SOUVENIR EIGHTH ARMY - an embroidered and printed cloth, a souvenir of the victories of the Eighth Army fighters of the British Army in North Africa. May 8, 1943. Rare.
The cloth displays scenes from the battlefields in North Africa, where the British Eighth Army fought against Axis powers during World War II, including El Alamein, Tobruk (Libya), Benghazi (Libya), Gabès (Tunisia), Sfax (Tunisia), and Bizerte (Tunisia). The cloth also features images of important sites in cities that came under Allied control, and a local man and woman wearing traditional clothing typical of North Africa, as well as marking the dates of the army's victories over the Axis powers in Tripoli on January 23, 1943, and in Tunis on May 8, 1943.
The Eighth Army of the British Army was one of the famous fighting units that operated within the British Army during World War II. The unit mainly operated in the North African campaign and the Italian campaign. The Eighth Army's first operation, upon its establishment, was participating in Operation Crusader, an operation aimed at lifting the siege of Tobruk. On November 17, 1941, the army crossed the Egyptian border into Libya to attack the forces of General Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa. In early November 1942, the Eighth Army defeated Rommel's forces at the Second Battle of El Alamein and continued to pursue the defeated force through Libya, to the Mareth Line, on the Tunisia border, where Axis forces arrived in February 1943. At this point, the Eighth Army, which attacked from the east, joined the First Army that had been attacking from the west and fighting in the Tunisian region since November 1942, to form the 18th Armored Group. In March 1943, the Eighth Army broke through the Mareth Line, and after further fighting, the campaign in Africa ended with the surrender of Axis forces in May 1943.
Size: 43x37 cm. Stains. Cloth embroidery with lining and border in the form of flowers and leaves embroidered all around. Stains in lining on back of map. Good condition.
