Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe by Kenneth Macksey

Author:Kenneth Macksey [Macksey, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783031276
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2012-03-18T22:00:00+00:00

Not that Rommel saw it quite like that when his term of command was further extended on 18 February in order to conduct certain offensives, but it did set the stage for Kesselring’s own advancement as a field commander.

One supreme accomplishment of generalship that Kesselring displayed in North Africa was a prescient forecasting of his opponents’ future moves. He had shown it all along but never so positively as when Nehring had hesitated before Tunis. In mid-January he had taken their measure again by accurately perceiving that General Eisenhower would attempt to prevent the juncture of Rommel’s army in Tripolitania with von Arnim’s army in Tunisia. This, indeed, was Eisenhower’s pet project, a drive to the coast out of central Tunisia aimed at Sfax. So, as a precaution, Kesselring sent the 21st Panzer Division to Sfax early in January in position to counter an Allied move on Gafsa should that take place. Gradually a policy of Axis aggression was formulated. In the process Kesselring imposed his will upon friend and foe alike, through direct orders in the field that paid but cursory respect to the consultative agreements worked out with Comando Supremo, and by stealing the initiative from Eisenhower. As he put it in the ‘Commentaries,’

OB Süd [C-in-C South] as the senior German officer, was the commander of the army group. At the same time, I was also in a superior position in my capacity as authorised representative of the Comando Supremo. There were no open frictions. My directives on the spot were irrevocable orders. My operations section (Army) under Oberst Westphal, as the so-called Africa Staff, worked out the orders at Frascati which, for good reasons, were issued under the heading of the Comando Supremo. My Chief of Staff OB Süd, General Deichmann, states that he experienced certain resistance which must, however, have been unimportant and perhaps only exceeded the usual amount of friction between superiors and subordinates due to the fact that Deichmann was a general staff officer of the Luftwaffe. Westphal did not report any particular friction. It would have been improbable anyway as he was persona grata with Rommel.

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