D E S E R T W I N D
love
dad
Global strategy is too important to be left to generals.
Planning for military conflict is just one factor among
many that need to be considered by leaders to win
the war.
President Roosevelt's top military commanders were
strenuously promoting an Allied assault on France
before the end of 1942, within a year of the bombing
of Pearl Harbor. The proposed invasion would be
of a size and complexity that occurred on D-Day,
three years later.
Churchill argued the plan was ambitious beyond its means.
We hadn't the ships, tanks and airplanes needed for this
undertaking. No one had any firm ideas, let alone
experience, at how to conduct an amphibious assault.
Britain and Canada would have to lead the way because
most of the Yanks were in basic training. The US Army
would grow a thousand percent by the end of the year.
Nearly everyone was busy learning their job.
Hitler would welcome this half-baked military effort,
pulverizing Allied formations as they land.
The resulting disaster would set back the opening
of a second front in France a couple of years
and possibly leave Stalin wondering whether it
would be better to settle with the Nazis than to put
his faith in an incompetent ally.
Roosevelt was in agreement with Churchill.
Gymnast was Roosevelt's plan for a second front
in North Africa as opposed to taking Germany
head on in Europe. By attacking the French in
Vichy Morocco and Algeria, the Americans would
learn from dealing with a less formidable enemy.
In fact, the French might choose not to fight at all.
US troops were untested and definitely not ready
for prime time. While German generals spent years
brooding over how to slice and dice their opposition,
the US Army was busy chasing Poncho Villa around
the southern border with Mexico.
US troops would get their baptism of fire at a mountain
pass named Kasserine. Rommel pretty well torched
the American effort to hold him back. The loss was a
bitter humiliation for Eisenhower's men. But it wasn't
the catastrophe that would have occurred on the shores
of Normandy. It was a valuable teaching lesson.
Adjustments were made in personnel.
General George S. Patton was given a division of tanks
to command.
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OVER EASY
Churchill pulled the best of the 8th Army from North Africa
to defend the Greeks from Hitler. The summoned
British force proved to be an expensive gesture that
was easily swept aside. The Germans captured
seven thousand Brits. The remainder of Churchill's
force fled to Crete.
The thirty thousand British troops were just getting
acquainted with their new surroundings when a sky
filled with German paratroopers assaulted them on
the island of Crete. Having recently abandoned their
tanks back in Greece, Britain once again ceded the
battlefield to Germany. Twelve thousand of
Churchill's men became POW's. The rest sailed
through submarine infested waters in order to
reach the Egyptian port of Alexandria.
For Churchill the news of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor
undoubtedly sounded to him like the bugle call signaling
Uncle Sam was on his way. Too bad Roosevelt would be
chasing after the Japanese. Germany was the real threat.
Four days following Pearl Harbor, Hitler solved Roosevelt's
dilemma and declared war on the U.S.
Washington quickly embraced the European war
as the nation's first priority.
Shocking word came from the tip of the Malay peninsula
where the British island fortress there had surrendered.
With its imposing 15 inch guns pointed out to sea, this
symbol of Britain's rule was considered impregnable.
London's colonial army of 80,000 surrendered to a modest
Japanese force of 30,000. Turns out English troops were
no match for men trained in jungle fighting.
Singapore's defenders assumed the threat
would come by sea and chose to ignore the
possibility of an invasion over land.
Japan called the shots in the Pacific until Midway.
The US Navy took advantage of breaking Japan's
military code to ambush Tokyo's national pride -
their world class carrier fleet. All four Japanese
carriers sank into the ocean's depth while
the Yorktown was America's only loss.
With Japan's defeat, Churchill no longer saw Tokyo
as a serious threat to his Commonwealth members
of India and Australia.
The loss of Tobruk was too much.
So here we were. The 8th Army, with its
back to the wall, fighting for all the marbles
near this small railway depot isolated in the
Sahara desert.
A no confidence vote against Churchill was the
talk among members of the House of Commons.
All this erupted as the Prime Minister plotted
global strategy with his most important ally,
President Roosevelt.
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OVER EASY
Tobruk's defiance of Rommel's army for seven months
became a symbol of hope for Churchill and the
British public. Tobruk's victory proved that right and
decency could prevail over the Nazi war machine.
There was light at the end of the tunnel.
Churchill's generals saw the siege of Tobruk differently.
It was all a wasted effort no matter the outcome.
Ships, planes, troops and tanks should be put
to better purpose than supporting an unneeded
outpost behind enemy lines.
General Klopper had his strongest forces facing west
to defend against Rommel's forces coming from Gazala.
An intense artillery barrage was reported by the Mahratta
Brigade facing southeast. Klopper, commander of Tobruk,
took this as a feint and ignored the warning.
A couple brigades of infantry, a few thousand men,
were stretched thin across Tobruk's southern section
of the perimeter. Here was the soft underbelly
Rommel chose to exploit in what would become a
dagger's thrust through King's Cross and all the
way to the harbor's edge in Tobruk itself.
Suddenly these riflemen faced the charge of a couple
hundred panzers coming their way with the dawn.
Rifles were no match for tanks and the British
defense was quickly swept aside.
Stukas flew from nearby El Adem to divebomb the
minefields protecting the British fortifications at
King's Cross. Once passage was cleared for
attacking tanks this vital junction fell, and with it
the Via Balbia was cut - the 8th Army's highway of
retreat, leaving the 2nd South African Division
trapped within the collapsing Tobruk resistance.
Tanks are in the perimeter! Alarm spread quickly.
The enemy was sighted by Klopper's staff at their
command HQ near Tobruk's harbor. The General
made a final call for help to Ritchie then ordered
communications equipment destroyed along with
all sensitive documents. A white flag was raised.
Rommel received thirty thousand Commonwealth troops
as pow's and over a month's worth of every kind of supply.
Rommel's Afrika Korps drove British trucks burning
British petrol, ate British food and wore British khakis.
With his troops freshly nourished Rommel now vowed
to immediately press on and destroy the 8th Army.
A knock at the door interrupted Churchill's White House
meeting with the President. Roosevelt read the
telegram handed him then passed it to the Prime Minister
without comment. It was a gut punch. Tobruk had fallen.
The question for Churchill was no longer
how are we going to stop Rommel?
The question now became
can we save the British Army?
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OVER EASY
The British 8th Army crossed over the border
into Egypt a beaten force; their tank formations
destroyed and doubt replaced confidence in their
view of leadership.
General Auchinleck stuck his neck way out when
he picked Lieutenant-General Ritchie to lead the
8th Army in a winner-take-all confrontation with
Rommel's Afrika Korps. A good number of
battlefield experienced generals were ignored
in favor of this untested staff officer.
Tobruk was captured and the 8th was
nearly destroyed. Firing Ritchie wasn't
enough. Churchill would also fire Auchinleck
a couple months further down the road.
Rommel remained steadfast in adversity because
he believed he could always out-general the British.
Tobruk brought him the top rank of Field Marshall
and plenty of professional jealousy. War of epic
scale raged with the Russians in the east while
Rommel soaked up the glory with a two division
sideshow in North Africa.
The plan was to invade Malta once Rommel
cleared Libya of the British. Holding North African
ports such as Tripoli and Tobruk wasn't enough
so long as Britain continued to sink Rommel's
supplies coming from Italy. Taking Egypt and the
Suez depended on Germany clearing the
Mediterranean of the RAF and the subs
that patrolled from this strategic base.
Rommel wants to pursue the British into Egypt now.
The opportunity to destroy the 8th Army is at hand.
Hitler agrees. He's not keen on invading Malta.
It would be a big commitment of resources just when
everything possible is being done to supply the war
in Russia. Besides Hitler doesn't trust Mussolini.
The Italians are incompetent and he is sure he would
be left to take Malta alone.
Bernard Montgomery.
The guy talks truth to power.
Most everyone finds him to be a royal pain.
Churchill picked him to straighten out the
Eighth Army, but first they must survive
Rommel's push to destroy the British
at Mersa Matruh.
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OVER EASY