Operation ‘Compass’ and the events leading to it

The Middle East command included Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Transjordan, Cyprus and – in time of war – British Somaliland, Aden and Iraq. Wavell, who had taken up command in August 1939, believed from the outset that Germany would seek to dominate eastern and south-eastern Europe and Italy through the Mediterranean and North Africa. The Middle East command should therefore not only defend Egypt and the Middle East, but take any possible offensive measure which would make for allied domination of the Mediterranean, and ultimately it should seek to take the counter-offensive against Germany in eastern and south-east Europe. This accorded with the general view of the intelligence services that the German threat to the Middle East would be via the Balkans. Wavell's first task, as he saw it, was to secure Egypt and the Canal, the base of the Allied effort in the war, through action by land, air, sea. On land, the western desert along the Egyptian frontier with Italian-ruled Libya must be defended by a bold forward policy. When Italy entered the war in June 1940, Wavell's forces numbered 86,000, of whom 36,000 were in Egypt. His first task then, in his view, was to secure the frontier with Egypt. This led to small operations in the western desert, on and inside the Libyan frontier, in Cyrenaica and in defence of Egypt against Italian advances ordered in September.