Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery

The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth forces (with, later, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis forces (German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the fighting surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1,000 kilometres of desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Libya. It was a campaign of manoeuvre and movement, the objectives being the control of Mediterranean, the link with the east through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies and the supply route to Russia through Persia. Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery, approximately 12 kilometres from the Libyan border, is adjacent to Halfaya Pass, the scene of heavy fighting in 1941 and 1942. All of the graves in the cemetery were brought in from the surrounding area, including military cemeteries at Sidi-Barrani, Buq Buq, Fort Capuzzo, Bardia, Minquar el Zannan, and Camerons Burial Ground at Nibeiwa. The cemetery now contains 2,046 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, of which 238 are unidentified.