I knew an old guy who said during WW2 he joined the army and went to Africa. What was he doing there? (I didn’t know him very well and he’s probably dead now so I can’t ask him directly). Was there any war related stuff going on in Africa?
North Africa was essentially a third front. I think Italy was already in the process of invading Ethiopia in the late 30s, and tried to expand in Libya and Egypt during the war.
Also, Rommel was the well known Nazi general who was in charge of North Africa
A lot. The entire continent was colonized by European powers at that point, mostly by England and France. So you have Germany and Italy trying to take more, meanwhile the ANZACs and North Americans are in there trying to take the lower Mediterranean, which will serve as a staging ground for the invasion of Italy.
In the US we largely focus on D-Day and the war in the pacific.
My grandpa was in North Africa before getting moved around to England for D-day. Allies wanted to swoop up through the Mediterranean but were halted. I tenderness hearing about gramps catching malaria down there but recovered. He later went to the China Burma India theater (CBI) training the local groups to fight Japan. I have a couple handkerchiefs that they carried around with a series of translations they could show to people on the street. Definitely a lot of other things happening outside of Europe!
My father’s battalion spent most of their time in North Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Battalion_(New_Zealand)
Just chillin’.
