Operation Compass: Britain Destroys Italian Tenth Army
A British force of 36,000 destroyed an Italian army of 150,000 in North Africa between December 1940 and February 1941. Italy had invaded Egypt from Libya in September with ten divisions, advanced sixty miles to Sidi Barrani, stopped, and built a chain of fortified camps that were too far apart to support one another. O'Connor's Western Desert Force was planned as a five-day raid. It began on 9 December with an approach march through a gap in the camps at night, and the Matilda tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment proved effectively immune to the Italian anti-tank guns. The raid was not stopped because it kept working. Sidi Barrani fell in three days with 38,000 prisoners; Bardia and Tobruk followed in January; and the pursuit continued 500 miles along the coast. The end came at Beda Fomm, where a flying column of the 7th Armoured Division crossed the desert chord to cut the coast road ahead of the retreating Tenth Army and held it against repeated attempts to break through. The whole force surrendered on 7 February: 130,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,290 guns, against about 500 British dead. O'Connor signalled that the fox was in the open. Then Churchill stripped the force to send troops to Greece, and Rommel landed at Tripoli five days after Beda Fomm. The ground was lost again within two months. Then Churchill stripped the force to send troops to Greece, and Rommel landed at Tripoli five days after Beda Fomm. The ground was lost again within two months, and Greece was lost as well. O'Connor was captured by a German patrol in April 1941 and spent two and a half years in an Italian prison camp before escaping. The desert war ran another two years over the same ground.
- Year: 1940 CE
- Category: Military
