I’d hardly call Lybia an oil rich area.
Bossk, take this:
Africa is a continent of 54 countries with an estimated mid-2000 population of 805 million people. The upstream oil industry is key to the continent of Africa, with proved reserves of 75.4 billion barrels and in 1998 it produced 7.8 million barrels per day (381 million tons/year) of over 40 types of crude oil. Five countries dominate Africa’s upstream oil production. Together they account for 85% of the continent’s oil production and are, in order of decreasing output, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Angola.
Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much
[ This Message was edited by: TG Moses VI on 2002-03-20 20:42 ]
Mr Ghoul:
His genius lies in the fact that he came up with a tactic that worked extreemly well. Perhaps with better resourses he could have come up with more tactical improvements.
If you haven’t already you should check into his exploits in WWI. German army officers didn’t become generals because they looked good in the uniform. That is until Hitler came along:(
What I really admire about Rommel was that he really did care about his troops. He really wanted to transport his Afrika Korps back to Italy, but for Hitler and Allied Air power, that was never meant to be. (Imagine 300,000 more veteran Germans in Italy!) The true genius behind Rommel was that he was able to take his limited supplies and mount an offensive that more often then not succeeded. Rommel knew that he would be outmatched if he sat there over long battles of attrition.
Ya, your right, Rommel was tight.
Rommel’s level of arrogance was displayed at his failure at the attacks on the fortress at Tobruk. Probably his greatest failure, he was counting on the wave he road of successes from Tripoli. He attacked with poor intelligence about the enemy strengths, positions, and reserves. He was beaten back horribly with heavy casualties. Poor communications and Rommel’s need to “lead from the front” also led to the failure. This quality, many times criticized, was part of his “magic”. He had a keen sense, almost a sixth sense, for battle. He used every advantage in his favor and exploited all enemy weaknesses. He was good with the men and shared all their hardships. He had great respect for his enemies and treated all prisoners as his own troops.
Given the proper logistical support, which would have been no easy task (maxing out all occupied port capacities), Rommel WOULD have taken the Suez and Middle Eastern oil fields. India would have been cut off and Russia would have faced a more southern front. There is little doubt in that.
“Given the proper logistical support, which would have been no easy task (maxing out all occupied port capacities), Rommel WOULD have taken the Suez and Middle Eastern oil fields. India would have been cut off and Russia would have faced a more southern front. There is little doubt in that”
What if? What if? What if!!! The truth is that rommel blundered because he relied too much on having better intelligence. he was given a map found in the desert that said that it was rocky where it was sandy, and threw his tanks that way. If hitler wasn’t so arrogant himself and continued to support his fallshirmjager, the axis could of taken out malta, attacked turkey, or who knows (at least malta.) the truh is the kesselring realized that if malta stayed, the germans couldn;t get the supplies needed to defeat the british.
Well the main problem with logistical support is that you can’t expect much from a second rate front. “To place a leader with his qualities in a secondary theater and expect him to fight a holding operation was a serious misjudgement of his ability.” As for the whole planing buisness, even though Rommel did analyzed battles he was fond of saying, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” I guess you could rule that under his sixth sense.
Horten,
Where exactly did Rommel “blunder”? He lost a war of attrition against the British. Monty took no chances. He had the time and the resources. Rommel knew he had to win fast in Egypt before American production tipped the scales against him. Once that occured, he knew the war was lost.
Reviewing the desert war, both sides had their share of tactical mistakes. Little did Rommel know at that time, Hitler and his top brass considered Africa more as a diversion rather than a serious front. It kept the UK/USA out of Europe - temporarily. Anything Rommel needed or requested was 2nd to the Eastern Front. Hitler, on more “sane” days, initially never considered Africa more than just “helping” their Italian Allies. A purely “political” decision. Only after it was too late, did the Reich understand Africa’s true importance. Soon after, the vaunted “Afrika Korps” surrendered.
Rommel learned his first lesson of Hitler - the intentional sacrifice of German soldiers. Hitler’s orders were to fight to the last man, delaying a European invasion as long as possible. Good strategic sense. Bad for the possible thousands of lives that could have been lost for nothing. Luckily, the German commanders in charge did surrender against orders.
After wars lines are re-drawn and cities re-built. But all that is really accomplished is that many lives are lost. In this case, because of one madman.
I can’t remember when exactly he blundered relying on a fake british map. what I can remember was that when he was in france (washe the in command of the 10th panzer division? I can’t remember) he was the ghost division, because his superior intelligence compared to the french. it was less of a “sixth sense” and more of a “wow, we found out about a bridge the french didn’t blow up.” He endedup behind the french lines this way. In Egypt, the british used mass d eception to hurt rommel’s military intelligence, and they were already breaking german code. Rommel’s superior military intelligence was out done, and he was sent reeling back in africa.
Well a big part as to why Rommel lost out in Africa was the overwhelming Allied Naval and Air Cover. These two make piecemeal of Rommel’s supply lines.
i’m not sure if you said this earlier but he was one of the few german commanders not guilty of any war crimes and he died by swalloing a cianide pill on his way to meet hitler ware he would have been probalble exicuted.
Man, Field Marshal, thanks for the insight on Rommel. This stuff is very interesting…
As far as Rommel being “arrogant”–he was a General. They’re all “arrogant” to the extent that they believe they are going to win and that the thousands of lives in their hands are safe (or at least, well-spent). Look at Montgomery, or especially MacArthur!
You can’t knock Rommel’s acheivements in Africa, you just can’t. The strategy of ALL British Generals there in every campaign of WWII was to mass the HUGEST force they could, with the most overwhelming superiority in numbers and stick it to the Germans. that Rommel was able to survive at all (let alone invade Egypt) is a testament to his genius…
Ozone27
Well unlike the British and Russians, German military doctrine did not express the overwhelming need for numbers. I think it was Guardin (spell check, but he was the guy who invented the blitzkreig tactics) who once said, “5 tanks right now is better than 10 tanks 30 minutes minutes from now.” I know it was something like that. (He was referring for the need to strike quickly and efficiently)
Guderian was a goddam genious. Hitler stopped using him when he got “sick” after the failed operation tyfun, and then he was used in 44. that was 3 years without their best general.
i wonder what happened to him after the war…
He was captured by yhe Americans on 10 May 1945. After the war he returned to Germany. He later wrote an autobiography and eventualy died in 1954 when he was 76.
oh yeah…he blamed hitler for diverting forces to kiev.
Ah that’s nice. Even though Guderian was fighting on the wrong side, you have to admire anybody who could formulate tactics like his and have them be so successful. Thank God he wasn’t captured by the Russians. Lord knows what they would’ve done with him.
Bottom line: Hitler was a jerk that didn’t listen to information given by Generals who actually knew who to do their jobs correctly. He probably helped the allies win the war more then anyone else.
you got to hand it to Hitler… when he took full control of army group B during operation blue he did a lot of great things…not!!!
Hitler was a drug addict control freak. He should of never ran a war. Ironically, the allies called off an assassinnation (spelling, sorry) attempt, becuase they knew hitler was running his country into the ground.
Anybody who marries their own niece and then commits suicide has to be a whack job. Of course there are some doubts if Hitler really died and the body the Russians found really wasn’t his…
