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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.02.17 16:28l 51 Lines 2253 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 22844_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 12
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 170212/1420Z 22844@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1941
Rommel in Africa
On this day, German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli,
Libya, with the newly formed Afrika Korps, to reinforce the
beleaguered Italians' position.
In January 1941, Adolf Hitler established the Afrika Korps for
the explicit purpose of helping his Italian Axis partner maintain
territorial gains in North Africa. "[F]or strategic, political,
and psychological reasons, Germany must assist Italy in Africa,"
the Fuhrer declared. The British had been delivering devastating
blows to the Italians; in three months they pushed the Italians
out of Egypt while wounding or killing 20,000 Italian soldiers
and taking another 130,000 prisoner.
Having commanded a panzer division in Germany's successful French
and Low Countries' campaigns, General Rommel was dispatched to
Libya along with the new Afrika Korps to take control of the
deteriorating situation. Until that time, Italian General Ettore
Bastico was the overall commander of the Axis forces in North
Africa_which included a German panzer division and the Italian
armored division. Rommel was meant to command only his Afrika
Korps and an Italian corps in Libya, but he wound up running the
entire North African campaign.
The German soldiers of the Afrika Korps found adapting to the
desert climate initially difficult; Rommel found commanding his
Italian troops, who had been used to an Italian commander,
difficult as well. When Hitler, preoccupied with his plans for
his Soviet invasion, finally gave the go-ahead for an offensive
against British positions in Egypt, Rommel's forces were stopped
dead in their tracks and then forced to retreat. In the famous
battle of El Alamein, the British Eighth Army_beginning in
October 23, 1942_surprised the German commander with its brute
resolve, and pushed him and his Afrika Korps back across and out
of North Africa. (Ironically, the Arabs celebrated Rommel, called
"the Desert Fox," as a liberator from British imperialism.)
Retreat followed retreat, and Rommel finally withdrew from North
Africa entirely and returned to Europe in March of 1943, leaving
the Afrika Korps in other hands.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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