Desert Campaigns (1940–1943) Despite the main forces of the Wehrmacht bogging down in front of Moscow in November, Hitler sent reinforcements to Rommel, most importantly Luftflotte under Field Marshal Albert Kesselring The intervention made strategic sense, as the rapid collapse of Italy in 1943 would later confirm: Hitler could not allow an Italian collapse in North Africa because a defeat there threatened the whole edifice of the Italian empire erected by Mussolini, and that would in turn permit the Western Allies to threaten Germany’s southern strategic flank with air power, commando raids, and aid to insurgent populations But Rommel exceeded his defensive brief, eventually talking Hitler into going along with a renewed offensive with the an expanded Afrika Korps Rommel pushed hard for the great prize of Egypt, against original OKW intentions and in the face of logistical realities of extended and vulnerable German and Italian supply lines Accompanying Rommel’s Panzers and Kesselring’s aircraft were Hitler’s rising hopes to take the Suez Canal and link with the Japanese, whom he encouraged to cross the Indian Ocean and occupy Madagascar That strategic dream was distant as well as desperate, though not wholly farfetched However, the opportunity slipped away with crippling losses incurred by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific at Coral Sea and Midway, a preemptive British invasion of Madagascar, and reversal of Axis fortunes in the Middle East due to British intervention in Iraq and invasion of Syria The loss of Italian East Africa to the Axis foreclosed any strategy to conquer the Middle East and thereby isolate the Soviet Union from Lend-Lease supplies arriving overland via Iran Axis losses were only marginally offset by naval successes in the Mediterranean, where the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and a British battleship were sunk by Luftwaffe bombers, while Regia Marina mini-submarines sank two more British battleships at anchor in Alexandria harbor By mid-1942 British and Commonwealth ground and air forces were more numerous than the German-Italian opposition, but they still lacked adequate equipment and were poorly led and still badly demoralized Having reinforced the Afrika Korps, Rommel led it and four Italian divisions in an attack on British 8th Army that began on May 26 The British were positioned along the Gazala Line The ensuing battle lasted until June 17 Each side had advance intelligence about the other gleaned from code-breaking successes, but neither used it well Axis forces comprised about 90,000 men supported by fewer than 600 tanks The British and their allies had 100,000 men and almost 1,000 tanks, including some better quality “General Grant” M3s Rommel struck first at the extreme British left where the Gazala Line was anchored by a Free French brigade that contained Spanish Republicans and Foreign Legion troops, and a Jewish unit, which Adolf Hitler furiously ordered exterminated Rommel hoped to take Tobruk by an armored swing around the southern end of the Gazala Line, a turning movement that would trap 8th Army and then release the Panzers to race ahead for Egypt The Free French at Bir Hakeim were quickly surrounded, before the attacking Panzers turned for the coast The French held against follow-on assaults by the elite Italian Ariete armored division, then fought their way out to rejoin the British line Meanwhile, 8th Army blunted the German attack in the north by May 29 in 302