Figure 1.--The key campaigns of World War II were fought in Europe and the Pacific, but Africa was important. The primary significance was that Rommel and the Afrika Korps taught first the British and then the Americans how to fight Blitzkrieg, modern mobil war with air cover. The War also brought modern life to very traditional areas of the Arab north abnd African Sub-Saharan regions. The people of these regions were titally unaware of tge degree to which the NAZIs wanted to introduce racial doctrines to structuring society. NAZI dictrine directed their most hareful propaganda at not only the Jews, but also blacks. Many Arabs even supported NAZI docrine (escpecially in Egypt and the Middle East) because of rising anti-Semitism.

World War II histories understandably focus on Europe and the Pacific. Africa is often seen as a side show. This is largely the case, but the imporance of Africa is commonly understated. The most important African campaign was fought by the British/Commonwealth forces in the Western Desert and the Anglo/American Operation Torch further West. The campaign in the Western Desert was strategically about Suez and the oil resources of Iraq and Iran. But tactically they were cruccial. The Wehrmacht was the only force that had sucessfully adopted Blitkrieg as a tactical doctrine. It was in the Western Desert that the British learned to sucessfully fight the Germans. They were well supplied in abundance by the Americans and oil was available in whatever quantities needed from Iraq. Rommel and the Afrika Korps in contrast were a relatively small German force on the perifery of Axis Europe and were starved for men, equipment, and supplies because of the priorities of the eastern Front and British attacks on Italin supply convoys. Malta played a key role in the interdiction effort. The sharp Mediterranean naval battles were primarily to dtermine the ability of the Italian Navy to protect the supply convoys. Unlike the French Army which had no time to learn (1940), the British had 2 years to learn and Rommel mproved to be a superb if punishing task master. The Americans had the benefit of the British experience and prioved after Kasereine to be very fast learners. Without the experience of North Africa, the Anglo-American campaign in Northern Europe beginning with D-Day would have been conducted by much less capable Allied armies. Axis losses in North Africa also helped to weaken both the Italians and Germans. North Africa was not the only military campaigns in Africa. The British fought a campaign in East Africa against a substantial Italian force. Indian and South African forces played major roles in the British conquest of East Africa (1941). Ethiopia would be the first country liberated from the Axis. The issue in the Western Desert was decided at El Alemain (October 1942). This was followed by the Torch landings (November 1942). Hitler rushed in reinforcements by air, depleting the German strategic reserve just at the time the Red Army was hammering the 6th Army iStalingrad. The reinforcements deplayed the Axis defeat, but significantly increased the German losses. The Germans continued to have difficulty supplying their forces. The Germans and Italians surrendered in Tunis and Bizerte (May 1943). Virtually all of Africa at the time of World War II was European colonies. The French colonies initially recognized the authority of Vichy. Vichy control of French colonies led to a naval engagement for Dakar. Japanese and German sunmarines were able to resupply in Madagascar. While the British and Free French failed at Dakar, gradually the Free French seized control of the French colonies. Africa proved to be an important source for strategic raw materials. Americans moved into Liberia to help promote rubber production. Belgian and British colonies were important sources of strategic metals.

The Western Desert

The most important African campaign was fought by the British/Commonwealth forces in the Western Desert. The name derived from the fact that from the British perspective it was the desert campsign fought from their bases in the desert west of Egypt and Suez. It was the Axis attempt to take Egyot and Suez from Libya and the British attempt to wrestle Libya from Egypt. The campaign in the Western Desert was strategically about Suez and the oil resources of Iraq and Iran. But tactically they were cruccial. The Wehrmacht was the only force that had sucessfully adopted Blitkrieg as a tactical doctrine. It was in the Western Desert that the British learned to sucessfully fight the Germans. They were well supplied in abundance by the Americans and oil was available in whatever quantities needed from Iraq. Rommel and the Afrika Korps in contrast were a relatively small German force on the perifery of Axis Europe and were starved for men, equipment, and supplies because of the priorities of the eastern Front and British attacks on Italin supply convoys. Malta played a key role in the interdiction effort. The sharp Mediterranean naval battles were primarily to dtermine the ability of the Italian Navy to protect the supply convoys. Unlike the French Army which had no time to learn (1940), the British had 2 years to learn and Rommel mproved to be a superb if punishing task master. The Americans had the benefit of the British experience and prioved after Kasereine to be very fast learners. Without the experience of North Africa, the Anglo-American campaign in Northern Europe beginning with D-Day would have been conducted by much less capable Allied armies. Axis losses in North Africa also helped to weaken both the Italians and Germans. North Africa was not the only military campaigns in Africa. The issue in the Western Desert was decided at El Alemain (October 1942).

East Africa

On paper it looked like the Italians also had a large force in Ethiopia. The Italian forces were, however, weak and their Ethiopian auxileries of questionable loyalty. It was the British, despite their numerical inferiority, who attacked the Italians. The British put together a small force of South African and African colonial troops. They were supported by Ethiopian insurgent guerrillas. Colonel Orde Wingate, who was later to play an important role in Burma, coordinated the operations of the Ethiopian guerrillas forces. Behind the British forces, Emperor Haile Salassie returned to Ethiopia, arriving in Gojam (January 20, 1941) and began organizing the resistance groups. The British launched a southern and northern offensive. The southern offensive involved moving north from Kenya into Italian Somaliland and eastern Ethiopia. The initial objective was to isolate the Italian forces in the Ethiopian highlands. Unlike the Italian Army in Libya, the Italians in East Africa had no way to obtain supplies and refinforcements as a result of the Royal Navy control of the Indian Ocean. The failure of the Italian offensive in the Western Desert left Italian East Africa cut off. The major British offensive was directed at the Harer and Dire Dawa, which was designed to cut the rail line between Addis Ababa and French Djibouti which at the times was in Vichy hands. The British were incontrol of Italian Somaliland (March 3). A scond prong of British troops from Sudan drove into Eritrea which cut the Italians off from the Red Sea. The northern campaign climaxed with the Battle of Keren and the defeat of Italian troops in Eritrea (March 27). The Italian governor initiated negotiations for the surrender of the remaining Italian forces. Haile Selassie triumphantly reentered Addis Ababa (May 5). Isolanted Italian forces continued to resist. The final Italian forces surredered at Gonder (January 1942). Ethiopia thus became the first country the Allies liberated from Fascist invaders in World War II. <

Torch Landings

American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided that the Allies needed to open a Second Front to take pressure off the hard-pressed Red Army reeling under the German summer offensive driving toward Stalingrad and the oil-rich Caucauses (July 1942). Joseph Stalin demanded an invasion of Europe. Wisely Roosevelt and Churchill targetted French North Africa. American General George Marshall, in many ways the architect of the American victory, was opposed to Totch, considering it a diversion. Roosevelt insisted. While Montgomery's victory at El Alemain often receives more attentiin, it was the Torch landings that were the decisive action. The Amercan and British landings in North Africa sealed the fate of the Axis desert campaign. Even if Rommel had broken through to Suez, he would have been forced to turn west to deal with the Allied landings in French North Africa. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed Allied commander to oversee the Torch Landings. The Allies driving east from their Moroccan and Algerian beachheads linked up with the Brish advancing west (November 1942). Although Hitler rushed reinforcements to Tunisia, the end result was the first major defeat of a German Army by the Western Allies.

Tunisia (May 1943)

Rommek after a unprecendented retreart if more than 1,000 miles through Libya, atempted to use the old French fortificationd on the Libyan-Tunisian border (Mareth Line) to stop the relentlessly pursuing 8th Army. Rommel delivered a stinging blow to the advancing Americans at the Kasserine Pass (February 1943). The Afrika Korps did not have the strength to exploit its success. With the Help of Ultra, Montgomery defeated a German counter-stroke and breached the . Mareth Line (March 1943). The Afrika Kioros was forced to fall back to central Tunisia. This allowed the 1st and 8th Armies to link up (April 8). The Germans fell back on Tunis and Bizerte, but the Allies wrecreducing German supply shioments to a trickle. The German establish a defensive perimter around the two ports. Here Von Arnim still had a powerful force and the German units were still determined to resist. The Italians were less willing. The Allied blockade becomes increasingly effective, essentially cutting off the Axis forces. The strong point defending the pocket in the north is Hil 609 which had stopped the initial Allied drive. It is surrounded abnd taken by the 34th American Division (May 1). This was a National Guard Division that had been hammered by the Germans earlier in its baptism of fore. And like a lot of American units had learned a great deal about fighting the Germans. Effective Axis resistance collapses (May 6) and the Americans and British take Tunis. Isolated German resistance continues, but they are surrounded and running out of amunition. Von Armim surrenders (May 12). Some 250,000 Axis soldiers surrender. This is the largest surrender of Axis soldiers until the end of the War.

French Sub-Saharan Africa

Virtually all of Africa at the time of World War II was European colonies. France controlled much of Africa. The French colonies initially recognized the authority of Vichy. Vichy control of French colonies led to a poorly executedf naval engagement for Dakar in which the British were repulsed. . This was followed by a series of Allied actions to gain control of the French colonies. Japanese and German sunmarines were able to resupply in Madagascar. While the British and Free French failed at Dakar, gradually the Free French seized control of the French colonies. The British insisted on taking Madagascar without Free French support. It was a rare operation after Pear Harbor without American participation anfd it almost failed (May 1942).

Raw Materials

Africa proved to be an important source for strategic raw materials. Americans moved into Liberia to help promote rubber production. Belgian and British colonies were important sources of strategic metals. One of those included uranium. Much of the uranium for the American atomic bomb came from the Belgian Congo, but in an totally unrelated circumstancer, it was shipped to New York City before America entered the War and had any interet in an atomic bomb. he economic boom of the 1920s turned the Belgian Congo into one of the leading copper-ore producers worldwide. After Malaya fell to the Japanese (January 1942), the Belgian Congo became a strategic supplier of rubber to the Allies. An Irish-American mining magnate (Alfred Chester Beatty) established the Rhodesian Selection Trust (RST) as a holding company for his mining assets in what was then called Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia). Luanshya Copper Mine was the first to be commissioned (1928). This was followeed by Mufulira (1933).

Libyan Air Bases

The United States after the Torch landings rushed to open air bases in Libya. After Tunisia fell, the war shifted north to Italy beginning with the Sicily landings (July 1943) followed by the Italian armistice and landings in southern Italy (September 1943). Until the landings in Italy and the taking of airports there, howver, the United States Air Force used bases in Libya to attack Axis tatgets in the Balkans and Italy. By far the most important target was the Romanian oil fields at Ploesti. Ploesti was Germany's only important source of natural petroleum. The rest of the German protelum was produced by synthetic fuel plants in the Reich. Given the importance of Romanian oil, Ploesti was one of the most heavily defended targets in Europe. Taking Libya brought Ploesti in range of Allied air craft for the first time. The first American raid proved a disater with heavy losses of planes and air crews. The Americans would be back and after taking outhern Italy, the campaign was continued from much closer Italian bases.

Created: 6:11 AM 3/23/2011
Last updated: 6:52 AM 12/2/2011