Operation Sonnenblume was the name given to the dispatch of German and Italian troops to North Africa in February 1941, during the Second World War. The Italian 10th Army had been destroyed by the British, Commonwealth, Empire and Allied Western Desert Force attacks during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941). The first units of the new Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK), commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, departed Naples for Africa and arrived on 11 February 1941. On 14 February, advanced units of the 5th Light Afrika Division, Aufklärungsbataillon 3 and Panzerjägerabteilung 39 arrived at the Libyan port of Tripoli and were sent immediately to the front line east of Sirte.
General Italo Gariboldi, supreme commander of Italian forces in Libya
Panzer III advances past a burning vehicle in the desert, April 1941
Panzer II of the 15th Panzer Division in North Africa
Panzer III drives past Marble Arch (Arco dei Fileni) at Ras Lanuf on the Tripolitania–Cyrenaica border, 1941
The North African campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts, in Morocco and Algeria, and in Tunisia. The campaign was fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. The United States officially entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942.
British Crusader tank passes a destroyed and smoking German Panzer IV tank during Operation Crusader, November 1941
A British Matilda Mk II named "Glenorchy" of Major K.P. Harris, MC, commander of 'D' Squadron, 7th Royal Tank Regiment during Operation Compass displaying an Italian flag captured at Tobruk, 24 January 1941
Erwin Rommel with Italian governor of Libya, General Italo Gariboldi (on Rommel's right), in Tripoli, February 1941
M13/40 tanks of the Ariete Armored Division on the attack during the Battle of Gazala