World War II Desert Tactics

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World War II Desert Tactics
Author: Paddy Griffiths
Paperback - 64 pages
Publisher: Osprey
Series: Elite 162
Price: £11.99
ISBN: 9781846032905

Introduction

This Osprey book from its Elite range covers Desert tactics for the three years of war in North Africa; it gives an insight into the main adversaries, and the conditions of their troops, with such a large number of different nations a truly International affair, being involved on the Allied side alone. Some were more indisposed to the conditions on arrival than others, and needing longer to acclimatise. Others from Australia and South Africa faired better in the beginning than European troops that had just arrived. Early losses among troops rushed in, and unfamiliar with the terrain and the tactics of desert fighting were to suffer heavily, this was to happen on all sides. In the beginning this conflict was considered a “tacticians dream” of wide open spaces to manoeuvre the most technologically advanced army's of World War II with the golden ideas of the 1920 and 1930 to the fore front; these were soon dashed as man and machine suffered under the severe conditions of living and fighting in the desert.

Contents

We start with 65 pages of text, 38 black and white pictures, 8 colour plates of different combat actions through the three years of desert war, 13 line drawings in black and white of maps, unit organisation and tactics; you also get a number of lists of vehicle types and dispositions. The heart of the book starts with a time line of major events only, and with the first approximate dates of significant equipment updates. We then move into the British starting concepts of 1938 to 1941 with the difficulties of finance at that time, that tanks would not make it to the front lines due to cost, being cast aside by our political masters. The idea of the tank standing alone and able to do it all with no support, that these tanks could carry all the fire power needed to win any battle it entered was what saved it.

This evidence was believed wholly by the misreading of the German victories in France in 1940 by the British media they misread the concept of a mechanized force of all arms with air cover that actually won the day for the Germans in 1940.

The British were to face the Italians first, they wanted to capture Egypt but did not have any first-line troops available and no motorised transport, which made them immobile and short of supplies, and with the lack of any real armour to support its 14 infantry divisions were not going to last long. These divisions were not élite troops but ill trained and badly equipped although their senior officers knew what to do, their junior officers and NCOs did not, and by the winter of 1940/41 their defences had crumbled completely. The improvement came in 1941/42 with the XX Mobile Corps, casting the Italians in a more impressive mould, and if not for Mussolini sending 10 divisions and 22,000 trucks to Russia a quarter of these resources might have saved the day in Africa.

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The Germans were in stark contrast to both the British and Italians, having worked hard on perfecting large-scale mobile warfare since way back in 1866. On their arrival in Libya the Germans had recently gained plenty of experience of mechanized combat in Spain, and later the French campaign. But during and after the war they had not derived much real understanding from the British theorists of mobile warfare, having developed their own ideas on the subject. At this point in the book there is a nice explanation on the tactical principles the Germans embraced.

The Balance of Hardware this section covers the British inter-war years, with lack of funding, and dogma towards producing the right equipment necessary for the job. On the Axis side the Italians tanks were useless from the start they were never seriously up-graded. The Germans had started with light tanks the PzKw I and II but they did not last. It was the PzKw III and the PzKw IV that stayed the test of time in the desert. British armour did not match the Germans due to lack of commitment back home this could also be said for the recovery of damaged equipment from the battlefield, the Germans had mastered this and could control the battlefield. The British on the other hand had to dispense with the bureaucracy of the time, for the recovery, maintenance and repair all had to be reinvented from scratch.

Anti-tank guns played an important part in the desert, from the German 5cm AT gun and 8.8cm Flak guns the British tank crews mistakenly imagined they were being hit by tank fire but actually it was towed AT guns, this confusion lead to a false comparison between British and German tanks, giving the Germans a tactical advantage with the British tanks not firing HE. As this would not work on armour very well but would have destroyed the AT guns, the British on the other hand had their own ideas believing that their own five tier system from Boys AT rifle, the 2-pdr tank gun, the 2-pdr towed or portee, the Bofors 40mm quick firing AA gun, the excellent 25-pdr gun-howitzer, with a six option being the 3.7in AA gun, a better gun than the German 8.8cm Flak but with operational problems.

We then have two sections on the campaigns in the desert, 'Brevity' and 'Battleaxe' to 'Crusader' May to December 1941 being separated by the 8 colour plates, we finally have Gazala to Alamein and back again May to November 1942. These two sections are small but cover nicely the time line and operations from all sides. The book finishes off in Tunisia in mid-February with Axis counter attacks and Montgomery's responses with US forces under Eisenhower pushing westward, the end game was in sight although new tactics would have to be used including some very old ones once again with the French using cavalry in the mountainous terrain. And the arrival of the Tiger tank on the 28 of November was ineffectual in the small numbers used as was the Nebelwerfer again to few too late. US forces gained experience finding out the suitability of its equipment and the fighting of battles. There is a small section on the lessons of Tunisia a list on further reading, and six pages of plate commentaries for the drawings.

Conclusion

We have a very nice read here by Paddy Griffith with excellent illustrations by Adam Hook this is not a heavy book and is a great starting point, ideal for the modeller that wants an insight, a feel for what happened, so you can place your model with more confidence.

My thanks to Osprey for providing the review sample.

For full information on all Osprey Publishing titles, please see their website: Osprey Publishing