Word: rommels
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...rats of Tobruk," as the Australians called themselves, would hold out against Rommel for 242 days. Attack after attack failed to dislodge them. In the first week of December, just as the Pacific war began, an Allied thrust threatened to encircle Rommel's forces. To avoid falling into a trap, the Germans withdrew from Tobruk. In the last confusing battle over the fortress, 38,000 Axis soldiers were killed; the Allies lost...
...Desert Fox," however, was far from finished. Orchestrating an intricate withdrawal, he then prepared for a counterattack. Hitler sent him an entire air corps, detached from the Russian front. The two divisions of the Afrika Korps were resupplied and refreshed, and in June 1942 Rommel captured Tobruk -- earning from the Fuhrer the rank of field marshal. Egypt, Suez and the oil of the Middle East now seemed within his grasp. Hitler, warned by more cautious advisers to be wary about proceeding toward Cairo, nonetheless ordered that operations "be continued until the British forces are completely annihilated . . . The goddess of fortune...
...destiny brought Erwin Rommel face to face with the man who would prove to be his nemesis: Bernard Montgomery. By July 1942 the Germans had pushed the British out of Libya. All that stood between the Nazis and Alexandria was the strongpoint at the arid village of El Alamein, 70 miles to the west. A worried Churchill sent Montgomery, an eccentric, bullheaded disciplinarian, to head the Eighth Army. In spite of frantic pleas from London, Monty -- as the Ulsterman asked his soldiers to refer to him -- took his time, rebuilding troop morale and stocking up on ammunition. Churchill wanted...
...meantime, Rommel's forces were being interdicted by the Royal Air Force -- and by Hitler, who had again begun to skim off reinforcements for the / Russian front. On the night of Oct. 23-24, under a full moon, the British opened fire on German positions with at least 900 artillery pieces, creating such powerful shock waves that some Axis soldiers were stunned to death. As fate would have it, Rommel was not on hand to rally his demoralized troops. A month earlier, he had gone home for treatment of a stomach disorder. Alarmed, Hitler ordered the still ailing Rommel back...
...Rommel, though clearly defeated, was still capable of a few surprises -- as the Americans found out. In February, even as the German field marshal had been chased into Tunisia, his forces launched a fierce attack on Allied forces and inflicted a humiliating defeat on the U.S. II Corps near the Kasserine Pass. It would take British, French and U.S. troops 10 days to undo the German counteroffensive, sustaining 10,000 casualties in the process, more than half of them American...