| The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations in World War
II, fighting in the campaigns in North Africa and Italy. It was "British" in name, and was always commanded by a British general, but most of its component units
were from British Commonwealth countries, including
Australia, India, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia. There were also significant
contributions from Free French and Polish units.
The Eighth Army was formed in September, 1941, in North Africa, and put under the
command of Lt-Gen Sir Alan Cunningham. It first went
into action as an Army on November 17, 1941, when it crossed the frontier of Cyrenaica to meet the thrust of
Erwin Rommel's Afrika
Korps. Following the outbreak of the Pacific War, in December 1941, most
of the Australian I
Corps was recalled for home defence duties, although the 9th Division remained until mid-1943.
After losing ground the Eighth Army gained the initiative after the Second Battle of El Alamein under its new commander General Bernard Montgomery, and participated in the ejection of the Axis forces from North Africa.
The Eighth Army then participlated in the Italian Campaign.
Elements landed in the 'toe' of Italy in Operation Baytown, and
continued fighting its way up Italy on the eastern flank of the Allied forces.
At the end of 1943 General Montgomery was transferred to Britain to begin preparations for the Normandy invasion. Command of the Eighth Army was given to Lieutenant
General Oliver Leese.
During the stalemate on the Winter Line, in early 1944, the Eighth Army
was removed from the shore of the Adriatic Sea to concentrate all forces,
except the British V Corps,
on the western side of the Apennines in order to punch through to Rome. Forces from 8th Army were those that finally captured the ancient monastery in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
After the capture of Rome, Eighth Army returned to the Adriatic coast. The end of the summer campaign found Allied forces
butting up against the Gothic Line. The Gothic line was forced, but
ultimately the Allied forces could not break into the Po valley before the onset of winter forced an end to serious offensive
operations. During October, Leese was reassigned to South
East Asia Command, and Lieutenant General Sir Richard McCreery replaced him.
In the spring of 1945, Eighth Army resumed its offensive. It cut off and destroyed large parts of the opposing Army Group C
during April and then made a rapid advance through northeast Italy and into Austria.
Problems occurred where British and Yugoslav forces met. Tito's forces were intent on
securing control of the area of Venezia Giulia. They
arrived before British forces, and were very active in trying to prevent the establishment of military government in the manner
that had applied to most of the rest of Italy. They even went as far as to restrict supplies through to the British zone of
occupation in Austria and tried to take over part of that country as well. On May 2, 1945
troops of Yugoslav Fourth Army together with Slovene 9th Corpus NOV liberated Trieste
and the same day the Eighth Army together with 2nd New Zealand Division entered the town.
In its early days, Eighth Army had seen many tribulations. However, since the Second Battle of El Alamein, the worst that could be said of its operations was that they
degenerated into temporary stalemates. Its advance from El Alamein to Tunisia was one of the greatest military logistical feats
of all time, and it had distinguished itself fighting under difficult conditions during the campaign in Italy. It ended its days
by being redesignated British Forces in Austria; controlling the British forces occupying part of that country.
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