page_title: Battle of Sidi Barrani
section_title: Italian defensive preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Sidi Barrani / Prelude / Italian defensive preparations
caption_attribution_description: English: Breda Ba.65 Italian ground attack aircraft near Rome, Italy.
context_page_description: The Battle of Sidi Barrani 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 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.
context_section_description: In December 1940 the 10th Army in Egypt had been reinforced to about nine Binary, Blackshirt and colonial divisions east of the frontier and had begun unit reliefs, which made it harder for the British to establish the Italian order of battle. Fortified camps had been built widely spaced, on an arc about 50 mi (80 km) long from the sea to the escarpment. The 10th Army in the area of Sidi Barrani numbered about 40,000 men and on 8 December, the 1st Libyan Division Sibelle, the 2nd Libyan Division Pescatori of the Libyan Corps (Lieutenant-General Sebastiano Gallina) were on a 22 mi (35 km) line, in the fortified camps at Maktila, Tummar, with the 4th Blackshirt Division 3 Gennaio (General Merzari) in reserve, about 12 mi (19 km) away at Sidi Barrani, with Gallina and the Libyan Corps headquarters.
  The Maletti Group was at Nibeiwa, the 63rd Division Cyrene (General Spatocco) of the XXI Corps (General Dalmazzo), was at Rabia and Sofafi 19 mi (31 km) west of Nibeiwa. The 64th Division Catanzaro had been moved east of Buq Buq to the Khur–Samalus area, behind the Nibeiwa–Rabia gap. To the west was the XXIII Corps with the 1st Blackshirt Division "23 Marzo", 2nd Blackshirt Division 28 Ottobre; the 62nd Division Marmarica was on the escarpment from Sofafi to Halfaya. The 10th Army had about 80,000 men, 250 guns, 120 tanks inside Egypt. The British thought that the 5° Squadra in Egypt had about 250 bombers and an equal number of fighters, with reinforcements in Italy. On 9 December, the actual number was 140 bombers, 191 fighters and ground attack aircraft. Some bombers were far to the west at Tripoli and others at Benghazi and Tmimi. The short-range fighters and reconnaissance aircraft were at Tobruk, El Adem and Gambut.
caption: Breda Ba.65 ground-attack aircraft
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