The North African campaign, in which the Allied forces and the Axis countries carried out a series of attacks and counter-offensives in the deserts of North Africa, lasted from 1940 to 1943. Libya has been an Italian colony for several decades, and neighboring Egypt has been under British control since 1882. When Italy declared war on the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in 1940, hostilities immediately began between the two states. In September 1940, Italy invaded Egypt, but in December of the same year, a counteroffensive took place, as a result of which British and Indian troops captured about 130 thousand Italians. In response to the defeat, Hitler sent the newly formed Afrika Korps under the command of General Erwin Rommel to the front. Several protracted fierce battles took place on the territory of Libya and Egypt. The turning point in the war was the Second Battle of El Alamein at the end of 1942, during which Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery's 8th Army defeated and drove the Hitlerite coalition troops from Egypt to Tunisia. In November 1942, as part of Operation Torch, Britain and the United States landed thousands of troops on the west coast of North Africa. As a result of the operation, by May 1943, the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition finally defeated the army of the Nazi bloc in Tunisia, putting an end to the War in North Africa. (45 photos) (See all parts of the series "Chronicles of the Second World War")
A British pilot with extensive experience flying in the desert lands the Sharknose Squadron Kittyhawk fighter during a sandstorm in the Libyan Desert on April 2, 1942. The mechanic, who sits on the wing of the plane, indicates the direction to the pilot. (AP Photo)
Australian troops attack a German stronghold under cover of a smoke screen in the Western Desert of North Africa, November 27, 1942. (AP Photo)
German General Erwin Rommel heads the 15th Panzer Division between Tobruk and Sidi Omar, Libya, 1941. (NARA)
Australian soldiers march behind tanks during a rehearsal of an offensive in the sands of North Africa on January 3, 1941. The infantry accompanied the tanks as a precaution in the event of an air raid. (AP Photo)
German Junkers Ju-87 "Stuck" dive bomber attacks a British base near Tobruk, Libya, October 1941. (AP Photo)
A RAF pilot installs a wreckage cross on the grave of Italian pilots who crashed during the Battle of the Western Desert in Mersa Matruh on October 31, 1940. (AP Photo)
The Bren Carrier armored personnel carrier was in service with the Australian mounted forces in North Africa on January 7, 1941. (AP Photo)
British tank crews laugh at comics in an Italian newspaper in a war zone in North Africa on January 28, 1941. One of them is holding a puppy found during the capture of Sidi Barrani, one of the first Italian strongholds to capitulate during the North African War. (AP Photo)
An Italian flying boat, attacked by RAF fighters, burns off the coast of Tripoli. The body of the Italian pilot floats in the water near the left wing. (AP Photo)
British sources claim that this photograph shows Italian soldiers killed by British artillery fire southwest of Ghazala during one of the Libyan battles in January 1942. (AP Photo)
One of the Italian prisoners of war captured in Libya and sent to London, in the cap of the Afrika Korps, January 2, 1942. (AP Photo)
Italian forward positions near Tobruk, Libya, January 6, 1942. (AP Photo)
British Bristol Blenheim bombers embark on a raid in Cyrenaica, Libya, escorted by fighters on February 26, 1942. (AP Photo)
British scouts monitor enemy movements in the Western Desert near the Egyptian-Libyan border in Egypt, February 1942. (AP Photo)
The mascot of the Royal Air Force squadron in Libya, the monkey Bass, plays with the pilot of the Tomahawk fighter jet in the Western Desert, February 15, 1942. (AP Photo)
This seaplane was in service with the rescue service of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain in the Middle East. He patrolled lakes in the Nile Delta and assisted pilots who made forced landings on the water. The photo was taken on March 11, 1942. (AP Photo)
A British soldier, wounded in the battle in Libya, lies on a bunk in a field hospital tent on June 18, 1942. (AP Photo / Weston Haynes)
British General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British 8th Army, watches the battle in the Western Desert from the gun turret of the M3 Grant tank, Egypt, 1942. (AP Photo)
Anti-tank guns on wheels possessed high mobility and could quickly move through the desert, inflicting unexpected blows on the enemy. In the photo: a mobile anti-tank gun of the 8th Army firing in the desert in Libya, July 26, 1942. (AP Photo)
This shot of an air raid on Axis airbase Martuba, near Derna, Libya, was taken from a South African raid on July 6, 1942. The four pairs of white stripes at the bottom are dust being kicked up by Hitlerite coalition planes trying to escape the bombing. (AP Photo)
During his stay in the Middle East, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited El Alamein, where he met with brigade and division commanders and examined the personnel of Australian and South American military formations in the Western Desert on August 19, 1942. (AP Photo)
A Royal Air Force aircraft flying at low altitude accompanies New Zealand vehicles on their way to Egypt on August 3, 1942. (AP Photo)
British troops patrol the Western Desert in Egypt in an American M3 Stuart tank, September 1942. (AP Photo)
A sentry guards a wounded German officer found in the desert in Egypt during the early days of the British offensive, November 13, 1942. (AP Photo)
Some of the 97 German prisoners of war captured by the British Army during the attack on Tel el-Eisa in Egypt on September 1, 1942. (AP Photo)
An allied convoy, accompanied by aircraft and ships, sailing towards French North Africa near Casablanca in French Morocco during Operation Torch, the major British-American invasion of North Africa, November 1942. (AP Photo)
American landing barges head for the Fedala coast in French Morocco during a landing operation in early November 1942. Fedala was located 25 km north of Casablanca, French Morocco. (AP Photo)
Anti-Hitler coalition forces land near Casablanca in French Morocco and follow the trail left by the previous unit, November 1942. (AP Photo)
US soldiers with bayonets escort representatives of the Italian-German Armistice Commission in Morocco to the assembly point for their departure in Fedala, north of Casablanca, November 18, 1942. The members of the commission were unexpectedly attacked by American troops. (AP Photo)
French soldiers heading to the front lines in Tunisia shake hands with American soldiers at a train station in Oran, Algeria, North Africa, December 2. (AP Photo)
US Army soldiers (in a jeep and a submachine gun) guard the capsized ship S. S. Partos , which was damaged when the Allied forces landed in the North African port, 1942. (AP Photo)
A German soldier tried to hide in a bomb shelter during an attack by the anti-Hitler coalition forces in the Libyan desert, but did not succeed, on December 1, 1942. (AP Photo)
A U. S. Navy dive bomber takes off off the road near Safi, French Morocco, December 11, 1942. (AP Photo)
B-17 Flying Fortress bombers drop fragmentation bombs at the strategically important El Aouina airfield in Tunis, Tunis, on February 14, 1943. (AP Photo)
An American soldier with a submachine gun cautiously approaches a German tank to stop the crew's attempts to escape, after battling with American and British anti-tank units in the city of Medjez al Bab, Tunisia, January 12, 1943. (AP Photo)
German prisoners of war captured during an attack by the anti-Hitler coalition forces on German-Italian positions in the city of Sened, Tunisia, February 27, 1943. A soldier without a cap is only 20 years old. (AP Photo)
Two thousand Italian prisoners of war march behind the Bren Carrier armored personnel carrier through the desert in Tunis, March 1943. Italian soldiers were captured near El Hamma when their German allies fled the city. (AP Photo)
Anti-aircraft fire forms a protective shield over Algeria in North Africa on April 13, 1943. The artillery fire was photographed during the defense of Algeria against Nazi aviation. (AP Photo)
Italian machine gunners sit near a field gun among thickets of cactus in Tunisia, March 31, 1943. (AP Photo)
General Dwight D. Eisenhower (right), commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in North Africa, pokes fun at American soldiers during a survey on the front of the fighting in Tunisia, March 18, 1943. (AP Photo)
A German soldier stabbed to death with a bayonet rests on a mortar in the city of Tunis, Tunisia, on May 17, 1943. (AP Photo)
Joyful Tunisians greet the allied forces who liberated the city. In the photo: a resident of Tunisia hugs a British tanker, May 19, 1943. (AP Photo)
After the capitulation of the Axis countries in Tunisia in May 1943, the Allied forces captured more than 275,000 soldiers. A photo taken from an aircraft on June 11, 1943, shows thousands of German and Italian soldiers. (AP Photo)
Comedy actress Martha Rae entertains members of the US 12th Air Force on the outskirts of the Sahara Desert in North Africa, 1943. (AP Photo)
After the victory over the Axis countries in North Africa, the allied forces began preparations for an attack on Italy from the territory of the liberated states. Photo: An American transport plane flies over the pyramids in Giza near Cairo, Egypt, 1943. (AP Photo / U. S. Army)
