The British were alarmed when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany in 1940 (see Openning Moves). They expected to hold a strong position in the Mediterranean Sea based on Gibraltar, Malta and Egypt. Mussolini, however, had dreams of making the sea an 'Italian lake' and of building up a big empire in North Africa. The Italians had a large army in Libya and Ethiopia and in 1940 Mussolini tried to remove British troops but failed.

In January 1941 Hitler decided he would have to help the Italians in Africa and sent General Rommel to Libya with his Afrika Korps. Rommel said that if O'Connor had gone on, nothing could have stopped him from taking all of Libya and ending the war in North Africa. But in February 1941 Churchill gave the controversial order (which many have criticised) to transfer many British troops to Greece.

Just before the war the Italians had taken over Albania and in October 1940 they invaded Greece. But the Greeks managed to defeat the Italians and Hitler had decided in December 1940 that he would have to help them in Greece. He was afraid that Britain would aid Greece as she had promised in 1939, and bomb the Rumanian oilfields on which Germany depended for her oil supplies. German troops moved into Rumania to defend the oilfields and Hitler put pressure on the Balkan states of Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia to join the Axis. They agreed but the Yugoslav people objected and overthrew their government. The Germans moved in and swiftly crushed the Yugoslavs with five panzer divisions. At the same time German troops attacked Greece (April 1941). By the end of April the Germans had overrun the country and the British troops sent there had to be rescued in another Dunkirk-style evacuation. The Allies suffered another defeat when the Germans captured Crete. Hitler then turned his attention to the invasion of the Soviet Union.

In March 1941 Rommel launched a lightning attack into Cyrenaica with quite a small force of Germans and Italians and was able to push the Allied force all the way back to the Egyptian frontier. Rommel was a rough, hard leader but was respected by his men. He kept the rules of war and would not permit the murder of prisoners of war or civilians as German generals did on other fronts. There were no SS or Gestapo to commit such atrocities in Africa.

Tough Australian troops managed to hold on in Tobruk. Wavell, under pressure from Churchill, made an attack before he was ready at Halfaya ('Hellfire') Pass in June 1941. Rommel's skilful use of blitzkrieg tactics defeated Wavell and Churchill replaced him with General Auchinlek. Then, in December 1941, Auchinlek and the 8th Army launched a powerful counter-attack. But this time Rommel was short of supplies and troops because Hitler sent all the forces he could to the great German campaign in the Soviet Union. In a three-week battle involving complex movements the British eventually relieved Tobruk and forced Rommel back to El Agheila.

Hitler was determined not to see Rommel be defeated in Africa and decided to send him reinforcements and supplies. The Allied base of Malta, which threatened the Axis supply route, was bombarded and the supplies got through the Mediterranean to Rommel. In May 1942 Rommel struck again. He literally ran circles round the 8th Army, which narrowly escaped capture. He made a feint (mock attack) from Msus which, sent the Allies hurrying off in one direction while he went in the other and took Benghazi, crammed with valuable supplies.

The 8th Army fought a major battle near Gazala, which was one of the worst British defeats of the war. They had more tanks than the Germans but did not use them skilfully. The defeated 8th Army was forced to retreat into Egypt. Both sides raced for the Alamein Gap, between the impassable Qattara Depression and the Mediterranean Sea, the only place where Rommel's troops could be stopped. By then the Germans were equipped largely with captured British vehicles, petrol, guns and clothing. They numbered only 10000 men and 100 tanks.

In London emotions ran high as the British faced the prospect of the loss of Egypt and the vital oil supplies of the Middle East. An even greater nightmare for the Allies was that the Axis forces might link up with the Germans from across the Caucasus Mountains in Russia and possibly even the Japanese fleet in the Indian Ocean.

However, Rommel's forces were stopped when Auchinlek defeated them in the first Battle of Alamein. Egypt was saved from the Axis. Even so Churchill decided to change the command again. He replaced Auchinlek with General Alexander and General Montgomery. They became commanders of the 8th Army. The British were strengthened by the arrival of 500 American tanks, including the brand-new Shermans. Rommel, meanwhile, was short of food, fuel and equipment and his tank force was down to only thirty vehicles.

After being reinforced he made a last effort to break through to the Nile Delta in September 1942. Rommel broke through the British line but was defeated in the battle of Alam Halfa Ridge. Montgomery would not let his tanks be lured out of dug-in positions here and the Axis armour was severely bombed in the open desert by British aircraft, which by then had control of the air. The 8th Army's morale was at last restored.