Battle of Beda Fomm 1941
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 6 February 1941 – 7 February 1941 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1941 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Libya | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Operation Compass | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 31.2411, 20.3086 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Beda Fomm took place following the rapid British advance during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941). The Italian 10th Army (10ª Armata) was forced to evacuate Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya. In late January, the British learned that the Italians were retreating along the Litoranea Balbo (Via Balbia) from Benghazi. The 7th Armoured Division (Major-General Sir Michael O'Moore Creagh) was dispatched to intercept the remnants of the 10th Army by moving through the desert, south of the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) via Msus and Antelat as the 6th Australian Division pursued the Italians along the coast road, north of the Jebel. The terrain was hard going for the British tanks and Combeforce (Lieutenant-Colonel John Combe), a flying column of wheeled vehicles, was sent ahead across the chord of the Jebel.
Late on 5 February, Combeforce arrived at the Via Balbia south of Benghazi and set up roadblocks near Sidi Saleh, about 30 mi (48 km) south-west of Antelat and 20 mi (32 km) north of Agedabia. The leading elements of the 10th Army arrived thirty minutes after the British who had set an ambush. Next day the Italians attacked to break through and continued their attacks into 7 February.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Beda Fomm (revision 1370107591), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Operation Compass
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All 4 battles of the Operation Compass →
Browse more: battles in Libya · Africa · World War II era battles