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THE THIRD REICH
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Afrikakorps Includesbibliographical referencesand index mandDecisionandGreatBattles. From 1937
TheCenterofthe Web ISBN0-8094-7016-0 to 1945, he served in the German air force
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Content!
Finale in the Deieit
f 4
1 A Slugging Natch for Sicily 50
J Knocking on the Door off Amii Europe 98
4 ¥he Eternal City and Beyond 142
ESSAYS
through the Eyei a Soldier
off
Rescuing the Duce
86
Yhe Destruction Monte Cauino
off 130
Bitter Eruiti off Alliance with Hitler 176
Acknowledgments 186
Picture Credits 186
Bibliography 187
Index 188
IllII1*111IMIMIIIIMMIll
Finale
the Desert
ield Marshal Erwin Rommel, retreating from Egypt on November 8, 1942,
after the defeat at El Alamein, received the worst possible news: To Rom-
mel's west, British and American troops were pouring ashore by
the tens ofthousands at nine different landing sites around Cas-
ablanca,Oran,andAlgiers.TheDesert Foxhadinstantlysizedupthe
situation. The days ofhis famed Afrikakorps were numbered. As he wrote
in his diary: "This spelled the end of the army in Africa.''
RommelhadbeenwithdrawingwestwardalongthecoastofNorthAfrica,
the British EighthArmy at his heels, since November4, always hoping that
he could rally, strike back, and resume his drive to Alexandria. Now, with
Allied troops landing to the rear oftheAfrikakorps, that hope was dashed.
Rommel realized immediately that he had no course but further retreat.
Clarion calls to stand and hold poured in from Mussolini, Hitler, and
Comando Supremo, the Rome-based Italian high command. But Rommel
concludedthatthefirstreasonableplacetoregroupwasattheMersaBrega
Line, 600 miles west ofEl Alamein. So the retreat continued with amazing
speed,andastheywent, theGermansrelinquishedalltheirpreviousgains
Sidi Barrani was lost on November 9, the Sollum-Halfaya Line on the 11th
hard-won Tobruk fell without a fight on the 13th, Martuba two days later
Benghaziwasyieldedonthe20th,thefifthtimethatthatbatteredtownhad
changed hands in two years.
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring Itwasahellish,unceasingordeal.Withdrawingatnightmeantnavigating
flasheshishabitual grin as he
conferswith Field Marshal through minefields with only a hand-held compass for a guide. In the
Erwin Rommel in Egypt shortly darkness, the Royal AirForce dropped flares that illuminated the German
before the Desert Fox returned
to Germany on sick leave in troops for the fighter planes and bombers that followed.
September 1942. Later that Onesurvivorrememberedsuchascene, theparachutes slowlydropping
autumn,Rommel's weakened
forcewas sent reeling in retreat with their incandescent flares: "They struck me as emerging from the
bythe Britishat El Alamein
darkness with an almost idiotic exultancy. In a few minutes the heavens
were filled with Christmas trees.' We raced madly amid the thunder and
the flashes. If we halted and went to ground, the aircraft attacked even
solitarysoldierswhomtheycaughterect Theirgrotesqueshadows danced
:
revealingly across the ground."
—
How had Rommel, the intrepid and fearsome Desert Fox, come to this
grievous pass? Even before the British Eighth Army had turned the tide in
NorthAfricawith its searingvictoryat ElAlamein, Rommel's main problem
had become, and would remain, one ofsupply. Hitler had never grasped
the strategic importance ofthe North African campaign; he considered it MOSRPAONCICSOH ^j Gibraltar
Mussolini's war, farless important than Germany's life-and-death struggle \
against the Soviet Union. Therefore, the supplies that were forever prom-
ised to theAfrikakorps were onlygrudgingly assigned and rarely delivered
—
intact provided they could be sent through at all. Alerted to departure
times and planned routes by Ultra, London's secret code-cracking oper-
ation, British naval and air forces were able to anticipate and sink Axis
convoys in the Mediterranean that were bound for Rommel's army.
A major impediment to Axis shipping was the British crown colony of
Malta, which lies between Sicily and the Libyan and Tunisian ports
directly athwart the Axis supply routes to Africa. Planes belonging to the 150
RAF, along with British ships and submarines, were launched from Malta I 1510 L-3T00km
to devastate Axis resupply efforts. Soon three-quarters of the equipment
and reinforcements sent to Rommel were being lost en route; it has been
estimated that twice as many German tanks lie at the bottom of the
Mediterranean as ever reached the battlefront.
Thus, while Rommel's pursuit ofthe British in the summer of1942 had
puthim almostwithin sight ofthe pyramids, he lacked enough manpower
and armorto push fartherandwas desperately short ofgasoline to supply
thevehicles he did have. Conversely, the opposingEighthArmywas grow-
ing stronger by the day and had acquired a demanding and determined
new commander, Lieut. General Bernard Law Montgomery.
The German assault on British lines at the end ofAugust had run out of
fuel. When Montgomery failed to counterattack, a month-long stalemate
—
fell over the desert the first chance in four months that weary Axis
soldiers had had to rest, shore up their defenses, and redeploy. Rommel
himselfhad been in the desert for twenty months, far longer than junior
officers and troops half his age. The strain was beginning to tell.
Rommel finally heeded his doctor's demands that he return home for
rest and treatment of dangerously low blood pressure, chronic gastritis,
and desert sores. On the way there, he stopped in Rome to plead with
Mussolini for reinforcements and resupply. The duce recalled that Rom-
melseemed "physicallyand morallyshaken." Facedwith Rommel's urgent
requestsformateriel, Hitlerpresentedhimwithafieldmarshal'sbaton.The
Fiihrerwas little moved by Rommel's gloomy assessments. "Don't worry,"
Hitler told him. "I mean to give Africa all the support needed."
In fact, by October 1942, the British Eighth Army held a two-to-one
