Mediterranean & North Africa · 9 Dec 1940 – 9 Feb 1941
Operation Compass
Operation Compass was the first major British offensive in North Africa. Western Desert Force routed the Italian 10th Army in Egypt and swept across Cyrenaica to El Agheila, capturing over 133,000 prisoners.
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In September 1940, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani's Italian 10th Army crossed the Libyan frontier into Egypt, halting after sixty miles to establish a fortified perimeter around Sidi Barrani. The Italians constructed isolated camps stretching from Maktila on the Mediterranean coast southwest to Sofafi. The positions were separated by wide tracts of open desert, leaving them unable to provide mutual fire support or coordinate local reserves against a mechanised opponent.
General Archibald Wavell and Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor conceived Operation Compass as a five-day spoiling raid by the 36,000-man Western Desert Force. On the night of 8–9 December 1940, the 4th Indian Division and 7th Armoured Division passed secretly through the gap south of Nibeiwa. Spearheaded by Matilda II infantry tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, whose heavy armour proved impervious to Italian anti-tank fire, the assault overran General Pietro Maletti's motorised group at Nibeiwa from the rear before rolling up Tummar West and Tummar East. By 11 December, Sidi Barrani had fallen and the Italian garrisons along the coastal plain were encircled or broken.
Recognising the scale of the Italian collapse, Wavell ordered O'Connor to exploit westward into Libya, even as the experienced 4th Indian Division was withdrawn for service in East Africa and replaced by the newly arrived 6th Australian Division. After clearing the frontier posts around Sollum and Fort Capuzzo, the Australians assaulted the fortified perimeter of Bardia on 3 January 1941. Sapping wire obstacles and supported by Matilda tanks, the Australians captured the fortress and some 36,000 Italian prisoners in three days of fighting.
O'Connor pushed forward without pause. The 7th Armoured Division bypassed the naval fortress of Tobruk to sever its western road connections, allowing the 6th Australian Division to breach its defenses on 21–22 January. Tobruk capitulated on 22 January with 25,000 Italian defenders and valuable harbour installations. As the Italians evacuated Derna and prepared to abandon northern Cyrenaica entirely, air reconnaissance revealed their columns streaming southwest along the coastal highway toward Agedabia and Tripolitania.
O'Connor launched a daring cut-off maneuver south of the Jebel Akhdar, sending the 7th Armoured Division from Mechili across unmapped desert via Msus and Antelat. Travelling on strict petrol and water rationing across boulder-strewn wastes, the ad-hoc 'Combeforce' reached the coastal road at Sidi Saleh, south of Beda Fomm, on 5 February, mere hours before the leading elements of the retreating Italian columns appeared. Over two days of desperate fighting, the trapped remnants of the 10th Army launched repeated armoured assaults to punch through the British blocking positions, but their piecemeal attacks were shattered by anti-tank guns and cruiser tanks.
On the morning of 7 February 1941, General Giuseppe Tellera was mortally wounded, General Annibale Bergonzoli surrendered, and organized Italian resistance in Cyrenaica collapsed. British light armour pursued the demoralised survivors to El Agheila. In two months, Western Desert Force had advanced 500 miles, destroyed ten Italian divisions, and captured more than 133,000 prisoners, 420 tanks, and 845 artillery pieces, at a cost of fewer than 2,000 casualties.