237: North Africa 1940 Pt. 1 - Italian Aspirations

History of the Second World War

Wesley Livesay

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.5 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the summer of 1940, with the fall of France, the war in North Africa began in earnest. On one side, the Italian army in Libya, massive in number but beset by industrial and logistical problems. On the other, a small British force in Egypt, tasked with defending the Suez Canal. This episode explores the Italian war effort in the opening months of the North African campaign, from the strategic decisions made in Rome to the realities of the desert war. Was the Italian army a paper tiger, or a force to be reckoned with? Contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to advertise on History of the Second World War. History of the Second World War is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.8	Thursday wherever you listen to Find Podcasts. Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War
1:15.7	Episode 237, North Africa, 1940, Part 1, Italian Aspirations.
1:22.9	This week, a big thank you goes out to Carter, Chat, Mark, Frank, and Blue for supporting the podcast by becoming members.
1:30.0	Members can access to ad-free versions of all of the podcast episodes, plus special member-only episodes,
1:35.5	released roughly once a month.
1:37.8	Head on over to History of the Second World War.com slash members to find out more.
1:42.8	Within the sprawling story of the Second World War, there are many
1:46.4	contributions from many groups and individuals that are lost to us today. There are also many
1:51.5	that are misunderstood, underestimated, or purposefully misrepresented within the histories.
1:57.0	I'm not here to do a tier list or a ranking or anything like that, because by the very nature
2:02.4	of the contributions, such a list would be impossible to make complete. But on that list,
	...

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