Third Reich Victorious by Third Reich Victorious

Author:Third Reich Victorious [Victorious, Third Reich]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781618030214
Publisher: Tantor eBooks
Published: 2012-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

The Reality

All the military events recounted up to and including July 1 occurred exactly as described, with the single exception of the high command arrangements on the British side. Auchinleck’s offer of resignation on June 23 was not in fact accepted, so Alexander was left free to continue his onward journey to Britain. Auchinleck then took personal command of the 8th Army and fought a highly flexible and ultimately successful defensive battle at Alamein, only to be sacked on August 8 after he failed to convert that significant victory into a successful counteroffensive. Auchinleck’s reputation was tainted by the suspicion that his “flexibility” meant he was ready to continue the retreat not only back to Cairo, but even—and this was the particularly shocking thing to the lounge lizards at the Gezira tennis club—that he was ready to abandon Cairo itself. He had tolerated the mass burning of secret documents on “Ash Wednesday,” July 1, which suggested a readiness to evacuate, and it helped generate panic. Therefore when Alexander was made CinC ME in August, he had to make it clear that there would be “no more retreats,” and many regretted that this had not been spelled out much earlier. As for Strafer Gott, he was designated to take over the 8th Army at the same time, but his Bombay aircraft was shot down and he was killed before he could take up the post, which then fell to one of Brooke’s self-important cronies from England.

From July 2 on, the real First Battle of Alamein was fought very differently from my fictitious description. In my version Rommel turned south against two exposed British brigade boxes, when in fact both of those brigades had already been withdrawn farther to the east, as a result of Auchinleck’s realism and readiness to maneuver. Rommel was actually defeated when he reinforced failure by turning to help the 90th Light Division in the north. However, if Alexander had been in charge, instead of the Auk, we may speculate that British tenure of the front line would have been rigid and unbending, out of a misplaced and potentially disastrous belief in the later revisionist 8th Army propaganda line that Auchinleck’s willingness to contemplate a further retreat was corrosive of morale throughout Egypt and all the military forces.

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