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====Background====
[[File: El ALAMEIN 1.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|Montgomery at El Alamein]]
Hitler was not interested in North Africa. He was quite happy to dominate Europe and to leave the control of Africa to the British and French.<ref> Carell, Paul <i>The Foxes of the Desert</i> (New York, Bantam Books, 1962), p. 17</ref> The German dictator was actually an admirer of the British Empire. Nazi Germany only became involved in North Africa because of their alliance with Italy. Mussolini had grandiose dreams of recreating the Roman Empire and he sought to control North Africa, in the wake of the British and French defeats in 1940. This led him to order his army to attack British controlled Egypt from the Italian colony of Libya.<ref>Carell, p. 67</ref>
However, the Italians despite having numerical superiority and tactical surprise did not achieve their goals. The British, along with troops from the British Empire easily repelled the Italians. The Italian army was on the verge of defeat and it looked like it would lose its colony in North Africa. Mussolini asked Hitler for help and he dispatched some German divisions under the command of a gifted commander Erwin Rommel. <ref> Irving, David. <i>Rommel: The Trail of the Fox. The Search for the True Field Marshal Rommel</i> (London: Focal Point. 2009), p. 234</ref> The German divisions, mostly Panzer divisions, came to be called the Africa Korps. Rommel defeated a British offensive and in 1942, he took Tobruk and this opened the way to Egypt.
