The war of the desert is an episode of the Second world war generally treated with share taking into account its chronicle and of its duration. She opposes the Libyan colonial army of the Italian Empire to the Eighth army British keeping Egypt; the forces of the Axis are reconfigured soon under the aegis of the Deutsches Afrika Korps.

The desert of this countryside of North Africa appeared a peripheral theater of importance for the forces of the Axis like the Allies with respect to the faces of the European theater. The strategic resources in the objective of the forces of the Axis were considerable, but the means were mobilized in the " crusade against the bolchevisme" , as well as propaganda hitlérienne named the aggression against the USSR.

She knows trois stages: started with Italian on a colonial principle aiming at restoring the primacy of an empire néo-Roman on the Mediterranean basin by the junction of the Libya with the Abyssinie, Italian colony subdued in blood, it continues with an intervention of the German task force aiming at opening the access to the oil-bearing fields of the Middle East once jumped the British bolt of Cairo. Rommel never reached fault of means that point. The third stage is the backward flow of Italian-German out of Libya until the beginning of 1943, on the beaches of Tunisia where the adventure known as chivalrous of these engagements ended where the chance and the chance had their word to say. The war of the desert had been completed with the American unloadings in North Africa.

The defeat of Rommel, perceptible after the second sleeve of the Bataille of El Alamein is regarded as one of the turnings of the War.

The chivalrous aspect is also largely due to the legend founded around the exploits of the Rommel general, who brought to the dismissal of his British successive adversaries placed at the head of the 8th army to Egypt. Each one admitted having dealt with exceptional enemy by his acuity on the ground. All this was held whereas the face of the East became a slaughter of a horror époustouflante.

The flow and the backward flow of the armies along the coasts tripolitaines and cyrénaïques according to the report/ratio of the forces and the vicissitudes of the provisioning by the Mediterranean give the particularism of this episode of the conflict.

The war of the Italians

• dating: September 1940 (offensive Italian) - January 1941

In September 1940, the Italian troops of the marshal Rodolfo Graziani, in Libya, attacked the Egypt, but encountered an English counter-offensive. Hitler had to support the Italian troops in North Africa and sent to this end the Afrikakorps under the orders of the general Rommel.

The fox of the desert

• dating: February 1941 (nomination of Rommel) - July 1942 (the DAK at the Egyptian border)

See also: Erwin Rommel# With the head of Afrika Korps

Erwin Rommel is officially elected on February 6th 1941. It arrives at Tripoli and share directly in recognitions by plane at the top of the desert. It does not follow its instructions which are to await the unloading of the reinforcements constituting the German task force, and takes again the offensive as soon as possible to the great displeasure Italian hierarchy.

The March 31st 1941, Rommel had pushed back the British troops of Libya to the borders of Egypt. The May 26th, Rommel launched the sixth countryside of Libya, took Tobrouk the June 20th.

The First battle of El Alamein, in Egypt opposed the forces of the Axe directed by the general Rommel to the eighth British army ordered by Claude Auchinleck.

Following their defeat at the time of the Battle of Gazala, the allies had been folded up on a defensive line, between El Alamein, at the edge of the sea, and the depression of Qattara in the desert. They thus wished to protect Alexandria, Cairo and the Suez Canal. The offensive of the Afrika Korps, launched on July 1st, did not make it possible Rommel to bore the British lines. It followed a series of counter-attacks, on both sides, during all July, which did not get a decisive advantage with the belligerents. However, the advance of German and Italian having been stopped, one can consider that it is about a victory for the allies.

Rommel was overcome with the second battle of El Alamein by Montgomery which drove back it in Libya at the end of 1942.

End of Deutsches Afrika Korps

• dating: August 1942 (nomination of Monty ) - May 12th, 1943 (rendering of Korps)

In October - November 1942 the fate of this war is played El Alamein again: the British army, during the summer and the beginning of the autumn, manages to reconstitute its forces, which will enable him to carry out a decisive offensive at the time of the Second battle of El Alamein. This allied victory marks an important turning in the countryside of North Africa, at the time of the Second world war.

Certain historians estimate that the battle of El Alamein is one of the major victories which contributed to the allied victory in North Africa. In November 1942, Winston Churchill summarized this battle in the following terms: “It is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning”.

The Débarquement combined in North Africa in November 1942 places Rommel in an intolerable situation. Its health moreover more seriously deteriorated. He is recalled in Germany at worst the moment for his troops.

Battles

• Battle of Bir-Hakeim

• First battle of El Alamein
• Second battle of El Alamein
• Battle of Tobrouk

See too

• outstanding Stages of the Second world war:

• before: Battle of the Atlantic (starts)
• Guerre of the desert
• afterwards: Countryside of Balkans: Italian-Greek War - Battle of Crete
• Chronology