Rommel in North Africa

Quest for the Nile

David Mitchelhill-Green

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781473892200
• eBook ISBN: 9781473892224
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

Erwin Rommel is the arguably the most well-known German general of the Second World War. Revered by his troops and applauded by his enemies, the so-called Desert Fox achieved legendary status for his daring exploits and bold maneuvers during the North African campaign. In this book, richly illustrated with over 400 images, the author examines the privations and challenges Rommel faced in leading his coalition force.Endeavoring to reach the Nile Delta, we find Rommel's Axis soldiers poorly prepared to undertake such an audacious operation. Much-admired by his men in the front lines, we discover a demanding and intolerant leader, censured by subordinate officers and mistrusted by his superiors in Berlin. Certainly no diplomat, we observe posed interactions with Italian and junior German officers through an official lens.We note Rommel's readiness to take advantage of his enemy's weakness and study his extraordinary instinct for waging mobile warfare. We consider his disregard for the decisive factor of supply and view his army's reliance on captured equipment. We learn how this brave and ambitious commander was celebrated by German propaganda when the Wehrmacht's fortunes in the East were waning. Conversely, analyze why Winston Churchill honored him as a daring and skillful opponent. Finally, we picture this energetic, ambitious, at times reckless, commander as he roamed the vast Western Desert battlefield. This is the story of Rommel in North Africa.

Chapter One

Hitler’s Sunflower

At a meeting at his Bavarian alpine retreat, the Berghof, on 8 and 9 January 1941, Adolf Hitler announced that an armoured ‘blocking force’ would be transported to Libya on 22 February. German involvement in North Africa was formally sanctioned in his Directive No. 22, dated 11 January 1941: ‘The situation in the Mediterranean area, where England is employing superior forces against our allies, requires that Germany should assist for reasons of strategy, politics, and psychology.’ The operation was code-named Sonnenblume (Sunflower).

One of the first Pz.Kpfw. III to arrive in North Africa.

Panzer crew in continental uniforms help unload a Pz.Kpfw. I Ausfuhrung A (Sd.Kfz. 101). This 5.4-ton light tank with a crew of two was produced from 1934 to 1936. Progressively withdrawn from frontline combat in 1940, the obsolete vehicle last saw service in Finland and North Africa in 1941. Prone to overheating and engine breakdowns, it was soon withdrawn from action and cannibalized to provide spare parts for the Panzerjäger 1s of the Panzerjäger Abteilung 605.

The Roman ‘I’ on the rear and turret side of this Pz.Kpfw. I Ausf. A identifies the vehicle as belonging to the 1st battalion, 5th Panzer Regiment of the newly formed 5. Leichte Division (5th Light Division). This is not a command vehicle, but a tank from the so-called Staffel einer Panzer-Abteilung, consisting of one Pz.Kpfw. III, one Pz.Kpfw. II and three Pz.Kpfw. I.

Rommel believed that this ‘may well have been the theatre in which the war was waged in its most modern guise…It was only in the desert that the principles of armoured warfare as they were taught in theory before the war could be fully applied and thoroughly developed. It was only in the desert that real tank battles were fought by large-scale formations.’ Yet while the desert terrain may have suited the unrestricted movement of tracked vehicles, the German tanks rushed to Libya were neither designed for desert operations nor accompanied by sufficient logistical support. The initial 700 kilometre (435 mile) advance caused severe damage to the engines and running gear of the 5th Panzer Regiment tanks with 83 out of 155 tanks disabled, 58 of which required replacement engines. The engine air filters, according to an after-action report, failed to prevent fine sand and dust clogging the crankcases; cylinders and pistons were worn by up to six millimetres. Further problems were caused by sand in the turret races; there were broken shock absorbers and springs, defective fan shaft bearings, and even sixty maintenance requests due to flawed final inspections at factories.

A Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. G from the 1st Company, 3rd Platoon, 5th Panzer Regiment, is lowered onto the Tripoli dock. Note the original RAL 7021 Dunkelgrau (dark grey) paint scheme. RAL was an industrial colour standards scheme introduced in 1927 by the RAL Institute, Reichs-Ausschuß fur Lieferbedingungen und Gutesicherung. By the end of the war more than 120 different registrations had been made covering the paints used by the Wehrmacht. A wartime U.S. report erroneously believed that German tanks in North Africa were ‘painted black, evidently to aid their antitank gunners in quick daytime identifications while also serving as a night camouflage.’

Note the painted-over former divisional insignia, protective covering over the main gun, and removal of the hull machine gun for the passage across the Mediterranean. The Fahrgestell (chassis) number, barely visible on the lower front plate, is 65,214.

Pz.Kpfw. III tactical number ‘133’ – 1st company, 3rd platoon, 3rd vehicle. Note the lighter colour of the hatch interiors. The most common interior colour inside German tanks was Elfenbein (ivory) RAL 1001. A former British brigadier believed that the dark external colour was a psychological ruse by Rommel to make the tanks appear more frightening.

The Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. G (Sd.Kfz. 141) was a 20.3-ton medium tank manufactured from April 1940 to F...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Notes on Photographic Sources
• Introduction
• Chapter One Hitler’s Sunflower
• Chapter Two An Unfamiliar Land
• Chapter Three The ‘Desert Fox’
• Chapter Four Towards the Nile
• Chapter Five Kriegsgefangene (PoWs)
• Chapter Six Beutefahrzeuge
• Chapter Seven Artillery
• Chapter Eight Für Deutschland
• Bibliography