WAVELL`S 30,000
Western Desert December 1940/Febuary 1941
In a short and memorable campaign, the British defeated the Italians in Egypt, Lybia and Cyrenaica....As it was happening, it was transformed into a legend.
The campaign was unique of its kind, in that it was fought in a virtually empty but well-defined arena. It was pure theoretical war-game soldiering.....Nothing like it had happened before in modern history but it offered a classic example- unhappily not yet followed- of nations fighting a war without making it total. If ever limited war was shown to be practical, in modern terms and with modern weapons, it was
in the Western Desert. (John Connell, 1909-65)