Traveling Tuesday: What’s the Big Deal about the Suez Canal?

Traveling Tuesday: 

What’s the Big Deal about the Suez Canal?

The North African Campaign began in June 1940 and continued for three long years as the Axis and Allied troops pushed each other back and forth across the desert. Did you ever wonder why this area of the world was so coveted? The answer lies in transportation. Both forces wanted to control the Suez Canal, an artificial waterway that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez.

Before its completion, seafarers would have to travel around the southern tip of Africa to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. A huge project, the Canal was built between 1859 and 1869 and shortened the trip by 4,300 miles.

Although never a British colony, Egypt was occupied by United Kingdom troops beginning in 1882 and remained under British control even after formal recognition of Egyptian independence in 1922. In the mid-1930s the headquarters of the British Navy’s Mediterranean fleet was moved from Malta to Alexandria.

Fighting began when the Mussolini declared war on the British and French. Knowing his 500,000 men outnumbered the 50,000 British contingent, he sent his troops into Libya. A series of camps were set up but proved to be too far apart to support each other, and while the Italians waited for further instructions, British General Archibald Wavell took the initiative and performed a large-scale raid that led to the near collapse of Italy’s hold on North Africa.

By early March 1943, the British Eighth Army crossed into Tunisia and within eight weeks had crushed the Axis Powers who surrendered on May 13 yielding 275,000 POWs. Certainly a huge success for the Allies, the campaign came at the cost of nearly 400,000 men.

Traveling Tuesday: Egypt

Traveling Tuesday: Egypt

Between the 1870 and 1900, European countries used imperialist aggression, diplomatic pressures, and military invasions to colonize Africa. As a result, at the height of African colonization, seven different countries owned pieces of the continent.

Libya had been occupied by Italy since 1912 as an “economic expansion.” A few years prior to WWII, Mussolini sent thousands of Italians, mostly farmers and other rural type workers, to the country. But the dictator wanted more, specifically countries that had been part of the “old Roman empire.” The apple of his eye was Egypt.

However, he had a problem. As part of a 1936 treaty, British troops occupied Egypt to protect the Suez Canal and the Royal Naval bases in Alexandria and Port Said. But this was September 1940, and the London Blitz had commenced. Also Mussolini thought a German invasion of England was imminent. So he hedged his bets that the British troops would be vulnerable, and on September 13, 1940 sent his forces into Egypt.

Fighting primarily took place in the Western desert, and the Italians eventually captured Sidi Barrani where they left six divisions. But as with many wars, the tide changed, and two months later the British attacked the Italian camps. In three days, they took more than 40,000 Italian prisoners. By January 1941, the British had advanced and took another 35,000 prisoners. By February Italians were surrendering in droves. But once again the tide turned, and it would be another two years before the British gained success against Italy in Africa.