Operation Sonnenblume was the name given to the dispatch of German 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 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 in Tripoli, Libya and were sent immediately to the front line east of Sirte.
The 1st South African Infantry Division was an infantry division of the army of the Union of South Africa. During World War II the division served in East Africa from 1940 to 1941 and in the Western Desert Campaign from 1941 to 1942. The division was disbanded on 1 January 1943, for conversion into what would become the 6th South African Armoured Division. The division was also briefly active after the war from 1 July 1948 to 1 November 1949.
The South African 2nd Infantry Division was an infantry division of the army of the Union of South Africa during World War II. The division was formed on 23 October 1940 and served in the Western Desert Campaign and was captured by German and Italian forces at Tobruk on 21 June 1942. The remaining brigade was re-allocated to the South African 1st Infantry Division.
Operation Battleaxe was a British Army offensive during the Second World War to raise the Siege of Tobruk and re-capture eastern Cyrenaica from German and Italian forces. It was the first time during the war that a significant German force fought on the defensive. The British lost over half of their tanks on the first day and only one of three attacks succeeded.
Operation Crusader was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army against the Axis forces in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. The operation was intended to bypass Axis defences on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armoured forces and relieve the 1941 Siege of Tobruk.
The siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. In late 1940, the Allies had defeated the Italian 10th Army during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941) and trapped the remnants at Beda Fomm. During early 1941, much of the Western Desert Force (WDF) was sent to the Greek and Syrian campaigns. As German troops and Italian reinforcements reached Libya, only a skeleton Allied force remained, short of equipment and supplies. The defenders quickly became known as the Rats of Tobruk.
Operation Brevity was a limited offensive conducted in mid-May 1941, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. Conceived by the commander-in-chief of the British Middle East Command, General Archibald Wavell, Brevity was intended to be a rapid blow against weak Axis front-line forces in the Sollum–Capuzzo–Bardia area of the border between Egypt and Libya. Although the operation got off to a promising start, throwing the Axis high command into confusion, most of its early gains were lost to local counter-attacks, and with German reinforcements being rushed to the front the operation was called off after one day.
The Battle of Gazala was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the Panzerarmee Afrika consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.
The Sandfontein Artillery Regiment is a reserve artillery regiment of the South African Army.
The Nelson Mandela Artillery Regiment is a reserve artillery regiment of the South African Army and part of the South African Army Artillery Formation.
The South African Army Artillery Formation is the controlling entity of all South African Army artillery units. It draws much of its history from the South African Artillery, established in 1934 but with roots that reach back to 1921. The formation consists of both regular and reserve units. There is a separate South African Army Air Defence Artillery Formation that directs army anti-aircraft warfare units.
The General Dan Pienaar Artillery Regiment is a reserve artillery regiment of the South African Army.
South Africa has a number of Traditional Regiments. These are mostly South African Army Reserve Force regiments that were established either under previous colonial governments or by the Apartheid regime and which have continued to exist by accepting the authority of the government-of-the-day - be it colonial, union, Apartheid, or fully democratic.
The 27th Infantry Division "Brescia" was an infantry division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The Brescia was named after the city of Brescia in Lombardy. The Brescia was classified as an auto-transportable division, meaning it had some motorized transport, but not enough to move the entire division at once.
101st Motorized Division "Trieste" was a motorized infantry division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The Trieste was formed in 1939 and named for the city of Trieste. The division and its infantry and artillery regiments were based in Piacenza, while the 9th Bersaglieri Regiment was based until 1940 in Treviso and then moved to Cremona to be closer to the division. In September 1941 the Trieste was transferred to Libya for the Western Desert Campaign. The division was decimated in the Second Battle of El Alamein, but was rebuilt with the survivors of destroyed divisions. The Trieste then participated in the Tunisian Campaign until Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered to allied forces on 13 May 1943.
Operation Skorpion from 26 to 27 May 1941, was a military operation during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The operation was conducted by Axis forces under the command of Colonel Maximilian von Herff and British forces under Lieutenant-General William "Strafer" Gott. A counter-attack was made on British positions at Halfaya Pass in north-western Egypt, which had been captured during Operation Brevity (15–16 May).Unternehmen Skorpion was the second offensive operation commanded by Rommel in Africa.
133rd Armored Division "Littorio" was an armored division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The division's name derives from the fasces carried by the lictors of ancient Rome, which Benito Mussolini had adopted as symbol of state-power of the fascist regime. Sent to North Africa in January 1942 for the Western Desert Campaign the division was destroyed in the Second battle of El Alamein in November 1942.
4th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed just before the Battle of France to protect the British Expeditionary Force's bases. After the Dunkirk evacuation it was reformed in Egypt as a mobile formation with the Western Desert Force. It played a distinguished part in the Defence of Tobruk in 1941, but its headquarters was captured in the Fall of Tobruk the following year. It was reconstituted as a training formation in Persia and Iraq Command for the rest of the war.
2 Medium Regiment is part of the Regiment of Artillery of the Indian Army.
The 51st Field Regiment, was a Royal Artillery unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) formed after World War I from a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment recruited in Cumbria. One of its batteries served in the Norwegian campaign at the beginning of World War II. The regiment then sailed to the Middle East and took part in the Western Desert campaign, including the Siege of Tobruk and Operation Crusader. It was next transferred to Ceylon and later formed a Chindit column in the Burma Campaign. The regiment continued in the postwar TA until 1961.
South Africa 
