Operation Compass
Operation Compass (also Italian: Battaglia della Marmarica) was the first large British military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) during the Second World War. British Empire and Commonwealth forces attacked Italian forces of the 10th Army (Marshal Rodolfo Graziani) in western Egypt and Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya, from December 1940 to February 1941.
| Operation Compass | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War | |||||||||
Map showing the Western Desert theatre | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Free France | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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36,000 men 275 tanks 120 guns 142 aircraft |
150,000 men 600 armoured vehicles 1,600 guns 331 aircraft | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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500 killed 1,373 wounded 55 missing 26 aircraft |
5,500+ killed 10,000 wounded 133,298 captured 420 tanks 845 guns 564 aircraft (incl. reinforcements) | ||||||||
The Western Desert Force (WDF) (Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor) with about 36,000 men, advanced from Mersa Matruh in Egypt on a five-day raid against the Italian positions of the 10th Army, which had about 150,000 men in fortified posts around Sidi Barrani in Egypt and in Cyrenaica. The WDF swiftly defeated the Italians in their fortified posts and at Sidi Barrani, then exploited their success, forcing the rest of the 10th Army out of Egypt and capturing the ports along the Libyan coast. The 10th Army was cut off as it retreated towards Tripolitania and defeated at the Battle of Beda Fomm, the remnants being pursued to El Agheila on the Gulf of Sirte.
The British took over 138,000 Italian and Libyan prisoners, hundreds of tanks, more than a thousand guns and many aircraft. The WDF suffered 1,900 men killed and wounded, about 10 per cent of the infantry. The WDF was unable to continue beyond El Agheila, due to worn out vehicles and the diversion in March 1941 of the best-equipped units to conduct Operation Lustre for the Battle of Greece. Reinforcements were rushed to Libya to defend Tripoli, by the Italians assisted by the Deutsches Afrikakorps and the Luftwaffe.