campaign. South Africa also built 2,630 Mk III and 936 Mk IV armoured cars during the period 1941–44. In total the South Africans manufactured about 5,750 armoured cars during the course of the war, which provided a welcome stop-gap for the desperate troops in North Africa. (Author’s Collection)
Access to water during the fighting in North Africa was vital and meant that all the desert watering holes took on special significance. This is the oasis at Al Jahgbub. (L.J. Alexander/Corporal Eric Evans RASC)
The open tank country was also ideal for the sowing of land mines, and sappers were to play a vital role in countering Axis defensive measures. (Author’s Collection)
These Australian soldiers are trudging through the midday heat of the Western Desert. While the vast, seemingly endless, expanses of barren desert were ideal tank country, features such as the Qattara Depression and Ruweisat Ridge provided useful natural defensive barriers. (Author’s Collection)
Both sides were to consider the air war in North Africa of secondary importance as there were greater strategic concerns elsewhere. Fortunately for the RAF, the Italians had inferior planes. While the Luftwaffe had better-quality aircraft, most notably the Messerschmitt Bf-109 that was superior to both the Hurricane (seen here) and the American-supplied Tomahawk, their numbers were never sufficient to tilt the balance. (Author’s Collection)
Following Britain’s humiliating expulsion from France in June 1940, and the loss of most of the British Army’s tanks, Churchill looked to America for help. He wanted the Americans to build British tanks but instead he found the M3 medium tank, which was similar in concept to the Italian M11 but carried a far more powerful gun. (US Army/NARA)
The M3 Grant, while far from perfect, was to prove an ideal stopgap remedy to the firepower of Rommel’s panzers and was just what the Eighth Army needed. Once America’s industries had ramped up production, Montgomery did the rest. (US Army/NARA)