In October 1940, with France defeated and England fighting for it's life, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini joins Hitler in a pact of steel. However the Italian Army is poorly equipped and poorly trained. The Brits and New Zealand strategically call in fifty thousand troops from North Africa to fortify the Mediterranean, requiring the German Wermacht to step in and rescue the hapless Italians. With Greece secure for the enemy, the Germans intend to solidify their dominance over the Greeks and North Africa. General Erwin Rommel controls North Africa in the summer of 1942, as the German Afrika Corps advances three hundred fifty miles closer to the Suez Canal. It's capture, because of all important oil, would be a more devastating loss to the Allies than the fall of London itself.
With the British Royal Navy successfully engaging the Italians, British and American success in North Africa forces Rommel to curtail his offense. Brit General Montgomery's breaking of the German front at El Alemain winds up initiating a German retreat. On both land and sea fronts, Germany's attempt to secure the Suez is thwarted, securing the Mediterranean for the Allies. This episode's most stunning visual occurs in the latter third with Britain's Royal Navy dispatching an Italian war ship amid massive artillery fire and well coordinated torpedo attack.
With the British Royal Navy successfully engaging the Italians, British and American success in North Africa forces Rommel to curtail his offense. Brit General Montgomery's breaking of the German front at El Alemain winds up initiating a German retreat. On both land and sea fronts, Germany's attempt to secure the Suez is thwarted, securing the Mediterranean for the Allies. This episode's most stunning visual occurs in the latter third with Britain's Royal Navy dispatching an Italian war ship amid massive artillery fire and well coordinated torpedo attack.
