Early in World War II, a large Italian Army advanced from Libya into British-occupied Egypt. But the British forces, despite being numerically inferior, were able to repel the Fascist invaders. In fact, they pushed Mussolini’s forces all the way back to Tobruk in eastern Libya. Sensing yet another defeat for his fellow dictator, Adolf Hitler decided to halt the rout by sending a few “light” divisions into Africa. The Afrika Korps, as the force came to be called, was supposed to halt the British advance and stabilize the line. But its commander, Field Marshal Irwin Rommel, had much greater things in mind. Carefully marshalling his meager forces and applying a brilliant mix of aggressive tactics, Rommel and his forces drove the British out of Libya and all the way back deep into Egypt. Now looming disaster faced the British: could their exhausted desert forces prevent Field Marshal’s conquest of Egypt and Germany’s decisive occupation of the Suez Canal?!
