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The Eighth Army was formed in September, 1941, in North Africa, and placed under the command of Lt-Gen Sir Alan Cunningham. It first went into action as an Army on November 17, 1941, when it crossed the frontier of Cyrenaica to meet the thrust of Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. After losing ground it gained the initiative after the Second Battle of El AlameinThe Battle of Alamein or more correctly the Second Battle of El Alamein marked a significant turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II and was the first major victory by a British-led force over the German Army. The battle lasted from O under its new commander General Bernard Montgomery, and participated in the ejection of the AxisAxis has several uses: In mathematics, an axis is a straight line around which a geometric figure can be rotated. An axis of symmetry is a line with respect to which a body can be symmetrical. The term is also applied for the axis of a graph; the horizont forces from North Africa.
The Eighth Army then participlated in the Italian CampaignThe Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war. Following victory in the North African Campaign, there was disagreement between the Allies on the next step. The British, especial. Elements landed in the 'toe' of Italy in Operation Baytown, and continued fighting its way up Italy on the eastern flank of the Allied forces.
At the end of 1943 General Montgomery was transferred to Britain to begin preparations for the Normandy invasionThe Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost. Command of the Eighth Army was given to Lieutenant General Oliver Leese .
During the stalemate on the Winter LineThe Winter Line was a series of German military fortifications in Italy, constructed during World War II by Organisation Todt. It ran across Italy from just north of where the Garigliano River flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, through the Apennin, in early 1944, the Eighth Army was removed from the shore of the Adriatic Sea to concentrate all forces, except the British V Corps , on the western side of the Apennines in order to punch through to Rome. Forces from 8th Army were those that finally captured the ancient monastery in the Battle of Monte Cassino .
After the capture of Rome, Eighth Army returned to the Adriatic coast. The end of the summer campaign found Allied forces butting up against the Gothic Line. The Gothic line was forced, but ultimately the Allied forces could not break into the Po valley before the onset of winter forced an end to serious offensive operations. During October, Leese was reassigned to South East Asia Command, and Lieutenant General Sir Richard McCreery replaced him.
In the spring of 1945, Eighth Army resumed its offensive. It cut off and destroyed large parts of the opposing Army Group C during April and then made a rapid advance through northeast Italy and into Austria. Problems occurred where British and Yugoslav forces met. Tito's forces were intent on securing control of the area of Venezia Giulia. They arrived before British forces, and were very active in trying to prevent the establishment of military government in the manner that had applied to most of the rest of Italy. They even went as far as to restrict supplies through to the British zone of occupation in Austria and tried to take over part of that country as well. On May 2, 1945 troops of Yugoslav Fourth Army together with Slovene 9th Corpus NOV liberated Trieste and the same day the Eighth Army together with 2nd New Zealand Division entered the town.
In its early days, Eighth Army had seen many tribulations. However, since the Second Battle of El Alamein, the worst that could be said of its operations was that they degenerated into temporary stalemates. Its advance from El Alamein to Tunisia was one of the greatest military logistical feats of all time, and it had distinguished itself fighting under difficult conditions during the campaign in Italy. It ended its days by being redesignated British Forces in Austria ; controlling the British forces occupying part of that country.