(Feb. 5, 2021) This week, 80 years ago, Commonwealth Forces completed the destruction of the remnants of the Italian Tenth Army at Beda Fomm in Libya.
Beda Fomm, is in the province of Cyrenaica, which is the eastern most of the three Libyan provinces, and borders on Egypt in the east.
Beda Fomm was near the coast in the west of the province, east of the Gulf of Sirte and south of Jebel Akhdar, which was a raised area with plenty of water and vegetation.
By this time, the Tenth Army had been driven out of Egypt and out of most of Cyrenaica. The Governor-Gen. of Libya, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, on Feb. 1, 1941, decided to abandon Cyrenaica and concentrate his forces for the defense of the western-most Libyan province of Tripolitania, and the colonyâs capital of Tripoli.