In September of 1940, Italian troops stationed in Libya began an offensive action against the British who were occupying Egypt with the aim of gaining control of the port at Alexandriand the Suez Canal. The Italians had six times the number of troops as the British, but after moving forward about 50 kilometers they had to stop the offensive due to a breakdown in there supply lines and chain of command. The British fell back to already prepared defensive positions near Mersa Matruh. This opened a gap between the two armies of 130 km, which lasted for 3 months during which time the British wisely reinforced their positions.
By December the British Nile army began a counter-attack. They bypassed the Italian positions, located mainly on the shore, by going directly through the desert and forced the Italians to retreat. By the end of the offensive the British managed to capture the fortresses of Bardia, Tobruk, and Benghazi along with 130,000 guns while only losing 500 soldiers with 1,200 wounded. The Italians, now faced with the possibility of losing their hold on Libya entirely, asked the Germans to intervene.
The Germans began landing the Africa Corps. under the command of General Rommel in Libya early in 1941.Rommel decided to take advantage of the fact that the British were severely overstretched because of the swiftness of their advance against the Italians and without waiting for the rest of his forces to arrive began a counter strike.
Although he initially had 5 times less troops than the British, he crushed them piece-by-piece and threw them back 900km. only a lack of resources and supplies, worsened by the necessity of allocating additional troops for a blockade of Tobruk, and the lagging behind of the rear echelons prevented Rommel from capturing Egypt.
as Rommel was striking the British in Egypt, German troops were simultaneously taking control of Yugoslavia and Greece as well as smashing the British on Grete.