The Eighth Army was a formation of the British Army. She fought in the North African Campaign, particularly in the First and Second Battles of El Alamein and the Italian Campaign. It is one of the most famous formations of World War II.
Organization
It was always commanded by British officers, including Montgomery, but its component units came from across the British Empire and British Commonwealth, as well as Nazi-occupied countries in Europe.
It included units from South Africa, Australia, Canada, Free France, India, New Zealand, Poland, Rhodesia, Mauritius and the United Kingdom. Among the units having served in the 8th Army, we can mention:the 1st Canadian Corps, the British V Corps, the British X Corps, the British XIII Corps, the British XXX Corps, the Polish II Corps, and among the large units inferior, the 7th British Armored Division ("desert rats"), the 51st Highland Infantry Division, and the French Forces of the Western Desert.
This army was opposed, successively, to the Italian army in Libya, then to the German expeditionary force which came to reinforce it, the Afrika Korps, during the desert war. The fate of Egypt rested on the shoulders of the General of the Eighth Army, when Rommel, the Fox of the Desert approached it twice.
History
Desert War
The Eighth Army was formed from Western Desert Force in September 1941 and placed under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Alan Cunningham. Its number was assigned to it as a logical continuation of the seven armies engaged by France so far in the war.
She had her first engagement on November 17, 1941 when she crossed the border with Cyrenaica to meet the Afrika Korps. The Commander-in-Chief for the Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck, replaced Cunningham with Major General Neil Ritchie. Ritchie failed to stop Rommel and was in turn replaced by Auchinleck who took direct command.
The Afrika Korps were finally stopped at the First Battle of El Alamein. Auchinleck unable to capitalize on this success was in turn replaced as commander-in-chief for the Middle East by Lieutenant General Alexander and as commander of the Eighth Army by Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery.
Montgomery added to the XIII Corps and the XXX Corps, which already made up the VIII Army, a pursuit formation, the X Corps.
She defeated Rommel's troops decisively in the Second Battle of El Alamein, pursued them through Libya, into Tunisia, until their surrender in May 1943.
Italian Campaign
The VIII Army took part in the invasion of Sicily and the Campaign of mainland Italy. His units landed at the end of the "boot" as part of Operation Baytown and then took part, on the eastern flank of the Allied forces, in the fighting moving north.
At the end of 1943, Montgomery was transferred to Great Britain to prepare for the Normandy landings. Lieutenant General Oliver Leese assumed command of the Eighth Army.
Battle of Monte Cassino
During the unproductive fighting on the Gustav Line, at the beginning of 1944, it was, with the exception of the V Corps, transferred from the Adriatic coasts to the Apennine front with the aim of breaking through to Rome. It was the Second Polish Corps, incorporated into the VIII Army, which finally took the monastery of Monte Cassino.
After the capture of Rome, it was transferred back to the Adriatic coast. At the end of the summer, the Allied troops came up against a new German line of defence, the Gothic Line. This was only forced in the fall of 1944, not allowing the Allies to reach the Po plain before winter. In October, Leese was reassigned to command Allied ground forces in South East Asia, the new name of the 11th Army Group, and was succeeded by Lieutenant General Sir Richard McCreery.
In the spring of 1945, the Eighth Army resumed its offensive. It took Bologna and isolated and destroyed significant units of Army Group C in April, then advanced rapidly through northeastern Italy and Austria.
Difficulties arose when the British encountered Yugoslav forces. Tito's troops intended to take control of Veneto Giulia. Arriving before the British forces, they were very active in preventing the establishment of a military government, as had been done in the rest of Italy. They even managed to limit supply transits through the British occupation zone in Austria and also attempted to take control of Austrian areas.
On May 2, 1945, the 2nd New Zealand Division entered Trieste together with the 4th Yugoslav Army and the 9th Slovenian Corps.
If the Eighth Army experienced setbacks at its beginnings, it was not defeated after the Second Battle of El Alamein. His advance from El Alamein to Tunisia was one of the greatest military logistics achievements of all time. She also distinguished herself by fighting in difficult conditions during the Italian Campaign. She is finishing her term as British Forces Austria.