The paper focuses on the North African Campaign of 1940-1943 and studies its role in the World War II. It stresses the key role of the Suez Canal in the foreign policy of the United Kingdom in the first half of the 20 th Century and reviews overall strategies of the conflicting parties paying a special attention to German tactics in desert conditions, which partially explain phenomenal success of the German troops headed by field marshal Rommel in this theater of military operations.