Part of the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War
Western Desert 1940
Date
9–16 September 1940 (1 week)
Location
Egypt
26°N30°E / 26°N 30°E / 26; 30
Result
Italian victory
Territorial changes
10th Army advanced to the Egyptian port of Sidi Barrani
Belligerents
Italy
Italian Libya
United Kingdom Free France
Commanders and leaders
Rodolfo Graziani
Mario Berti
Italo Gariboldi
Pietro Maletti
Annibale Bergonzoli
Archibald Wavell
William Gott
John Campbell
Strength
4 divisions 300 aircraft
1 reinforced brigade 205 aircraft naval support
Casualties and losses
120 killed 410 wounded 6 aircraft
40 killed 10 tanks 11 armoured cars 4 lorries
v
t
e
Western Desert Campaign
1940
Invasion of Egypt
Compass
Nibeiwa
Sidi Barrani
1941
1st Bardia
Tobruk 1941
Mechili
Beda Fomm
Kufra
Giarabub
Sonnenblume
Tobruk siege
2nd Bardia
Twin Pimples
Brevity
Skorpion
Battleaxe
Crusader
Flipper
1st Bir el Gubi
Point 175
2nd Bir el Gubi
1942
Acrobat
Gazala
Bir Hakeim
Tobruk 1942
Mersa Matruh
1st Alamein
Sidi Haneish
Alam Halfa
Agreement
Bigamy
Caravan
Nicety
2nd Alamein
Bertram
Braganza
Outpost Snipe
El Agheila
Associated articles
Frontier Wire
Devil's gardens
Fort Capuzzo
Maletti Group
Camouflage
Babini Group
Combeforce
3rd Indian Motor Brigade
Baggush Box
Sonderkommando Blaich
The Italian invasion of Egypt (Operazione E) was an offensive in the Second World War, against British, Commonwealth and Free French in the neutral Kingdom of Egypt. The invasion by the Italian 10th Army (10ª Armata) ended border skirmishing on the frontier and began the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) proper. The Italian strategy was to advance from Libya along the Egyptian coast to seize the Suez Canal. After numerous delays, the scope of the offensive was reduced to an advance as far as Sidi Barrani and the engagement of any British forces in the area.
The 10th Army advanced about 65 mi (105 km) into Egypt against British screening forces of the 7th Support Group (7th Armoured Division) the main force remaining in the vicinity of Mersa Matruh, the principal British base in the Western Desert. On 16 September 1940, the 10th Army halted and took up defensive positions around the port of Sidi Barrani. British casualties were 40 men killed and the Italians suffered 120. The army was to wait in fortified camps, until engineers had built the Via della Vittoria (Victory Road) along the coast, an extension of the Libyan Via Balbia. The Italians began to accumulate supplies for an advance against the 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Division at Mersa Matruh, about 80 mi (130 km) further on.
On 8 December, before the 10th Army was ready to resume its advance on Mersa Matruh, the British began Operation Compass, a five-day raid against the fortified Italian camps outside Sidi Barrani. The raid succeeded and the few units of the 10th Army in Egypt that were not destroyed were forced into a hurried retreat. The British pursued the remnants of the 10th Army along the coast to Sollum and across the border to Bardia, Tobruk, Derna, Mechili, Beda Fomm and El Agheila on the Gulf of Sirte. The British suffered casualties of 1,900 men killed and wounded during Compass and took 133,298 Italian and Libyan prisoners, 420 tanks, over 845 guns and many aircraft.
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