Desert Warfare: The Brutal Conditions Of The North African Campaign | Battlezone | War Stories

[Music] oh here in the sweltering desert which borders the mediterranean sea was the battleground that ran for 700 miles between benghazi in the italian colony of saranaca and alexandria in british held egypt how far pass was the setting for a battle that would last over two years and see the fall of an empire and the ruin of many military reputation it was the dividing ground between italian libya and british egypt it would be here that the opening moves in the fight for the oil resources of the middle east would be fought mussolini ever ambitious to extend the domains of his african empire created triumphal arches recalling the once great glories of the caesars he coveted egypt and chose the appropriate moment to attempt a further african conquest hitler had crushed france and threatened britain with invasion now is the time to strike and mussolini gives the order to marshal graziani and his two hundred thousand men in libya to advance into egypt and take the suez canal the italian army sets off with cheerful confidence equipped with weapons dating back to the first world war across the egyptian frontier the british army awaited the attack with a total strength of 36 000 men outnumbered the british soldiers merely fall back [Music] on the 16th of september the italian advance had pushed into egypt some 60 miles and stopped at the modest fishing village of sidi bharani which italian propaganda turned into a major town the italians dug in and erected memorials to their conquest on a december morning the british under general wavel [Music] attack [Music] what had been planned as a surprise raid quickly developed into a general offensive the british reached the frontier and roll up the italian defenses the italians had believed themselves safe behind their barbed wire nine fields and fortified captains it took only a few hours to break through their front line and in two days the whole italian position had crumbled the british armored forces raced forward to capture to brook the principal port of the region the significance of this victory is explained by major general david belgium who was in charge of intelligence for the british army in the western desert now i'll show you the map in the sand the advance after to brook if this is the mediterranean coast the jebel actor which runs like this and then to the east and we say here is tobruk and here is benghazi the italians retired along the coast road which follows like that through benghazi and eventually into tripolitania when the british forces arrived here in the area of tamimi the armored troops went due west in order to cut the coast road route south of benghazi and in an attempt to bottle up the remaining italian troops in the jebel akbar and if they succeeded in doing because they reached this area which was called veda farm before the head of the retreating italian columns and in the event the accident made it fall with the end of italian resistance in syria nikah for every british soldier there were ten italians taken prison five months after the start of graziani's offensive the italian army is annihilated marshall graziani is dismissed by mussolini but the defeat is critical and the fascist regime is on the point of collapse now it seems that nothing could stop the british pushing the italians out of north africa completely the road to tripoli seems wide open to wavel's troops but with total victory in their grasp winston churchill sends orders from london that calls a halt to their offensive the british government had decided the priority must be given for sending troops and material from north africa to greece which had been invaded by italy and where the germans would be sure to follow the british army in north africa had to stop at el argela and was still there when general rommel arrived in africa general irwin rommel arrives in tripoli on february the 12th 1941 with him is a small mobile force that had been hardly assembled the force that would soon become world famous as the africa corps [Music] an infantryman turned tank leader rommel had made his reputation in the french campaign of the previous summon when he had brilliantly taken raw and cherbourg he has no experience of desert warfare but believes in rapid movement on his arrival he remarks that if huevo had continued his advance into tripolitania no opposition worthy of the name could have been mounted against him the british believe that it will take rommel three months to adapt to the conditions of desert warfare it takes him only six weeks his mission is purely defensive to prevent the british from taking tripoli but rommel doesn't see it like that the same evening of their arrival the german cancers make their way to the front line rommel's nature is not at all defensive he believes that attack is the best tactic immediate attack [Music] [Music] even before the rest of the africa corps have left the italian ports he attacks with the forces already landed it's a classic blitzkrieg [Music] on the last day in march he strikes at the british positions in el argela and crushes them quickly huevos forces have been weakened by the removal of the best troops to greece it takes ronald only 12 days to push the british army back 500 miles to the egyptian frontier and to wipe out all their gains of the previous month general o'connor the commander of the british troop is captured it's through his successful use of lightning attack that the rommel legend grows almost overnight in personal contact with the frontline soldiers it deers him to the africa claw who say to the right nothing to the left nothing in front he also earns the respect of the british soldiers whose own generals are usually unable to cope with his tactics even british intelligence spreads his fame by distributing his photograph to frontline troops with the caption this man is dangerous wow [Music] [Music] back in britain jokes are made about the british soldiers who can manage easily against the italian but you have to retreat constantly when a few germans appear [Music] rommel's army is in fact much better equipped than waves the german tanks are heavier and better arm but it's his superiority and tactics that continuously pushes the british back he's more daring and imaginative than his opponents [Music] by april the british had driven back into egypt where they had started only four months before [Music] so [Music] [Music] more than anything the germans need to control the mediterranean the british can harass the vital supply routes from italy to libya particularly by preventing oil tankers from supplying the conquering tanks of the africa core the island of malta a british military base midway between italy and north africa is the key to the control of the central mediterranean field marshall castle ring orders an aerial assault from sicily waves of measurements and heinkel's fly thousands of sorties day after day the raids continue but malta which experiences the heaviest concentration of bombing in the war holds up against all others [Music] [Music] while malta withstands continuous attack from the germans to brook on the north african coast also holds up rommel is forced to halt operations because of fuel shortage and the royal navy manages to replace the australian garrison with fresh troops poles south africans indian and british [Music] they dig themselves in around the rocky perimeter of the port like so many desert rain the desert war becomes a stalemate after the disastrous campaigns in greece and crete churchill pushes general wavel into an unsuccessful attack against rommel's africa court and when he fails replaces him with general hawkins general david beltram and field martial lord harding remember the situation general wavel was what is known as a soldiers soldier and not somebody who automatically got on well with politicians indeed i think there were occasions upon which he and mr churchill did not see entirely eye to eye he was a man dedicated to his profession very serious not particularly sociable and as a matter of fact his great hobby was poetry he edited a book on the subject i i think he had an extremely difficult task he was very much overloaded with responsibility and he was extremely short of resources i think he did the best he could have been expected to do what he had available to him general orkenleck who succeeded general huevo came from the indian army he also was a very fine looking man with much presence a great man general oaken neck who probably if one were to criticize or mention his great difficulties it is in the choice of subordinates it was he primarily who uh suggested general cunningham for the command of the eighth army when it was first uh formed and not very long afterwards he personally had to relieve general cunningham in the middle of a battle against the book because of a difference of opinion about the policy for that attack in the battles that were to come the eighth army saw many changes as generals were replaced one after another because of their failure against wrong the british desert army is now very much an empire force as it assembles in its ranks the troops of india south africa new zealand and australia there are also continues from britain's allies the poles the greeks the checks the jews from palestine and the growing formations of the free friends elsewhere in east africa the british forces aided by the first free french division had defeated the italians in eritrea and abyssinia and restored the emperor heidi selassie on his train an event which cheered the british public at home hungry for some taste of success [Music] two years after the defeat of france the french army in africa assembles in egypt soldiers from all the french colonies gather to continue the fight against the germans general nego arrives to review his new army which will regain honor for france [Music] more important than men and weapons in the desert campaign was the vital supply of water water the essential element of life and war became the greatest prize of all to collect it and keep it demanded great ingenuity the germans designed a container which the admiring british copied and named the jerrycan a word that would become part of the language their own water cans had not been able to stand up to the rough desert conditions to ensure water supplies pipelines were built and canals done water trucks and storage depots were primed targets that had to be well protected [Music] if the desert was empty of water it had many other dangers hidden beneath its barren surface the opposing armies had planted thousands of mines which even today kill wandering arrows [Music] it was the battle in the desert that first saw the use of mine detectors on a large scale invented by a polish engineer the electronic frying pans as they were dubbed did not always work properly and so the old method of carrying ground by prodding with bayonets was used a job given to enemy prisoners when they were available it was thought that those who sow should also reap [Music] [Music] the conditions were harsh for those who fought in the western desert sudden sand storms would spring up to harass unwary campers or convoys caught in their power the strong winds moved entire landscapes of sand covering roads and trails and making it necessary to travel by compass just as one would navigate the sea trucks in convoy had to cling together to avoid being lost in the trackless way the sand penetrated everywhere and spared neither men nor animals the intense heat which beat down relentlessly during the day could kill any living thing without water or shelter tanks became ovens and could act as frying pans as some german soldiers proved [Applause] [Music] perhaps the greatest scourge suffered by the desert soldier were the masses of flies that appeared whenever the troops gathered for refreshment and food [Music] in a country devoid of any vegetation or animal life they swarmed out to cover the men and made life unbearable for the troops on both sides [Music] we're not protecting themselves from the flies the soldiers had to watch out for other pests like scorpions and snakes the soldiers who could get to the coast enjoyed the luxury of splashing in the sea water the harsh conditions of desert fighting were softened by these occasional pleasures common to all the soldiers of the warring nations was the dream of home far away and of those they had left behind it was not surprising that the one great sentimental link which came out of the second world war was the plaintiff german song lily marlene which was taken up by the soldiers of both sides the conditions which were the same for all the fighting men gave the desert war a feeling of common dangerous share the german soldiers far from their homeland had to adapt to alien surroundings and strange customs the habits of the desert made them akin to the british and mutual experiences created a mystic brotherhood during the three years of the desert campaign there was no home leave for british soldiers cairo and alexandria were the only two cities where they could go to forget the fighting only 120 miles away in the western desert rommel decides to take the offensive once more and his tanks rolled forward on may 26 1942 he has received new and better honor and given new life to the italian army with characteristic speed rumble the desert fox unbalances the british defense by outflanking movements and attacks their static positions from the rear in the space of a year roman has come to know the desert and he uses it to full advantage general kerning commands the first free french brigade entrenched at beer hakeem an outpost guarding the approaches to de broglie he has served in africa all his life and is at home in the desert expecting an enemy attack he has ordered 1200 defensive positions to be dug into the rocky ground the french force consists of 3 600 men from all parts of the french empire the anti-aircraft guns are manned by french marines and the infantry comes from the foreign legion they have 50 cannons and [Music] attack on the french position by sending in an italian armored division the italians advance slowly and meet the dug-in soldiers of the foreign legion the french improvise an anti-tank event by using fast firing 75 millimeter guns which had first been used in world war one although the italians bravely attempt a breakthrough they're stopped leaving 32 tanks and armored cars burning in front of the french entrenchments rommel has to reinforce the italians with the veterans of his own africa court the germans cut off the french and begin an all-out attack to remove the last obstacle on the road to de bruyne [Music] the french resistance against great odds earns the respect of rommel himself he sends them an ultimatum if they raise the white flag and surrender their weapons they will be spared the french reply with artillery fire rommel sends in stuka dive bombers to blast the defenders from their replacements and attacks on the ground with two crack divisions [Music] so [Music] in the end the pressure is too great and general koenig decides to try and break out of the german grip at night by choosing an unexpected direction the french drive through the center of the german lines and after fierce hand-to-hand fighting cut their way out to join the main body of the british army 30 miles away [Music] rommel now has the way clear to the brook but he has been held up for 10 days [Music] the africa corps is determined that this time the british will not hold out into brooklyn as they did in the previous year now the germans make full use of their outstanding anti-aircraft weapon the 88 millimeter cannon which has been adapted to knocking out the british tanks attempting to counter attack [Music] rommel urges on his soldiers and on the morning of june the 20th they are incited to brook british shipping is caught in the harbor [Music] the surrender of tobruk is a bitter humiliation for the eighth army the defenses of the fortress had been neglected since the siege of the previous year anti-tank ditches have been allowed to fill with sand and the south african garrison had been surprised by the speed and strength of the german onslaught rommel and the africa corps capture 30 000 men and their equipment the victory is hailed by a special communique from the high command in berlin churchill takes the news very badly he regarded to brook as a symbol of british resistance rommel and the africa corps were at the summit of their achievements a hard but generous leader he always saw that his men shared in his successes the soldiers of the africa corps set the style for the german army and their caps became the model for the rest of the bear market always outnumbered rommel by nerve and guile was always a jump ahead of his opponents summoned to berlin by a delighted and grateful hitler rommel finds that he has become a legend in less than two years of desert fighting [Music] hitler makes him a field marshal and the inevitable triumph of german might seems unquestioned rommel the good soldier still believes it possible to fight a gentleman's war during the reign of adolf hitler's third right [Music] winston churchill experiences his worst moments in the desert war after the fall of tobruk he had received the bad news while in conference with president roosevelt and the humiliation was going in cairo the soldiers give him an enthusiastic welcome and [Music] always the professional soldier has little regard for public relations he shows no special consideration for churchill when he comes to inspect operations and the lunch served for the prime minister's visit is no different than the headquarters mess usually provides taking things in hand personally churchill orders an immediate counter attempt orkin neck refuses he has enough trouble just holding his position at the little railway stop of el ana maine orkinlec had carefully chosen the ground for the final stand it was the only spot where both his tanks were secured to the north by the sea and 38 miles south by the katara depression an impossible area of quicksand and salt marsh 200 feet below sea level churchill returns to cairo in august and changes the military command he dismisses orkin leg although he had chosen to stand at el alamein would not be allowed to fight the battle churchill chooses general sir harold alexander as commander-in-chief of the middle east and lieutenant general bernard montgomery to command the eighth army general god had been first choice for this person but the day after his appointment got was killed in an air crash and churchill replaced him with montgomery major generals of francis ganga remembered and i remember when he got there um he told me the very first day i'd met him outside alexandra and ridden up with him and given him a verbal report of what was happening in on the front and he told me to get all the staff um assembled on the revised bridge that very evening and i remember saying okay it's going to be very difficult sir and he said it's got to be done and so it was done and i shall never forget that moment there he was this little man quite white not bronze by the sun as most of us were and there he gave a narration i would call it which was second to none which had the most fantastic effect on everyone who heard very quickly he left his headquarters in order to make a tour of the front instead during this tour he used to borrow the headdress soldiers in the various divisions at one time he wore a new zealand hat and other times an australian hat and so on he became known as the general who wore funny headdress when i arrived at the headquarters of the 8th army on the 13th of august 1942 at about 11 o'clock in the morning now when you take command of a large army that is a close grips with a victorious and skillful enemy you can't afford to make mistakes i then insisted that all existing plans and orders for withdraw must be canceled if formal attacked we would fight at anime if we couldn't stay there alive we would stay there dead montgomery immediately called monty by the men of the eighth army learns that his troops will be equipped with the latest tanks and artillery morale improves as a flood of american arms arrives hundreds of sherman and grant tents the only armor that can stand up to the german panzer mark freeze and falls now montgomery will benefit from his short supply lines which stretch only some 60 miles while rommel's africa corps is 1400 miles away from their main base in tripoli the british desert air force is nearby with its main airfields in the nile delta the germans are now paying the full price for not eliminating malta the royal navy and royal air force sink three out of four of the oil tankers that try to bring precious oil across the mediterranean to fuel the panzer army the africa corps is now on the defensive montgomery institutes a physical fitness course for the whole army the soldiers must undergo rigorous training and the officers after the rank of lieutenant colonel must be under 30 years of age montgomery also saw to it that even the lowest private was carefully briefed as to what was expected from him churchill wanted montgomery's offenses to start in september but monty insisted on a later date he would not begin an attack without absolute superiority i remember one day general alexander who was then commander-in-chief middle east having taken over from oakland came up and arrived and monte took him into his caravan he asked me to join and i sat in background as usual with the pad taking down any notes which i thought were important and uh alexander showed montgomery a signal he'd received from churchill pressing alexander to order montgomery to carry out this offensive in september he felt october was too late i think one of the reasons was this uh coming landings in north africa and algiers and he wanted this battle to be well underway and prevent reinforcements and going over to the uh west of the mediterranean well uh monty listened for a bit and uh after alex had said uh well now what shall i say monty said to me but he give me your pad he took my pen and got a pencil and he wrote a signal and he passed it to alex he said send that and the gist of it was that if you want me to attack in september it'll probably be a failure if i can wait until october i guarantee a victory the sun was setting over a darkening desert on october the 23rd when two hundred thousand british troops and a thousand tanks moved into position monty sent every man a personal message which stated that the battle about to begin will be one of the decisive battles of history it will be the turning point of the war as planned the british guns opened fire at exactly 9 40. [Music] so [Music] was the heaviest of the war it could be heard back in alexandria nearly a thousand gardens fired together the shelling completely disrupted the enemy communication system and the africa call was thrown into confusion the british attack did not go entirely according to plan either the german minefields which stretched for three miles were thicker than expected and the british tanks were badly caught in the middle heavy losses has made the first formations of the assault the germans fought harder than had been expected and desperately held their ground the following day the battle raged across the mine fields and losses on both sides grew heavy the africa corps lost its commander who died on the battlefield and hitler ordered rommel back to africa from his sick bed in austria the british attack had faltered and the exhausted units were vulnerable to a counter thrust but rommel had not yet returned and the weary africa corps could not seize their last opportunity to regain the initiative montgomery had lost over 210 as many as the germans had started with his infantry had suffered high casualties particularly among the highlanders the australians and the south africans many officers believe the offensive should be called off but montgomery remained residue now at that time i was asleep in my cabinet and my chief of staff brigadier the gang off came and woke me up and said he reckoned the battle was what he called story and some pretty firm orders were necessary he had summoned the two core commanders on the northern flank to come and see me was that right now the point i'd make here is if he did that before he came to wake me he took the responsibility and he was quite right i said it was exactly right well they arrived about 3am they were losing a lot of tanks he wanted my orders to be modified the atmosphere my caravan was pretty tense i think i was quite calm when there when i'd heard all they had to say i said there would be no change of any sort in my orders the armored divisions would fight their way out i then dismissed them all and went back is back in africa sick depressed and furious with the italians who no longer supply his forces he is disappointed by hitler who is willing to sacrifice his army for a few yards of sand the panzers are thrown into a counter-attack but they are forced back with heavy losses the british reserves are stronger than the german and montgomery feels that time is on his side he decides to withdraw some of his divisions from the front line to reorganize him for the next plan operation supercharged monty's final punch began on november the 2nd [Music] the tough africa corps fought as strongly as ever for their commander but rommel was down to only 35 and the british still had 600 slowly the germans began to yield rommel saw that he must withdraw or have his infantry destroyed by the british honor hitler ordered him to stand and die at anime that rommel convinced him to cancel these instructions on the afternoon of november the 4th the desert fox orders a general retreat and the africa corps take all the remaining transport for the rush westwood leaving thousands of italians behind they surrender in divisions the second battle of el alamein is over and as the british army collect the survivors of the once invincible africa corps general alexander signals churchill to ring out the bells which churchill promptly did to impede rommel's retreat montgomery sends out the desert air force air marshal tethers 800 planes bomb and machine gun retreating german columns wherever they are found rommel was down to 10 tanks and 10 000 men [Music] [Music] montgomery's commanders were all for catching up with rommel and forcing a final showdown but monty did not wish to risk having to come back again like the others rommel was as good a general in retreat as he was in attack and he managed to keep his force together all the way back three british armored divisions chased him all the way one the famous seventh nicknamed the desert rats had fought continuously since nineteen forty past mata matru pass city barrani through the hellfire pass rommel fell back fighting all the way to the delight of churchill to brook fell [Music] on the british side losses amounted to 13 500 killed wounded and missing the axis had 10 000 kills 15 000 wounded and 30 000 taken prisoner it had been a killing match a first world war battle fought with second world war weapons [Music] the allies passed by the rusting remains of previous battles in their pursuit of rome benghazi fell in turn el aguera was reached on november the 24th a month after el alamein began finally tripoli fell on january the 23rd 1943 montgomery parades the 51st highland division to mark the event [Music] so [Music] churchill arrives to the victory parade and to praise his desert soldiers [Music] [Applause] you have altered the faith of the war in the most remarkable way i must tell you that the fame of the desert army has spread throughout the world the germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel [Music] which they have so often meted out to others ah this is not the end uh it is not even the beginning of the year but it is perhaps the end of the [Applause] beginning fifteen major battles of the second world war their impact was enormous and decisive see newly released documentary footage on the dramatic encounters in the atlantic and the pacific see the great historical battles in russia the normandy landing the bombing of berlin the invasion of italy see the big battles of world war ii the faithful encounters upon which hung the destinies of men and nations see the big battles [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, archive footage, north africa campaign, african campaign, rommel, africa ww2

Id: QPSR6_6pax4

Length: 49min 45sec (2985 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 10 2021