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The concise encyclopedia of world war II 2 volumes (greenwood encyclopedias of modern world wars) ( PDFDrive ) 90

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Agency Africa into combat to assist the beleaguered Italians in North Africa, who were on the verge of catastrophic defeat by British and Commonwealth forces Hitler could not allow that collapse on the eve of launching Operation BARBAROSSA against the Soviet Union Other German air and ground units followed as the desert campaign (1940–1943) developed a logic of its own Some Regio Esercito units were attached to Afrika Korps command, although nominally the DAK was under overall Italian authority In practice, German troops responded exclusively to German officers The original Afrika Korps commander was Major General Erwin Rommel He genuinely inspired the men of the DAK to exceptional battlefield acts and made tactical innovations in armored warfare and anti-tank fighting that won legendary status on either side of the lines In fact, an inflated reputation of the Afrika Korps among British and Commonwealth troops was a real problem It had to be overcome with training, but also with hard won victories, before British 8th Army was able to regain the initiative in North Africa and drive the Germans and Italians back into Tunisia As the scale of fighting expanded in the western desert in 1942, the Afrika Korps was given progressively larger paper formation titles, though it was only marginally larger than the original DAK in fact It was finally absorbed into Italian 1st Army in early 1943 Throughout the DAK’s time in Africa it suffered from severe shortages of tanks, aircraft, and fuel and ammunition It increasingly faced much superior Western Allied logistics and larger forces, along with sea and air blockade of its own supplies conducted by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean and RAF interdiction along extended desert roads It fared poorly in terms of resupply and reinforcement because Hitler’s attention was always primarily on the Eastern Front, which bled vast numbers of Wehrmacht men and vehicles during 1941 and 1942 See also BATTLEAXE; Kasserine Pass; El Alamein; Montgomery; TORCH; Tunisia AFV Armored Fighting Vehicle Western Allied designation for all types of armored vehicles, from tanks and tank destroyers to self-propelled guns and halftracks AGENCY AFRICA A French–Polish joint intelligence operation set up by Major Rygor Slowikowski after he escaped to France upon the defeat of Poland in Operation FALL WEISS (1939) Slowikowski worked for the French until the armistice of June 22, 1940 He then set up a spy network in North Africa in mid1941, believing that he was acting on orders from the Polish government-in-exile But the London Poles were themselves acting at the behest of MI6 Later, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) became involved Slowikowski was remarkably effective running a network of local French agents across North Africa and parts of West Africa, under control of Polish intelligence officers who had joined him in exile His network provided valuable information about Vichy defenses to the Western Allies prior to the TORCH landings in November 1942 However, the effect of that information should not be exaggerated: TORCH depended little on intelligence gleaned from within the region; its planning was determined by strategic, 13

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