Germany Wins!: How Germany Could Have Won Ww Ii Using a Mediterranean Strategy.

By Tad Holtsinger

What if Germany had given Erwin Rommel the resources that Great Britain had deployed in the middle east?

What would have happened if they had succeeded in taking Malta and Gibraltar, blocking the Allied invasion of Algeria and Morocco, taking the Suez canal, the middle eastern oil fields and threatening Russia in the Caucasus? This book serves to examine just what would have happened if Hitler and his generals had given the Mediterranean strategy more thought.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477292303

Tad Holtsinger

Tad Holtsinger is an avid fan of military history and especially the "what if" concepts of changing the course of what really happened. He is a prolific writer in many different topics such as business, physical fitness and coming of age stories.

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© 2012 Tad Holtsinger. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/17/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9229-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9230-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012921954

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Contents

CHAPTER ONE:

North Africa

CHAPTER TWO:

The Middle East and Morocco

CHAPTER THREE:

Caucasus

CHAPTER ONE:

North Africa

FEBRUARY 1941

Erwin Rommel stepped out of the Junkers aircraft and squinted in the blinding Tunisian sun. He was the first of many more German soldiers to come to North Africa to rescue the failed imperial dreams of Benito Mussolini, who had just suffered a massive defeat at the hands of a much smaller British army. Rommel mused to himself over the incompetence of the Italians. How could an army of over two hundred and fifty thousand be defeated by a British force of only thirty-one thousand men? But this was why he was here; he was Hitler’s fire brigade and trouble-shooter. He would soon make things right.

It was February 1941, and the Italian Colonial Empire was a total mess. At the same time as they were getting their lunch handed to them in the Libyan Desert, the British mounted attacks on the East African colonies of Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. In less than four months, the Italian forces in these provinces surrendered, leaving the Italians with a presence in only Tunisia. The Italian invasion of Greece was turning into another fiasco, with the small but efficient Greek army throwing the invaders back. These disasters infuriated Mussolini while a skeptical Hitler laughed in amusement at the ineptitude of his allies’ military forces. The war had proceeded nicely in the favor of the Axis, who conquered Poland, France, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway, and had left Britain isolated from the continent. However, Hitler would not let his friend lose the last foothold in North Africa and convened a top-level meeting of OKH generals in January 1941 to determine a strategy and an order of battle for German forces being sent to the rescue. Hitler had also initiated planning for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, and he and the general staff were consumed by the myriad of details this involved. North Africa and Greece were backwaters by comparison, and the general consensus was to let the Italians flounder.

Why divert forces to these strategically unimportant theaters when massive numbers of troops would be needed to deal with the sheer size of an invasion of Russia? asked Hitler’s favorite toady, Keitel. The room went silent as all eyes went to Hitler in order to see what his reaction was going to be. It didn’t bode well for a general to disagree with the Führer, and careers and lives could be lost quite quickly if one did. Hitler merely stared at his collection of generals impassively and said nothing to add to the tension.

Suddenly, a voice from the shadows spoke out. This war is about obtaining resources for the Reich so we can grow and expand our living space. Oil is the key resource, and we don’t have much; but the British and Russians do. The hawklike nose of General Eric Von Manstein protruded into the light of the conference table as he leaned forward to make his point. He was the architect of the brilliant plan to invade France, and it had been spectacularly successful—so successful that his senior officer had jealousy dismissed him from the general staff and put him in command of an infantry corps. It was only Hitler’s gratitude that interceded on his behalf and placed him back on the general staff, much to others’ consternation. If we control the Middle East and the Caucasus, we will control much of the world’s known supply of oil. There is only one way to do this. We must drive the British from North Africa, attack the Middle East, and then lunge into the Caucasus when we invade Russia.

The room was silent, and no one dared speak as all eyes went to Hitler again. Hitler said nothing at first, preferring to heighten the nervousness of his generals while some of them were quietly hoping that he would tear apart Manstein’s idea. I see you understand something my other generals do not, Herr Manstein, Hitler said in a playful tone that had some heads lowered.

And what is that, my Führer? Manstein calmly replied.

Economics, Hitler barked. It is the real reason we will grow and succeed in this war, and oil will be the key! he triumphantly announced, not the least bit concerned that he had appropriated Manstein’s idea for himself. Manstein did not care about credit; he only wanted to win. Now that he had Hitler’s backing, he was free to develop his plans. We will begin to develop plans immediately to throw the British out of North Africa and conquer the Middle East and include an attack on the Caucasus from the south as an additional element of our attack on Russia. I want this completed in one month and ready for my personal review, Hitler ordered his staff. One more thing. Hitler paused. General Von Manstein, you are promoted to field marshal and will command the entire theater of operations. General Rommel will be in charge of the German forces, and Marshal Graziani of the Italian army will report directly to you. The room bustled with urgent movement as Hitler strode confidently from the room. Manstein revealed a slight smile, knowing that Hitler would give him the resources he needed for his plan to succeed.

Rommel wasted no time after arriving in Tunisia, quickly ushering the first German unit to arrive, the Fifth Light Division (later upgraded and renamed the Twenty-First Panzer Division), up to the crumbling front held by the Italians. One fact boded well for Rommel as he now faced a depleted Desert Force composed of rookie Australian and Indian divisions with very little armor. The original, more experienced Desert Force units had been withdrawn to refit or be sent to help the Greeks against the Italian invasion. He also was due to receive another Panzer division, the Fifteenth, as well as the Ninetieth Light Mechanized Division. He immediately began to resupply and reorganize his demoralized Italian troops with little interference from the lethargic Italian high command. A new Italian armored division, Ariete, had also arrived, and by the end of March, he was ready to strike.

On March 31, German Panzer divisions struck and overran Eighth Army’s forward unit, the under-strength Second Armored Brigade, at El Agheila. The Italian Ariete Armored Division, along with several slow-marching infantry divisions followed the coast road toward Benghazi while the German Panzers swept into the desert toward Mechili and Msus in order to shorten their route to the key objective port of Tobruk and possibly cut off the retreating British as well. The British were harassed from the air by the Luftwaffe (German air force), and abandoned equipment traced the line of retreat. The British rushed the new Ninth Australian Infantry Division to Tobruk, and dug in just in time to repel a premature German attack. Meanwhile, Rommel’s spearheads bypassed Tobruk and continued to chase the British back to their original start point and fortifications in Egypt. It was a stunning success but was marred by two major problems. Not capturing Tobruk meant that Rommel’s supplies had to be shipped to Benghazi and driven hundreds of miles overland to the front.

The second issue was British control of the Mediterranean Sea lanes, with supply convoys constantly being attacked by the Royal Navy and aircraft and submarines based in Malta. Without a constant stream of supplies, Rommel would not be able to do much more than go on the defensive. But before Manstein could begin to work his magic, another significant event changed the landscape completely.

In order to extend his front in attacking Russia and secure his southern flank, Hitler had bullied deals with Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria to accept German troops on their soil. Yugoslavia was next on the list, and just when he thought he had successfully concluded a deal with their regent, Prince Paul, hard-line Serbian army officers organized a revolt in the name of Yugoslavia’s young King Peter. Hitler went ballistic and ordered the immediate invasion of Yugoslavia by the armies already positioned on the border, which were originally to be used against Russia. The terror-bombing of the Yugoslav capital Belgrade, combined with the swift advance of the German Panzers, completed the conquest of Yugoslavia in less than a week. Now Hitler could finally reinforce his inept Italian allies, who were fighting for their lives after being driven back into Albania by the Greeks. The Greeks could not stand up to a modern mechanized army with superior tactics, and they and the British forces began a long retreat. By the end of April, the British had evacuated Greece to the island of Crete, and the Germans began withdrawing units that were to be used in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.

Crete was now occupied by over thirty-three thousand demoralized and under-supplied Allied troops. Hitler’s fear was that the British could base long-range bombers on the island and threaten the Romanian oil fields, which were his only source of oil. The general staff was presented with the problem, and once again, the discussion took an unusual twist. We must capture Crete and eliminate the threat to the oil fields in Romania, Hitler emphatically said.

But, Mein Führer, the Royal Navy controls those waters and we have no way to land troops there, begged a frustrated Keitel.

He is correct, but we could use a combination of airborne troops, a night troop landing to avoid the Royal Navy, and a U-boat screen to maintain air superiority and discourage the British from attacking the transports, measured the intellectual Chief-of-Staff Halder. The room grew quiet as Hitler tensely pondered the difficult problem.

You could leave it alone and let it whither on the vine, stated Manstein in an even tone.

But what about the Romanian oil fields? whined Keitel.

"By the time they have built airfields to accommodate large bombers and have accumulated