Italian Tanks at War - North Africa (Febr. 1941

Between February 1941 and May 1943, when the Axis forces were actually expelled from North Africa, the Italian tanks (Ariete and Littorio armored divisions, and other smaller units) played a mere "featuring" role.

In strict sense, therefore, as I was not going to write the history of the German tanks at WWII, this page should have not been written.

I have prepared it, however, to link the "All-Italian Campaign (1940 - 41)" with the Battle of El Alamein , the place where, in spite of their complete disruption, the Italian tankers conquered with their sacrifice the respect of their allies and enemies (or, at least, that of the "honest minded" allies and enemies).

Immediately after his arrival, Rommel began organizing the defense of Tripolitania and making plans for offensive action as soon as his panzers arrived.
From mid-March 1941, after a number of clashes between the opposing light forces in the El Agheila area and well before the date estimated by Gen. Wavell, Rommel launched his offensive which made minced-meat of the British forces left to defense Cyrenaica.
The advance was incredibly rapid : the Axis German-Italian forces occupied El-Agheila on March 24, and on April 1 they took Mersa Brega. Benghazi fell on April 3, and on April 7, Generals O'Connor and Neame were captured. El-Mechili was taken the next day, and by April 11, the Axis forces had reached Bardia and Sollum and invested Tobruk.

In the face of the threat to the Suez Canal, Gen. Wavell decided to reconstitute the Western Desert Force, consisting of all the troops he could make available, and hold at all costs the port of Tobruk.

Between April 13 and May 4, Axis troops unsuccessfully attacked Tobruk. Between May 15 and May 17, the British carried out a local offensive in the Halfaya-Sollum-Ridotta Capuzzo area but on May 27 Rommel's troops recaptured Halfaya.

Meanwhile, on May 12, a sea convoy ("Operation Tiger") had arrived in Egypt with 82 cruiser tanks, 135 infantry tanks, and 21 light tanks which were used to rebuild the 7th Armoured Division (the famous "Desert Rats"). By the end of May 1941, the British forces had been reorganized and reequipped sufficiently to assume the offensive.

On May 28, Gen. Wavell issued orders for an action aimed to relieve the Tobruk fortress and harbour and free from enemies all the eastern region of Cyrenaica. ("Operation Battleaxe")

Operation Battleaxe : The attack began on June 15 and achieved some initial success, but the German counterattacks carried out by tanks (the Italian "Ariete" armored division had been left as reserve) and anti-tank weapons (including the famous 88mm gun) halted the British advance. On June 17, when it became clear that the operation was going to be a failure, the order to withdraw was given.
On June 22, 1941 Operation Battleaxe was over, at a price of :

Losses	British	Axis
Casualties	960	800
Tank lossess	91	12
Aircraft losses	36	10

On July 5 Gen.Wavell was replaced as commander in chief in the Middle East by Gen. Auchinleck.

By the beginning of November 1941, plans had been completed for Operation Crusader (mission : relief of Tobruk and occupation of the whole of Cyrenaica). The opposite forces consisted of :

	British	Axis
Troopers	118,000	119,000
Tanks deployed	748	395
Tanks (reserves)	500	0

Operation Crusader began on November 18, 1941 and was concluded by January 17, 1942. After initial drawbacks (with heavy losses of tanks) , the British Eight Army (as the Western Desert Force had been renamed) attained its first objectives of relieving Tobruk and occupying Cyrenaica. The occupation was, however, a temporary one : Benghazi, captured by the British on December 24, 1941 was occupied again by the Axis on January 28, 1942.

Operation Crusader was a British victory, but a "Pyrrus' victory", gained at a very heavy price : since November 1941, British casualties totaled 17,700 (against 38,300 of the Axis). Almost all the tanks on the opposite sides (British : 726 out of 748 and Axis : 340 out of 395) became battle casualties or breakdowns ( many of them, however, especially Axis tanks, recovered and repaired became battleworthy again). British losses in aircraft totaled about 300 against the about 330 of the Axis.

In January 1942, thank to the losses suffered by the Royal Navy which had made the Mediterranean routes safer for their convoys, the Axis forces could improve the supplies flow. Rommel received 55 new tanks (PzKpfw III and IV) and 20 armoured cars, and Gen. Zingales (the newly appointed Italian Army commander in chief) received two groups of 75/18 self-propelled guns (24 SPG and 8 command-SPG with 20mm MG).

As soon as the Afrika Korps and the Ariete AD were ready and reequipped, Rommel, without informing the Italian High Command in Libya (since his arriving in North Africa he had patched quite a few quarrels with the Italian generals, especially with Gen. Bastico, as to the conflict conduct) as well as the German High Command in Italy, launched a counteroffensive which, in two weeks only (from January 21 to February 3), led the Axis back to Ain el-Gazala, not far from Tobruk.

On May 27, 1942 the Afrika Korps panzers' engines started roaring again and for the Gen. Auchinleck's Eight Army was the time of blood and tears. By June 12 the "Cauldron Battle" was lost, and the El-Gazala-Bir Hakeim line was abandoned after ten days of increasing disasters. On June 21, the British garrison of Tobruk was forced to surrender. Between June25, Gen. Auchinleck (having assumed direct control of the Eight Army ) took a defensive position running from north to south, from El Alamein to the El Qattara Depression.

Rommel made several attempts, between July 1 and July 5, to break through this position but he failed. Then was the turn of the British to counterattack with, however, the same results. At the end of July 1942 the belligerants were both exausted and unable to further prolonge their fighting.

During August 1942 the British Army was subject to many changes. Amongst the others, on August 13, Lt.Gen. (later Field Marshal) Bernard Law Montgomery assumed command of the Eight Army, and two days later Gen. (later Field Marshal) Sir Harold Alexander succeded Gen.Auchinleck as commander in chief in the Middle East.

As the directive given by Churchill to General Alexander was to destroy as soon as possible the German-Italian army, Montgomery immediately began the task of reorganizing and redisposing his troops in view of a possible attack of the Alam el Halfa position. And he was right!

On August 31, Rommel, impatient to break through the El Alamein-El Qattara line, launched against the Alam Halfa ridge his armored divisions (Afrika Korps' 15th and 21st, and the Italian Ariete and Littorio) and the Italian airborne Folgore division. Fighting continued throughout that day and the next, but on September 2 the British reaction pushed the Axis forces back. By September 6, due to fueling shortage, Rommel decided to withdraw his forces. Montgomery, suspecting a possible trap for his armor (the German anti-tank gunnery was a real nightmare for the British), did not press the retreating enemy. By September 7, when the battle was over, the Axis casualties totaled 2.865 troopers, 56 tanks, 53 guns, and several hundreds of other vehicles. The British losses were lower : 1.600 troopers, 68 tanks, 18 guns.

During September 1942, while the remnants of the German-Italian armored forces were suffering for severe logistic problems as well as for supplying shortages (the Axis convoys were inevitably sunk by the Allies air and naval attacks), Montgomery received every kind of support, including the new American medium tanks M3 Lee/Grant and M4 Sherman, and displayed the greatest energy to accustom the troops to the new equipment and to improve their training.

By October 20, 1942 , when all was ready for the "doomsday" in El Alamein, Montgomery disposed of the equivalent of 11 divisions (of which 3 armored), organized in three corps, while Rommel (who in those days was in Germany to recover from a gastric desease) had 13 divisions (4 German and 9 Italian) of which 4 armored (2 German and 2 Italian).

After two weeks of fierce combats the Axis forces were disrupted by the overwhelming British army. The Mediterranean campaign entered then in a new phase : the Americans were going to join the club!

Operation Torch : On November 8, 1942, a joint anglo-american expeditionary corps landed in North Africa, getting in brief rid of the local French troops, acting under Vichy's orders. In a couple of days more than 70,000 men and some 450 tanks were ready to start a new round with Rommel and his Axis forces which, after the El Alamein debacle, had been deployed on the western frontier of Cyrenaica.

During the two months through January 1943, there were just local attacks and counterattacks of no strategic importance. Then, on February 14, the Gen. Von Arnim's 21st Panzer Division (supported by the Centauro armored division) launched a powerful attack in the area of the Kasserine Pass. The American 2nd Corps was driven back and almost all the 300 tanks of the US 1st Armored Division were destroyed.

By February 23, however, the advance had been halted and before March 1st the Axis forces had been driven back to their original positions.

Rommel decided then to attack Montgomery's 7th Armored Division on the Mareth Line. On March 6, 1943 the attack was launched by the 1st Army (which consisted of the Afrika Korps veterans, the Centauro armored division, and 4 other Italian infantry, motorized and airborne divisions). The attack, however, was very soon blocked by a real "firewall" of anti-tank guns, which comprised the new terrific17-pounders (76.2mm), by Gen. Freyberg's 2nd New Zealander infantry division ... and by the fact that, as usual, Montgomery deployed about 450-500 tanks against the 150 German ones!

On March 7, 1943 Field Marshal Rommel was removed from the command of the African Group of Armies (he had been appointed commander in chief two weeks before only).

Between March and May 1943 the fate of the Axis troops followed its obvious course. A herd of thousands of tanks, armoured cars, guns, and aircraft pushed back towards the Tunisian shores an enemy who, although unable to bring any effective counterattack, exacted a high toll by the Allies for every foot of land left to them.

After the last battle (Enfidaville), on May 13, 1943, the day after the German forces had laid their arms down, the Italian 1st Army of Gen. Messe surrendered. No Germans or Italians remained in arms in Africa.

a closing remark : while preparing this pages I had the opportunity to read more than one history book as well as information taken from various web sites (especially from British sources) dealing on these events and I have got the discouraging impression that objectiveness is something that many "historians" (either official or "home made") should try and exercise a bit harder...