The Western Desert Campaign 1940-42 - General Chronology

This is my current project that I revised already a few times. The idea is to make a chronology of the Western Desert Campaign starting in September,13 1940 - when Italians invade Egypt - and finishing in November,8 1942 - when operation "Torch" is launched.

I start to draft a General Chronology of the Campaign. I started with the mentioned source and nexts posts will be titled "The Western Desert Campaign 1940-42 - General Chronology - Update 1" and so on - "(...) - Update 2", (...) - Update 5", always mentioning the references.

All these posts will be filed under the tags "WDC 1940-42" and "WDC 1940-42 - General Chronology".

When I'll find enough sources to draft an Order of Battle for a specific battle or operation, I'll write specific posts.

For instance "Western Desert Campaign 1940-42 - Operation Compass" and the updates will be organised in the same way as the General Chronology.

These posts will be filed under the tags "WDC 1940-42" and "WDC 1940-42 - Op Compass".

When I can convert an Order of Battle to the Army Lists of a specific Wargames Rule I'll also identified those posts. For instance "Western Desert Campaign 1940-42 - Operation Compass - High Command Wargames Rules", and the post will be filed under the tags "WDC 1940-42", "WDC 1940-42 - Op Compass", and "High Command Wargames Rules".

I know there are different and probably easier ways to establish the links between the posts bu this is simple enough for me and I hope it also will be for you.

I don't know if anyone will find this work interesting but I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun doing it.



1940

September 13-18
- Italians invade Egypt

October 16
- Italians enter Sidi Barrani

December 9
- Gen O'Connors's Western Desert Force (WDF) begins Operation “Compass”

December 11
- Sidi Barrani captured by WDF

1941

January 4
- Bardia captured by WDF (now called XIII Corps)

January 22
- Tobruk captured by XIII Corps

February 5-7
- Battle of Beda Fomm/Sidi Saleh and surrender of 10th Italian Army

February 6
- Benghazi captured by XIII Corps

February 12
- Rommel arrives in Tripoli

March 24
- Axis forces occupy El Agheila

April 1
- Rommel's first advance begins - Mersa Brega captured

April 3
- Rommel takes Benghazi

April 7
- Generals O'Connor and Neame taken prisioner

April 8
- Rommel takes Mechili

April 10-11
- Rommel reaches Bardia, then Sollum, and starts attacks on Tobruk, which was besieged from 10 April to 10 December (242 days)

May 4
- Attacks on Tobruk fail

May 15-17
- Operation "Brevity" - British attack Halfaya Pass-Sollum-Fort Capuzzo

May 27
- Germans retake Halfaya

June 15-17
- Operation "Battleaxe" assault on Halfaya-Sollum-Capuzzo fails

July 5
- Gen Auchinleck replaces Gen Wavell
- Marshal Bastico replaces Marshal Gariboldi

July 31
- Panzergruppe Afrika formed

September 14-15
- German raid on Sofafi fails

September 18
- Eighth Army formed

November 16
- Operation "Crusader" begins

November 21
- Sidi Rezegh battle starts

December 7-8
- German withdrawal commences

December 10
- Tobruk relieved

December 15
- German withdraw from Gazala

December 25
- British take Benghazi

1942

January 2
- Bardia surrenders to British

January 17
- Sollum and Halfaya garrisons surrender to British

January 21
- Rommel advances from Mersa Brega

January 28
- British evacuate Benghazi and withdraw to Gazala Line

February 2
- Eighth Army manages to stabilise line at Gazala-Bir Hacheim

May 10
- Auchinleck ordered to attack

May 26
- Rommel beats them to the punch and attacks the British line

June 5-6
- Cauldron battle

June 10
- French position at Bir Hacheim falls

June 11-12
- DAK armour defeats British armour

June 14
- Decision made to withdraw from Gazala Line

June 21
- Tobruk falls to Axis
- Rommel promoted to Field Marshal

June 25
- Auchinleck takes over command of Eighth Army from Ritchie

July 1-5
- Rommel tries to break trhough at El Alamein but fails

July 10-26
- British attacks end indecisively - both sides exhausted

August 13
- Gen Montgomery takes over command of Eighth Army

August 15
- Gen Alexander succeeds Gen Auchinleck as C-in-C MELF

August 30-31
- Rommel's forces attack Alam el Halfa positions but cannot break through and suffer heavy casualties

September 2
- Axis forces start to with draw

September 22
- Rommel hands over to Gen Stumme and flies home

October 22
- Battle of El Alamein begins
- Gen Stumme heas heart attack and dies

October 23-24
- The Break-in battle

October 25
- Rommel returns and takes command

October 25 - November 1
- The "Dogfight"

November 2
- Operation "Supercharge"

November 4
- Axis withdrawal begins - it will continue until they are forced out of Tripolitania

November 8
- Operation "Torch" - landing of US and UK troops in French North Africa



References:

FORTY, George; "The Desert War"; Sutton Publishing; 2002