Britains Desert War in Egypt and Libya 19401942
Britains Desert War in Egypt and Libya 19401942
The End of the Beginning
By
D.W. Braddock, B.A.
with forewords by
Professor N.H. GIBBS, M.A., D.Phil. (1964 Edition)
and
General Sir Nick Carter KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen Chief of the Defence Staff (2019 Edition)
First published in Great Britain in 1964 under the title The Campaigns in
Egypt and Libya 19401942 by Aldershot, Gale & Polden Ltd.
Republished in this format in 2019 by
Pen & Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire Philadelphia
Copyright David Braddock 1964, 2019
ISBN 978 1 52675 978 8
eISBN 978 1 52675 979 5
Mobi ISBN 978 1 52675 980 1
The right of David Braddock to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www-and-sword.co.uk
Or
PEN AND SWORD BOOKS
1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA
E-mail:
Website: www.penandswordbooks.com
Foreword
T he campaigns in Egypt and Libya, 194042, are a most fruitful subject for the student of military history. Every aspect of war can be studied in them with interest and profit. At the grand strategy level they illustrate some of the fundamental problems Britain has had to face for generations past in the reconciliation of her island and world-wide interests. At the high command level, both British and German, there is rich material for the study of personalities and methods of command. Previous accounts of this aspect of these campaigns have, it is true, sometimes been distorted by bias. But the present author does not err in that respect. His own judgments are fair and he provides the serious student with ample material for the formation of independent conclusions. Again, the history of desert fighting offers not only the whole range of operations from small and often disjointed skirmishes to major set battles; it also provides a wealth of material for the study of the development of weapons and the impact which that development can have on the course of operations.
Finally, the desert fighting of these years saw the first genuine British inter-Service co-operation of the Second World War. Lessons were learned in Egypt and Libya which were of profound importance for the subsequent conduct of the war in Italy, in north-western Europe and in the Far East.
Mr. Braddock has written a scholarly and attractive study. His book provides officers (and others, too) with an excellent comprehensive account which should stimulate everyone who reads it to further reading.
Professor N.H. Gibbs, M.A., D.Phil., Chichele Professor of the History of War.
Foreword to 2019 Edition
I have always hugely enjoyed studying the campaigns in Egypt and Libya between 1940 and 1942. They are the source of a huge number of lessons for the student of military history, at all levels of command from the strategic to the tactical. Interestingly the outcome of the Campaign was in many ways determined by the science of supply. It is a truism that amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics but it was the combination of stuff and what fuelled it that was decisive.
The Campaign also teaches us much about the nature of the British Army at that time and its leadership. The hard-won lessons of World War One that had led to the very successful Hundred Day Campaign in the late summer of 1918 and the importance of combined Arms manoeuvre had regrettably not been applied as well as they might have been by this stage in World War Two. The arrival of Rommel ruthlessly exposed what the early battles against Italian opponents had not and it took a number of reverses for the British leadership to fix it.
Unlike the German Army the British Army lacked a war-fighting military doctrine and this was ruthlessly exploited by Rommel during the later battles of the Campaign. Indeed, he observed of the 8 th Armys performance that too often orders were the basis for discussion. And it was not until 1989 that this gap in the British Armys thinking was filled with the publication of The Design for Military Operations the British Military Doctrine which clearly laid out the hierarchy of Fighting Power - the Conceptual, the Moral and the Physical, and established the British Armys Command Philosophy.
As a young officer studying for the Staff College exam at that time, I was fortunate that the author was one of the academic instructors who patiently educated me in the tactics and techniques needed to out manoeuvre the examiners. Indeed, he helped me become a how to think thinker rather than a what to think thinker. His part in the development of much of the senior horsepower in the British Army has been huge. So, I commend this republished version of this excellent book to you. The analysis is as sound today as it was 55 years ago when it was first published.
General Sir Nick Carter KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen Chief of the Defence Staff
List of Maps
The Mediterranean Theatre
The Battle of Sidi Barrani, 9th December, 1940
The Advance of XIII Corps, 12th December, 1940/8th February, 1941
Rommels First Offensive, April, 1941
Operation Battleaxe (1). The Events of 15th/16th June, 1941
Operation Battleaxe (2). The Events of 17th June, 1941
Operation Crusader (1). The Events of 18th/19th November, 1941
Operation Crusader (2). The Events of 20th/21st November, 1941
Operation Crusader (3). The Events of 22nd/23rd November, 1941
Operation Crusader (4). The Period 24th November/ 1st December, 1941
The Pursuit of Rommel by XIII Corps, 3rd/31st December, 1941
Rommels Second Offensive, 21st January/8th February, 1942
