Railways in Libya.

[Riain]

The Italians built small, narrow-gauge railway networks centred on Tripoli and Benghazi. This building seemed to finish in about 1927, apart from extending the Benghazi-Barce line to Derna during WW2. What strikes me as odd is that the line east of Tripoli only went 10km to Tagiura, and the line south of Benghazi was only 56km to Soluch.

WI these two little networks were linked, a line from Tagiura to Soluch built sometime between the wars? Would this reduce Rommels two biggest problems (limited Libyan port capacity and the distances between these small ports and the front which could only be traversed by truck) enough that he could defeat the British? It was the railway from Port Said through Alexandria to Mersa Matruh, and extended to Sollum on the border, that was the logistical key to British victory in Africa.