The Desert War | World War 2

the war in North Africa began in earnest on the 9th of December 1914 Hitler watched with caustic amusement as Benito Mussolini tried to expand the Italian Empire in North Africa ill Doge's armies crept tempted to flee from Libya into Egypt then the British counter attacked Italy was threatened with the annihilation of her forces and the total loss of her colonies Germany would have to come to the rescue [Music] the Italian disaster threatened fortress Europe for his own security Hitler felt that he had no option but to intervene on behalf of his Allah by the middle of February in 1941 the first contingent of German support had reached Tripoli it was not very large in fact it consisted of one general and two staff offices but the general was a man called Rommel as the commander of the ghost division in France general Meyer Elwin johannes - Rommel had won a reputation as a brilliant commander his orders were to stabilize the situation Rommels force initially included only in the 5th light division for the moment he was expected to stiffen Italian resistance perhaps in due course he would be given the resources to do more but he was to await orders from above the four contemplating offensive action but Rommel would not wait within days he was planning a full-scale counter-attack and with that began two years of cut and thrust battles with British and Commonwealth forces the battlefield was to be the Libyan desert an area aptly described as a tactician spera dice and a quartermasters nightmare disobeying orders with the diligence that compels respect Rommel moved the German 5th light division from Tripoli towards a Gaddafi on the 24th of March there on the 3rd of April Rommel set up his headquarters he then cast aside all established principles of warfare by deliberately splitting the already tenuous forces at his disposal into 3 he sent a mixed German and Italian force under graf von Schwerin eastwards in a wide arc while this pass through jaw fell Mata and ten jeddah towards McCauley he directed the bulk of the fifth light to advance through an Talaat and masseuse Rommel himself accompanied the armored cars and light vehicles of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion to the north towards Sulu then having heard rumors that the British were evacuating Benghazi the all of them drives straight for the port here his troops were welcomed as conquering heroes the Africa Corps had come to liberate the Italian Empire in Salonika and the joy at seeing the advancing Germans appear genuine however the wild enthusiasm exhibited by the inhabitants reminded one American observer of the jubilation with which the Australians had been received only a few months before the desert taught the lessons of pragmatism [Music] now free to maneuver in open desert Rommel pushed his reinforcements forward with numerical and more importantly psychological advantage the Germans surged East the British were now in headlong retreat being harried all the way by the axis air forces which enjoyed total control of the skies the Luftwaffe was assisted by a large contingent of the Italian Air Force although the Italians machines were inferior to the German and Allied aircraft they gave capable support even their obsolete but played the Fiat Falco was able to conduct ground attack missions axis aircraft when permitted by the treacherous winter weather in the desert repeatedly bombed and strafed the retreating British columns and sawed off the little resistance put up by the Royal Air Force in this environment but Zaire stirrers and sugars could attack with impunity [Music] by the 7th of April Rommel had captured Erna and isolated McCauley and his reconnaissance units were probing eastward south of Tobruk Mecca Lee fell to the Germans on the morning of the 8th of April and the Victoria sponsor troops encounter the all-too-familiar evidence for broken enemy all around was the detritus of a fleeing army abandoned tanks troop carriers and trucks and of course the bodies of fallen by the ninth Rommels reconnaissance units reach Bardia with the egyptian frontier Alfia pass and soul of just a few miles on some surviving British War missions were scouring past them to all the bases from which they had launched their own offensive only four months previously but many have no opportunity to flee large numbers were surrounded and others had already surrendered Rommels headlong advance recovered all the territory lost by the italians he was soon talking to his staff about Egypt and the Suez Canal but he would have to take into account the reactions of the Italians it is worth noting that the Axis forces in North Africa remained under Italian command until early 1943 at this time Rommel was only a corps commander not only was the theater commander in Africa and Italian but so were the majority of Rommels troops in that lay part of the problem Italian units had - in a land but no endurance importantly in the mobile warfare for which Rommel was so suited their infantry divisions were not mechanized and so could rarely exploit the successes of German harmony all of the Africa Corps units were mobile and therefore the German infantry could keep pace with the Panzers and exploit the breaches made of the allied lines under Rommels leadership two Italian divisions the re sa Armored Division and the Trieste motorized division fought extremely well the rest of the forces were of varying levels of mediocrity and when under pressure could be counted upon to fold like a house of cards they did however prove reasonably effective if corseted had key points by intermingling with German units [Music] the quality of Italian arms was also suspect in spite of the appearance given by triumphalist propaganda Italy's economy was not geared to produce the quantity of equipment required of a modern war the tanks that she did field was slow underdone and poorly armored they were christened mobile coffins by their crews the same pre-war models were produced right up until the Italian surrender no funds be made available for weapons development it should be remembered that the German units were also equipped with pre-war tank types the type 2 & 3 punters could do little in a shootout against the heavily armored British Matilda's and Ballantine's but the ver Mart had shown in France that it was the way you used your tanks which brought success and Rommels mastery of mobile war more than made up for any weaknesses in his armor numbers also helped and Rommel would need adequate reinforcement and supply for this he had to rely upon the Italian Merchant Navy but here was another problem because the axis did not control the Mediterranean shipping lanes the Royal Navy attacked Italian convoys with merciless professionalism cruiser destroyer squadrons sorted from Egypt and submarines from the island of Malta which lay conveniently astride the convoy routes by the end of 1942 Italy hardly a merchant ship reference service the rest were at the bottom of the Mediterranean the desert war was unusual in many respects there were few cities few obstacles to the rapid movement of mechanized forces our means required vast quantities of petrol and water supplies of fresh vegetables and fruit were scarce for both sides without enough water to drink there were certainly none to be spared for washing occupation of Oasis was vital to both sides any fight over a water source was guaranteed to be hard and when one was enjoyed to the full by the troops [Music] getting supplies to the advancing troops was a hell in its own right more than in any other theater this was a war won by logistics the length of the supply lines dictated the yo-yo nature of the North African campaign the further from the supply port the more difficult it was to sustain the advance conditions were not helped by the poor state of the roads deeply rutted dust tracks in the summer and Quagmire's in the winter consequently there were never enough supplies Rommel insisted on eating the same rations as his men and his health steadily deteriorated as a result his officers fell by the wayside too yet if the climate was unforgiving the conventions of the desert war harked back to more civilized age Rommel was a star on the Nazi propaganda machine it had no time for the ideology of the winter mensch there were no SS units in Africa no hind SATs groupand and the civilian population as such as it was consisted of Arab nomads often well disposed to the Germans allied prisoners often a collection of units from all over the British Empire and of all creeds and colors could expect reasonable treatment from their captors and would not starve even when the Germans themselves did not have enough Rommels forces reached the key port of Tobruk on the 10th of April 1941 but a hastily organized assault was beaten off by the Australian garrison brummell's offensive attracted the interest of the general staff which dispatched general Oberst Friedrich Paulus to investigate he was not impressed describing Rommel as headstrong Paulus also worried that what had begun as a sideshow could become a major drain on resources just as the invasion of Russia was about to begin arguments about German offensive aims in Africa who rendered academic by a succession of British attacks in May general waiver launched operation brevity which was defeated in June they tried again this time reinforced with nearly 300 new tanks shipped from England operation battle ax show drama and the Africa Corps at their best British armored units try to seek out and engage Rommels Armour in a tank the tank battle but the Germans made masterful use of their towed anti-tank guns firing from well concealed positions they inflicted terrible losses before the Lancers wheeled in from a flank to finish the business the Luftwaffe 88 millimeter anti-aircraft guns were pressed into service in a ground roll since the Army's standard 37 millimeter weapon could not penetrate the British infantry tanks Matilda and Valentine in three days fighting known as the Battle of solemn by the Germans the Africa Corps demonstrated its superior leadership and vastly better staff work Wavell was sacked and replaced by general or condemned who was pressed by London to renew the attack and relieved to Brooke still besieged by the Axis forces both sides sent reinforcements but Germany had little to spare as the invasion of the USSR was now in full swing Rommel develop jaundice in August but soldiered on his forces now designated Panther grouper Africa Tobruk was the key by capturing the port Rommel would get his supplies landed just behind the front instead of having them driven the hundreds of kilometres of coast road from Benghazi thanks to the ultra codebreakers the British knew all about Ronald's plans for Tobruk they deliberately staged their own offensive within days of the planned German assault on the 17th of November Rommel single staff reported complete English radio silence he ignored them and ignored the first reports of a major British attack the British Eighth Army under Lieutenant General Cunningham advanced to relieve Tobruk its powerful tank force surging across the desert to find and destroy the German armor on the 19th of November the key airfield at CDRs egg was overrun by British tanks Rommel was reluctant to abandon his own attack on Tobruk but when he reacted he did so with his usual vigor fighting raged around silly Rezac until the 23rd of November the combatants maneuvering aggressively in the open terrain there was no real front line both sides had headquarters units and supply columns taken by surprise by enemy tanks both sides suffered heavily but had only a hazy idea of her opponents losses in such a battle psychological strength is a priceless asset on the 24th of November Rommel struck out behind the British heading for the Egyptian frontier rather than staying to beat back the British assault along the coast road it was a daring move but in left the German commander out of touch with his own headquarters for several days Cunningham who had narrowly avoided capture and the chaotic battle was sacked by Orkin Lee the British commander-in-chief placed his own chief of staff lieutenant general Ritchie in command of the 8th army Rommels - to the wire failed to relieve the small Garrison's left in the wake of the British advance his own staff regarded it as premature and it was ended on his own initiative by OS Lloyd Lunt best foul at Ronald's HQ who ordered 21st Panzer Division back to to Brooklyn Rommel remained out of communication as he raced around the battlefield micromanaging the operation Rommel admitted defeat and flow back towards Gazala but there was no obvious defense line and he soon announced that the retreat must go on back to the Gulf of city there in bad weather and worse tempers operation Crusader or the winter battle as the Germans called it fizzled out in the desolate sands around el Aguila it had been from there nine long months before that Rommel had launched the first spectacular advance of the Africa Corps it seems as though history was repeating itself the victorious British scattered and disorganized after a long advance the axis pushed back deep into its own territory but as it would soon prove the Africa Corps had recoiled by the spring by January in 1942 it was compressed ready to be unleashed the Benghazi handicap as some wags adopted was not over yet Rommel had excellent intelligence from reconnaissance and decrypted enemy radio traffic in January 1942 he knew that he had a window of opportunity to counter-attack the British were preparing their own offensive but judged the Axis forces to weakened by their recent defeat and withdrawal to be capable of immediate action in contrast of the divided councils of the British Eighth Army Rommel was very much his own man theoretically subordinate to army commands Southwest and the Italian High Command he would ignore his German superiors his Italian superiors only learned of his plans once their own formations were discovered to be on the move both sides knew the Germans had landed over a hundred new tanks in North Africa this was as Ronald's chief of staff fritz byline remark as good as a victory in battle some of these new tanks were the Afghans mark falls better than anything the British could field Rommel was not the man to allow either men or material to stay idle if he could see a worthwhile purpose for their employment on the 21st of January 1942 the Axis forces caught the British by surprise who was soon again in helter-skelter retreat by the 10th of February weary weather-worn thirsty a triumphant France salami Africa under their remarkable leader was well back into mama Rita of Tobruk for so long they're apparently unobtainable objective again only 35 miles beyond their grasp in the meantime Rommel superior Field Marshal Kesselring advised against further precipitate action at least until more men more Panthers more ammunition and especially more fuel were to hand even Rommel saw the wisdom of this so for the moment only his reconnaissance units press much further forward than Tamimi there they quickly found that Commonwealth troops and reassembled on a line running south from the Gazala inlet as far as the Beau Geste style port and beer hockey in the north and center they were in the process of building themselves defense positions of considerable strength deep minefields bridge the gap down to be a hockey it was clear the Panzer Army Africa would need all this expertise to break through or to bypass these defenses both sides were engaged in a logistic race to assemble as powerful of force as possible for the next battle there was a strong argument for a German assault on Malta from which the RAF and Royal Navy inflicted unsustainable losses on the Italian convoys on which Rommels army dependent German and Italian airborne forces were assembled and trained for operation Hercules and the island was bombed by the Luftwaffe [Music] Walter could support no submarines or bomber aircraft under the ferocious aerial bombardment that ensued Italian merchants ships enjoyed a welcome respite and Rommels forces were replenished on the other hand the first American supplies reached Egypt including numbers of m3 medium tanks known to the British as Lee's and grants the m3 featured a 37 millimeter gun in a turret plus a 75 millimeter gun in the house the vehicle could not fight Howell down but it compared well to the thin-skinned British Cruiser tanks and widespread service and being American did not break down with the depressing regularity of so many British built tanks by mid-may Rommels battlefield reconnaissance teams detected signs that the British offensive was imminent he was still outnumbered but persuaded kesselring to release many of his squadrons from the Malta operation including dive bombers and Messerschmitt Bf 109 s then superior to any RAF fighters in North Africa the British defenses consisted of a succession of fortified camps or boxes occupied by infantry brigades with supporting artillery dug in behind barbed wire but some 500-thousand land mines surrounding them they were designed to break up and channel the enemy attack behind these lines the British armoured divisions waited theoretically concentrated and ready to deliver a knockout blow but in reality scattered about the desert with confused command Arrangements Rommel believed the British did not understand the basic principles of war in truth his opponents grasp the theory there was a failure of execution owing to the command by committee syndrome which prevailed in the 8th Rommel had visited Hitler and March and personally obtained permission for a new offensive his objective was to Brook his orders were to go no further and to return the Luftwaffe squadrons to Sicily within a month his own correspondence reveals greater ambition he planned even before the Battle of Ghazala to break clean through to Egypt in the Suez Canal converting a hoped for local success into a major strategic victory Rommel attacked on the 26th of May and neither his plan or that of the British survived first contact with the enemy his feint at the center of the British line failed to draw the British reserves his predictable wide flanking maneuver wasn't intercepted by British tank divisions which sat in Mobile while their commanders bickered general Krell commander of the Africa Corps was shot down in his light aircraft and captured this occurred just as Kesselring was visiting the command post and the field marshal and former gunner spent an enjoyable afternoon taking charge as senior officer present until Rommel arrived for a commander often criticized for not paying regard to logistics Rommel turned the tables on the British by personally organizing a night resupply for the 15th Panzer Division his tanks have broken through the British lines but found themselves surrounded the British commanders believed they had him trapped it is one of the classic illustrations that commanders are only beaten when they themselves believe it Rommels confidence was supreme as witnessed by a captured British officer who described him directing this most confused of battles punched over a map in his command vehicle headphones on Rommel issued an endless succession of orders with quiet Authority his confidence his grip on the battle in such dramatic contrast to the confusion on the other side there was no real frontline situation maps showed a hideously complex intermingling of forces victory went to the man who believed he would win defeat two commanders who deep down believed themselves and their system inferior fighting around the Knightsbridge box held by the guards brigade went in favor of the germans the southernmost anchor of the allied line the free french position at beer hakim was attacked and taken after over a week of epic resistance the British withdrew their retreats taking on the appearance of a rout as Ronald through every last man and every precious litre of petrol into the pursuit suddenly Tobruk was under threat Rommel attacked the southeastern quadrant of the group's defenses at 5:20 a.m. on the morning of the 20th of June unfortunately for the British they were convinced that the attack when it came would be from the southwest most of the artillery and the entire second South African division were stationed in the western half of the fortress in addition most of the mines which had been used at Ghazala had been taken from the defences at Tobruk weakening the southeastern perimeter at the point where Rommel launched his assault the German attack went like clockwork three hours after Kesselring's bombers have opened the offensive the 15 Panzer Division punched through the British lines and fanned out Marietta and Trieste divisions exploited the gaping breach of the defense's once the axis troops were through the perimeter they were able to roll up the defenses in true lit Street fashion the next day to the astonishment and fury of the British and Commonwealth troops still defending doggedly a huge white flag was hoisted above brigade headquarters as it flapped opened in the first morning breeze a great moan of disappointment anguish and misery welled up from all over the western half of the galaxy defeat is bitter in any circumstances but now in the minds of thousands who were experiencing it it was compounded by disgrace over 30,000 Allied prisoners were taken that day as they moved off in a file they passed a triumphant Rock most probably did not recognize him after all which of their commanders would have shared the dangers of actual combat [Music] the spoils were immense two thousand vehicles five thousand tons of supplies and two thousand tons of fuel were given up Rommel now calculated that nothing stood between him and ultimate victory the capture of Tobruk brought exultation to the Panzer Army and a field marshals back to Rommel but there was to be no rest for either of them Rommel dismissed the news of his promotion with the comment that he would far rather have had another Panzer Division to the congratulations of his staff he responded with a brusque order all units were assemble and prepare for further advance for his eyes were now on the Egyptian frontier and the vast prize of the Nile Delta the Suez Canal and all the horizons beyond Rommel answered remonstrances from Kesselring in the Italian commanders by saying that the enemy were in such disarray that they would be able to offer little or no resistance to the Swift and powerful drive he was about to launch he added that with the store dumps of Tobruk now at his disposal no critical shortage would impede his progress as for previous plans and agreements such overwhelming victories swept away the need for caution a conclusion in which he was later supported by both Mussolini and Hitler by the evening of the 22nd of June 19th lights were in bardia and 21st Panzer were on their way to join them by the following day 15 cancer and Arrietty for closing up to the Egyptian frontier to the south shepherding the remains of the eight party before them Rommel himself was examining another huge supply dump which 90th light had seized at fort kaput so which contained particularly large quantities of fuel Fortran was favoring the successful for the British the Danse Macabre military disaster continued orders failed to get through reports were late and inaccurate battalions had lost confidence in their brigade command and support battalions the infantry distrusted the armour the artillery and engineers withdrew into a world of their own a plan for holding the Panzer Army south of Mirza matru failed for a combination of many of those reasons by the time it had been demonstrably shattered Auchinleck had taken a step which many people including Churchill thought he should have taken much earlier he sacked General Ritchie and took command of the battle himself in doing so he effectively saddled Ritchie with all the blame for the preceding disasters but although Rommel seemed to have the upper hand in truth the Allies were winning the all-important logistics war it now tuck three weeks to ferry access supplies by Road from the port of Tripoli the Porter to Brook was not yet serviceable thanks to the demolition efforts of the retreating Royal Navy they're reinforcements had relieved the pressure on Walter and from July 1942 over a third of axis shipping dispatch from Italy ended at the bottom of the ventilation Allied air forces have built up a great store of British and American fighters fighter bombers and bombers although the number of British planes in the sky gave Eagle Luftwaffe aces like York in Marseille the opportunity to build up vast scores the ceaseless air combat was inevitably a drain on the sources of fuel and skilled Airmen Rommel was also now to be deprived of his flying artillery the young pursue to serve which was a sitting duck against modern aircraft types the Luftwaffe was being inexorably driven from the skies but the advantage to the British was not yet apparent by the morning of the 29th of June the axis had passed Mercer matru and were driving along the coast road through Fuuka and on to L dubba the two Panzer divisions and Ariete were driving south west towards L Casilla across the front of the German advance ran a desert rack it connected The Impossible Kotaro depression to the south with the newly created wire bound a fence post around the little railway station of El Alamein of which few people at that time had ever heard Rommels orders were short and clear there was no reason to believe that these new British defenses would be any more difficult to smash than the countless others now to their rear although their commander did realize that after the tremendous efforts of the past four weeks they were exhausted he called on his troops for one last supreme effort but Rommel Zion will was not to be enough the axis had already experienced a succession of heavy bombing raids against which the Luftwaffe could only send an occasional lone bf109 late on the afternoon of the 1st of July the men of the 90th light suddenly found themselves under a barrage the like of which none of them had ever experienced heavy guns howitzers lights and medium field guns mortars anti-tank guns and all contributed to a storm of fire which should even rumble who came hurrying up in an armored car immediately the extent of the Opposition 290th lights advance it became evident Auchinleck had found a way of stopping Rommel at last fighting continued for an intense three weeks at the end of which Rommel had been pushed back only a mile the battle had revealed with blinding clarity the lack of cooperation throughout the 8th army its general amateurism compared poorly with the professionalism of the Africa Corps and the necessity for complete reorganization and thorough training was obvious the first battle Alamein produced one success of one failure for each side Auchinleck had halted Rommels drive the nile but the panzer army was still in existence and no one could foretell when it would strike again and whether or not it would succeed here for the moment both sides were forced to pause until resupply could be achieved there was a lull in the fighting we re soldiers were given the opportunity to relax in their trenches and read mail from home but everybody knew the quiet would not last on the 30th of August Rommel attacked again at Alam halfa the four days of battle which followed decided the desert war this time rubble faced a new opponent Auchinleck had appointed one Bernard Law Montgomery to command the Eighth Army the change and British fortunes at this time has often been ascribed not least by Montgomery himself to his assumption of command but one man no matter how influential could not win on his own the RAF had control of the skies and bombed German supply dumps and headquarters units with impunity Rommel was sick as were many of his 17,000 veterans who had fought in North Africa without a break for well over a year and the British refused to play the old game their Armour did not expend itself on suicidal charges into German anti-tank guns had waited with artillery and air support but the Germans to come today the videos displayed none of the unsteadiness robble scented earlier about some for the moment his plan Orient was on home the grandiose scheme endorsed by the Chancellery had been conceived all as a great pincer movement while severe mark thrust down through the Caucasus the Africa Corps would seize Suez once the two forces linked up there would be an opportunity to drive eastwards until they met the Japanese but even a plan Orient had once been practical its time had long passed Rommel applied for leave fated in Berlin where he stayed with the gurgles family he disconcerted his stand in general stumer with the statement that he would return that the British attacked an attack they would even if they were taking their time about it as Rommel confided to his staff if I were Montgomery we wouldn't still be here the Second Battle of El Alamein was a take place just as Robin Hood fear Montgomery had a deeper version learned on the Western Front during the first world war two squandering the lives of his troops he resisted Churchill's demands for immediate action until everything was in place and victory assured [Music] with dominance of the air a substantial advantage in both infantry and tanks and an artillery barrage organized on a scale not achieved by the British Army since 1918 but gunnery launched the sort of classic set piece battle and which he himself although they didn't know it Montgomery's attack on the 23rd of October 1942 far the beginning of the end for Hitler and the Nazis [Music] the tide of war was turning irrevocably in favor of the Allies [Music]

Channel: South African Military History Channel

Views: 124,717

Keywords: Military, History, South Africa, Union Defense Force, South African Defense Force, SADF, Recce, Special Forces, Military History, Desert War, Western Desert Campaign, World War 2, Afrika Korps, Springboks, Erwin Rommel, Bernard Montgomery

Id: cgiplx7Efps

Length: 42min 0sec (2520 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 20 2018