How Rommel became the Desert Fox | Operation Sonnenblume

In February 1941, Erwin Rommel arrived in Libya to save an Italian army in disarray. But instead of

following orders to defend his position, Rommel attacked. Leading from the front, he pushed the

understrength British and Commonwealth forces back to the Egyptian border. He had them on the run,

but to advance any further Rommel needed more supplies and that meant capturing the port of

Tobruk. The fate of the entire campaign rested on the town. But despite multiple attacks,

the British and Commonwealth garrison held firm and Rommel’s offensive was over.

Rommel's first offensive in North Africa earned him the nickname The Desert Fox – But how did he

pull it off? How did the British stop him? And was Rommel’s reputation deserved? To find out,

we first need to understand why Rommel was in Africa in the first place.

In September 1940 Italy had invaded British Egypt in an attempt to build a new Roman Empire,

but following a counterattack codenamed Operation Compass, they were forced back.

Over the course of 10 weeks the Allied forces under Lieutenant-General Richard O’Connor, who

numbered less than 40,000 men, captured 130,000 Italian prisoners. The stunning victory took the

British into the heart of Libya, but for German leader Adolf Hitler, that was very worrying.

It seems as if all the Italian positions in North Africa are going to collapse and the

Mediterranean will, in effect, become controlled by the British which is precisely what Hitler

doesn't want. Erwin Rommel basically gets sent to North Africa to save the Italian's bacon. Block

the advance of British forces, keep the Italians in the war and keep the Mediterranean contested.

On February 12th, 1941, Erwin Rommel arrived in North Africa as the commander of the new

Deutsches Afrika Korps. He was an officer with a reputation. During the First World

War he won the Pour le Mérite for his leadership during the Battle of Caporetto,

while in 1940 he had been at the vanguard of the German drive through the Ardennes into France.

There are lots of stories of him literally being at the front,

including when they were crossing the river Meuse under fire from the French. He actually went

across in one of the first assault boats himself. He became sort of a poster boy for the German army

and Goebbels had given him a camera personally for him to record his own experiences to the campaign.

And a lot of the photography he took found its way back and was used for propaganda purposes.

This began this sort of myth of Rommel the warrior general, which reached its peak in North Africa.

The Afrika Korps was made up of two German units, the 5th Light Division and 15th Panzer Division

which had roughly the same number of tanks. It also contained three of the more mobile Italian

units the Brescia, Pavia and Ariete divisions. Rommel’s forces were then subordinated under the

Italian theatre commander Italo Garibaldi, who controlled the other Italian units.

However, due to shipping problems, the German units were expected to arrive

in dribs and drabs over the next two months, with Rommel ordered to block any British advances.

I think we have to remember at this point that the British are effectively reading, through Bletchley

Park and Enigma, all of the German High Command's signals, and this all indicates that it's going

to take time for a build-up and that Rommel has been sent there specifically as a blocking force.

He's not there to attack the British, he's there to save the Italians. So they feel safe

to run down the British forces, especially those who were desert veterans, and send them to Greece.