the kingdom of egypt included sudan, a condominium between egypt and britain, (anglo-egyptian sudan). the british had based military forces in egypt since 1882 but these were greatly reduced by the terms of the anglo-egyptian treaty of 1936, which only allowed british military forces to occupy egypt in defence of the suez canal. the small british and commonwealth force garrisoned the suez canal and the red sea route, which was vital to britain's communications with its far eastern and indian ocean territories. in mid-1939, lieutenant-general archibald wavell was appointed general officer commanding-in-chief (goc-in-c) of the new middle east command, with responsibility for the mediterranean and middle east. until the franco-italian armistice (armistice of villa incisa), the italian 5th army in tripolitania (western libya) faced the french army in tunisia and the italian 10th army in cyrenaica (eastern libya), confronted the british in egypt.