The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War was the initial stage of the North African Campaign of The Second World War.

It was continuous back-and-forth struggle with the first major move initiated in late 1940 by Italian forces in Libya against Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt. This attack was quickly halted and countered, resulting in massive losses (primarily as prisoners of war) for the Italian forces. To prevent total collapse, the Italian's Axis partner, Germany, provided a contingent of land and air forces which soon became the dominant partner. Axis forces would twice more launch large-scale assaults against their Allied opponents, each time pushing Allied forces back to Egypt; both times though, the Allies retaliated and regained lost ground. On the last such assault, in early 1943, the Allies managed to drive Axis forces west out of Libya and into Tunisia, setting up the following Tunisia Campaign.

The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allies, operating from Malta to interdict Axis convoys was critical, denying the German commander, Rommel, fuel and reinforcements at critical moments.

In early 1942, the United States supplied a small US air force bomber contingent in support of the campaign, referring to it as the Egypt-Libya Campaign.