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caastel — The Rommel Road
Published: 2018-01-22 11:47:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 676; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 0
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Love it
To add to the discussion... The main point in the African expedition was of course keeping the Italians in the war at all. After the events in Libya and Greece it was clear that Italy was liability on the military side. Not that they did not fight bravely many times, but the technical and structural deficiencies of Italy were even worse than those of France. The decision of Italy to enter the war may have actually been the downfall of the Axis - a neutral Italy would have been a much harder nut to crack (from a political point of view) when it comes to intervention by Britain or the U.S. - like Francos Spain - it lost Germany precious weeks for Barbarossa, their Air landing and transport capability was almost anihilated at Crete and so on... They may have hoped to lure Turkey, but that did not work well either.
It's of course related to the fact that the fascist and nazi regimes weren't all that savvy when it came to political and strategical realities beyond their immediate doorstep. That's were the Allied powers (even with all the wrong decisions) had really a traditional advantage beyond mere numbers.
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thank you 
Well its true about supporting Italy, however talking about African expedition - we can,t forget that Rommel changed defence it into super charge into Egypt ....with only few German divisions and few Italian ( and DAK division were never as well equipped as normal Wermacht divisions ) ....even if theoretically he would be able to defeat 6 times stronger Brits in Egypt - then what next ? Rommel forces were even to small to occupy or defence such big territory , and British were still on south and east...
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I think the change into offense was both due to Rommels character and strategical outlook but also due to the fact that defending the desert was inviting desaster with the kind of forces he had.
He might have stood a small chance of holding Egypt because the population had some sympathy for the axis (due to the colonial history and Balfour declaration). But given the Nazi skill for abuse and alienating occupated people, I don't think that would have lasted long.
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as I remember it was some kind of concept conflict between Rommel and Mussolini... Cos Mussolini had another idea - first to defend Libya and second to attack Malta which was like a Tortuga for his convoys. And without convoys attack or defence was impossible in Africa. And Italian dictator was rather right ...Also on the route of Rommel offensive against Egypt there was no really good ports, so most stuff ( ammo, fuel, people ) had to be delivered by land ( using very bad roads ) by trucks which were also using a lot of fuel, and a lot of them get damaged , or were destroyed by planes, or sabotage groups...
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Afaik Rommel was supporting operation Herkules, too. But ironically his successes, pushing the British back to Egypt drew away forces from the planned assault.
But for sure, there was little love lost between Rommel and Mussolini...
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Very good! The war in North Africa was a close run campaign. If Rommel had won, Germany could have taken the Suez Canal and kept going into the Middle East and its oil.
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well indeed ...but oil from Arabia - was not best solution for Axis I suppose - cos how to transport it ..... Mediterranean Sea was under control of British Navy and Italian ships were paying terrible price for sending supplies to Rommel ... And If I remember oil in Arabian Penisula was found later, after the war. I think that this front was not priority for Hitler and his beloved Rommel and Afrika Korps was rather part of political and military marketing promoting war as fantastic and exotic adventure
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True. Transporting the fuel after the oil fields were captured would have been a challenge, but their lose would been a heavy blow to Britain's war effort. Oil was available in Mesopotamia, I believe, since the British started developing those sources prior to World War I.
But Rommel and the Afrika Corps more as Hitler's PR tool? It's an interesting way to consider that campaign. And true, the Russian steppes offered only burned out building, corpses and battle wreckage that's not so appealing to the folks back home in the Reich.
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