German Africa Corps

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German Africa Corps (DAK)

Afrika Korps emblem.svg

The DAK signet : a stylized palm with a swastika
active February 21, 1941 to June 30, 1943 (formal dissolution)
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type corps
Installation site Tripoli
motto "Chivalrous in war, watchful for peace"
Second World War Africa campaign

The German Africa Corps ( DAK ) was a major unit of the German armed forces in World War II , which was deployed from 1941 to 1943 in the North African theater of war and here, with its armored units, formed the core of what would later become the German-Italian tank army in Africa . In the course of the war, the operational area extended from Tunisia via Libya to Egypt . Sometimes the entire German contingent in the Africa campaign is incorrectly referred to as the Africa Corps .

history

prehistory

The African campaign began on September 13, 1940 with an attack by the numerically far superior Italian 10th Army from Libya on Egypt, which was occupied by British troops. The British were able to strengthen their forces by sending troops from states of the Empire to such an extent that they were able to launch a counterattack - Operation Compass  - in December , which penetrated far into Libya by the beginning of February 1941 and led to the almost complete defeat of the Italian army.

In order to avert the defeat of Italy, sent Hitler in early February 1941 in the " Company Sunflower ", the first troops of the later DAK to reinforce the Italian troops to Africa. The first German associations arrived in Tripoli on February 11, 1941 . On February 16, the staff of the "Commander of the German troops in Libya" was formed under then Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel , who a few days later was renamed the "German Africa Corps". Rommel had previously distinguished himself as commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the western campaign .

aims

A Panzerkampfwagen III of the Afrikakorps in North Africa. A probably shot down truck is burning in the background.

Up until then , the war front in North Africa had only played a minor role in German war plans ; the German focus at that time was on preparations for the campaign against the Soviet Union . Adolf Hitler therefore only approved of sending German troops to Africa after some hesitation.

For Great Britain at that time, Africa was the only combat zone where British troops and troops of the so-called Axis powers faced each other, and so great efforts were made in this theater of war. Because Great Britain ruled the Mediterranean with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force , its opponents constantly suffered from the problem of having to secure their supplies across the Mediterranean. With Gibraltar and the island of Malta , the British had important bases against the Axis' supply lines . For this reason, the German OKW had already stationed the X. Air Corps in Sicily in December with the approval of the Duce .

Research has disputed which of the Africa Corps' long-term strategic goals was. The historian Christian Hartmann advocates the thesis that the Africa Corps primarily had defensive tasks and was only set up in response to the threatened Italian defeat in Libya. Dietrich Eichholtz , on the other hand, sees the Africa Corps at the center of Hitler's strategy. In his 2006 book "War for Oil", he describes an allegedly planned "Caucasus pincers": The goal was the Suez Canal and thus the oil supply to Great Britain, that of the Africa Corps on the one hand and troops from the Caucasus or Iraq on the other hand , under Prime Minister Raschid Ali al-Gailani appeared to be on Germany's side for a while, should be conquered.

Use of the corps

Due to the withdrawal of British troops to Greece from the beginning of March 1941, the British advance in the Cyrenaica at El Agheila came to a standstill for the time being. The Italian troops in Libya were reorganized and reinforced by divisions from the mother country. In mid-March the first tanks of the 5th light division arrived in Tripoli, and the 15th Panzer Division was also ordered to Africa. Two Italian divisions, including the armored division “Ariete” , were subordinated to Rommel's DAK.

The British Middle East Command in Cairo, already informed by Ultra information, expected an attack by the DAK on Agedabia and withdrew its troops there. The first serious fighting with Rommel's troops occurred at Marsa el-Brega at the beginning of April . This move was not approved by Rommel's nominal superior, Italo Gariboldi , the Italian commander in Libya . The DAK nevertheless continued the advance and a week later reached the Tobruk fortress , where several Australian divisions were enclosed, and a little later Sollum in Egypt. As a result, fierce fighting developed around Tobruk, because British troops tried to relieve the city and its defenders . Tobruk was subsequently besieged without success until November 1941.

At the end of July, the “Panzergruppe Afrika” under Rommel's command was formed from Italian units and the DAK, whose mission was to attack Egypt after the capture of Tobruk. In August the first parts of the “Division z. b. V. Africa ”, the later 90th light Africa division in Libya. The 5th light division was renamed the 21st Panzer Division after reinforcements .

Further battles with the participation of the DAK took place during the British Operation Crusader in winter 1941/42, at Operation Theseus in May and June 1942 and then at El Alamein in Egypt. The German troops were largely exhausted due to the previous heavy battles, the supply connections were overstretched despite the capture of Tobruk. In the second battle of El Alamein at the end of October / beginning of November 1942, the German units were forced to retreat with heavy losses.

defeat

On November 8, 1942, Anglo-American troops ( Operation Torch ) landed in Morocco and Algeria , resulting in a two-front war in Africa. This made the situation on the African theater of war more difficult for the German and Italian troops. Germany and Italy therefore relocated further troops to Tunisia , where the Panzer Army Africa had withdrawn. In view of the hopeless situation, the German and Italian troops surrendered on May 12 and 13, 1943.

As a result of the failure to take these forces back to Italy in good time, 150,000 Germans and around 125,000 Italians were taken prisoners of war just a few months after the Battle of Stalingrad . In Germany, alluding to Stalingrad , people spoke of Tunisgrad behind closed doors . Two months later, on July 10, 1943, Allied soldiers landed in Sicily as part of Operation Husky . This meant a second front on the European continent.

organization

In September 1941 two German divisions , the 21st Panzer Division (renamed and reclassified from the 5th Light Division ) and the 15th Panzer Division , which had arrived in mid-May 1941, belonged to the DAK under Lieutenant General Ludwig Crüwell . The DAK was subordinate to the command of Panzergruppe Afrika (later renamed Panzerarmee Afrika ), which had been led by Rommel since June 1, 1941 and was under Italian command. The Panzer Group Africa also included Italian forces, the Italian XXI. Army corps under General Navarini with the three partially motorized divisions Bologna , Pavia and Brescia as well as another motorized corps , the Corpo 'd'armata di manovra under General Bastico , formed from the armored division Ariete and the motorized divisions Trento and Trieste .

At the beginning of 1943, the units returning from Libya were combined with the forces transferred from Italy to Tunisia to form Army Group Africa .

Commanding generals

Erwin Rommel with officers at the front near Tobruk, November 1941

The Africa Corps in Nazi propaganda

The German Africa Corps was celebrated in the German press more than any other unit of the Wehrmacht because of its amazing successes. In fact, in the first few days of arrival, Rommel disregarded the orders of the high command and developed an offensive plan that surprised the British. Due to the success of the corps, the Nazi propaganda quickly became aware of Rommel, who had already made a name for himself in the French campaign with the " Ghost Division " and was hyped up as the hero of the nation.

literature

Web links

Commons : Deutsches Afrikakorps  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ deutsches-afrikakorps.de: Excerpt from the OKH's war diary - course of the DAK's operations in February 1941 ( memento of the original from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutsches-afrikakorps.de
  2. ^ Christian Hartmann: Halder. Chief of Staff of Hitler 1938–1942. Schoeningh, Paderborn 1991, p. 219.
  3. ^ Dietrich Eichholtz: War over oil. An oil empire as a German war target 1938–1943. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2006.
  4. ↑ Alexander Lüdeke: The Second World War. Causes, outbreak, course, consequences. Berlin 2007, p. 105.