ABSTRACT
By February, the Western Desert Force had reached E1 Agheila, an advance of over 500 miles. ‘By pressing on’, reflected the War Diary, ‘we might have made ourselves masters of the North African coast as far as Tunisia; had this been possible, we should have been saved much subsequent difficulty.’1 The Italians were expelled from East Africa by Cunningham’s brother Alan and the Greeks had forced them into Albania. The Italian population was ‘sceptical and indifferent’. By the end of 1940, Mussolini was imploring Hitler for help. Hitler needed to secure his southern flank before invading Russia but overall he had little interest in the Mediterranean. However, planes were sent to Sicily and Rommel prepared the Afrika Korps.2
