Kempen tersebut telah berlaku diantara Pihak Bersekutu dan Kuasa Paksi, kebanyakkan mereka mempunyai kepentingan kolonial di Afrika semenjak dari hujung kurun ke-19. Usaha perang Bersekutu telah didominasi oleh Komanwel British dan negara-negara buangan dari Eropah yang diduduki Jerman. Amerika Syarikat memasuki perang pada tahun 1941 dan mula mengarah bantuan ketenteraan di Afrika Utara pada 11 Mei 1942.
Beberapa siri pertempuran turun naik untuk menguasai Libya dan sebahagian Mesir menyusul, mencapai kemuncak dalam Pertempuran El Alamein Kedua apabila tentera Komanwel British dibawah pemerintahan Leftenan Jeneral Bernard Montgomery memberikan kekalahan muktamad kepada tentera Paksi dan menolak mereka kembali ke Tunisia. Selepas hujung tahun 1942 pendaratan Operasi Torch Bersekutu di barat laut Afrika, dan pertempuran berikut terhadap tentera Perancis Vichy (yang kemudian beralih arah), pihak Bersekutu akhirnya mengepung tentera Paksi di utara Tunisia dan memaksa mereka menyerahkalah.
Operasi Torch pada November 1942 adalah satu operasi tolak ansur yang memenuhi objektif British dalam menjamin kemenangan di Afrika Utara sementara membolehkan peluang angkatan tentera Amerika untuk melibatkan diri dalam memerangi Nazi Jerman pada skala yang terhad.[10] Sebagai tambahan, seperti yang Josef Stalin telah lama meminta sebuah barisan kedua dibuka untuk memerangi Wehrmacht dan melegakan tekanan keatas tentera Soviet, ia menyediakan beberapa sedikit bantuan untuk barisan Timur dengan mengalihkan tentera Paksi ke kancah Afrika, mengikat mereka dan memusnahkan mereka disana.
Maklumat yang dikumpulkan melalui pemecah kod risikan Ultra British terbukti kritikal bagi kejayaan Bersekutu di Afrika Utara. Kemenangan pihak Bersekutu dalam kempen ini dengan cepatnya berlaku Kempen Itali, yang berakhir dengan kejatuhan kerajaan fasis di Itali dan penyingkiran sekutu Jerman.
^8–11 November 1942. Vichy officially pursued a policy of armed neutrality and conducted military actions against armed incursions from Axis and Allied belligerents. The pledging of allegiance of the Vichy troops in French North Africa to the Allies convinced the Axis that Vichy could not be trusted to continue this policy, so they invaded and occupied the French rump state (Case Anton)
^Darlan joined the Allies in November 1942, ordering the French Army of Africa to cease fire and unite with the Free French, and became High Civilian and Military Commissioner in French North Africa. He was assassinated on 24 December 1942.
^Darlan joined the Allies in November 1942, ordering the French Army of Africa to cease fire and unite with the Free French, and became High Civilian and Military Commissioner in French North Africa. He was assassinated on 24 December 1942.
Sono circa 400.000 i prigionieri fatti dagli inglesi in Etiopia e in Africa settentrionale, 125.000 presi dagli americani in Tunisia e in Sicilia, 40.000 lasciati ai francesi in Tunisia ("There were about 400,000 prisoners made by the British in North Africa and in Ethiopia, 125,000 taken by the Americans in Tunisia and Sicily, 40,000 by the French in Tunisia")[7]
Considering that about 100,000 Italian prisoners were taken in East Africa and that prisoners taken by the Americans were mainly in Sicily, the total is around 340,000–350,000.[perlu rujukan]
^Roma: Instituto Centrale Statistica' Morti E Dispersi Per Cause Belliche Negli Anni 1940–45 Roma 1957
^Rochat, Giorgio. Le guerre italiane 1935–1943. Dall'impero d'Etiopia alla disfatta. Einaudi. m/s. 446. Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (bantuan)
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