Libya saw some of the fiercest fighting of the North African Campaign. At the start of the war, Italy aimed to extend Libya's borders to the south and annex a land bridge connecting it to Italian East Africa. In September 1940, Italy launched the Western Desert Campaign with its invasion of Egypt. That December, the British counterattacked with Operation Compass, which pushed Italian forces back over the border, occupied all of Cyrenaica, and captured most of the Tenth Army. With German support, this territory was regained during Operation Sonnenblume, though the Allies successfully lifted the Siege of Tobruk. The Battle of Gazala in 1942 finally drove the Allies from Tobruk and back into Egypt. The Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt spelled doom for the Axis forces in Libya and the end of the Western Desert Campaign.