The Battle of Sidi Barrani 1940) was the opening battle of Operation Compass, the first big British attack of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. Sidi Barrani, on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, had been occupied by the Italian 10th Army, during the Italian invasion of Egypt and was attacked by British, Commonwealth and imperial troops, who re-captured the port.
While retreating from Sidi Barrani and Buq Buq, the 10th Army divisions crowded on the coast road and were easy targets for and two gunboats, that bombarded the Sollum area all day and for most of the night of 11 December. By late on 12 December, the only Italian positions left in Egypt were at the approaches to Sollum and the vicinity of Sidi Omar.
The British took for a loss of and continued the five-day raid on Italian positions in Egypt, eventually capturing Cyrenaica and most of the 10th Army between Sollum and at the Battle of Beda Fomm, south of the port of Benghazi.
Background Libya
Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya had been an Italian colony since the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912). With Tunisia, a part of French North Africa to the west and Egypt to the east, the Italians prepared to defend both frontiers with a North Africa Supreme Headquarters, under the command of the Governor-General of Italian Libya, Marshal of the Air Force (), Italo Balbo. Supreme Headquarters had the 5th Army (General Italo Gariboldi) and the 10th Army (General Mario Berti) which in mid-1940 had nine metropolitan divisions of about each, three Blackshirt ( and two Italian Libyan Colonial Divisions with each.
In the late 30s, Italian divisions had been cut from three regiments each to two for increased mobility once they were mechanised; reservists were recalled in 1939, along with the usual call-up of conscripts. Morale was considered to be high and the Army () had recent experience of military operations. The Royal Navy () had prospered under the Fascist regime, which had paid for fast, well-built and well-armed ships and a large submarine fleet but the navy lacked experience and training. The Royal Air Force () had stagnated and by 1939 was not considered by the British to be capable of a high rate of operations. The 5th Army, with eight divisions, was in Tripolitania, the province adjacent to Tunisia and the 10th Army, with six divisions, held Cyrenaica in the east. When war was declared, the 10th Army moved the 1st Libyan Division to the frontier from Giarabub (Jaghbub) to Sidi Omar and XXI Corps from Sidi Omar to the coast, Bardia and Tobruk; XXII Corps moved south-west of Tobruk as a counter-attack force.
Egypt
The British had based military forces in Egypt since 1882 but the number was greatly reduced by the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The small British and Commonwealth force garrisoned the Suez Canal and the Red Sea route, which was vital to British communications with its Far Eastern and Indian Ocean territories. In mid-1939, Lieutenant-General Archibald Wavell was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the new Middle East Command, over the Mediterranean and Middle East theatres. Until the Franco-Axis armistice, the French divisions in Tunisia faced the Italian 5th Army on the Libya–Tunisia border. In Libya, the Royal Army had about 215,000 men and in Egypt, the British had about with another training in Palestine.
British forces included the Mobile Division (Egypt) (Major-General Percy Hobart), one of only two British armoured training formations, which in mid-1939 was renamed Armoured Division (Egypt) (on 16 February 1940, it became the 7th Armoured Division). The Egypt–Libya border was defended by the Egyptian Frontier Force and in June 1940, the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division (Major-General Richard O'Connor) took over command in the Western Desert, with instructions to drive back the Italians from their frontier posts and dominate the hinterland if war began. The 7th Armoured Division less the 7th Armoured Brigade, assembled at Mersa Matruh and sent the 7th Support Group forward towards the frontier as a covering force, where the RAF also moved most of its bombers; Malta was also reinforced.
The HQ of the 6th Infantry Division, which lacked complete and fully trained units, was renamed the Western Desert Force (WDF) on 17 June. In Tunisia, the French had eight divisions, capable only of limited operations and in Syria, three poorly armed and trained divisions, with about and border guards on occupation duties against the civilian population. The and in Libya greatly outnumbered the British in Egypt but suffered from poor morale and were handicapped by some inferior equipment. In Italian East Africa () were another and African troops with tanks and Italy declared war from 11 June 1940.
Supply The normal Italian supply route to the port of Tripoli in Libya, was west around Sicily and then close to the Libyan coast to the port, a voyage of about , to avoid interference from British aircraft, ships and submarines based at Malta. On land, supplies had to be carried long distances by road or in small consignments by coaster. The distance from Tripoli to Benghazi was about along the (, the coast road built by the Italians) and only half-way to Alexandria; a third of the Italian merchant marine was interned after Italy declared war. The road could flood, was vulnerable to the Desert Air Force (DAF) and alternative desert tracks increased vehicle wear. The Italian invasion of Egypt in late 1940, increased the road transport distance from Tripoli over the Khedival Motor Road, which was much inferior to the .
The geographical position of Italy made it possible to close the Mediterranean if war came, making the British Mediterranean Fleet, based in Egyptian ports, dependent on the Suez Canal for supply. In 1939, Wavell began to plan a base in the Middle East for about fifteen divisions (300,000 men), six in Egypt, three in Palestine and the rest further afield. Much of the material was imported from the colonies and the rest obtained locally by stimulating the production of import substitutes. The plan to establish the infrastructure for a garrison of nine divisions in Egypt and Palestine was increased to fourteen by June 1941, then to March 1942. In 1940, British military forces had the terminus of the Egyptian state railway, road and the port of Mersa Matruh (Matruh) west of Alexandria, as a base. A water pipeline was begun along the railway and sources of water surveyed. Wells were dug but most became tainted by salt water and in 1939, the main sources of fresh water were Roman aqueducts at Matruh and Maaten Bagush.
Water boats from Alexandria and a distillation plant at Matruh increased supply but rigorous economy had to be enforced and much water had to be moved overland to outlying areas. The number of vehicles available in 1939 was inadequate and lorries were diverted to provide the Armoured Division with a better rear link; only the desert-worthy vehicles could be risked off-road, which left tanks unable to move far from Matruh. Matruh was east of the Libyan border. From the border, there was no water at Sollum, for east of Sollum to Sidi Barrani, there was only the Khedival Motor Road, which deliberately was kept in poor condition in case of an invasion, which meant that an invader would have to move through a waterless and trackless desert to reach the main British force. In September 1940, the New Zealand Railway Battalion and Indian labourers began work on the coastal railway and reached Sidi Barrani by October 1941.
Terrain
The war was fought primarily in the Western Desert, which was about wide, from Mersa Matruh in Egypt to Gazala on the Libyan coast, along the , the only paved road. The Sand Sea inland marked the southern limit of the desert at its widest at Giarabub and Siwa; in British parlance, Western Desert came to include eastern Cyrenaica in Libya. From the coast, extending inland lies a raised, flat, stony desert about above sea level, that stretches south to the Sand Sea. Scorpions, vipers and flies populated the region, which was inhabited by a small number of Bedouin nomads, whose tracks linked wells (birs) and the easier traversed ground.
Navigation was reliant on the sun, stars, compass bearings and "desert sense", good perception of the environment gained by experience. When Italian troops advanced into Egypt in September 1940, the Maletti Group got lost leaving Sidi Omar and had to be found by reconnaissance aircraft. In spring and summer, days are miserably hot and nights very cold. The (/), a hot desert wind, blows clouds of fine sand, which reduces visibility to a few metres and coats eyes, lungs, machinery, food and equipment; motor vehicles and aircraft need special oil filters and the barren ground means that supplies for military operations have to be transported from outside. German engines tended to overheat and tank engine life fell from to , which was made worse by the lack of standard parts for German and Italian types of equipment.
Prelude Frontier skirmishes
On 11 June 1940, hostilities commenced and the British were ordered to dominate the frontier and begin the Siege of Giarabub. The British crossed into Libya that night, exchanged fire with Italian troops at Sidi Omar and discovered that some of them were unaware that war had been declared. On 14 June, the British captured Fort Capuzzo and Fort Maddalena, taking Two days later, the British raided a convoy on the Tobruk–Bardia road, killed troops and took including Romolo Lastrucci, the 10th Army Chief Engineer. At an engagement near the frontier wire at Nezuet Ghirba, an Italian force of four guns and was defeated by a mixed force of British tanks, artillery and motorised infantry.
The British patrolled the frontier area as far west as Tobruk, establishing dominance over the 10th Army. On 5 August, thirty Italian tanks and the 8th Hussars fought an inconclusive action and Wavell concluded that vehicle wear made it impractical to continue operations when an Italian offensive loomed. Sand wore out equipment quickly, shortening the track life of tanks, spare parts ran out and only half the tank strength could be kept operational. A lull fell from August–early September, as Operation Hats a naval operation, reinforced the Mediterranean Fleet and helped to bring an army convoy of tanks and crews via the Cape. The British claimed to have inflicted for a loss of from Further afield, both sides established scouting groups, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and (Auto-Saharan Company) which ranged the desert, observed British dispositions and raided.
On 13 September 1940, the invasion began as a limited tactical operation towards Matruh, rather than the strategic objectives sketched in Rome, due to the chronic lack of transport, fuel and wireless equipment, even with transfers from the 5th Army. Musiad was subjected to a "spectacular" artillery bombardment at dawn and occupied. Sollum and the airfield were taken by the 1st Libyan Division and by evening the 2nd Libyan Division, 63rd Infantry Division "Cirene" and the Maletti Group from Musaid and the 62nd Infantry Division "Marmarica" from Sidi Omar, pushed past British harassing parties and converged on Halfaya Pass. The British withdrew past Buq Buq on 14 September and continued to harass the Italian advance, while falling back to Alam Hamid the next day and Alam el Dab on 16 September. An Italian force of fifty tanks attempted a flanking move, which led the British rearguard to retire east of Sidi Barrani. The port was occupied by the 1st CC.NN. Division "23 Marzo" and Graziani halted the advance. The British resumed observation and the 7th Armoured Division prepared to challenge an attack on Matruh.