Italian forces invade Egypt

9th September 1940: Mussolini orders the Italian Army to move into British-occupied Egypt - despite his Generals' misgivings

Hitherto obscure locations, some barely inhabited at all, were to become familiar locations around the world as the war moved to North Africa. The frontier between Italian-occupied Libya in the west and British-occupied Egypt in the east lay roughly south of the port of Bardia.

In 1936, Egypt had become an ‘independent’ nation - but tied closely to Great…