Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Combat statistics in North Africa 1940-1943
Important information!!!
Until now there is no full and final statistic about combat loses of Axios and Axis in North Africa during 1940-1943. We studied a lot of works of British, German, and even Russians, even Spanish for to collect the full chronological picture of the battle in North Africa and after that collect the information about loses of peoples, tanks, and aircrafts by both sides.
During this process, we faced a huge number of difficulties, discrepancy and lack of information. No wonder no one could do this job before. That's why our statistic is very rounded and rough. Here we are going to show you the main problems during the calculations which affect the statistic:
- During the war, many soldiers from both sides could be captured or injured many times and calculated as new and new loses. That's why the number of total losses will always be higher than actual.
- The same situation with tanks and aircrafts that could have been hit and repair many times but were calculated as many different destroyed units. That's why the total number of lost tanks in our statistics by both sides is also higher than actual.
- Most of the information sources give the total number of injured, killed, captured and missing soldiers as total loss of the battle. That's why our statistic of human loses cannot mean only killed. But we just can see the loss ration of Axis and Allies.
- We can not calculate every single tank or aircraft which have been hit between big battles. Most of the statistics showing the total result of big battles. We created daily chronologic relying on different officers memoirs, even so, we sure some information is missed.
- Loss information of British and Germans sources always diverges. We tried to recheck with other sources or just took averages.
It follows from this that all factors had a negative impact on the correctness of the calculations, but our task was to calculate the total average loss ratio. We have coped with this task.
Recapturing Cyrenaica by Rommel
First Rommel's attempt on Tobruk
Operations "Brevity" and "Battleaxe" against Rommel's troops
Great British operation "Crusader"
Rommel's second attack in Libya
Tobruk assault by Rommel
Rommel's attack on Egypt
The first phase of the Battle of El Alamein
The second phase of the Battle of El Alamein
The final phase of the Battle of El Alamein
Rommel's retreat to Tunisia
Rommel against Americans in Tunisia
Last Rommel's attack against Montgomery in Tunisia
Total combat losses statistics
Based on the calculations carried out, we would like to provide the final statistics of the losses of the parties only during the battles under the command of Erwin Rommel in North Africa. This subsection takes into account the battle between the combined Axis forces, where the Italian troops were poorly equipped and had very weak tanks.
Thus, the statistics did not take into account: the Italian campaign of 1940 before the landing of the Afrika Korps, the combined Anglo-American offensive in Tunisia after the removal of Rommel, and the surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia on the Bon Peninsula.
Rommel against Montgomery statistics
Montgomery is considered an outstanding general in military history. This status he received for his victories in North Africa. But many people do not pay attention to the fact that he managed to reverse the course of the battle in the desert due to the total superiority in power and the total lack of supplying the Panzer Army Africa. Also, it is necessary to take into account the fact that he managed to break the defense of the Axis troops at El Alamein due to the absence of Rommel and the fatal error of General Stumme.
Calculations show that Montgomery had an even greater advantage in tanks than the previous Alliance generals in North Africa. You also need to understand that Rommel only retreated and defended without a chance and opportunity to attack. As a result, Rommel's tank losses are slightly less than Montgomery's. Thus, it can be said unequivocally that the Desert Fox was better in the effectiveness of tank combat.
