What was going on in Africa during WW2?
I knew an old guy who said during WW2 he joined the army and went to Africa. What was he doing there? (I didn’t know him very well and he’s probably dead now so I can’t ask him directly). Was there any war related stuff going on in Africa?
31 replies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_campaign
And the SAS (and with it modern special tactics) were invented in Africa
AmericanPeople like to think that they’re were only fighting in Europe and some in Pacific Island. They forgot that of all the nations that were fighting China lost the most menI knew there was fighting in north africa. (American here) But not sure how I knew. I don't recall hearing much about it in school. But fighting china? I gotta say, I never heard much about china other than how badly the Japanese soldiers treated the chinese.
US education about WW2 is mostly bullshit.
You can omitt the "about ww2" and still be right.
Badly is not the right term, it was fucking hell
I couldn't read all of that. How the fuck does a person call this 'playful'. That's enough internet for today.
North Africa was essentially a third front. I think Italy was already in the process of invading Ethiopia in the late 30s, and tried to expand in Libya and Egypt during the war.
Also, Rommel was the well known Nazi general who was in charge of North Africa
A lot. The entire continent was colonized by European powers at that point, mostly by England and France. So you have Germany and Italy trying to take more, meanwhile the ANZACs and North Americans are in there trying to take the lower Mediterranean, which will serve as a staging ground for the invasion of Italy.
In the US we largely focus on D-Day and the war in the pacific.
Alongside the north Africa campaign someone else posted there was also combat in west Africa pushing the Italians out of Ethiopia and Somalia. There was also fighting to take control back from Vichy France's colonial holdings with the main one coming to mind being the invasion of Madagascar in 1942.
Minor correction.... Ethiopian and Somalia are in eastern Africa on or near the Horn.
I thought the horn was the southern tip of Africa. If it's that eastern thing, what is the southern tip?
Cape Horn is the southern tip of South America. The southern tip of Africa is the Cape of Good Hope.
Cape of Good Hope (Capetown)? That's obviously there, but that's the item I remember form school in regards to global sail routes
That's it. And now I see that the southern tip of south america is cape horn. So we have cape horn, cape of good hope, and the horn of africa... couldn't they be just a little bit more original on the horns...
The Horn of Africa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italo-Ethiopian_War
I only know about this because of Paradox grand strategy games
It was still colonial, so, using violence to extract resources from locals.
. . . while also fighting the colonials on the other side of the war to control regional resource extraction.
France used West Africans to do a lot of the fighting then massacred a bunch of veterans who wanted payment afterwards.
https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20251016-senegal-report-sheds-new-light-on-wwii-french-colonial-massacre
The Allies were securing the North African territories (from Italy and Vichy France) and defending their own territories from being taken by the Axis powers (like British-controlled Egypt). Once the Allies had kicked the Axis out of North Africa, they could more easily land in southern Italy!
As somebody else have said, there was also conflict between Ethiopia and Italy.
If you have 20 minutes, you can watch the entire World War 2 on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/-CQatuQdQv4
Neat. Thanks for the link!
My grandpa was in North Africa before getting moved around to England for D-day. Allies wanted to swoop up through the Mediterranean but were halted. I tenderness hearing about gramps catching malaria down there but recovered. He later went to the China Burma India theater (CBI) training the local groups to fight Japan. I have a couple handkerchiefs that they carried around with a series of translations they could show to people on the street. Definitely a lot of other things happening outside of Europe!
The nazis used the sphynx for target practice. Egypt is part of the African continent.
The Sphinx was damaged hundreds of years before WW2. Not sure where this bullshit comes from.
According to Arab historian al-Maqrīzī, Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr destroyed the nose as an act of iconoclasm, as the Sphinx was viewed as a pagan idol, in 1378.
This is just proof that nazis did invent a time machine
Not much, just Ras Tafari fighting the babylon system (by allying with it).
My father’s battalion spent most of their time in North Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Battalion_(New_Zealand)
The African campaign was hugely important for england as it had parts of its empire there, it was huge for the US as it was basically a pre-season game leading to the invasion of Europe.
It was hugely important for the Italians as their incompetent asses tried to do a land grab. Got the shit beat out of them by the brits.
It was hugely important for the Germans as they had to save their only substantial alley’s worthless ass
This is from google.
The North African Campaign (June 1940 – May 1943) was a crucial WWII theater, pitting Allied forces against Axis powers for control of Egypt, the Suez Canal, and North Africa. Key moments included the British victory in 1940-41, Rommel's arrival leading to intense, shifting battles in 1941-42, and the decisive Allied victory at El Alamein, ending with Axis surrender in Tunisia.
Key Events Timeline (1940-1943)
1940: The War Begins in Africa
1941: Rommel and the Desert War
1942: The Turning Point
1943: End of the African Campaign
Key Figures
Just chillin'.