How Rommel Disobeyed Orders and Cost the Axis North Africa

How Rommel Disobeyed Orders and Cost the Axis North Africa

The Desert Fox on the road to nowhere

OnFebruary 6th, 1941, the Italian army suffered its last great defeat in Africa at the Battle of Beda Fomm. The Italian army collapsed in the face of a sustained British onslaught, leaving 25,000 soldiers as POWs. This mass surrender of Italian troops capped a disastrous Operation Compass in which the British bagged 133,298 men, 420 tanks, and 845 guns over just three months.

These losses alarmed Hitler back in Germany, who was busy planning his grand operation against the Soviet Union. Hitler believed if the Italians collapsed this early in the war, it could derail his entire strategic vision. Instead of allowing the Italians to be swept free from North Africa, he dispatched his favorite rising star, Erwin Rommel, to shore up the lines. Rommel arrived in Africa in February 1941.

Rommel’s deployment to Africa changed the whole complexion of the war, but not in the ways that most people imagined. Most people see Rommel as a dashing figure. The Desert Fox. A wily and competent general who gave the Allies fits for years in the desert. While that may be true, that was never Rommel’s directive. Rommel directly disobeyed orders and expanded and prolonged the war in North Africa to Germany’s ultimate detriment.

Disobeying Orders

When Rommel was dispatched to North Africa, he was given the orders to act as a Sperrband against the British for the Italians. Sperrband means blocker. Technically, Rommel was supposed to be subordinate to the Italian commander-in-chief for North Africa, Italo Gariboldi. Gariboldi had no intentions of fighting the British head on for the foreseeable future after getting his clock cleaned handily. OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) agreed and urged Rommel to take up defensive positions at Sirte. Rommel was only there to shore up the Italian flank so that Mussolini could figure out what he wanted to do with his remaining North African possessions.

But Rommel had other ideas.