North Africa

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In North Africa, operations began in the spring of 1940. Our troops under Marshal Graziani command, badly armed but full of enthusiasm, reached Sidi el Barrani, almost on the Egyptian border. The English counterattack, supported by armoured vehicles and aviation, repelled the Italians and spread into Cyrenaica. Given the negative performance of the operations, Mussolini decided to accept the help offered by the German allies who sent a contingent to Africa, Africakorps, under Rommel command who took over the operations bypassing the superior commander Italo Gariboldi who succeeded Graziani and allowed us to reconquer the lost territory. The cities of Cyrenaica excluded Tobruck were taken back where the British held out. Subsequently, in an obsessive alternation of offensive and counteroffensive, the English again rejected the Italian-German troops from Cyrenaica, launching the operation Crusader. At the beginning of ’42 the British troops were firmly stationed in that region while the Italians were stopped in defence with very few vehicles in Tripolitania. Rommel however finally receives the required supplies, thanks to the bombings unleashed on Malta, thorn in the side of the routes of convoys Italian. Subsequently the German offensive that leads our troops to reconquer Tobruck begins again in August 1942. At that moment the morale of the Italians was high, it was thought to have won the war and to be able to reach the Suez Canal. Mussolini was preparing to enter triumphantly in Alexandria. On May 26th ’42 the Italian-German troops were already in El Alamein, a few kilometers from Alessandria. After three weeks of fighting, Tobruck manned by 30,000 British in command of Ritchie, had to capitulate, the morale of the enemies was therefore very low, Rommel, after a lightning advance in Egypt, with few means (26 German tanks against 150 English), had conquered Marsa Matruck. The eighth army, however, was still intact, under the command of Claude Auchinlech and deployed as last line of defense along the line of El Alamein. On June 30th the troops were ready on that line and Rommel decided to attack in contrast to Bastico, supreme commander of the forces in North Africa, who wanted to neutralize Malta first. Meanwhile, under the command of the British army, Auchinlech and Ritchie were replaced by Churchill, due to the bad results obtained so far, with generals Alexander and Gott. On the same day of his appointment, Gott was shot down by a German fighter while he was on reconnaissance on the Libyan positions and Montgomery arrived in his place. The Italo-Germans did not break through, they were stuck in El Alamein (July ’42), the war seemed stalled and Rommel, thinking that the operations would remain firm for a long time, decided to go to Germany, leaving the command to Stumme. On the eve of the decisive battle the Axis had 80,000 men (27,000 Germans) 200 tanks and 345 aircraft of which 129 Germans, Montgomery instead had 230,000 men, 1,000 tanks and 1,000 aircraft (1:3 ratio). The battle begins on the night of October 23rd (there was a full moon). Stumme dies by a stroke or perhaps killed by revolver bullet stuck in his temple and Rommel was forced to return precipitously to Africa although the situation is now irrecoverable. On October 31st Montgomery starts the Supercharge operation, the final blow.
On November 2nd, Rommel now has very few tanks but from Berlin comes the order to resist until the last man.
On November 4th, Montgomery advances and circumvents what remains of the Italian-German defence. The Aries division is literally destroyed, at 3:30 pm, when he learns that Mongomery is now on the coast road, Rommel orders the retreat with the consent of Hitler.
At the same time, an American contingent of about 100,000 men landed to Algeria and Morocco.
Finally Germany sent the always requested aid sent them to Tunisia when it was too late. The Folgore paratroopers were the last to surrender and were granted the honour of war. Out of 5,000, only 300 survived.