The same series of letters disclose the German's first doubt of the value of the duo's Latin component: "Our colleagues are pulling long faces, because it seems the British are starting to get tough." And thereafter his letters are increasingly studded with unendearing references to the Italians.
To shorten the time of the trips from his Tripoli headquarters to the front, he moved his headquarters to Sirte.
March 14: We moved yesterday. A ghibli started while I was flying and forced us down on an airfield. We tried to continue the trip by car, but the sandstorm was so strong that we had to abandon our intentions and stop.
The general was annoyed that at the onset of the ghibli the pilot refused to accede to Rommel's request to continue the flight but insisted on setting the plane down. Determined to reach his destination, Rommel set out by car only to find the sandstorm blowing so fiercely that he could not see through the windshield. He had learned something about the force of nature in the desert and decided he owed the pilot an apology.
March 15: I was upfront yesterday with the chief of staff`. This time by car. It was three hours driving. Everything okay. Reinforcements are moving up to the front all the time. An Italian general, son-in-law of the king, is Italian Army liaison officer at my head quarters. A very nice man. It's very regrettable but a longer leave is out of the question for the time being. The position of "commander" on this continent entails too much responsibility, which ties me up. Anyway, it's wonderful that 1, as a Young general, should get an assignment that singles me out from among the ranks of the corps commanders.
March 17: 1 am very busy. The British are still at least twice as strong as we are. But we have taken the best positions and can allow them to beat their heads against them. We also have good and productive water sources. Part of our supplies is moving up along the coast in small boats, but the distance is very great, almost as much as from Stuttgart to Hamburg.
During the next eight days Rommel wrote no letters. He was engaged in conferences at the Fiihrer's headquarters, where Marshal Brauchitsch told him the 15th Panzer Division would arrive at the end of May but that no reinforcements would be available to him. At that time he was to advance to Agedabia and, if possible, attack Benghazi. Hitler awarded him the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross. He managed a few days' leave at home.
March 25: Arrived safely back here. I was received by the Duce in Rome. Now I am glad to be back at the front.
March 26: Yesterday the Italian General Calvi di Bergelo presented me with a burnous (blue-black with colored embroidery) as a gift, a wonderful piece. It would be suitable for you as a theater cloak. Not much news from the front. I must restrain the troops to prevent them from bolting ahead. They've moved twenty miles east to a new position. Our Italian colleagues are wearing worrying faces, because it seems the British are starting to get tough.
On April 3, already well into Cyrenaica, an almost treeless waste, he was filled with elation:
Since March 31 we have been attacking with remarkable success. The "brass" in Tripoli, Rome, and possibly even Berlin will gasp. I dared to proceed despite previous directives and orders, because I saw an opportunity. The first objective, scheduled for the end of May, has already been reached. The British are in flight. Our casualties are extremely light. The booty cannot be estimated yet. As you can imagine, I cannot sleep for joy. The van is excellent.
He moved his advance command post to Agedabia. He gloried in his van when he was able to spend his nights in it, comparing it to a hotel, and bathed in the sea. Pressing on in several columns, the Germans made rapid progress, the dummy tanks continuing to deceive the British as to their strength, and the next day reconnaissance troops entered Benghazi. Wrote the general:
Yesterday was a great and eventful day. I received a message from the Fuhrer congratulating me on my unexpected success, and directives for the continuation of operations, which fully conform with my views. The terrain opens up now and enables us to maneuver.
The plan that the Fox so heartily approved called for the severance of all Cyrenaica. It meant the crossing of 200 miles of waterless wastes lacking all landmarks. It was imperative that success come quickly, enabling the troops to arrive soon at productive water holes to the east and not perish of thirst in a long struggle in parched sands. It was a risky strategy, but finely honed calculated risk was a Rommel trademark.
As he chased the British, sandstorms tore his columns. Some lost all direction, others halted to wait for better weather; some kitchen trucks stayed behind while their units went ahead, other kitchen trucks went ahead while their units stayed behind. With every break in the storm Rommel scoured the vast sands, gathering his strays. Into the midst of one company, headed in the right direction but halted for no apparent reason, fluttered a message from his plane, giving the direction and adding, "If you don't get moving immediately, I'm coming down! Rommel."
Travel in the desert was governed by odometer and compass. Without landmarks, rendezvous areas were easily missed. In flying in search of his main body, guided by watch and compass, Rommel flew at low altitude over an Italian battalion that did not recognize the plane as friendly and tried to shoot him down. Firing from a distance of only 100 to 150 yards, they missed, causing him later to ruefully comment on poor Italian marksmanship.
Shortly after that a British unit, which he had mistakenly approached while searching for one of his troops formations, recognized his light Fiesel-Storch plane as German and managed to hit it in the tail, but failed to bring it down.
His intelligence chief, flying on reconnaissance and not so lucky, was downed and captured.
For over 200 miles he pursued the British and on April 8 penned:
Dearest Lu: I don't know whether this is the correct date. We have been out in the desert for days and have lost track of time and space. As you will have seen from the communiques, the battle is going in our favor. Today is another crucial day. After having marched more than 200 miles through desert sand and rocks, the main forces can now be brought to bear. From our foremost positions I flew to meet them and found them in the desert. You can not imagine our joy! A modern `Cannae' is in the making.
The ancient town of Cannae in Italy, nine miles southwest of Barletta, was the scene of Hannibal's disastrous defeat of the Romans in 216 B.C. It is among the classic battles studied in military academies.
Rommel's forces captured Derna and took 800 prisoners, including General Sir Philip Neame, the commander in chief of the British forces in Egypt and Transjordan, and most of his staff. General Sir Richard O'Connor, who had driven the Italians out of Egypt and back to Tripoli, was also taken.
April 10: It's wonderful that we were able to win such a victory over the British. I am well. My van arrived this morning and now I'll finally be able to get some sleep.
Forty-eight hours later he had enveloped Tobruk and bypassed it on the south to capture Sollum, the first town across the Egyptian border. Rommel found no time to write his wife. Instead he delegated the job to his orderly, Corporal Herbert Guenther, who wrote:
This morning the general ordered me to write you as he left, as usual, for the front at a very early hour. We are battling for Tobruk today. The British have been on the run and our troops have kept right up with them, giving them no respite. They had to abandon a great deal. Their canned food, vehicles, and fuel come in very handy. Thus we have enough and very good food. As soon as the offensive is over, the general will write you personally. He spends only a few hours at a time at his "apartment" and I try to make it as comfortable as possible for him. Thus we are advancing here against the British, as we are in SE Europe, and under the ingenious leadership of the general the British in North Africa will be annihilated! With the best wishes to all at home and to our soldiers at the fronts, [signed Herbert Guenther, Corporal
Thirty minutes after midnight on the 14th, Rommel, although handicapped by a lack of maps and photographs of the fortress, launched his attack on Tobruk, driving from one unit to another, obs
erving operations and spurring his troops on. A shard from a British shell cut the aerial of his signals vehicle.
The general found time to write only a few hasty lines, ending with "I must be off again."
April 14: The battle for Tobruk will probably end today. The British fought very stubbornly and had a great deal of artillery . Nevertheless we will succeed. The bulk of our armed forces has now emerged from the desert after fourteen days. The boys have proved themselves brilliantly and won the fight against both the enemy and nature. Now they have water again. The Supreme Commander of theArmy has sent me a telegram congratulating us on oursuccessful offensive.
The Tommies fought on stubbornly and on the 16th Rommel reported to his wife that the enemy was embarking from Tobruk. The next day, however, he gloomed:
The British in Tobruk are very tough and excellently installed. Our allies are not very reliable in combat. / am usually on the road till late at night.
In the next days the two sides mercilessly mauled each other in a firstclass donnybrook. Tobruk, defended by 34,000 of the best troops Britain could field, was proving a hard nut to crack. Churchill had directed that it "be held to the death." Outside Tobruk the German Army cemetery expanded daily.
April 18: We still fight a tough and stubborn battle for the fortress of Tobruk. We succeeded yesterday in gaining some important positions.
He could not continue on into Egypt without first securing his overland transport route, the Via Balbia, which extends for 1500 miles from Tripoli to the Egyptian border. Much of it was deeply rutted and plagued with potholes, some eighteen inches deep. It was also marked by bomb craters in which, said Captain Hermann Aldinger, Rommel's aide, "one could lose a cow." But it was Rommel's lifeline. He had no alternative but to take Tobruk, lest its garrison break out and cut his supply road. Support by sea was impracticable, since the British navy controlled the waters. Support by air was equally difficult, as the RAF dominated the skies.
The next day he drove to Bardia, east of Tobruk, where he found that his troops had not occupied the deserted fortress and available were sizable quantities of Italian supplies, vehicles, and guns, all left behind during the earlier, pre-Rommel, rout of the Duce's forces from Cyrenaica.
April 20: Yesterday and today I was out checking on things way up front. Field Marshal [Erhard] Much visited me. He promised me a great deal of air support in the near future. It will be necessary too, inasmuch as the British Air Force gives us a lot of trouble.
April 21: Things are slowly quieting down after three weeks of offensive operations. The past weeks have been hectic. We now hope to attack Tobruk successfully. At the moment we lie in a fertile valley, widely dispersed because of the effectiveness of the British airforce. I am not sure if the British are bringing up reinforcements daily.
April 22: Looking back it is now safe to say that our unexpected offensive was a grand success, of which the press of the entire world is talking. It is true the British expected us to attack on April 1, but they never suspected the offensive would be carried out with such power and striking speed. That we were able to bypass Tobruk and take Bardia and Sollum was a woeful surprise to them.
Again unable to find time to write, he asked his adjutant, Major Schraepler, to write his wife. The letter is noteworthy for reflecting Rommel's view of his Italian allies:
I know, Madam, that my name as sender of this letter may be a shock to you, but 1 wish to assure you that your esteemed husband is quite well. He hardly finds time to write these days as his duties take up every minute of his time. His aim and the wish of all of us to be not only in, but beyond, Tobruk cannot be realized at this moment; our forces are not sufficient and the Italians are of little use. They either don't get there at all or, if they do, they run away as soon as the first shot is fired. If they ever get close enough to sight an Englishman they raise their arms. You will understand, Madam, that this makes it very hard for your husband as commander. I feel sure, however, that by the time you receive this letter you won't have to wait long for a special communique announcing the fall of Tobruk; and then the steam will he turned on again and we will be rolling along the "Rommel track. " At the moment we are located in a rocky ravine, well hidden from the British planes. Though we do not live as well as in France, we manage. Captured British foodstuffs supplement ourarmy rations. Be assured, Madam, that Guenther looks after your husband within the limits of possibility. His Italian van at least affords him some comfort and quiet and wards off the cold at night. The Italians are past masters at such amenities. When we get to Cairo we will provide for ourselves.
Although Bardia and Sollum were in his hands and he still expected to get Tobruk, the Duce's soldiers continued to worry Rommel. On April 23 he again complained to his wife: "The Italian troops are very unreliable in combat. They are verysensitive to enemy armorand-its in 1917-they give up very easily." This refrain runs constantly through his letters.
The charge by critics that Rommel was medal-hungry finds refutation in his letter home. He wrote that he had been awarded the Italian Medal for Bravery and was to get an even higher decoration. "What insignificant nonsense this kind of thing is at a time like this!" He had caught up on his sleep and was again looking forward to capturing Tobruk.
And three days later, writing of a meeting with General Italo Gariboldi, commander of the Italian forces, he said, "What I had to report about the Italian troops was hardly pleasing."
Despite the general's extraordinary success, he was not satisfied with all his subordinate commanders. "Much work to be done and I don 't get the right kind of cooperation from all the division commanders. 1 am requesting the relief of some of them."
He considered his lines "damned thin along the fortress front and hardly ever have I had such worries as I have these days." He wondered how his wife and son were doing. Mail from his family had been scarce, and he believed it lay at the bottom of the Mediterranean. He bewailed the enemy's intense naval artillery fire.
April 26: 1 am thankful for every day that we survive without major trouble. The ratio offorces is too much in ourdisfavor. I hope nevertheless to succeed, but I'll have to have one of the division generals and the commanding officer of a tank regiment relieved. Paulus is coming tomorrow. [General Friedrich von Paulus was deputy chief of the General Staff.]
April 27: The British in their newspapers are preparing the publicforthe evacuation of Tobruk. A short time ago, however, they claimed to have succeeded in getting two Indian regiments and one tank battalion into Tobruk without interference. I'll be very happy when once we have taken that great fortress.
April 30: Am very busy since the decisive battle for Tobruk will begin tonight. Paulus will remain here to watch the show. We have high hopes.
May 2: Lived through a very tough day yesterday. Things went well, though not as well as I wished. Paulus is flying back today after having gotten a picture of the focal sector of the operations. We are holding the ground we won yesterday.
In the ensuing days the Fox felt he had insufficient forces to stage the largescale attack necessary to take the fortress and no choice but to be satisfied with the strong points he had won. Counterattacks were beaten off. The British prisoners, he found, had poor morale due to a shortage of water, their ration being less than a pint a day.
The availability of water played a major role in the desert battles, and commanders had to take water supply into as much account as food and ammunition. Unslaked thirst forced men, otherwise not so inclined, to come forward with raised hands.
The furnacelike temperatures and hot winds blistered and cracked men's lips and caused bloodshot eyes. Where the ground was rocky, not conducive to trench digging, men lay unprotected above ground and exposed to hordes of flies. Resulting dysentery played a significant pan in the efficiency of the combatants. Older men and officers succumbed more quickly to the rigors of the sandy wastes. The German diet was not sufficiently nutritious for men enduring daytime heat and nightime cold punctuated by driving sandsto
rms and the strains of lengthy battles and battle-related activities. Lacking vegetables and vitamin supplements, gums bled and young men lost teeth. The capture of British stores was heralded with joy. Particularly appreciated were Canadian canned butter, American canned milk, and English bacon, among other treats.
Paulus did not leave as scheduled, receiving sudden orders to remain with Rommel until the current situation was resolved.
Bitter fighting continued and the British employed their naval forces to good effect. On May 3 the general hoped his men could hold their newly won positions.
It's terrible to be obliged to sit so far behind the front and not be able to help effectively. I hope to receive reinforcements in the next days and then I am sure 1 can do it.
May 6: A sandstorm has been blowing during the last few days. It tends to exhaust one. Water is getting to be ven•, yen' short at Tobruk. The British soldier gets only one pint per day now. With the aid of dive-bombers I hope to cut his ration still further. It gets hotter day by day and we look forward to the night. Thirst becomes almost unquenchable.
May 8: No change here. Was "far" behind the front all day to straighten things out. It's pretty quiet here. The terrain around the fort is studded with mines, hampering our advance.... We are now bombing the waterworks which convert the salt water into drinking water.
May 9: The battle in the area of Sollum and Tobruk sways back and forth. It is a hard job with the forces available. The supply routes are extremely long because the British are the masters of the sea lanes. This hinders us very much. A few days of ghibli don't help with morale either.
The fine sand of the ghibli sifted under his dark goggles. like his scarf an integral part of his persona. But worse, it bound the turrets of his tanks, forcing him at times to allow time for cleaning.
As the Tommies in Tobruk tenaciously defended their fortress, helped by heavy naval artillery fire, Rommel whittled away at the defenses and pushed other of his elements sixty miles into Egypt. He began to fret about his lagging supplies and took a dim view of the prospects for the port's early fall.
Discovering the Rommel Murder Page 6