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TheEgypt–Libya Campaign is the name used by theUnited States military for the US contribution to theAlliedWestern Desert Campaign, duringWorld War II. From 1942, U.S. forces assisted theBritish Empire in fightingAxis forces inEgypt andLibya. The U.S. Egypt–Libya Campaign was part of what the US military called theMediterranean Theater of Operations.
In June 1942 theUnited States Army Forces in the Middle East (USAFIME) was created to replace both the North African Mission inCairo and the Iranian Mission in thePersian Corridor. On June 16 the War Department named Army GeneralRussell L. Maxwell as the first commander of USAFIME. An Army general, rather than an Army Air Corps general, was named because at the time it was still expected that there would be a large U.S. Army land force contribution to the campaign. The next day the War Department informed Maxwell that the Halverson Detachment would remain in Egypt as a part of USAFIME.
In anticipation of the arrival of the American air groups, the War Department sent Maj. Gen.Lewis H Brereton, commander of the U.S.Tenth Air Force in India, to Cairo for temporary duty to assist the Commonwealth forces. He arrived in Cairo on June 25, along with nineB-17 Flying Fortresses.
On June 30, Brereton had directed the B-17s which he had brought from India to move their operations toPalestine. The B-24s of the Halverson Detachment joined them atLydda, Palestine. Both units flew day and night bombing missions against the Axis' increasingly inadequate supply lines, concentrating their efforts against the port ofTobruk.
The heavy bombers of the Brereton and Halverson detachments (now combined into the 1st Provisional Group under Halverson's command) had been flying with the Commonwealth air forces for some time, and drawing on that experience, the98th Bombardment Group (Heavy) which arrived in mid-August, was able to go directly into action. The 1st Provisional Group provided the nucleus of the376th Bomb Group in October, 1942.
When the12th Bombardment Group (Medium) and the57th Fighter Group arrived in the theater of operations, they entered a highly cooperative type of air warfare in an unfamiliar desert environment. Initially, they were integrated into comparable RAF formations, allowing them to observe firsthand the complex techniques of air-ground coordination that the Commonwealth forces had developed during their years of fighting in the Western Desert.
To co-ordinate the growing American presence the US Army Middle East Air Force had established theIX Bomber Command andIX Fighter Command.
In November, Lt. Gen.Frank M. Andrews assumed command of USAFIME, replacing Maxwell. Andrews was an experienced airman, and one of his first acts was to establish theNinth Air Force to replace USAMEAF. Brereton assumed command of the new organization and established theIX Air Service Command, which joined theIX Bomber Command and theIX Fighter Command as the major subordinate headquarters. The 376th Bombardment Group, originally organized to support Soviet forces, became part of the IX Bomber Command and flew its first combat missions over the deserts of North Africa.
The U.S. Army's Egypt–Libya Campaign ended on 12 February 1943, when the Allied forces finally succeeded in driving all Axis forces out of Libya.
In the final analysis, although the U.S. Army provided no ground combat troops to the Egypt-Libya Campaign, the close cooperation between American and British [Commonwealth] staffs set the tone for Anglo-American cooperation for the rest of the war in the Mediterranean andEuropean Theaters of Operations. American leaders had agreed that the Middle East was a British responsibility but that American support was essential for it to remain in Allied hands. Both parties clearly understood and followed through on the necessity to work together to defeat a common foe in a theater critical to Allied worldwide goals.[1]
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromEgypt–Libya Campaign.United States Army Center of Military History.