The desert wastelands of North Africa provided the settings for some of the toughest fighting of the Second World War. Yet, it was here that Britain and her Allies found their early successes, first against the legions of Italian dictator Benito Mussoliini and then against the fabled Afrika Korps of Erwin Rommel. These amazing successes, particularly the victory at El Alamein in November 1942, are regarded as the turning point of the war.