SETTING THE SCENE
The war in North Africa had been a focus of British attention ever since it was triggered by the Italian entry into the Second World War on 10 June 1940. With France defeated and Britain facing the threat of invasion, Benito Mussolini sought to create a new Roman Empire by hoovering up British and French imperial possessions in North Africa and establishing Italian domination of the Mediterranean. It seemed a low-risk enterprise – after all, who was going to stop him?
The ‘Italian Job’ was initially successful. They overran British Somaliland and then Italian Tenth Army invaded Egypt on 9 September 1940. They pushed forward some 60 miles before setting up defended camps in the Sidi Barrani sector. But on 9 December, a daring British counterattack drove into the Italian camps, smashing the Italian force, before marching on to further crushing successes in Libya. During this brief campaign, some 130,000 Italian prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,200 guns were captured for relatively small British losses.
The British disease of hubris then asserted its baleful influence. Firstly, it was considered that all Italian formations could be safely dismissed as of negligible ability. Secondly, they did…
