RISE OF THE AFRIKA KORPS
“ROMMEL HAD AN UNMISTAKABLE MYSTIQUE. EVEN WHEN THE SHRAPNEL WAS FLYING ALL AROUND HIM, YOU ALWAYS HAD THE FEELING HE WOULD EMERGE UNSCATHED”
A professional soldier through and through, even before his arrival in Africa, Erwin Rommel had gathered praise from friend and foe alike for the perceived humane and decent way he waged war. “He had an unmistakable mystique. Even when the shrapnel was flying all around him, you always had the feeling he would emerge unscathed,” commented his driver, Rudolf Schneider. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill even called him “a great general” in the House of Commons. Yet in his first few months in the African desert Rommel carved out a niche for himself by rather less honourable methods, resorting to clever propaganda and on some occasions rank insubordination. The 49-year-old commander believed that he was destined for fame and glory and would not allow his military superiors, in either Rome or Berlin, to stand in his way.
‘A pitiful mess’
It was never the intention of Hitler or his Army Staff to make any sort of military intervention in North Africa. After the Luftwaffe failed to subdue Britain, the Führer’s gaze turned eastwards, towards the Soviet Union. On 18 December 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive 21, ordering leaders of the Wehrmacht to start planning for an assault on Russia. However, the Italians had made an ill-judged invasion of Egypt that autumn. “This is the glory we have sought for three centuries,” Benito Mussolini declared, boasting that the Suez Canal would soon be in his hands. Marshal Rodolfo Graziani’s 10th
