The opening phase of the North African Campaign began with a series of Italian defeats culminating in the disastrous Operation Compass, which destroyed much of the Italian North African Army. I./StG 1 deployed to Castel Benito, near Tripoli, Libya. The mission was to prevent a collapse of the Axis in the region by supporting the Afrika Korps. First group began attacking ports in Cyrenaica in preparation for Operation Sonnenblume. It remained there until May 1943, by that time it had been renamed II./StG 3.