In the summer of 1940, when Hitler swept across the Continent of Western Europe, clamoring for the Implementation of the Sea Lion Project and the Battle of Britain, his fascist ally Mussolini wanted to invade Britain with Germany and share the "legacy" of the British Empire, but the request of the Italian "leader" was politely rejected by the German "Fuehrer".
Mussolini's ambitions were no less than Hitler's, and he decided that this was the perfect time for him to establish a "new Roman Empire" with the "Mediterranean As an inner lake" and decided to immediately further expand the colonies in East and North Africa. Libya and Tripolitania in North Africa, and Italian Eritrea and Ethiopia in Northeast Africa have fallen under the iron heel of Italian fascism.
Mussolini assembled 215,000 troops in North Africa, commanded by Balbo, preparing for an invasion of Egypt, and the Italian colonies in Northeast Africa were garrisoned with 220,000 Italian troops under the command of the Duke of Aosta, preparing to invade British Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Sandwiched between two Italian armies in North and North Africa, the British army under the command of Lieutenant General Wavell, the British commander-in-chief in the Middle East, had a total strength of only about 60,000 troops, which was obviously at a numerical disadvantage.
At this time, the British mainland was seriously threatened by the German invasion, and it was difficult to mobilize forces to strengthen the Middle East. Faced with this situation, Mussolini thought that the opportunity could not be lost, so he forced his subordinates to hurry up. However, Hitler ignored all this, ignored the old equipment and poor tools of the Italian troops, and scolded his subordinates as cowardly rats, afraid of defeat but fantasizing about profit. He claimed that when the war was over, it was necessary to "weed out the weaker ones and improve the Italian race."
On June 29, 1940, Balbo received the invasion of Ethiopia from Mussolini. and the order to fly back to North Africa. On the way, when his base flew over Tobruk, the Italian anti-aircraft artillery unit stationed there was dizzy, mistaken for a British aircraft invasion, and raced to fire down his commander's landline, and poor Balbo cried out for his life. Mussolini hastened to appoint Marshal Graziani to take over Balbo's post. At Mussolini's repeated urging, in early July 1940, Italian troops set out from Ethiopia and Eritrea to invade Sudan and Kenya. The Sudanese and Kenyan armies, though struggling to resist, were forced to retreat and switch to guerrilla warfare due to the disparity in strength.
In August, the Italians attacked British Somalia again, and the British were outnumbered and forced to cross the strait and withdraw to Aden. The Italian forces in North Africa moved a little later. On 13 September, Graziani's forces began an attack on the British forces in Egypt, with a strength of 6:1 on both sides. The Italians soon invaded Sidi Barani and forced Alexandria and the Suez Canal. Egypt and Greece occupied a prominent place in Mussolian's blueprint for a "New Roman Empire" with the Mediterranean As an "inner lake."
On September 20, 1940, Hitler sent a large military delegation under the pretext of "directing friendly Romania in organizing and training its army," and the Germans occupied Romania's strategic locations and oil-producing areas, and Romania soon became a nazi vassal state. Mussolini was annoyed that Hitler, an ally, had usurped his "sphere of influence" without a single greeting. He vented his anger on His foreign minister, Ciano, saying: "Hitler always put the fait accompli before me, and this time I will treat him as a man."
He will find out from the newspapers that I have occupied Greece. In this way, equilibrium can be established from scratch. If there is any objection to our war with the Greeks, I will apply to withdraw from Italian citizenship. Hitler's mind at this time was mainly on the "Barbarossa Plan" of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Fearing that Mussolini, an ally, had messed up the Balkans, which was flanking his attack on the Soviet Union, he hurried to Florence to meet with the Italian "leader" before the Italians set out to persuade him to change his mind.
Unexpectedly, on the platform, Mussolini smiled and told the German "Fuehrer" that the Italian army had won the first battle in Greece. Hitler felt that it would be unwise to alienate his only ally at this time, and had no choice but to swallow the bitter fruit of the fait accompli that Mussolini had placed before him. In this way, Mussolini did not care about the consequences of the long front and the dispersion of troops, and at the same time as the invasion of Northeast and North Africa, mussolini was expelled from Albania in October 1940. Soldiers invaded Greece.
In the first few days, the Italian army took advantage of the favorable conditions of the surprise attack and made some progress, but it was quickly repelled by the Greek army and civilians, and in less than 10 days, the Italian army collapsed completely. Controlling the Mediterranean Sea and maintaining the smooth flow of the Suez Canal was important to the British Empire. Because from the Atlantic Ocean through the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, to the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, this is the "lifeline" of the British Empire. If Greece, Egypt, and the Suez Canal were controlled by the Axis powers, it would directly endanger the survival of the British Empire.
Churchill, of course, attached great importance to the safety of the region. After the fascist Italians invaded the region, Churchill decisively drew 1/3 of the small number of tanks withdrawn from Dunkirk and transferred them to Egypt, and also quickly transferred the Commonwealth army to Africa, and Wavell's troops soon increased to 150,000 people.
On 1 November 1940, he sent British troops to land on Crete to support the Greek counterattack. November 11, United Kingdom. Aircraft from the Mediterranean Fleet attacked the military port of Taranto in southern Italy at night, blowing up 3 battleships and 1 cruiser. Italy was shocked. The Greek army also took advantage of the victory to counterattack, on November 22 the Greek army captured Korcha in Albania, which was occupied by the Italian army, and on December 4 the Greek army pressed against Vlorra. By the end of December, throughout the front line, the Greek army had advanced 30 miles, annihilating 30,000 fascist troops. At the same time, the British took advantage of the victory to begin a counterattack in North and East Africa.
In North Africa, on 9 December 1940, a British panzer division and an Indian infantry division made a surprise attack on Sidi Barani. On 4 and 22 January 1941, British forces occupied Benghazi and Beit Furm. During the two months of fighting, the British captured 130,000 Italian invaders in North Africa, captured 400 tanks and more than 1,000 artillery. In East Africa, the British also began to counterattack in early 1941. The Italian army was vulnerable and collapsed. In early February, British troops drove straight into Ethiopia and British Somalia, as if into no man's land.
On 1 April, the British captured Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, and liberated Addis Ababa, ethiopia, on 6 April. In the meantime, the Ethiopian guerrillas played a huge role and created favorable conditions for the victorious advance of the British army. In May 1941, the Duke of Aosta surrendered. The defeat of the fascist Italian army in Greece, followed by setbacks in East africa and North Africa, made Mussolini sometimes anxious and anxious, sometimes violent.
Mussolini blamed all the responsibility on his subordinates, calling the chief of the general staff, Badoglio, a "public enemy of the state" and a "traitor"; those who worked with him were "mediocre, useless and worthless"; he even blamed his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Ziano, for "inaccurate information provided to him". On 1 December 1940, he dismissed Batoglio as Chief of the General Staff and replaced caballero with chief of the General Staff. At this point, Mussolini had to admit that "the situation is serious and may even become tragic". With no choice but to turn to his ally Hitler for help.
Before the invasion of Greece, Mussolini did not listen to Hitler's dissuasion, but now had to go to Hitler for help, Mussolini was embarrassed, embarrassed to come forward, so he summoned Ciano to the office and asked him to go to Hitler for help. This time, however, the son-in-law helped himself to the German, saying that even if he had been hit through the door of his head, he would not make the call.
Faced with the persistence of his son-in-law, Mussolini had no choice but to contact the German ambassador himself. After consultation, the emissary asked him to travel to Germany on 19 January 1941 to meet Hitler.
At the meeting, Mussolini was very uncomfortable in the car, he knew he was embarrassed, he did not think about how to make himself decent, he expected that he would be very embarrassed. Unexpectedly, however, Hitler was very enthusiastic and gentle with him, and did not embarrass himself at all. Because Hitler was about to carry out the Barbarossa Plan, he could not alienate his allies at this critical moment, nor could he let the Italian army suffer another fiasco. He promised to help Italy out of trouble.
On 27 April, the Germans invaded the Greek capital, Athens, and soon captured Crete. In February 1941, in order to help Mussoldini break the siege, Hitler sent a lightly armoured Scycyclic division and an armored division to Tripoli, Lisbia, to form the "African Army Invasion Regiment", appointing Erwin. Rommel was commander of the Afrika Korps.
Se and Rommel were bold tank commanders whose mission was to hold on to Tripoli and secure the Gulf of Silet. Upon arriving in Libya, he personally made a flight to the front-line area, making "the best defense against Rommel in North Africa." Yu is attacking" conclusion, and launched a blitzkrieg without authorization.
The British army was caught off guard and retreated in defeat. The tank forces of the Afrika Korps, together with the Italian Army, soon regained Cyrenaica and Ajdabia, the life-threatening source of water. Rommel did not listen to gossip, led his army into the desert, Rommel captured Bardia, only a few miles away from Egypt, straight to the egyptian gate, and it was this incident that made him known as the "Fox of the Desert", which made the British brain-wrenching for two years.
Churchill described Rommel's appearance on the battlefields of Africa as a change in history, knowing the strength of his opponents and praising him as a great general. On the other hand, Rommel also believed that simply continuing to march could destroy britain's defense system in the Middle East, and he believed that destroying it was better than occupying London.
At this time, however, Hitler had no time to think about this, he was preoccupied with how to make an invasion of the Soviet Union, so he did not help Rommel's plan and did not send troops to support.
epilogue
Some people think that treating North Africa and the Mediterranean as only a side battlefield is one of Hitler's biggest strategic mistakes, and this may make some sense. Churchill's greatest fear was that the Axis powers would occupy his lifeline, and Hitler's approach undoubtedly helped him dispel this idea, thinking that if Hitler's strategy changed, I am afraid that it would only bring one big trouble.
References: World War II, African Theaters of World War II, Hitler's Decision