Axis
2 JULY 1942 ā ROMMEL TRIES AGAIN PartĀ II
As the story reached the bemused but doubting Germans, British bombers and British tanks added to the woes of the men in āThe Hotboxā, and Pienaar was reported to have called Auchinleck and said that if he was to be treated as an enemy he could take Alexandria within 48 hours. A heavy bombardment hit the South Africans in āThe…
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Desert Panzer MystiqueĀ II
Gazala was by any standards a striking victory. But by most standards the Axis troops were fought out. Men and equipment were worn to breaking points, depending on captured fuel and supplies for momentum. Down to fifty tanks at the sharp end, Luftwaffe support left behind in the wake of…
The German Airborne Descent on CreteĀ I
Hitler had not initially intended to invade Greece. After his great triumph in the west, and following the refusal of the British to accept defeat and make peace, his thoughts turned to invading Russia, a plan long laid. Before the strike ā Operation Barbarossa ā he decided that it was…
The German Airborne Descent on CreteĀ II
The British defenders of Crete, whose outriders had arrived far ahead of the despatch of ground troops to the mainland in April, had quickly recognised the danger of a German airborne landing; Brigadier Tidbury, appointed commander of British troops on Crete on 3 November 1940, identified the four parachute dropping…
German and Italian Forces āĀ Sicily
Knocked out Mk VI Tiger tank at Belpasso, Sicily, 1943. A German Tiger tank in Sicily, 1943. German troops of the Hermann Gƶring Division. Sicily 1943. Although Allied planners opted to concentrate their ground forces in the anticipation of tough Axis resistance, the actual combat capability of Axis troops deployed…
German Reverses in the Mediterranean PartĀ I
The sharp decline of morale amongst the German population in 1943 was not just the result of the intensification of Allied bombing raids on German cities, it also reflected a series of dramatic reverses in other areas of the war as well. Amongst these, one of the most disheartening was…
German Reverses in the Mediterranean PartĀ II
Italian soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans in Corfu, September 1943. Faced with battle-hardened German troops taking up positions all over the peninsula, Italian soldiers flung down their weapons, threw off their uniforms, or simply surrendered. Only a few units tried to resist, most notably on the Italian-controlled island of…