Amphibious Assault

  

 Landing your troops on a shore heavily defended by 

your enemy - a suicide mission more often than not.

Pearl Harbor reset the stage when it provoked the world's 

industrial giant into the war.

America had to transport its troops across thousands

of miles of ocean to take it to its enemies.

 You better know what you're doing when you 

set off to war or have your head served on a 

platter in just some plain field of nothing.

Be smart about it.  What best works always costs less

than the purchase of status or nostalgia.

 Dieppe.  There were problems in the planning.

This is what 'learning from experience' can look 

like.  Next up would be an American assault on

the beaches of North Africa.  They didn't yet

know what they were doing.  God help us.

*  *  *  *  * 

©  Tom Taylor

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good morning jacob

  

W I T N E S S

love

   dad

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Happy Birthday Jack

  

R O M A N S

 

 

H A P P Y     B I R T H D A Y     J A C K !

love

   dad

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Retreat

  

Defeat was inevitable.  It was just a matter of time.

Rommel's forces were being ground to the point of 

collapse by Montgomery's overwhelming military

advantage.  After twelve days of battle, Rommel 

chose to save the remnants of Panzerarmee Afrika

and withdraw from Alamein, retreating west.

 The string of military defeats by British forces would

come to an end with their win at El Alamein.  The victory

over Rommel restored Churchill's political support,

which had been dwindling to a dangerously low level.

He could not lead effectively if his military competence

were in doubt.

Three months before the Germans surrendered to Allied

forces in North Africa, Hitler's military in Russia would

suffer the loss of an entire army, twenty divisions, in the

battle of Stalingrad.  This defeat would prove to be the

turning point in the war for Europe, with blame for this

catastrophe being placed on the hubris and incompetence

of the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. 

Desperate to regain the military initiative over Russia,

Hitler launched a late summer offensive on Stalin's

forces that fortified the farmland around the Soviet

town of Kursk.  This battle would end what small chance

Hitler had of winning his war in the East.  From here on

the best the German Wehrmacht could do was slow

the Red Army's advance on Berlin. 

The only way to dispose of a tyrant is by killing him.

Plots to cancel out Hitler circulated among his generals.

Those closest to the Fuhrer would later be found to have

planned his murder.  Germany's leader had good reason

to be paranoid.

Four days following Axis defeat at Alamein, Rommel

gets word of the Yanks flowing ashore to his rear, 

in Morocco and Algeria.  With the British 8th Army

pursuing his forces from the east, Rommel must now

also prevent the Americans from capturing Tunisia 

in the west.  German and Italian presence in North

Africa could not be supplied without the port of Tunis 

being under Axis control.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

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Jessicca and Kyle Klembara

  

H A P P Y    A N N I V E R S A R Y !

J E S S I C C A    AND    K Y L E

H  A  L  L  E  L  U  J  A  H 

love

   dad

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good morning jack

  

C R A C K E R S

love 

   dad 

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Alamein

  

Montgomery, Monty, was in charge of the 8th Army

when the final, deciding conflict at Alamein began.

An 850 gun barrage erupted the night of October 23rd,

devastating Axis forward positions, manned mostly

by Italians.  More than a million rounds will sail into

a twelve mile front over the next dozen days.

Still, the British advance met stiff resistance.

Rommel's Panzer Army HQ was flying blind.

Radio jamming Wellington bombers knocked out

communication from the front.  Hitler's general's

knew there were multiple attacks, but the question 

remained, which one had the lights out punch?

 It was infantry versus infantry.  The Axis minefields

needed clearing before British armor would come

into play.  The British objective could not be reached

without the force of tanks delivering their high explosive

justice to the contents of their targeted bunkers.

There wasn't to be some brilliant end-around tactic.

It was a solid, fortified line between the sea and an

impassable salt marsh that needed to be penetrated.

There wasn't enough fuel for German armor to do

anything but sit around and wait until 

the British made a major breakthrough in the line.

The strategy was one of attrition.  Everything the

German's had as weapons, the British had twice

as much.  Men, tanks, aircraft - the numeric

advantage was overwhelming.  Logistics was 

also a deciding factor.  While Rommel's panzer 

army closely rationed fuel and ammo, the British

had unlimited use of both.

They would wear down Rommel.

Churchill insisted on Rommel's defeat before the Yanks

arrived.  It would be much easier for Vichy officials of 

French Morocco and Algeria to back the American 

invasion of their land if the Germans were 

on the run.  

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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good morning jessicca

  

 T H R E E' S     A     C R O W D

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   dad

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The Tide Turns

  

German intelligence sends an urgent dispatch to Rommel.

A British convoy carrying a hundred thousand tons of 

military supplies will arrive in Alexandria in early September.

That's only a couple weeks away.  It's clear the one path

to victory is for the Afrika Korps to strike now,

before the Eighth Army takes control as the force

with overwhelming military power.

Rommel's plan relied upon his tried and true actions.

It's what got him here.  First, he strikes his opponent's

more fortified positions in the north as a distraction

while Rommel's armor swiftly turns the 8th's southern

flank.  The Brits then find Nazis attacking their back.

Panzers dash to the coast. surrounding the Eight Army.

Strangled of their supplies the war in North Africa

comes to an end for the British.

On the morning of the attack, as Axis forces assembled

their formations, a fleet of British bombers flew overhead,

dropping bombs as they breezed by.

The Brits were on to them.  So much for 

Rommel's hoped for surprise.

German armor became bogged down in unexpectedly

complex fields of mines.  They were hit with artillery

and, always, there were the bombers overhead. 

Casualties were heavy but they were making progress.

The problem was this intense fighting had put them

far behind their critical time schedule. 

When you look at it now, Rommel's plan was a 

real roll of the dice.  For starters, he had only

two days worth of petrol when he needed seven.

He had to count on unreliable sources to provide

his tanks the petrol needed to continue their attack.

Fuel was in short supply.  Delivery was sporadic.

His armored punch stumbled.

The desert became increasingly hostile 

for Rommel and his Afrika Korps.

The Americans would arrive soon.

Africa was to become even more harsh,

forbidding.  It was to be a death sentence

for Axis forces.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

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good morning jeremy

  

M  Y  S  T  I  C 

love

   dad

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Rommel Denied

  

Despite the shellacking handed them at

Gazala, Tobruk, and Mersa Matruh 

the Eighth was still an army.

They were focused, ready and willing 

to end Rommel's joy ride here and now.

 

The Afrika Korps' sprint into Egypt left their air cover

behind.  The Messerschmitt fighters were notoriously

short ranged and couldn't reach Rommel's forces

as he neared Alamein.  

Britain's Desert Air Force took advantage of Germany's

vulnerability and bombed Rommel's troops without

let up, day and night.  Everything down to refueling

tanks was disrupted.  Still, Rommel urged his men on

with single-minded ferocity.

Time was critical.  Soon the 8th Army would receive

300 Sherman tanks from the US - the first of this

new breed of armor, just off the assembly line.

Ships filled with troops were also on the way.

Rommel had to crush the British now or lose

all hope of taking North Africa.

Rommel charged into the British defenses believing

he was still fighting General Richie.  He wasn't.

Auchinleck's troop deployment was not anticipated

by the German generals and they ran full bore into

a barrage of artillery fire that came from three directions.

For three days Rommel twisted and turned looking

for a soft spot in the British defense.  He found none.

A spent force.

The Afrika Korps was exhausted.

They could go no further.

Rommel's only choice now was to 

set out the mine fields and stretch out

the barb wire.  From here on Rommel

would be on the defensive.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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