Pen & Sword Military Classics [00] The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps by Ronald Lewin

Author:Ronald Lewin [Lewin, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Armed Services, Campaigns & Battles, World War 2
ISBN: 9780812906820
Amazon: 085052931X
Goodreads: 1464308
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 1977-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

Kriebel (who was, it will be recalled, the chief staff officer in 15 Panzer), decided that ‘Rommel’s advance to the Sollum front appears in retrospect as an evil dream’. That it might with luck have proved to be a triumph is another matter: Kriebel was a realist.

Luck had in fact swung the wrong way. Auchinleck remained watchfully at Cunningham’s HQ throughout the 24th: by the time he reached Cairo again on the 25th, it was evident that both he and his airmen, Tedder and Coningham, had lost confidence in Cunningham’s will for victory. This was no time for a pessimistic commander who had accepted defeat in his mind. On the afternoon of the 26th, therefore, Auchinleck’s Chief of Staff, General Ritchie, took over command of the 8th Army. The chips had fallen wrong for Rommel and DAK. During Totensonntag and the ‘dash for the wire’ they had psychologically wounded Cunningham, but the effect was a substitution of Auchinleck’s right-hand man, indoctrinated with his thinking and totally committed to his policy of continuing the battle down to the last tank. Ritchie alone was inadequate for high command: but he was an opportune channel for Auchinleck’s will.

Apart from this re-invigoration of the 8th Army’s command (where, it must be added, all the evidence forcibly indicates that no senior staff officer or the commanders of corps or divisions had weakened in resolution) the battle would now be continued on terms increasingly adverse for the Africa Korps. Westphal’s fears were justified, since by dawn on the 27th the two New Zealand brigades, 4 and 6 (whose westward movement perturbed him), had linked up with the Tobruk garrison at El Duda and recaptured both the second escarpment and the airfield area beyond it. Moreover, the ‘dash to the wire’ had provided the shattered armoured brigades of 30 Corps with a priceless pause for rest, replenishment, re-organisation and the replacement of losses. The New Zealanders had indeed suffered severely in the cruel fighting along the escarpments – where they noted the outstanding bravery of the Bersaglieri – but, broadly speaking, an exhausted and depleted Afrika Korps was about to undertake the second battle of Sidi Rezegh in the face of a refreshed enemy and at a tactical disadvantage.

It was first necessary to reach the new battlefield. About midday on the 27th 15 Panzer’s westward march along the Trigh Capuzzo was detected, and Gott ordered 22 Armoured Brigade to head it off while 4 Armoured Brigade attacked its southern flank. The young 22 Brigade, whose skill seemed to grow with experience, organised an ambush which evoked the Germans’ admiration, concealing their guns and observation posts along the escarpment and giving the impression, quite false, of a superior strength. 4 Armoured Brigade, after a 20-mile run, entered the fray in late afternoon. The brio of the engagement is reflected in the record of Artillery Regiment 33:

A group of enemy tanks attacked the supply vehicles in the rear of the division. They burst right into the middle of the

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