In Moon Tiger, the main character, Claudia, lives for a time in Cairo, Egypt during World War 2 (WWII), where she works as a journalist, reporting on the war for British newspapers. Claudia’s main romantic interest, Tom Southern, is a British soldier killed in action during the Western Desert Campaign.

Although some fighting took place elsewhere in Northern Africa during WWII, the deserts of Egypt and Libya were the site of most of the conflict. The battles waged there are known collectively as the Western Desert Campaign. The area was important to both sides largely because the Suez Canal, located in Egypt, was vital for the British to have shipping access to India and Australia.

The Western Desert Campaign began in 1940, after Italy entered the war in alliance with Germany. Libya was, at the time, an Italian colony. Libya was bordered by French Tunisia to the northwest and by Egypt (which gained independence from England in 1922) to the east. For two years, between 1940 and 1942, the Italian and German forces fought to defend Libya from the Allies while the British forces fought to keep the Axis forces out of Egypt.

Tank battles were a hallmark of the Western Desert Campaign.