Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaeger
Herr Rommel was against the plan, his ego permitted him to think that he would race into Cairo in no time.
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what you say is true Jaeger, but that's just a part of the story... ok guys, let's talk about rommel
here's a few facts:
- feb-41: meeting with Ribbentrop, Rommel states that "taking malta is essential for operations in lybia".
- jun-41: in a personal report to hitler rommel says "malta problem must be solved the same as it was for Crete"
- oct-41: in a telegram to mussolini rommel asks "to remind kesserling that he must immediately study a plan to take malta"
- dec-41: in a message to berlin rommel urges "immediate action on malta"
- feb-42: reporting to italian headquarter he urges for "no more delay on malta capture"
but then in april/may 42 rommel has a big clash with kesserling: initially rommel is enthusiastic of the invasion plan saying the plan is very well arranged (and it was!) but then he finds out that kesserling wants to use the planes based in libya and that makes rommel furious! rommel is about to start a big offence and need any resource he has, so he asks to postpone the invasione at least to july 42.
many in berlin exploit this request for their personal plans: no invasion would mean more resources to russian front, and you all know that to get hitler's favour you had to supprt the eastern front! malta becomes a big issue in berlin: reader and kesserling in favor and keitel and others against. kesserling basically wants the stop the rise of rommel's reputation, rommel is aware if this and accuses Kesserling of sabotage!
Now we can say that rommel was a bit ingenuous, becasue he didn't realize that opposing kesserling was against his own interest in the long term. I agree with you Jaeger that in this occasion rommel lacks strategy.
Anyway, just a few days later, jun-42 Rommel writes again "we need to neutralize malta immediately", and the days later the rommel refrain doesn't change.
So we can say the Rommel spent 2 years of his life asking every day the capture of malta, but ironically he became famous as the men who stopped the invasion.
