![]() While they could sortie 84 modern bombers and 114 fighters, backed up by 113 obsolete aircraft, they were completely outclassed by the British Hurricane. The Italians also had problems in the air. 303 caliber Lee Enfield rifle, the very good Bren and Vickers machine guns and the safe and deadly Mills grenade. On the other hand, the British troops used the reliable. And they had a problem with the Model 35 "Red Devil" hand grenades blowing up in the hands of their users. Furthermore, Italian soldiers were stuck with the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, an 1881 model, which suffered from low bullet velocity and their Breda machine guns were clumsy to operate and jammed easily. Italian troops were short of antitank guns, antiaircraft guns, ammunition, and radio sets. None could match the British Matilda with its 50mm armor and 40mm gun. The heavyweight M13 packed a 47mm gun, but crawled along at nine miles per hour. The underpowered and thinly-armored M11 was little better. The 元 tank only mounted two machine guns. And this seems to have been the least of his problems. Also, Italian divisions had been reduced from three regiments to two, a paperwork shuffle that created more Italian divisions but weakened their strength. Two of his six divisions were Blackshirt militia outfits, clad in fancy black uniforms, but poor soldiers. First of all, the Italian 10th and 5th Armies in Libya marched on foot, while the British rode in trucks. Yet, behind the overwhelming numbers facing the British were any number of weaknesses, and even Graziani knew this. ![]() It should be noted that, while the most decisive battle to take place in North Africa was fought at El-Alemein, most of the early fighting actually took place in Libya, though after Italy attempted to invade Egypt. It is true that, in North Africa at least, they did poorly in battle, but they did poorly because they had not the equipment or the leadership to do otherwise. In all fairness to our Italian friends, and as most people already realize, many of the Italian people during World War II were as much victims of their government as were the enemies of Mussolini. This is why Mussolini wrote to him saying, "It is not a question of aiming for Alexandria or even Sollum, I am only asking you to attack the British forces facing you". Furthermore, only 150 British tanks faced 300 Italian tanks. Italy fielded 400 guns to the British 150, and he had 190 fighter aircraft to the British 48. His army of 250,000 faced a British force of barely 30,000. On paper, it should have been a sure thing. Therefore, he ordered his supreme commander in Libya, Marsha Rodolfo Graziani, to attack the British in Egypt. Mussolini had, so far in the war, thoroughly embarrassed himself, and he was looking for both a way to improve his image with the Germans and to find a way to get a larger slice of territory as the spoils of war. Since the British knew very well the importance of Egypt and its geographical significance, the British army moved the headquarters of their Mediterranean fleet from Malta to Alexandria in North Egypt in the 1930s.Īt the beginning of World War II (in North Africa, there had already been battles further south), there was no Rommel in Egypt, and only the Italians in Libya. However, British troops had the right to stay in Egypt to protect the Suez Canal from any invasion, and this enabled Britain to continue dominating Egypt's political life and to interfere in every aspect of Egyptian life until they were finally ousted in 1952.īut in 1940, the British troops were supreme in Egypt. This remained until 1922, when Britain gave Egypt its independence. Egypt in 1882 became a de facto British colony.
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