Papashah41
Active member
We have had the North African discussion pop up before and while on paper it looks enticing I am not convinced it would have been as devastating to Britain as many think and I am not even certain that it was possible or even a good idea on behalf of Germany.
A North African/Middle Eastern front would have been a vast resource drain for Germany, it is a huge mass of land predominantly under the control of a European power (Main Britain and France) there would have been no way of consolidating the front line, defeat Egypt and you have you still face the British in the Sudan, push them out of the Sudan and you face them in Ethiopia etc. and all the while Germany's supply get longer and British supply lines get shorter.
On top of this even with the loss of the Mediterranean you still havent cut supplies to Britain you have just extended them by forcing them around South Africa which was a reasonably safe route as Britain controlled much of the west African coast line anyway.
Last but not least German logistical services were notoriously poor I do not believe for an instant that they could have managed such a campaign, it is my opinion that Rommel should have followed orders and stayed within Tripoli and they should have concentrated of capturing Malta which would have made the Mediterranean a German lake by default.
MontyB, you make some good and interesting points. I don't know if i'd describe the Nazi logistical service as poor though. They may have been a little paranoid about the amount of material going to the bottom of the Mediterranean. That they continued to use Enigma seems truly amazing to me. But back to the subject at hand.
If Hitler had decided to go the North Africa route instead of butting heads with Stalin, the amount of forces available would have been awesome. Do you really believe he may not have been able to do it? If he used a quarter of his forces he could have taken North Africa in ten days to two weeks, tops. That the British were in Sudan and Ethiopia and Kenya, the two Rhodesia's, and South Africa, so what. Each of those countries would have been hard pressed just to survive let alone march into the German part of Africa.
The raw materials from such a move would be staggering. Oil for Hundreds of years to come. Rubber and tin as well as teak and exotic foodstuffs are just a fraction of what could be got. With the Suez they would also have a direct link up with their Axis partners the Japanese in Singapore and beyond.