I was always wondering why this never happened.
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Not sure, however there was the Soviet Union which sucked up most of the armor and the supply issues. North Africa was “overseas” and had long supply routes.
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Not sure at what level you mean? Tank crews or a panzer general or something in between.
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North Africa was, in modern times, about what whole 10 hours from Italy? Overseas would’ve been a stretch in my honest opinion. But I still think Rommel had the most pressure, imo, of most German generals
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A panzer general. Say a Heinz Guderian. I feel like Rommel was really given a weak support cast. Like really weak.
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I guess Rommel himsleves was that competent tank commander, leading from the front, able to exploit any tactical advantage in real time. He just rose to field Marshall very quickly. I guess similar to Patton - they both had the ability to lead down to an operationel level and more layers of commanders would have killed their flexible thinking. Makes me thinks of the scene in the Patton movie where he solves a traffic jam in Normandy and one where he shoots a donkey on a bridge in Sicily
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I mean, if he had an extra panzer general (let’s be real here, the Italians wasn’t the strongest bunch in Africa. They had some victories, but a whole lotta losses), it probably would’ve help. Think, if Guderian was attacking Malta with panzers, while Erwin Rommel was attacking North Africa, the British would’ve suffered a apocalyptic loss of proportion
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Also, Rommel himself was sickly most times, so it would’ve made extra sense to get help for him. I don’t wanna say I like Rommel, but from what I read about him, he’s the only general in WW2 for Germany to not down the horrific route that the Soviet Union was facing
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According to Panzer Leader, Rommel had suggested Guderian as a replacement while he was recovering. It was denied because in 1942, Guderian was on the outs.
I don’t think Rommel needed another general. He needed another Panzer Division and replacements for his losses and supplies.
As for taking Malta, it’s rather tiny wouldn’t need panzers. Really needed a strong airborne attack with sea control and air control. They never really got sea or air control.
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Malta was extremely well fortified and reinforced in 1941-1942. There was little possibility for Axis to capture it by invasion. Only way was naval blockade Malta and starve it to surrender but Royal Navy despite heavy losses always brought convoys in to Malta to sustain and reinforce the place and sent Spitfire and Hurricane fighters for air defence
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i geuss Malta would have fallen if Germany had fully focused on it earlier.
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Honestly, I agree with you. I was just continuing the discussion on using Panzers at Malta. I think a full airborne division might have had a chance but after Crete the only ones with that capabilities were allies. Even so we didn’t have transports for at least another year. No Malta took a huge beating from the air and they got hungry but they were never in danger of being occupied.
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I would trade Guderian for Smiling Kesselring because 2 Panzer leaders against the British Army in North Africa would have smelled doom. Plus Kesselring was just… I ain’t gonna go into the future, because we’re not there yet, but he gives really evil vibes. I’ll never understand why he wasn’t on the Eastern front tbh. Idk much about Guderian and his views, but I just would have him and Rommel together tbh
Note I hate the Holocaust, but Kesselring wasn’t the smiling guy that history gives him. Secretly, you’ll have to find out in '44
No, he was not a nice guy but he seemed very effective in his military role. I’ll wait to learn more but I thought his defense of Italy was pretty good. Although maybe the terrain made it easy
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Effective? Only thing he was great at, from all the WW2 game apps I play, was with the Luftwaffe and somewhat with troops.
Still, imagine him being traded out with Guderian
From what I learned about Kesselring, he hated working with Rommel because Rommel always wanted to go offense offense offense. Rommel hated Kesselring because he hated to be on defense all the time. Whether or not if they could’ve put aside their differences and work together that would’ve achieved wins, is up to history debates
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But Kesslering was in charge of the air fleet attacking Malta and supporting Rommel. That would never have been Guderian’s role. I don’t think Rommel ever had enough tanks to need 2 Panzer Generals. While I respect Guderian’s command style, I think he served more of a role on the Eastern front.
Panzer leader was the first autobiography I ever read on a world war 2 figure. I used to think he was a model general who stood for his men and the mission and stood up to Hitler. What I have learned since has tarnished his role a bit. It definitely taught me that autobiographical books need to be considered as only part of the story.
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My take is, Guderian for kesselring would’ve been a bit better. You got Adolf galland if you need an air vet. But like, even with limited tanks, Guderian would’ve trained the Italians how to properly fight a tank war.
Giving how the North African campaign was, guderian could’ve went to the parts of Libya that wasn’t in the battle zone (the white parts that Indy shows on the African front) and pulled a huge entrapment of the allied forces and crushed them. But I digress. That’s just me