Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel by Daniel Allen Butler

Author:Daniel Allen Butler [Butler, Daniel Allen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2015-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

Considerable controversy has occurred . . . as to whether Rommel was right in calling off the attack on Tobruk in order to deal with the enemy offensive first. Our covering force might indeed have sufficed to hold the enemy attack until after Tobruk had fallen and this would have been of the greatest advantage for us, for we could then have then operated . . . with far greater ease and freedom than we were, in the event, able to do with the strong Tobruk garrison in our backs. But would the British have allowed us time to capture Tobruk undisturbed? This was not just a matter of audacity and daring; it was a gamble, which General Rommel refused to undertake.139

The third day of Crusader saw the Ariete Division and the 22nd Armoured Brigade, the 7th Armoured Division’s left-flank element, continue to pound away at each other. The Italians justified Rommel’s basic confidence in them, and apparently they had learned a few lessons from the Afrika Korps, for despite being handicapped with inferior equipment, they were giving as good as they got, and the battle around Bir el Gubi degenerated into a bloody brawl. Meanwhile, the 4th Armoured Brigade, the 7th Armoured Division’s right-flank element, fought a “ducks and drakes” sort of engagement with the 21st Panzer Division, pitting the nimbleness of their cruiser tanks against the hitting power of the German guns. In the center, on the perimeter of the Sidi Rezegh airfield, the 7th Armoured Brigade drove off a strong counterattack mounted by the 90th Light and Bologna Divisions. Casualties, while not yet heavy, were beginning to mount on both sides.

The attack by the Bologna and the 90th Light confirmed the wisdom of Rommel’s decision to abandon the Tobruk assault. Both units had been positioned on the fortress perimeter, assigned to the attack; hastily turning about 180 degrees, they struck at Sidi Rezegh. Even though they were unable to drive the 7th Armoured Division off the airfield, they pinned much of the British tank strength in place while the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions were concentrating. Rommel conceded that for the moment Crüwell had a better grasp of the overall situation, and instructed him to “destroy the enemy battle groups in the Bardia, Tobruk, Sidi Omar area,” giving him a free hand in containing the main British armored thrust.140

By the evening of November 20, Rommel was confident that he now had the full picture. Crusader was not simply an effort to relieve the Tobruk garrison, it was an all-out effort to destroy Panzergruppe Afrika. The Axis positions at the Egyptian frontier—the Halfaya Pass and Sollum—were under heavy, methodical attack; it would be soon be the turn for Bardia, Fort Capuzzo, and Sidi Omar (XIII Corps would, in fact, begin attacking them the next day). Only a fool would expect the Tobruk garrison to sit idly by under these circumstances—and Rommel certainly was no fool. But these were peripheral issues, ones where, in the old Austrian mot, “The situation is critical, it is not yet serious.

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