Qualla: Italian Invasion of Egypt

Italian Invasion of Egypt: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorsen, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. Marshal Rodolfo Graziani did not want to invade Egypt. When Mussolini ordered him to attack from Italian Libya, he replied that his 10th Army was poorly equipped and that the offensive could not possibly succeed. Mussolini told him to go anyway. So on 13 September 1940, along the single coastal road that hugged the Mediterranean, the Italian army began to move east - infantry on foot in the September heat, tanks and trucks shuttling forward in stages, a vast column advancing into a desert it barely understood. Within four days it would stop, dig in, and wait. That pause would prove fatal.

Image: Dorsen | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Italian Invasion of Egypt: An Army Ordered Against Its Judgment

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Moosmüller, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. Italy held Libya, and across the wire to the east lay Egypt, officially neutral but garrisoned by a small British and Commonwealth force guarding the Suez Canal - Britain's lifeline to India and the Far East. On paper the imbalance favored Italy enormously. The 10th Army fielded ...

Image: Moosmüller | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Italian Invasion of Egypt: Lost in the Sand

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorsen, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The desert humbled the invaders before a serious shot was fired. The Maletti Group, a motorized force built around most of Italy's armor in Libya, was ordered to swing south through open country to outflank the British on the escarpment. But the Italian staff failed to supply pro...

Image: Dorsen | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Italian Invasion of Egypt: Sixty-Five Miles to Nowhere

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorsen, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The main advance crawled forward along the coast, a day's progress measured in single-digit miles so the marching infantry could keep pace. British rearguards - the 3rd Coldstream Guards, riflemen, gunners, a company of Free French marines - fell back deliberately, demolishing th...

Image: Dorsen | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Italian Invasion of Egypt: The Trap Springs Shut

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dorsen, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The camps were the mistake. They were spaced too far apart to support one another, scattered in an arc south and west of Sidi Barrani, and the army settled in to wait out the autumn. Mussolini's attention drifted: on 28 October Italy invaded Greece, and Graziani was left to plan ...

Image: Dorsen | CC BY-SA 3.0 de