North African Campaign During World War II

Africa faced aggressive imperialist efforts from the Europeans, including diplomatic pressures as well as military invasions. This push for imperialism by the Europeans into Africa was brought on by economic, political, and social factors. After the collapse of the slave trade and all of its profitability, it made the demand for sources of raw materials something that needed to be acquired. There was also a need to search for investment opportunities, as well as a stable market. This made the economic motives the primary need to push into Africa. However, there was also competition between Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain to gain power within politics. One way to gain power within this competition was through the acquisition of territories, hence another reason to push for Africa. Socially, due to the

Allied victory in the North African campaign is significant for allied victory in the European war. The campaign provided the allies with major strategic and economic advantages, boosted British morale and proved Anglo-American cooperation to be successful. Additionally, conflict in North Africa also diverted substantial German and Italian resources that were needed elsewhere, thus weakening the Axis position. It is also significant that German defeat in the battle of Stalingrad on the eastern front, occurred at the same time as defeat in North Africa, further weakening the Axis powers.

Europe saw great profit in imperialising Africa. Africa had valuable natural resources that could make Europe rich.

In a broader historical context, the European scramble for Africa was the result of many different conflicts. Many conflicts resulted from European countries’ desires for land and property. More specifically, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. These countries also were in conflict as it related to trade with other places. All of the preceding conflicts eventually resulted in the European Scramble for Africa.

This suggests that GB had stronger interest in Africa as she took take over countries surrounding Egypt to protect the canal from rivals that would hamper trade movement. Though this was a strategic concern it links heavily British economic concerns as the trade route was of commercial importance to Britain.

After months of incongruity between British and American war planners regarding the viability of a cross-channel invasion in 1940, the Americans accepted the British strategy and approved the North African Campaign. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts, where one of the lesser known battles of World War II was fought by a small yet valiant force of Australians in the North African port city of Tobruk. Not only did Tobruk facilitate access to one of the greatest ports on the North African shoreline, it helped

After the outbreak of World War II, it became apparent that the United States would be a decisive factor in the outcome of the war. On December 7th, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor sparked U.S. military intervention in both Europe and the Pacific. Looking for a man to lead, the senior officers selected Eisenhower for the job. All of Eisenhowers training and education was about to be tested. He was named Supreme Commander of the allied forces in the European Theater. He immediately had to face important decisions regarding the allied plans. Eisenhower was a strong supporter of an allied invasion of France, but Great Britain had other objectives. Eisenhower reluctantly organized an invasion of Africa, before heading to Sicily and Italy. While fairly new to the political scene, Eisenhower soon became an expert at navigating it's challenges. After the invasion of North Africa, known as Operation Torch, Eisenhower prepared for what may have been his defining moment. The invasion of France, known as Operation Overlord, was arguably the climactic moment in both World War II and Eisenhower's career("Dwight David Eisenhower").

The “D-Day Dodgers” was the name given to a group of soldiers who were accused of avoiding the supposedly harsher battle in Normandy by fighting in Italy. The Italian Campaign of World War II further proved that Canadians were capable of fighting for themselves. The numerous victories after the battles in Italy can be attributed to the military tactics used and created during the campaign. The Italian Campaign derailed German focus from the Normandy and Soviet battles which aided other European Campaigns. By examining the contributions of the “D-Day Dodgers”, the accusation that those involved in the Italian Campaign were avoiding the war in the rest of Europe was not justified.

The most significant battle of World War II was the battle of Iwo JIma. The battle of Iwo Jima was the turning point of the war in the Pacific. The battle took place on an island of the Japanese imperial army. The war took five long bloody weeks and the United States of America won the island in the end. The island had the best strategic location, because the US army can position their bombers closer to the main Japanese island. Many believed that the island was costing too much American lives and wanted the troops to surrender.

The battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. The United States was dragged into Iwo Jima in February 1945. This battle made everyone see the ways of the Japanese fighting, which made it harder to win the war. This battle also was historic because of the flag rising on Mt. Suribachi. The battle Iwo Jima was a significant turning point in World War II because it led to the end of Japans fight in WWII.

The Son Tay Raid, also known as Operation Ivory Coast, was a United States combined joint military forces mission conducted in the Vietnam War to rescue prisoners of war. The Son Tay Raid was a mission involving the President of the United States and his highest advisors, multiple armed forces aviation and special operations assets, mission details including intentionally crashing a helicopter, and the highest level of secrecy. The Son Tay Raid, since completion of the mission, regarded as being one of the most successful and impactful single missions of the Vietnam War. The Son Tay Raid is a failure due to the absence of prisoners of war at the time of the raid. While the Son Tay Raid did not succeed in its primary mission, the raid was successful in its integration of combined joint aviation assets, special operations ground soldiers, and tactical innovation.

One of the most significant encounters of World War II was the Battle of Normandy (the first day of which is commonly referred to as D-Day). Nearly three million soldiers were deployed for the invasion. Those deployed consisted mainly of American and British soldiers, however Canadian, French, Polish, Belgian, and Czech forces were represented as well (Jensen). The battle was fought in an effort to gain European ground and to reduce the German potential for overrunning Russia (Lucas). The Battle of Normandy was significant in that it was the turning point of World War II, incurred heavy casualties on each side, and was the greatest amphibious landing in history (Cohen).

The lack of determined resistance by the Vichy French to the Allied invasions of North Africa and the new de Gaulle policies in North Africa convinced the Germans that France could not be trusted. The Germans immediately occupied southern France and German troops moved to seize the French fleet in the port of Toulon. The naval strength of the Axis in the Mediterranean

Within the modern military era, Arabic-speaking armies have traditionally shown themselves to generally ineffective. From the 1960s, where Egyptian regular forces performed poorly against Yemeni irregulars, to the ‘70s, where the Syrians only managed to impose their will upon Lebanon through the utilisation of their overwhelming weight of weaponry and numbers. The Iraqis army demonstrated their own ineptitude in the 1980s, firstly with their wars with Iran, where their opponents were in possession of an army ripped apart by internal revolutionary turmoil showed ineptness against an Iranian military ripped apart by revolutionary turmoil in the 1980s, and secondly in their failure to win a three-decades-long war against the Kurds. Even with the intervention of Western powers, Arab military performance has remained poor, especially on both sides of the 1990 Kuwait war, where they performance was at best mediocre.4 Despite all these examples however, the primary military area in which Arabic armies have performed poorly is in their wars with Israel, where despite three Arabic attempts to conquer Israel with conventional warfare in 1948, 1967 and 1973, Israel has always emerged victorious. And the Arabs have done poorly in nearly all the military confrontations with Israel. In an article for the Middle East Quarterly in 1999 titled “Why Arabs Lose Wars”, Norvell De Atkine, a U.S. Army retired colonel with eight years residence in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, and a graduate

This war was very tragic on so many levels is unbelievable. The war lasted for years as more than 5 million soldiers died. This place is very poor and one of the most hopeless country out there. It's crazy how it used to be one of the most wealthiest country out there in Saharan Africa. They had another election as Mr. Kabila was back to power like he was before and nothing changed. All the government has done was shrug as he found out about rape story. He would help he claims but there's too much time on his hands he says.