Battle of Sidi Barrani 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 10 December 1940 – 11 December 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Egypt | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Western Desert campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Kingdom of Italy, United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 31.6108, 25.9256 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Sidi Barrani (10–11 December 1940) was the opening battle of Operation Compass, the first big British attack of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. Sidi Barrani, on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, had been occupied by the Italian 10th Army, during the Italian invasion of Egypt (9–16 September 1940) and was attacked by British, Commonwealth and imperial troops, who re-captured the port.
While retreating from Sidi Barrani and Buq Buq, the 10th Army divisions crowded on the coast road and were easy targets for HMS Terror and two gunboats, that bombarded the Sollum area all day and for most of the night of 11 December. By late on 12 December, the only Italian positions left in Egypt were at the approaches to Sollum and the vicinity of Sidi Omar.
The British took 38,300 prisoners for a loss of 624 men and continued the five-day raid on Italian positions in Egypt, eventually capturing Cyrenaica and most of the 10th Army between Sollum and at the Battle of Beda Fomm, south of the port of Benghazi.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Sidi Barrani (revision 1380693827), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Action of Agagia 1916 · 8 km
- Attack on Nibeiwa 1940 · 26 km
- Battle of Bardia 1941 · 80 km
- Battle of Mersa Matruh 1942 · 127 km
- Battle of Point 175 1941 · 171 km
- Action at Bir el Gubi (December 1941) 1941 · 180 km
Other battles of the Western Desert campaign
- Siege of Giarabub 1940
- Capture of Kufra 1941
- Operation Sonnenblume 1941
- Battle of Alam el Halfa 1942
- Battle of Gazala 1942
- Battle of Mersa Matruh 1942
- First Battle of El Alamein 1942
- Second Battle of El Alamein 1942
All 9 battles of the Western Desert campaign →
Browse more: battles in Egypt · Africa · World War II era battles