Libyan Arab Force

Last updated December 15, 2024

The Libyan Arab Force, also known as the Sanusi Army, consisting of five infantry battalions made up of volunteers, was established to aid the British war effort. With the exception of one military engagement near Benghazi, this force's role did not extend beyond support and gendarmerie duties.^[1] It was initially known as the British Arab Force and was renamed the Cyrenaica Defence Force in March 1943.

Background

Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Idris of Libya supported the United Kingdom—which was now at war with Italy—in the hope of ridding his country of Italian occupation. He argued that even if the Italians were victorious, the situation for the Libyan people would be no different than before the war. Delegates from both the Cyrenaicans and Tripolitanians agreed that Idris should conclude agreements with the British that they would gain independence in return for support during the war.^[1] Vladimir Peniakoff was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served in the Libyan Arab Force,^[2] before creating a unit known as Popski's Private Army.

Shortly after Italy entered the war, a number of Libyan leaders living in exile in Egypt called on their compatriots to organise themselves into military units and join the British in the war against the Axis powers. Five battalions, which were initially designed for guerrilla warfare in the Jabal al Akhdar region of Cyrenaica, were established under British command. Because the high mobility of the desert campaigns required a considerable degree of technical and mechanical expertise, the Libyan forces were used primarily as auxiliaries, guarding military installations and prisoners. One battalion participated in the fighting at the Siege of Tobruk (April–November 1941).

After the British retreat from Cyrenaica during Operation Sonnenblume (6 February – 25 May 1941) the military administration of Cyrenaica lapsed. In the course of 1941, the British proposed to send the Libyan-Arab-Force to Syria.^[3] In the autumn preparations were made for the administration of Cyrenaica again once it had been reoccupied. On 14 October, GHQ Middle East revived a small military administration for Cyrenaica commanded by Brigadier Stephen Longrigg. A small number of people were transferred to 102 Military Mission which had trained the British Senussi Army, later called the Libyan Arab Force. The new establishment began on 19 December at the fall of Derna.^[4]

After Britain occupied Cyrenaica, the need for the British-trained and equipped Sanusi troops appeared to be over. The Sanusi Army was reluctant to disband and the majority of its members arranged to be transferred to the local police force in Cyrenaica under the British military administration. It was finally disbanded in August and September 1943. When Libya gained its independence in 1951, veterans of the original Sanusi Army formed the nucleus of the Royal Libyan Army.

The roots of the 1951–2011 Libyan armed forces can be traced to the Libyan Arab Force (popularly).^[5]

Related Research Articles

The Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya consisted of the Libyan Army, Libyan Air Force and the Libyan Navy and other services including the People's Militia. In November 2010, before the 2011 Libyan Civil War, the total number of Libyan personnel was estimated at 780,000 though that war wore the military's numbers away. There was no separate defence ministry; all defence activities were centralised under Muammar Gaddafi. There was a High Command of the Armed Forces. Arms production was limited and manufacturers were state-owned. Colonel Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr was the last minister of defence of the Gaddafi-era military.

The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi are a Muslim political-religious Sufi order and clan in Libya and surrounding regions founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Sanussi, the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Capuzzo</span> WWII-era fort near Sollum, Italian Libya

Fort Capuzzo was a fort in the colony of Italian Libya, near the Libya–Egypt border, next to the Italian Frontier Wire. The Litoranea Balbo ran south from Bardia to Fort Capuzzo, 8 mi (13 km) inland, west of Sollum, then east across the Egyptian frontier to the port over the coastal escarpment. The fort was built during the Italian colonial repression of Senussi resistance in the Second Italo-Senussi War (1923–1931), as part of a barrier on the Libya–Egypt and Libya–Sudan borders.

Operation Compass was the first large British military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) during the Second World War. British metropolitan, Imperial and Commonwealth forces attacked the Italian and Libyan forces of the 10th Army in western Egypt and Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya, from December 1940 to February 1941.

Idris was King of Libya from 24 December 1951 until his ouster in the 1 September 1969 coup d'état. He ruled over the United Kingdom of Libya from 1951 to 1963, after which the country became known as simply the Kingdom of Libya. Idris had served as Emir of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania from the 1920s until 1951. He was the chief of the Muslim Senussi Order.

Tobruk or Tobruck is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000.

Jaghbub is a remote desert village in the Al Jaghbub Oasis in the eastern Libyan Desert. It is actually closer to the Egyptian town of Siwa than to any Libyan town of note. The oasis is located in Butnan District and was the administrative seat of the Jaghbub Basic People's Congress. The town remains highly obscure, in spite of the substantial colonial history the city holds. The town was the birthplace of Idris of Libya on 12 March 1890.

The Italian colonizationof Libya began in 1911 and it lasted until 1943. The country, which was previously an Ottoman possession, was occupied by Italy in 1911 after the Italo-Turkish War, which resulted in the establishment of two colonies: Italian Tripolitania and Italian Cyrenaica. In 1934, the two colonies were merged into one colony which was named the colony of Italian Libya. In 1937, this colony was divided into four provinces, and in 1939, the coastal provinces became a part of metropolitan Italy as the Fourth Shore. The colonization lasted until Libya's occupation by Allied forces in 1943, but it was not until the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty that Italy officially renounced all of its claims to Libya's territory.

The Kingdom of Libya, known as the United Kingdom of Libya from 1951 to 1963, was a constitutional monarchy in North Africa that came into existence upon independence on 24 December 1951 and lasted until a bloodless coup d'état on 1 September 1969. The coup, led by Muammar Gaddafi, overthrew King Idris and established the Libyan Arab Republic.

The military history of Libya covers the period from the ancient era to the modern age.

The Libyan Army was the branch of the Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Libyan Arab Republic and the Kingdom of Libya responsible for ground warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frontier Wire (Libya)</span> Defensive line built on the Egypt-Libya border during the Second Italo-Senussi War

The Frontier Wire was a 271 km (168 mi) obstacle in Italian Libya, along the length of the border of British-held Egypt, running from El Ramleh, in the Gulf of Sollum south to Jaghbub parallel to the 25th meridian east, the Libya–Egypt and Libya–Sudan borders. The frontier wire and its line of covering forts was built by the Italians during the Second Italo-Senussi War (1923–1931), as a defensive system to contain the Senussi population, who crossed from Egypt during their resistance against Italian colonisers.

The Sudan Defence Force (SDF) was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces unit raised in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1925 to assist local police in internal security duties and maintain the condominium's territorial integrity. During World War II, it also served in East Africa as part of the East African campaign and in North Africa during the Western Desert campaign.

Libya was a colony of Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, which had been Italian possessions since 1911.

Italian Tripolitania was an Italian colony, located in present-day western Libya, that existed from 1911 to 1934. It was part of the territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire after the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. Italian Tripolitania included the western northern half of Libya, with Tripoli as its main city. In 1934, it was unified with Italian Cyrenaica in the colony of Italian Libya. In 1939, Tripolitania was considered a part of the Kingdom of Italy's 4th Shore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postage stamps and postal history of Libya</span>

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Libya. Libya is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.

The Allied administration of Libya was the control of the ex-colony of Italian Libya by the Allies from 13 May 1943 until Libyan independence was granted in 1951. It was divided into two parts:

The British Military Administration of Libya was the control of the regions of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania of the former Italian Libya by the British from 1943 until Libyan independence in 1951. It was part of the Allied administration of Libya.

The Second Italo-Senussi War, also referred to as the Pacification of Libya, was a conflict that occurred during the Italian colonization of Libya between Italian military forces and indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order. The war lasted from 1923 until 1932, when the principal Senussi leader, Omar al-Mukhtar, was captured and executed. The Libyan genocide took place during and after the conflict.

The modus vivendi of Acroma was a pair of agreements signed by the Sanūsī Order with Britain and Italy on 16 April 1917 at Acroma (ʿAkrama).

References

1 2 Vandewalle 2006, p. 36.
↑ "No. 35063". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 January 1941. pp. 681–682.
↑ Todd M. Thompson: Covert Operations, British Views of Islam and Anglo-Sanusi Relations in North Africa, 1940–45, in: The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 27 (2009), No. 2, pp. 293–323 (here: p. 302).
↑ Rodd 1970, pp. 243–244.
↑ Metz 1989.

Bibliography

Metz, Helen Chapin, ed. (1989). Libya: A Country Study. Area Handbook. Library of Congress. Federal Research Division.
Rodd, F. (1970) [1948]. British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa during the Years 1941–1947 (repr. Greenwood Press, CT ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 1056143039.
Vandewalle, Dirk (2006). A History of Modern Libya . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521615549.

External links

The Libyan Arab Force during the Second World War at The National Archives (United Kingdom)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[FOOTNOTEVandewalle200636-1] 1 2 Vandewalle 2006, p. 36.

[2] "No. 35063". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 January 1941. pp. 681–682.

[3] Todd M. Thompson: Covert Operations, British Views of Islam and Anglo-Sanusi Relations in North Africa, 1940–45, in: The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 27 (2009), No. 2, pp. 293–323 (here: p. 302).

[FOOTNOTERodd1970243–244-4] Rodd 1970, pp. 243–244.

[FOOTNOTEMetz1989-5] Metz 1989.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]