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Char Matilda II du 7th Royal Tank Regiment – Opération Compass – Campagne d'Afrique du Nord – 19 décembre 1940
Photographe : Capitaine Geoffrey John Keating - No. 1 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit
©Imperial War Museums - E 1416
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A British Cruiser tank is unloaded at an Egyptian port (November 17th, 1940). It is one of many that have just been shipped there by British forces.
The body of an Italian soldier lies where he fell during battle, in a stone-walled fort in the West Libyan desert (February 11th, 1941).
British infantrymen in a shallow trench near Bardia, a Libyan port that had been occupied by Italian forces but fell to the Allies on January 5th, 1941, after a 20-day siege.
Italian prisoners of war leave Bardia (Libya, February 5th, 1941). British forces captured the fortified seaport of Bardia, taking over 38,000 POWs (including four generals) as well as huge quantities of war material.
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A squadron of Bren gun carriers, manned by the Australian Light Cavalry, rolls through the Egyptian desert (January 1941). They are performing manouevres in preparation for the Allied campaign in North Africa.
A Matilda II Tank of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment in the Western Desert during Operation Compass (December 19th, 1940).
English version
Operation Compass
In the summer of 1940, the North African theater saw Italy in a seemingly favorable position. In Libya, Italian forces were rich in infantry but poorly motorized, with weak logistics and limited mobility in the desert environment. The Italian advance, launched only in September 1940, encountered deliberately limited British resistance and halted at Sidi el Barrani. Italian units remained dispersed in isolated fortified camps, tactically vulnerable, while armored forces faced significant shortcomings: the light L3 tanks were obsolete, and the more modern M11 and M13, although theoretically effective, were often lacking radio equipment, severely limiting command and control.
In December 1940, British commander Archibald Wavell launched Operation Compass, initially conceived as a limited action. The Allied forces, numerically inferior but highly mobile, well-coordinated, and supported by Matilda II tanks, exploited maneuver, envelopment, and surprise. Italian positions were progressively isolated, destroyed, and much of the personnel captured, turning the initial raid into a large-scale offensive that culminated, between January and February 1941, in the complete destruction of the Italian 10th Army.
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Versione in italiano
L’Operazione Compass
Nell’estate del 1940 il teatro nordafricano vedeva l’Italia in una posizione solo apparentemente favorevole. In Libia le forze italiane erano ricche di fanteria ma scarsamente motorizzate, con una logistica debole e mobilità ridotta in ambiente desertico. L’avanzata italiana, lanciata solo nel settembre 1940, incontrò una resistenza britannica volutamente contenuta e si fermò a Sidi el Barrani. Le unità italiane rimasero disperse in campi trincerati isolati, vulnerabili tatticamente, mentre le forze corazzate soffrivano di limiti rilevanti: i carri leggeri L3 erano obsoleti, e i più moderni M11 e M13, pur validi sulla carta, erano spesso privi di apparati radio, limitando gravemente comando e controllo. Nel dicembre 1940 il comandante britannico Archibald Wavell diede avvio all’Operazione Compass, inizialmente concepita come azione limitata. Le forze alleate, numericamente inferiori ma altamente mobili, ben coordinate e supportate dai carri Matilda II, sfruttarono manovra, aggiramento e sorpresa. Le posizioni italiane furono progressivamente isolate, distrutte e gran parte dei soldati catturati, trasformando l’incursione iniziale in un’offensiva su vasta scala che culminò, tra gennaio e febbraio 1941, nella completa distruzione della decima Armata italiana.
