:: PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY ::

~ THE WAR IN AFRICA ~

II

British fighter Hawker Hurricane attacking German vehicle SdKfz 222
A British fighter Hawker Hurricane hits a German reconnaissance vehicle SdKfz 222. In El Alamein, the luck of the Africa Korps, exhausted by the distance to its supply basses, turned down. The British Army adopted flexible tactics to ensure that Rommel's troops could not reach the port of Alexandria, where the Germans would have the chance to resupply their ranks.

Afrika Korps soldiers
The war in North Africa soon showed itself as very hard due to the presence of an enemy common to the two contenders, the desert, as shown in this photograph of two German soldier caught amidst a sand storm.

German motorcycle with sidecar and machine gun
Motorcycles equipped with sidecar and machine gun were widely used by the German messengers throughout the various war fronts.

German command vehicle SdKfz 250
A German SdKfz 250 command vehicle. These, modified versions of the reconnaissance vehicles which were then in service, were essential in the German way of understanding war, on which the direct presence of high commanders on the front would be of great help for the tactical approaches.

German 88-millimeter cannon
A German 88-millimeter cannon, considered as the terror of the tanks. In the time of the battles in El Alamein, this gun was probably the only anti-tank weapon in service with the German Army able to penetrate at safe ranges the 80-millimeter frontal armor of the British tank Matilda II. The many fringes painted around the barrel indicate the number of targets destroyed by this piece.

German heavy fighter Messerschmitt Me Bf 110
The Messerschmitt Me Bf 110 served during the whole conflict as an excellent heavy fighter, powerfully armed with machine guns and 20-millimeter cannons, but nonetheless it was considered by many as a mediocre aircraft because it was used, often and wrongly, as a bomber.

German fighter Messerschmitt Me Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Me Bf 109, built successively in several variants that introduced necessary improvements on the original design, was the standard fighter in the Luftwaffe during the entire conflict, albeit its indubitable qualities were surpassed by those of other models later introduced.

American heavy fighter P-38 Lightning crashed
An American heavy fighter P-38 Lightning burns after being shot down by the Germans in Tunisia. In the Tunisian front the Americans would engage in combat against Germans and Italians for the first time. The further invasion of Sicily and the rest of Italy was near.

:: Previous page :: :: Return to Index ::