Rommel's British Panzers

[Music] air van Rummel was rightly called the desert fox for his brilliant handling of the German Africa Corps Trin a series of seesaw battles against British Commonwealth forces in the Western Desert in North Africa kept permanently short of men equipment and supplies by Hitler who foolishly didn't take North Africa that seriously nonetheless Rommel had been dispatched to Libya in February 1941 to prevent a complete Italian collapse following a string of British Commonwealth victories they can ban crippen beer by machete I'm 6ab little virtual painful Tish and yeah if she's the comic title understatement I said ignosi onna whom touch on the Christa Strasse images to be common on them finding vital Rick took of cetera negative illegally the series of grueling desert battles had followed and by January 1942 Rommel was on the offensive again rommel would advance to the Ghazala line just west of the city of Tobruk in Libya the Gazala line was a strong British defensive position while through the line Rommel would advance along the coast road once more into Egypt aiming for the Suez Canal Britain's lifeline to its Asian Empire [Music] and Rommel was quite unlike most other generals of World War two his style of leadership was often right up on the front lines and he required a small but highly mobile High Command operations staff it also required a modest security element to protect it when in the field and incredibly Rommel personally created a unique combat force to protect his mobile headquarters equipped largely with captured British vehicles he was called the Comfort offer or caster for short and in English could be translated as combat H Alam after defeating British Commonwealth forces at L a gala on the 21st of January 1942 Rommel advanced 400 miles east and on the Mediterranean coast to Gazala he ordered the Africa Corps to form a biter Absalom or captured material detachment of battalion strength out of captured British tanks and American tanks in British service under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Rams hour of the 15th Panzer Division he quickly assembled an impressive number of vehicles Rommel then placed the boy Panzer company into his new caster or headquarters combat edge Anan Rommel knew his headquarters needed tanks as he was always close to the front were actually involved in combat and his two Panzer divisions were short of German tanks better than to use British equipment than to thin out the tank regiments in his main combat divisions the vehicles needed to be both mobile and reasonably protected from aerial attack in the desert in March to April 1942 the boy tech company consisted of 12 British mark 3 Cruiser tanks and 2 mark 6 Crusaders the cruiser mark 3 weighed 16 tons and was armed with a 40 millimeter gun while the Crusader was heavier at 20 tons but with the same caliber gun on the 26th of May 1942 Rommel approved the addition of a company of motorised infantry named company von Kernan after its commander added to the castor drawn from the elite Brandenburg regiment anti-tank and anti-aircraft defense was crucial and the Casta received a battery of 1020 millimeter flak guns mounted in trucks and an anti-tank battery of 350 millimeter packs and a single 75 millimeter pack there were also 18 the dreaded 88 millimeter anti-aircraft guns used in the ground roll other units in the Africa Corps also used captured British equipment her great many trucks and cars were pressed into service along with captured armored cars and Bren gun carriers due to chronic equipment shortages both the 15th and 21st Panzer divisions established small units have captured British tanks eventually these units were amalgamated into a single entity that used about 18 British tanks Matilda's Valentine's and Crusaders Rommels headquarters utilized three captured AEC dorchester armored command vehicles huge boxes on wheels that he had taken from British generals in the campaign Rommels headquarters protection unit was in effect a powerful little battle group of about 530 all ranks the caster often fought exactly as a small comfort gripper Rommel using it drone attacks without reference to nearby German or Italian units sometimes Rommel strayed so far forward that he risked death or capture and the Strom caster certainly proved its value in protecting him from the German attack on the British Gazala line shortly after the formation of the Casta Rommel with his headquarters and his escort H Alam from the castor was trying to find the reconnaissance battalion of the 21st Panzer Division instead Rommel bumped into three British Cruiser tanks which proceeded to destroy his radio vehicle incidentally another captured British vehicle Rommels protection unit had recently acquired a platoon of four captured British 40 millimeter or 2 pounder truck mounted anti-tank guns known as poor T's they hit the cruiser tanks multiple times forcing their retirement fifteen minutes later the rest of the Casta closing up behind Rommel in the lead ran across a British artillery battery also on the March the caster attacked and scattered the British boom [Music] capturing a useable 25-pounder gun and it's towing tractor which was added to the cast of strength and knocking out another gun and three tractors plus taking twenty nine prisoners soon the caster found itself in the middle of a serious battle the 2:30 p.m. British aircraft strafe Rommels headquarters unit knocking out another captured eight-wheel British armored vehicle the Dorchester command vehicle [Music] two hours after that the caster was directly assaulted by a strong British attack the caster was protecting Rommel and his staff who were the headquarters Panzer Army Africa so you can imagine if Rommel had been killed at that point or captured the entire course of the war in North Africa would have been dramatically affected the caster's German pact anti-tank guns knocked out nine British Cruiser tanks two armored reconnaissance vehicles and two trucks in the exchange of fire the next day 28th of May 1942 Rommels battle headquarters was attacked by 15 to 20 Cruiser tanks in 20 minutes the caster's 88 millimeter flat battery destroyed 13 British tanks three of which managed to get to within 50 meters of Rommels headquarters during the Ghazala line battle the Germans captured a number of intact honey tanks the honey was the British name for the American m3 Stuart light tank an effective desert vehicle because of its high mobility and its 37 millimetre gun was found to be fairly effective against German armor robell had two honey's serving with the castor at various times Rommel never made it to the Suez Canal he was defeated at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October to November 1942 one of the turning points of the war who forced to retreat west pursued by general Bern at Montgomery's Desert Rats many more battles followed before the German and Italian forces were bottled up in Tunisia in 1943 by British forces advancing from the east and US forces from the West ending with the final German surrender in May 1943 the question is did British Commonwealth forces reuse enemy equipment in North Africa the answer is yes in the early days of the campaign the British were also short of armor so when 60 intact Italian tanks were captured at Bader farm in March 1941 they were used to equip the 6th Royal Tank Regiment needless to say their thin armor and poor mechanical reliability did not endear them to their British cruise thanks for watching please subscribe and share also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton details below you can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details again in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,191,851

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Erwin Rommel, Afrika Korps, Desert Rats, El Alamein

Id: drWjWcMuStg

Length: 10min 9sec (609 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020