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North African Campaigns Wwii

The North African Campaigns took place in the North African desert between 1940 and 1943. North Africa is a region that includes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and the Western Sahara. The North African Campaigns were fought for two main reasons. The first reason was the Suez Canal. The canal was extremely important when it came to controlling the Middle East. The second reason was the Middle Eastern oil resources. Egypt was especially important because of its location; it sat at the center of a vital strategic network. The North African Campaigns were also very important because it was the only land based fight where the Allies could take to the Axis powers from 1940 up until 1943, when the invasion of Sicily occurred. It was vitally important in strategic terms because the Mediterranean and British empires were at stake.
In North Africa the Germans and the Italians controlled a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast. This strip of land stretched form Tunisia to Egypt. There were a total of 100,000 men under field marshal Erwin Rommel. The French forces in North Africa also numbered roughly 100,000, but they had a considerable naval strength as well. The allies had a plan called “plan torch”. The plan involved centralized attacks. Harold Alexander was the British commander in chief of the Middle East. He was supposed to strike west from Egypt with General Montgomery and the eighth British army. While these strikes were occurring, the combined Anglo-American forces were supposed to invade French North Africa and hit the enemy form behind. Both the British eighth army and the invasion forces converged in Tunisia.
The allies planned there different landings; one was outside the straight of Gibraltar and two were inside the straight in Algeria. When these landings were successful, more troops landed near the border of Algeria and moved quickly into Tunisia before the Germans could block there move. The British eighth army opened an...