Desert Armour IV

Equipment and Personnel in the Desert

Africa was an important theater of operations in World War II. The continent offered war materials and important routes for air and sea communications. Essential to Allied strategic planning was control of the Suez Canal in Egypt, and during the demands of the Battle of Britain, British Prime Minister Winston L. S. Churchill had to divert scant British military resources there. Had the Axis powers taken that vital waterway, all British shipping to and from India would have been forced to detour around the Cape of Good Hope, doubling the length of the voyage.

Securing the vital oil supplies of the Middle East was another important consideration for Allied planners. From Cairo, the British Middle East Command directed operations to secure the Suez Canal and then to take the offensive against Italian forces invading from Libya and resident in East Africa.

Africa – Axis and Allied

Friday, February 20, 2015

Desert Armour IV

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