Libya

Libya, North African Italian colony which was the battleground for most of the Western Desert campaigns. Its capital, Tripoli, was the principal port for Axis supplies. Oil had not yet been discovered there.

The two provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were conquered by Italy in 1912, and the Turkish occupying forces were driven out. In December 1934, after the civilian population had been forcibly pacified by Graziani, Badoglio, and others, the two provinces were officially combined into the new colony of Libya. By 1939 the population had grown to 900,000, 10% of whom were Italian immigrants. Most Italians lived in the coastal towns and that year the coastal zone was declared part of Italy. Cyrenaica, Libya's eastern province, saw most of the fighting as Axis forces under Rommel launched a series of offensives to capture Egypt and the Suez Canal.

When British and Commonwealth troops occupied the larger Libyan towns such as Benghazi the local Arab population turned on the Italian colonists. Libyans served in both the Italian and British forces, though the latter did not use them in combat.