1940年秋,意大利发动了旨在控制地中海的非洲战役。意军元帅格拉齐亚尼将军指挥20万人的大军进入埃及。当时,英军驻中东总司令韦维尔将军只有一支3万多人的军队和一个不完整的坦克师。凭这样的实力,要抵挡住意军的进攻似乎是不可能的,要迅速得到国内大量增援也十分困难,因为英国正严阵以待,抵御着德国的入 In the fall of 1940, Italy launched the African campaign to control the Mediterranean. Italian general Marshal Graziani directed 200,000 troops into Egypt. At that time, General Wilhelm, Commander in Chief of the British Army in the Middle East, had only one army with more than 30,000 troops and an incomplete tank division. With such strength, it seems impossible to resist the attack by the Italian army and it will be very difficult to obtain a massive domestic reinforcement promptly because the United Kingdom is ready to resist the invasion of Germany.