The Year Italy Joined the World War
Part 12: Operation Caesar Augustus II, October 17 – November 15, 1940
The month between the middle of October and the middle of November saw active operations only in, and off the coast of, Egypt. Indeed, early November marked the first time the Royal Navy made an appearance, more than a full month after the start of the war. This dilatory attitude on the Royal Navy’s part was wholly unexpected but not necessarily unwelcomed. Mahanian emphasis on decisive battle at all costs had given way in Mussolini’s thinking to the Corbettian realization that decisive battle was not an end in itself. It was merely a means to an end, this end being control of the sea. If the Royal Navy did not sally out to challenge Italy’s control of the Mediterranean then its existence was irrelevant except inasmuch as it was an inactive fleet-in-being. This evolution in Mussolini’s strategic thought was to be expected by any serious scholar on naval and maritime strategy, and indeed could be seen already in the war with Yugoslavia, though only now was it becoming blatant.
This is the context with which to view Operation Caesar Augustus and understand its true import. Vercellino’s army did not let up in its dash across the desert. With Bergonzoli in the lead and British units being routed back eastward, the Italians were threatening British control of Alexandria. The loss of Alexandria would utterly jeopardize the Royal Navy, leaving it with only two ports large enough to hold the Mediterranean Fleet: Valletta, in Malta, and Haifa, in Palestine. One was strategically untenable, Valletta, and the other was strategically negligible, letting the Mediterranean Fleet be pushed off to one side of the Middle Sea.
The Italians, pushing toward Alexandria.
By the 7th of November, the battle for Alexandria had begun. Five Italian divisions threatened the city, including the three cavalry divisions of Cei’s mobile corps. Bergonzoli’s division, however, was not to be given the glory of entering the city or even fighting for it. Its task was a much more important one. He was to rush for the Suez Canal and attempt a crossing. This would not only cut off the defenders of Alexandria from supply except by sea, but would also cut the Mediterranean Fleet’s escape route out of the trap that was being set for it. It may be destined by land warfare to be pushed off to one side but as long as it existed it was by its very existence still a theoretical threat to all maritime traffic in the Mediterranean. Italy would not be fully secure until that fleet was broken and rusting at the bottom of the sea.
The battle for Alexandria.
As the guns began thundering outside Alexandria, the first units of the Royal Navy began evacuating and relocating, apparently toward Malta. This had been anticipated, though the apparent choice of Malta was somewhat confusing. Mussolini had ordered Italy’s submarine fleet to guard the approaches to Alexandria. Eleven submarine flotillas under Aimone di Savoia Aosta intercepted the British battleship HMS Rodney and the battlecruiser Renown, as well as two escorting destroyer flotillas. Damage was done on both sides but for the moment there were no sinkings and the British slipped away.
The beginning of the evacuation of Alexandria harbor.
By the 8th of November, Bergonzoli was threatening Cairo from the southwest and Major General Frusci with the 47a Divisione ‘Bari’ was pushing southward toward Fayum. The British position in Egypt was collapsing around them. They clearly did not dedicate enough forces to safeguarding Egypt, and the isolation of two entire divisions by pushing them deep into the Egyptian Sahara desert only weakened their already thin defenses even more.
The Italians eviscerating the British position in Egypt.
By the 11th, Alexandria was on the cusp of falling. Dall’Ora’s corps was redeploying to begin a push southward along the Nile River with the intent of establishing some sort of defensive line somewhere. Heading any deeper into Africa than was necessary for a safe defense was a foolish idea. Bergonzoli, meanwhile, had reached the Suez Canal but the guns of British gunboats patrolling the Canal prevented him from crossing. He decided to head north along the Canal until he could find a place to cross. It was necessary to prevent the Mediterranean Fleet from escaping.
Bergonzoli reaching the Canal and other Italian activities in Egypt that spell trouble for the British.
Alexandria fell mere hours after Bergonzoli reached the Canal. Nearly six hundred Italians and over twelve hundred British soldiers died for the city, but it was finally open for conquest and would fall by the 15th. On the 14th, the Royal Navy continued its evacuation of Alexandria. A fleet of twelve units under Ingram fled the port, containing such notable ships a the battlecruiser Hood. By this time, the Italian submarine tripwire had called Campioni’s fleet to within striking distance. Flying from north of Crete, Italian carrier pilots bombed the British ships as they were engaged by submarines. Many British ships were damaged, including the heavy cruisers HMS Sussex and HMS Shropshire. The HMS Hood and the light cruiser HMS Leander were sunk. This was, however, only a prelude to what was to occur on the 15th. The rest of the Mediterranean Fleet fled the harbor upon the fall of the city. By evening on the 15th the coast of Egypt was thronging with British ships: a total of eighty units were steaming out of port and heading east. This included the Rodney, the Renown and two fleet carriers: the Courageous and the Glorious. The Mediterranean Fleet by itself outnumbered the entire Regia Marina!
Oh shit.
The British Mediterranean Fleet had revealed its numerical superiority, but not its moral superiority. Rather than seeking out the Italian fleet and attempting to force a battle in the Mahanian tradition that it cherished, it instead began fleeing eastward toward Haifa. They would not flee the Mediterranean, but they would not fight. Perhaps the British chiefs of staff envisaged it as such a huge force that it could exist, isolated, as a fleet-in-being for long enough that a British counterattack from the Sudan or Palestine could throw Vercellino’s army back. Perhaps reinforcements were rushing from Britain. It was impossible to know what the British were truly planning.