page_title: Italian invasion of Egypt
section_title: Western Desert Force
hierarchical_section_title: Italian invasion of Egypt / Prelude / Western Desert Force
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Army in North Africa 1940 MK VIB Light Tanks of 7th Armoured Division on patrol in the desert, 2 August 1940.
context_page_description: The Italian invasion of Egypt was an offensive in the Second World War, against British, Commonwealth and Free French forces in Egypt. The invasion by the Italian 10th Army ended border skirmishing on the frontier and began the Western Desert Campaign proper. The Italian strategy was to advance from Libya along the Egyptian coast to seize the Suez Canal. After numerous delays, the scope of the offensive was reduced to an advance as far as Sidi Barrani and the engagement of any British forces in the area.
  The 10ª Armata advanced about 65 mi into Egypt against British screening forces of the 7th Support Group the main force remaining in the vicinity of Mersa Matruh. On 16 September 1940, the 10ª Armata halted and took up defensive positions around the port of Sidi Barrani, intending to build fortified camps, while waiting for engineers to build the Via della Vittoria along the coast, an extension of the Libyan Litoranea Balbo. The Italians began to accumulate supplies for an advance on the base of the 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Division at Mersa Matruh, about 80 mi further on.
context_section_description: Against an estimated 250,000 Italian troops based in Libya and about 250,000 more in Italian East Africa, Wavell had a ration strength of about 36,000 troops in Egypt; fourteen non-brigaded battalions of British infantry; the 2nd New Zealand Division (Major-General Bernard Freyberg) with one infantry brigade, an understrength cavalry regiment, a machine gun battalion and a field artillery regiment. The 4th Indian Infantry Division (Major-General Noel Beresford-Peirse) had two infantry brigades and some artillery, the 7th Armoured Division (Major-General Sir Michael O'Moore Creagh) had two armoured brigades with two armoured regiments each instead of three. The 7th Support Group, with three motorised infantry battalions, artillery, engineers and machine-gunners, was to harass the Italians and to fight delaying actions between the border and Matruh if attacked but to retain the capacity to engage the main Italian force.
  At Matruh an infantry force would await the Italian attack, while from the escarpment on the desert flank, the bulk of the 7th Armoured Division would be ready to counter-attack. The covering force was to exaggerate its size and the 7th Support Group was to use its mobility to cover the desert flank, while along the coast road, the 3rd Coldstream Guards, a company of the 1st Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) and a company of Free French Motor Marines, with supporting artillery and machine-gunners, would fall back in stages, demolishing the road as they retired. At the end of May 1940, the Royal Air Force in the Middle East had 205 aircraft, including 96 obsolete Bristol Bombay medium bombers and modern Blenheim light bombers, 75 obsolete Gloster Gladiator fighters and 34 other types. In July, four Hawker Hurricane fighters arrived but only one could be spared for the Western Desert Force. By the end of July, the Mediterranean Fleet had won control of the Eastern Mediterranean and were able to bombard Italian coastal positions and transport supplies along the coast to Matruh and beyond.
caption: British Light Tanks MK VIB of 7th the Armoured Division on patrol in the desert, 2 August 1940.
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