Rommel vs. Montgomery: The Brutal Battle that turned the Tide in North Africa D

The big difference between North Africa and the Soviet Union is that for the German Reich, North Africa was a secondary theater. No ideological objectives were involved, as was the case in the Soviet Union, where the aim was to destroy communist ideology and wipe out large sections of the population. The myth of the war in Africa is linked so closely to Erwin Römer, Because basically Rommel represents what the German public wanted.

A swashbuckling general who seemed to be a man of the people, a military leader, who was loved by his troops and who successfully commanded large armoured formations from the very front. He was a kind of pop star of national socialism. In Erwin Rommel, Reich propaganda minister Josef Goebbels also had a willing colleague.

It was the kind of war you imagine in an adventure novel or an adventure film. Naturally, the appropriate pictures also inspired the nation. So in this respect, as a theatre of war, North Africa was tailor-made for propaganda purposes. To the British, it was a major theatre of war. For them, it was all about defending the British Empire.

Rommel and Montgomery were professional soldiers. Montgomery was the analytical type, while Rommel took a more aggressive approach to warfare. Casablanca made it quite clear that for Allied leaders, the only acceptable end to the war would be Germany’s unconditional surrender. This was a crystal clear signal to Berlin.

In late June 1942, the German Africa Corps was advancing. Following the fall of Tobruk, the aim was to crush the British Eighth Army, which had dug in near the small Egyptian town of El Alamein on the Mediterranean coast. In the opening years of the war, the Wehrmacht was usually superior to its adversaries, operationally and tactically, and not only in North Africa.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, the combined arms approach. This involved all the individual elements, tanks, artillery, infantry, sappers, and so on, interacting on the battlefield in the right mix, so to speak. with each pulling its own strings so that its own strengths are brought to bear with maximum effect.

The second point is the employment of mission-type tactics, whereby subordinates are given the objective and the means to achieve it, but without actually being shown the way.” Promoted by Hitler to the rank of field marshal, Rommel exuded self-confidence. supported by his staff, He was certain that in view of the crushing experience of Tobruk, the British defences would be unable to stop him.

In my opinion, in the figure of Erwin Rommel, we see a major deficit of the German military mindset. Rommel was an operator and that is how he acted in North Africa. He was an old sweat who wanted to defeat his enemy. But it seems… that he never gave a thought to what would happen afterwards. And although he had achieved a fairly emphatic victory over the British, he had not taken them out of the war.

Nazi propaganda footage showing Rommel questioning British generals who had been taken prisoner in June. In this way, Germans on the home front were given the impression that the war in North Africa was already won. On July 1st 1942, the Battle of El Alamein began. A cine film showing the German advance and the first footage of the fighting was hurriedly produced.

It could be bought by anyone in special shops in Germany and watched at home with the help of a projector. The film had no soundtrack. The British had mined the approach roads, which considerably slowed the German advance. In front of El Alamein, the 8th Army under the command of General Sir Claude Oschinleck had established a 65 kilometre long defensive belt.

German artillery fired full blast to try and create a path through the British lines for the German and Italian tanks. But hopes of a swift victory vanished within the space of a few days. In the first battle of El Alamein, when Rommel still tried to catch the British defenses unawares with a mobile assault, an old problem for the Axis forces in North Africa became apparent.

By now, Italian armored units were good enough to carry out attacks together with German units, but not alone. The German units were already relatively weak, and the Italians were not strong enough to break through the British lines on their own. This CNA film shows enemy soldiers who have surrendered to a superior attacking force.

In reality though, Field Marshal Rommel did not have enough troops to gain a decisive advantage on the battlefield. During the campaign it became clear that this secondary theatre of war could not be conducted without a decisive battle. on a secondary level, not even by the Germans. On the one hand, because Berlin needed to keep its Italian allies at all costs, and on the other hand, because the campaign had to be brought to a successful conclusion.

It was generally realized that the German troops that had been deployed thus far would not be sufficient. And the situation was the same for Italy. Both dictators, Hitler and Mussolini, reinforce their units in North Africa to achieve a decisive operational breakthrough which ultimately was to take place at El Alamein.

That would decide the future of the campaign. This would either mean retreating because of a defeat, which actually happened, or advancing further, whereby the question would then have arisen as to the goal after El Alamein. To Rommel, advancing with considerable speed. Egypt. With the Nile Delta, which gives it life, Cairo, British General Headquarters and Africa’s principal city, Alexandria, Egypt’s chief port and base of our Mediterranean fleet, and Suez, gateway to the Far East, all these must have seemed dazzlingly near. In a retreat camp of our Afrika Korps on the south coast of Greece. Nazi propaganda spread confidence. Here live Berliner Jungen. Supply for the flight to Africa.

For both sides, the critical element in this theater was logistics. There were two levels. The first involved strategic supply. How do I get all my equipment and my troops to North Africa in the first place? The second level involved operational supply. How do I get this material and these people from the port in Tripoli or Alexandria straight to the front? Solving these questions was the task facing planners on both sides.

Basically, we can say that the British, despite all their problems, were mostly well-supplied, whereas the Italians and the Germans very often had to live more or less from hand to mouth. The troops have been sent to the front of the Alamein. Now we speak German. Although the route was short, the Germans and Italians had to bring in their supplies across the Mediterranean.

But the British-occupied island of Malta had been a thorn in the Axis side for years. It proved a hindrance to German and Italian-supplied transports time and again. The German air force repeatedly tried to knock out Britain’s base in the Mediterranean, but ultimately without success. Hitler decided against Operation Hercules, an invasion of the island which had already been planned down to the last detail.

The supplies so urgently needed by the Africa Corps faltered. One major problem in North Africa was, of course, the provision of foodstuffs, but above all, providing a supply of water and, considering the distances involved, providing fuel. Neither the Germans nor the Germans were able to provide foodstuffs.

nor the Italians achieved this on a permanent basis, whereas the British handled the problem better and better. In the meantime, the international press had sparked off a true Rommel frenzy. Now no one dared criticize the popular army commander. There were some who begrudged Rommel. No one can make field marshal that fast, they said.

And those who had enjoyed an orderly career as a general staff officer had always been sceptical of Rommel. Rommel also had always had something autistic about him. I’d say he had been through a learning process, one that took place in small steps. Otherwise, he would never have got as far as El Alamein had he been a martial-forwards type who never communicated.

You become a successful military leader when you listen to the expertise of your subordinates. This is something Rommel did more and more in 1942 than he had in 1941. By now, the American armaments industry was also providing supplies for the material battle in the desert. To avoid German air raids or submarine attacks in the Mediterranean, most of the British supplies regarding food, men and material took the long route around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and through the Suez Canal.

One major supply advantage which the British had… was the railway line which went as far as El Alamein. It enabled far more goods to be transported in much shorter time. After El Alamein, both sides faced the same problems. Whether it was water, food or war material, everything had to be transported by truck.

Along the way there was virtually no chance, for instance, of refuelling. So the columns on the road also had to take along everything they themselves needed. So not everything that was loaded up was able to reach the troops it was earmarked for, because the columns had to use it for themselves. Before being appointed Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Command, Sir Claude Oschinleck, who was known as the Ork, had served as British Commander-in-Chief in India.

Time and again he had incurred the displeasure of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who complained about his hesitancy. Auchinleck is an extremely interesting figure, because in 1942 he managed to stop Rommel and, especially after the war, there was a major discussion about who actually played the decisive role in turning things around in North Africa.

Was it Montgomery, who always assumed this role for himself, or was it perhaps Auchinleck? who had already managed to stop Rommel before then and thus lay the basis for Britain’s success in North Africa. Here, General Orkin Lake waited. And with him, men who had fought at Gazala and Sidi Rezegh. Others who had been twice to Benghazi.

Others who had escaped from Beahakini to Prok. The 8th Army had made a fighting retreat of 400 miles. And the battle which approached in its importance, the Battle of Britain, was now at hand. On their islands, the people of Britain had to hold out against the German air force. They couldn’t fight the enemy on the ground, but in North Africa, British troops were able to engage the Wehrmacht and Italian forces.

At least until the situation changed, This was the only chance to show British ground forces fighting the Germans. For that reason alone, for the British too, North Africa was excellent. It provided a cinematographic backdrop with an exotic environment, dauntless warriors and so on. Propaganda strategists in London had also been busy.

Numerous camera teams were sent to North Africa. to document the fight against Rommel. They sent back spectacular pictures from the first battle of El Alamein, which lasted throughout the whole of July 1942. General Oschinleck concentrated the British artillery with considerable effect and then attacked time and again with mobile units.

In this way, he prevented Rommel from achieving a decisive breakthrough, caused the Axis forces serious losses, and saved the Eighth Army from disaster. On August 23, 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited North Africa. His hallmark, the V for Victory sign, hid the concerns that were troubling him.

Churchill still regarded Rommel and his armies as highly dangerous. He also doubted Oshinlek’s ability to finally go on the attack. Consequently, a few days before, he had unceremoniously replaced Oshinlek with General Harold Alexander. The new commander-in-chief of the Eighth Army was an old warhorse, Bernard L.

Montgomery. The arrival of Montgomery breathed fresh life into the Eighth Army, even though Auchinleck had certainly laid the foundation. What was decisive was that his men saw Montgomery as a charismatic leader, not necessarily as a popular leader, but as an extremely charismatic one who looked after his troops.

Montgomery also stood for something new in this theater of war. He was against the old structures. In fact, he said, we have to break up all these encrusted structures. He fired generals one after another and replaced them with new ones. I wouldn’t say that Montgomery was a naturally defensive military leader.

He was someone who planned his operations with great precision. Montgomery was also generally regarded as cool and arrogant, at the very least extremely self-confident. Seen in retrospect, his appointment was correct, because he was the right man in the right place at the right time. Meanwhile, a German camera team was filming Wehrmacht troops enjoying a dip in the sacred fountain at the Egyptian oasis of Siiva.

But ever since the days of the pharaohs, the local inhabitants had regarded such activity as sacrilegious and an evil omen. Marshal Rommel, enter in Siiva. The Italian Civilian Population The civilian population was actually an important issue for the Italians, because after all, they were the colonial masters.

The Germans were only guests, so to speak. Nevertheless, a civilian population comprised of Arabs was perfect for propaganda purposes, because Nazi ideology was certainly sympathetic towards Islam and the Arabs. So it was perfect if German troops portrayed themselves in a protective role for the local inhabitants.

Rommel, of course, knew that in classical times, Siever had been a mythical site with a famous oracle. It was here, for instance, that Alexander the Great had been told that he was the son of the god Zeus Amon. Material indeed for the Rommel legend. Rommel knew that time was not on his side. He was receiving hardly any supplies, whereas the British were constantly being supplied.

He knew that if he did not attack now, Sooner or later, the British would attack and overrun him. So he decided to mount a final offensive in the Egyptian theater of war. That was the Battle of Alam Halfa, also known as the Second Battle of El Alamein, in which, in classical style, he tried to outflank the British in the south and then attack them from the rear.

Rommel actually wanted to wait and lure the British out of their positions. General Forwards had become a cautious and increasingly pessimistic commander. Nevertheless, he yielded to pressure and on September 1st 1942 launched a major offensive against the 8th Army. But thanks to British radio intelligence Montgomery knew Rommel’s plans and organized his tank units in such a way that they were able to repel the attack and inflict serious losses on the Africa Corps.

But it was not due solely to Montgomery’s tactical skill that after five days, Rommel had to call off the attack in total frustration. Supplies from the United States at least included quality armor in the Grant and, in particular, the Sherman tank. They became the dominant weapons in the African theater.

What was also decisive was the fact that in August 1942, the British also gained supremacy in the air, because you can only operate freely with your armoured ground forces if you also have control of the air. And that was a major turning point in the war in North Africa. Ultimately, after losing the Battle of Alam Halfa, Rommel was physically and mentally exhausted.

He had to return to Germany to recuperate. Marshal Rommel is reporting to the Führer and receives the Marshal. In Berlin, Rommel was at least able to put on a good face with Hitler. Hitler, of course, basked in the success of a national hero. As he hands over the Field Marshal’s baton, you can see quite clearly that a personal relationship exists between the two.

In a certain way, the scene has a slight intimacy. This flattered Rommel, of course, and on the other hand, Joseph Goebbels was also happy to appear with Rommel in front of the international press and present his hero. The marshal explained, among other things, that thanks to the bravery of our soldiers, we were able to finish the Englishman in a hard ring, although our military force had often underlined him in numbers.

The quality of our troops and leadership has given us the victory. Today we are 100 km ahead of Alexandria and Cairo and have the Egyptian gate in hand, with the intention of acting here as well. Rommel stoically endured the propaganda lies and the smug complacency of the Nazi leadership. When he posed for a photograph in his new uniform, the Field Marshal looked tired and battle-weary.

This picture was taken at a time when Rommel was physically just a shadow of his former self. He was recuperating in Germany, and he had the third battle of El Alamein ahead of him, so he knew he had reached a watershed. Rommel was serious. He was pensive. He was full of emotion. But Nazi propaganda gave its hero no respite.

The opening of the Winter Assistance Force in 1942-43 in the Berlin Sports Palace, the historic battlefield of the Berlin National Socialists. A march of flags and banners. Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels enters the Sports Palace with Marshal Rommel. After the war, an observer wrote, It is not a time I like to remember because so much blood was shed unnecessarily.

Through propaganda, first from Goebbels and then from Montgomery, his person has come to symbolize the finest military tradition. Rommel is the prototype of the tenacious German who makes a career in the military. So a lot of people identified with him. He had a field marshal’s baton in his kit bag. He was a winner.

And this made him valuable to the propaganda machine. The question now is how far does this propaganda reflect his true core and far does it distort him? And that is exactly what happened in the second half of 1942. If we look at his state of health, through his asceticism, his perseverance, and the high demands he made on himself, Rommel was in a bad way.

The field marshal had a particularly close relationship with the family of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Thus, the Nazi hero from Africa willingly allows himself to play a guest role in the film, which was made every year by UFA on the minister’s birthday. Since Goebbels rarely saw his six children, watched by their mother, they portrayed their daily routine.

Magda Goebbels was an ardent fan of Erwin Rommel. We can’t really say much about Erwin Rommel’s relationship with Joseph Goebbels. We know that they met regularly, of course. What we definitely can say, however… is that Magda Goebbels revered Erwin Rommel. She even wrote him letters in which she stated her love for him and asked him not to be irritated by her declaration of affection.

So she was a massive fan of Erwin Rommel and showed it time and again. Naturally, he also visited the Goebbels family in Berlin whenever possible. On September 30th 1942, Josef Goebbels wrote in his diary One evening we were sitting together with Rommel who was telling us about the campaign in North Africa.

Rommel is one of the Führer’s bravest officers. His greatest gift is improvisation. Losing Rommel would not only be materially impossible for us to compensate, it would also be an irreparable prestigious setback. I am delighted to have the Field Marshal as a visitor in our home. We can learn a lot from him, especially how one can be a great yet modest figure.

British troops were preparing for the next major battle against the Axis forces. The soldiers’ parents, wives and children were to be shown that any setbacks would not be due to a lack of fitness. Meanwhile, the 8th Army train to the last ice. The physical fitness and hardness of an army is one of the biggest battle winning factors in war.

When two first class fighters meet, he who sticks it longest wins in the end. This has been proved time and time again and applies to all ranks, from general officers to private soldiers. And this includes all branches of the army, whatever their job. And wherever they be, fighting fit and fit to fight. Joseph Goebbels noted confidently in his diary that…

Rommel certainly doesn’t underestimate the enemy. He knows its quality precisely. But he also knows exactly what he can demand from himself and his troops. Even though people complained about him, so to speak, Rommel had charisma. His authority was undisputed. And this authority was due to the fact that, considering the various military leadership philosophies, he led from the front.

Naturally, in an exposed position, exposed for newsreel cameras, but not for the enemy, of course. Monti was less inclined to do that, but he too was always on the spot. So for Churchill, Montgomery was an interesting type of leader, someone who could turn things around by using factors like technology and mechanized warfare.

Reducing a war just to commanders was not enough. In London, Prime Minister Churchill became more and more impatient, but he let General Alexander convince him that Montgomery needed time to organise his new troops and get the American tanks ready for action. The Eighth Army now had over 1,000 tanks at its disposal for Operation Lightfoot.

On October 23, 1942, the Third Battle of El Alamein began. Montgomery had planned this battle, had planned his offensive in great detail. He wanted to keep the risk as low as possible and waited until he had a superiority of at least two to one in every area, tanks, artillery, troops and aircraft. Only then, in late October, did he launch Operation Lightfoot, which started the third battle of El Alamein.

It began with an unbelievable artillery barrage, which shook the entire German and Italian defensive lines. And in contrast to many previous battles in North Africa, in the third battle of El Alamein, it was not about somehow outflanking the Germans. Montgomery simply wanted to break through the German and Italian lines with an iron fist.

After a hard day’s fighting, the 8th Army had made a salient in the north, 6 miles wide, and to a depth 4 miles beyond the first enemy minefields. Next day, attacks were made in the center and south. The attacks that Rommel had been expecting, and which he thought were the real thing, but they were merely diversions.

In fact, our main attack was to be in the north. Some of the scenes in Desert Victory now it seems were restaged later but numerous camera teams were directly involved in the battle area to document the fighting at first hand. According to official figures in the opening credits, four cameramen were killed while filming and another seven injured.

Rammel counter-attacked repeatedly during these days, both on the ground and in the air. Basically, military calculation says that in order to be fairly sure that an operation will be successful, and An attacking force must outnumber the defenders by three to one. So the British superiority of two to one was not ideal.

The fact that the operation was still successful says a great deal about its preparation. The summary attached enormous importance to everyone, from every officer down to each individual single soldier being trained and prepared. Only then was he willing to attack. In some quarters, he was criticized for displaying a certain stolidity, but in the end, it paid off.

Rommel rushed back from Germany. On reaching his headquarters on the evening of October 25th, he learned that the fuel supply in particular was critically low. This made it impossible for him to engage in the mobile warfare, which in the past had proved so successful. Rommel was now fighting back with little pause and with increasing desperation.

Montgomery forced Rommel to engage in an exchange of blows the German commander could not win. But even so the resolute defense put up by the Africa Corps upset Montgomery’s actual plan. A battle of attrition lasting several days took place with heavy losses on both sides. At the time of the Battle of El Alamein, the German Afrika Korps was under the command of General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma.

He was an experienced commander who had seen action in the Soviet Union and had already seen the war. spent quite some time in North Africa. He was regarded as a critic of the regime. Fontoma was highly intelligent and was an experienced tank commander. After the battle, he too said that it had exceeded all his expectations.

In an interview in 1945 with the Times newspaper, General Hans Kramer remembered the battles in the desert. El Alamein was lost before the battle began. We lacked fuel. Large supplies of fuel and material lay all over Italy, and we assumed that the Italians would bring them over, but they couldn’t manage it.

Rommel knew even beforehand that the campaign in Africa was hopeless, not because we lacked arms and reserves, but because we didn’t have any fuel. 30,000 Axis troops were taken prisoner, nearly 15,000 were wounded and 9,000 killed. Montgomery also suffered heavy losses, with 4,800 men killed and nearly 9,000 wounded.

Despite the precarious situation, Rommel ignored Hitler’s order that members of British commando operations encountered behind German lines should be completely wiped out, either in combat or while escaping. Rommel had long since lost faith in the Führer. Early in November, defeat was clearly looming at El Alamein.

That was the situation when Rommel received an order directly from Hitler. Your only option now, it said, is to lead your troops to victory or to die on the battlefield. Victory or death, in other words. Rommel was shocked when he received the order. But at first, he intended to obey it. However, when he discussed the situation at El Alamein with General Toma, Thomas said, impossible, we must retreat, the order is madness, we must pull back.

At first, Rommel agreed to only a local withdrawal, but a day later, he decided to ignore Hitler’s order completely and pull his men out. He thus prevented his army from being annihilated. The modern assessment by British military historians is that the victory at El Alamein was not a stroke of genius, neither strategically nor tactically.

However, Montgomery succeeded in changing the mood of the 8th Army so that his armour and infantry fought with particular courage. And that in particular is why he became a legend and why in 1944 Winston Churchill promoted Montgomery to the rank of Field Marshal. His rival who at times was on a par with Montgomery, was plagued by other problems.

In this case, Rommel’s own men were more important to him than obedience to Hitler. Consequently, he managed to withdraw a large proportion of the German and Italian tank army. However, large numbers of Italian units were taken prisoner. They were poorly motorized and could not pull back fast enough. in particular, Italian forces located in the far south of the battlefield were virtually all captured.

Nevertheless, Rommel managed to get more than 100,000 German and Italian troops heading back to Libya. But he had to leave without one of his most important advisers. At El Alamein, Ritter von Thoma was captured and taken to Montgomery, the commander-in-chief of the British Eighth Army. In his diary, von Thormann noted that he had always been treated well by the British and had never felt any hatred towards him.

Pursuit was remorseless. Every enemy column, coast road or in the desert, sometimes jammed head to tail, was bombed and machine gunned. This did what they’d administered in France and Poland. The British Royal Air Force played a major role in the victory at El Alamein through its merciless bombing of Rommel’s armour.

Now it pursued the retreating German army. Built-in automatic cameras provided spectacular pictures. Not least it was because of such pictures that in 1944 Desert Victory won an Oscar as the best documentary film. There followed many weeks in which the British repeatedly tried to overtake Rommel from the south and cut off his retreat.

But Rommel kept managing to withdraw in good time into pre-built defensive positions. What is interesting is that the British were actually well informed about the intentions of the Germans and Italians through ULTRA, the Allied Intelligence Project that tapped the very highest level of encrypted communications of the Axis armed forces.

The problem for the Allies, however, was that they could not was that Rommel often reported something upstairs and then went and did something completely different, thus confusing the enemy once again. In this way, he managed to pull his army further and further back. In Desert Victory, however, the pursuit is stylized into one long success story.

No mention is made of Rommel’s tactical tricks. The Africa Corps, utterly broken and possessed with no thought but flight, was hotly pursued. But the 8th Army was not only the thunder behind, but the lightning ahead. From hull-down positions on the road of escape, our guns and tanks knocked out on first day of retreat over 50 of Rumble’s remaining panzers without loss.

He had already left 500 tanks behind him on the battlefield. We captured over 1,000 pieces of artillery. Their armaments had been lost, but for the time being, Rommel had saved most of his men from capture. Sooner or later, though, they would have to fight again. It was a fine military achievement. I believe it also shows that Rommel was capable of empathy as well, of course, of rational thinking.

The troops who had been saved could be reorganized and… at some point in the future, used in battle once again. For Rommel, as soon as it became clear that a German victory was no longer possible, it was important to bring the North Africa campaign to an orderly conclusion. In other words, an orderly retreat.

That, however, ran contrary to Nazi thinking. Rommel’s Afrika Korps had started out in Tripoli in February 1941, with the intention of advancing as far as the Suez Canal. Now his defeated army was heading back to the Libyan capital. But even so, most of the soldiers would extol their courageous field marshal for the rest of their lives.

The basis for this sympathy was actually respect, simply because he never secluded himself. He was always visible to his troops. And of course I’m at least in the conversations I have had with former soldiers in this war. The retreat from El Alamein played a major role. They believed that even if later they were taken prisoner, Rommel had saved their lives.

And that, of course, is something his soldiers have never forgotten. As a rule, Unlike many of their comrades who were captured in the Soviet Union, soldiers with the Afrika Korps were well treated and transported by ship to prisoner of war camps in Britain or the United States. There, most of them survived the war.

It is to their credit that there are no stories of war crimes in North Africa, and as a rule, British prisoners of war were treated fairly. In many respects… El Alamein is one of the battles in British commemorative culture and for many years it remained largely sacrosanct in British history. It is only over the last 20 years that it has been subject to critical research because the battle played an excessive propaganda role right from the start.

This was certainly due in part to the success of Desert Victory. The film presents a fairly one-sided picture of events. on November 7th, British troops reached the port of Masa Matruh. They had no idea that that very night the story of the war in North Africa would take another twist. The victory at El Alamein in October and November 1942 had a stabilizing effect on the British Empire, stabilizing too with regard to Britain’s status in the eyes of the Americans.

In any two-party constellation, you have one partner who is stronger and one who is weaker. The British were taken seriously, but would they be able to preserve this American goodwill? On the evening of November 7th, 1942, off the coasts of Morocco and Algeria, more than 100,000 American and British troops were ready to launch one of the biggest amphibious landing operations in history.

The two countries were under the control of the Nazi-friendly Vichy regime in France. the whole of North Africa was to be liberated.