Battle of Sidi Barrani

Battle of Sidi Barrani
Part of Operation Compass, during the Second World War
Western Desert
Date 10–11 December 1940 (1 day) Location Sidi Barrani, Egypt 31°36′39″N 25°55′32″E / 31.61083°N 25.92556°E / 31.61083; 25.92556 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom British India  Australia  Free France	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Archibald Wavell Henry Wilson Richard O'Connor	Rodolfo Graziani Giuseppe Tellera Annibale Bergonzoli
Strength
36,000 men 120 guns 275 tanks 142 aircraft	60,000 men 250 guns 120 tanks 331 aircraft
Casualties and losses
624	2,194 killed 2,286 wounded 38,300 prisoners 237 guns 73 tanks c. 1,000 vehicles
Sidi Barrani class=notpageimage| Sidi Barrani, Egypt

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, which 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.