I need a history lesson

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200,000 Italians were in Libya with the invasion of Eygpt (Sidi Barrani being the initial goal ) the threat to the suez canal and the major port of Alexandria was great. Defended by General Wavell's 36,000 troops some urgent action on Wavell's part was needed, The Italians where pushed out of Eygpt and by the beginning of February had not only lost around 9 divisions including 400 tanks and over 100,000 prisoners taken , the ports of Bardia and Tobruk had also been captured. By the 12th Rommel was on the scene to stop the rot, and from then on the too and fro campaign that epitomised the desert really began. So IMO it was Adolf assisting his Italian partners and protecting his southern front that was the major reason for the middle east conflict. However had the suez canal been available to the allies and not made unusable it would have made supplying the far east campaign vastly more easy than the trip around the cape. and lets not totally discount the oil fields as a very useful resource.

[Karl Sitts]

Thorlifter,Don't take this answer to the bank.... I believe Germany had colonies in Africa before WW I which were taken away to help pay the cost of the war to France and England.To Hitler, I believe it was injured pride. -Karl

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The main reason was to bail Italy out as well as to try and control the Meditarranian region. You get Egypt you get the Suez Canal.

[Micdrow]

Very interesting topic and like its been said. The main reason why the Germans got involved with North Africa was to bail out the Italians. Hitler was more concerned about taking Russia. On a side note if they would have concentrated more effort in the Med it would have saved them a lot of time and materials with Malta.

If the Germans took control of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal they would have simple cut off all aid to Malta and would control the Mediteranian area.

I just got a book on After the Battle "Gibraltar" and take a look a this picture. One of many in the book. Note all the C-47's, a B-17 and B-24. Upper right hand corner all the spitfire's. Gibraltar had its own airfield and coastal defense systems. Basically another Island fortress.

[Njaco]

Let's not forget the link up with the Eastern front forces for the oil. I believe that only became apparent after Rommel disobeyed orders when he arrived and started pushing the British back.

[parsifal]

Originally Posted by plan_D

The German forces came to the aid of the Italians who were seeking an African empire. The aim of the German forces was to conquer Eygpt and cut off the Suez canal - greatly restricting British movements.

I beg to differ on that point. The original orders issued to Rommel were principally defensive. Essentially they were sent there to protect Libya, , and indirectly to shore their flagging ally, Italy. The shoring up bit came later, after the weakness and failure of italy became an embarrasing fact. The germans did become intersted in the region because the british were there, so that part i agree with. Finally, to an extent, the germans were sucked into the vortex of Balkan politics, Metaxas, the greek dictator, was actually a Nazi sympathizer, to a large extent, but Hitler had to crush Greece (and Yugolslavia, for similar reasons), because of the forcing of the greeks to the Allied camp by the italian invasion, and because of the voluntary drift in the same direction by the Yugoslavs. If the status quo could have been maintained, in the Med theatre, the germans would have been happy enough to leave things alone. The later extensions of german objectives, such as the conquest of the ME oilfields were projected, but not seriously planned for, because the theatre as a whole was seen as a distraction from the main games.

[plan_D]

You are right, the initial aim of German forces was to hold the British in Libya. However, the German forces under Rommel were driven to distraction by the British 8th Army and their aim was to wipe out the British in Eygpt and take the Suez Canal. The German High Command in Berlin certainly had mixed opinions of North Africa; one side wanted Rommel to push; others wanted to maintain a defensive hold while others still wanted all resources in the Med sent against Malta.

[parsifal]

Thanks Plan D

What is your opinion, if, in 1941, the defence of tobruk had failed, and the port had been captured. Would Rommel with his two depleted divisions, plus a gaggle Italian formations (all pretty badly worn already) have been able to bounce the remaining defences in Egypt???? We would need to know with some accuracy what the british forces in the theatre actually were. There were quite a few semi trained formations training in the Delta at the time, so I am a bit hard pressed to predict what might have happened