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Here's what dynamic leading from the front and the cult of the offensive looks like. It means that you leave your recoverable tanks behind on a battlefield you don't control. How do we know? 1/ @CedricMas @militaryhistori @ITM_archives @Hutch_and_Sons @GeorgeMCR01 @KarlJames_1945
This is Panzer IV '414', almost certainly a 21. Panzerdivision tank, vehicle 4 in 1st platoon, 4th coy of Panzerregiment 5 (PR5). It is noted in the loss records of PR5 as 'total loss, enemy fire' on 23 November 1941, the only Iv lost that day. 2/ @DrBenWheatley @StephenClarkeNZ
This was of course the day of the Totensonntag battle at Sidi Rezegh. So it was part of the Afrikakorps assault on the remnants of 7 Armoured Div and 5 S.A. Bde on the Sidi Rezegh battlefield, and it was lost to unspecified enemy fire that day. Map: 3/ https://crusaderproject.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/arietes-contribution-to-sidi-rezegh-di-nisio-column/
After his complete but costly victory at Sidi Rezegh, Rommel wanted to pursue the beaten Empire forces into Egypt, making sure they would not return. Maybe capture supplies, and then turn on Tobruk. Crüwell, who had a better grasp of the situation, argued strenuously not to. 4/
But dynamism, Aktivnost, cult of the offensive, gogetemism prevailed and off the Afrikakorps, or what was left of it, went, into the east. The tanks, meanwhile, were collected on the battlefield. But it appears that the recovery effort didn't last long. 5/ https://crusaderproject.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/425/
So very quickly the recovery teams were driven off the battlefield, and Empire troops, as in the picture, went onto it. The recoverable and no doubt in many cases repairable tanks now were lost for good. At the same time, managed to get itself hammered at Sidi Omar. 6/
So when the order came to return to the Tobruk front, PR5, which had started CRUSADER with 85 Panzer III and IV managed to return with a mere 15. Over 80% of its tanks had been lost in 10 days. PR5 had done better than PR8 during Totensonntag, but it had lost many tanks before 7/
The combined German tank losses on Totensonntag were 46 Panzer III and IV, most of them in 15. Panzerdivision's PR8. The order to leave the battlefield and go east to chase a fleeing enemy meant that these tanks, plus the vast volumes of captured equipment, were not recovered. 8/
It set in train a chain of events that ended with the utter defeat of the Axis army and its ignominous retreat to the border of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, several hundred miles to the west. For want of patience. 9/
Both pictures are from a series shot by Lts. Clements and Vanderson of No. 1 Army Film and Photographic Unit. They are held at IWM, accession numbers E6740 and E3251. 10/end @NavalHistWar @Erikhistorian @BloodPhilip @curatorian
