Afrika Korps

For almost an entire year, the American forces in the Pacific took the lion's share of equipment and men that America was trickling out of her factories and training camps. The goal of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and United States Army General George C.

British General Claude Auchinleck, hampered by the siphoning of his men and equipment to support the abortive Greek campaign, had lost all the British gains of 1941 to the fast-driving German General Erwin Rommel.

When Italy declared war on June 10, 1940 against Britain and France, The British position in North Africa seemed hopelessly outmatched. UK Army General Percival Wavell commanded 40,000 Dominion soldiers caught between 200,000 Italian troops in Libya and 250,000 to the south in Ethiopia and Somaliland.