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Of course he had an overall strategic objective. Suez & Egypt was the objective.
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That sounds nice, indeed. But what was the objective in that 'strategy' (which, by the way, he didn't share with the Italian or German General Staffs, nor Hitler, his C.-in-C.)? Was it destroying the British armed forces in North Africa or seizing this territory and occupying it?
What the-hell did Rommel want Suez for if he couldn't understand that that miserable island in his rear, in the middle of his communications line, was much much more important and vital for the campaign?
What use would Egypt had for Germany? Yes, the British lose their naval base at Alexandria and controll over the eastern Mediterranean…
Hey! Wait a second! The Germans
did have controll over the eastern Mediterranean: they had the Balcans and the Greek isles under their controll and they did nothing with it, remember? And, of course, the Royal Navy can use more bases in Palestine, Cyprus or Sirya… Gibraltar and
Malta.
Now, let's suppose the British lose Suez, then they have to move their communications with the Indian and the Pacific from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, as they
in fact did during the harshest moments of the siege of Malta. Now, how is Rommel going to defend Suez against British presence in Palestine and Sudan? Or his rear in Morocco and Argelia? Will he press on to Palestine, Iraq and then into the Caucasus? Then into India to assist the Japanese? (Does this plan includes keeping Malta still on British hands?)
Come on! That is what is absurd. By defeating the British in Egypt, British military power isn't permanently crippled. British presence in the Mediterranean is not going to disappear because of it. And, of course, Germany is not going to invest more time and resources on this theatre, almost irrelevant to her main war effort.
Seems like Rommel failed to see it, unsurprisingly, even if his intelligence reports were good to some extent. He was sent to North Africa to prevent Italy being kicked out from the Mediterranean, not to kick Great Britain out (something utterly impossible).
He became a legend, won many tactical and propaganda victories, yes, but in the end Great Britain was not kicked out. Germany and Italy were, being deprived in the process of thousands of ships, planes, tanks, guns, men, ammunition…
Rommel didn't have a great strategical vision, and he reinforced failure at Tobruk and El Alamein, and kept throwing his men into combat with minimal posibilities of success. He didn't take care of logistics, morale, training, careful planning and build-up. Monty did and that's why he won.
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Indeed Rommel out fought & outfought his opponents til the weight of material advantage was overwhelming in favor of allies.
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The material advantage was not that overwhelming. That is being unfair with the British VIII Army and its commanders, who, through learning many harsh lessons, developed a very complete and very powerful fighting machinery.
They, unlike the Germans, evaluated very well what had to be done, how it had to be done and with what. They made their plans accordingly. Auchinleck managed to keep his Army in one piece and led Rommel into a trap where he had the advantage. Montgomery later knew that he couldn't beat Rommel with his forces in the state they were, and then trained, equipped and inspired them.
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Rodina mentioned his not exploiting his being in Hitlers favor. That's absurd, Hitler was pychotic. no one could control him.
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First, it was me, Friedrich. And second, Rommel convinced Hitler to leave Malta alone, that it didn't need to be invaded. Rommel assured Hitler, egotistically and wrongly, that he, if given the aircraft to be used at the Maltese invasion, could take Suez all by himself. Hitler listened to him, and doomed the campaign.
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Monty had tons more supply & Rommel ran out of gas.
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No, no, no. Montgomery had gained all the initiative and used it to his favour. Rommel, un-fit to non-mobile attrition battles, didn't perform as energetically as in the previous month, and fell into all traps Monty had laid for him.