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Praetorium Honoris

Thursday, August 3, 2023

Round Two in North Africa

Panzerjäger-Abteilung 39 (part of Kampfgruppe Gräf, from the 21st Panzer Division) of the Afrika Korps on the move.
(Source)
Sergeant Theodore O'Connell wiped his hands with a rag as he walked over to the crew's lean-to shelter attached to the left side of their Crusader Mk III tank. Private Alan Caddick was walking behind him shaking his head, it never ceased to amaze him how much the sergeant knew about their tank and how it worked.

"So Sar'nt O'Connell, is the engine alright then?" He had watched O'Connell checking things, like oil levels and such, everything looked fine to him, but he still wasn't sure if he was learning anything.

"She's a bit worn down, but if we're careful, she'll be fine. You know it's an aircraft engine right, the Nuffield Liberty?"

"An aircraft engine in a tank, Sar'nt?"

"Why not, an engine's an engine. Designed by the Yanks, you know?"

Caddick shook his head again, he could drive the damned thing, why and how it worked, well he'd learn.

As the two men approached the rest of the crew, Caddick smelled something cooking. More tinned bully beef, no doubt. Lord but he was sick of it. No doubt his great-grandfather had eaten it when he was fighting the Zulu back in the '70s.

The Western Desert
(Source)
The Afrika Korps was coiled and ready to strike. Feldwebel Willi Hoffmeister heard his stomach rumble again, the Afrika Korps was ready to strike, as he was suffering another bout of indigestion, no doubt from the Alte Mann¹ they'd been issued for their breakfast, he wasn't so sure that he was.

As he sat in the hatch of his Pzkw III, shivering from the cold of the early dawn, he chuckled, remembering what Oberpanzerschütze Lutz Schumacher had remarked when they were eating their rations earlier that morning.

"The Italians are right, this stuff tastes like ass." Schumacher declared.

Hoffmeister had nearly choked on his ration bread as his driver, Gefreiter Fritz Weber, had quipped, "How do you know what ass tastes like, Lutz?"

"Trying to make Gefreiter, Fritz, that's how I know what it tastes like."

Weber grinned, Schumacher could be a pain in the ass, but the man was a great loader, Panzer 413's gunner, Oberpanzerschütze Horst Krebs, claimed that they could put rounds downrange faster than any other crew in the Wehrmacht. Hoffmeister agreed, it was probably what had kept them alive during the retreat to El Agheila and beyond.

Hoffmeister glanced at his watch, "Fire it up Fritz, time to move."

As Panzer 413 rolled forward, Hoffmeister saw the horizon to the east lightening up, no doubt it would be another hot one. Freezing at night, sweltering during the day, that was the desert for you, at least the cold kept the flies down.


O'Connell checked his watch, the sky was lightening and he could begin to make out the various features of the landscape around him. Gravel, low brush, sand, and more gravel. Oh yes, and British tanks and infantry in their dugouts. Today called for a period of rest, he hoped the Germans would respect that.

"Sar'nt, do you see that, off to the south a bit?" Lance Corporal James Fitzhugh, the tank's gunner called up to O'Connell from his position.

O'Connell looked in that direction, nothing, then he brought his field glasses up. No doubt Fitzhugh was looking through his gunsight. He thought he saw something, then dismissed it. As he scanned to his right, he stopped, there, a plume of dust.

"Our lads aren't over that way, are they?" Fitzhugh called again.

"Nope, have to be Jerries, where is that bastard Rommel getting his strength from?" O'Connell muttered. Then it struck him, "Now we're on the end of a long supply line and the Germans are closer to their port of Tripoli," he thought. Guess the Royal Navy hadn't severed that link just yet.


Rommel's forces were deployed along a 120 mile long position that ran south from Mersa Brega on the coast to the oasis at Marada. His Italian infantry held the line, with the XXI Corps in the north (three divisions) and X Corps in the south (two divisions). The German 90th Light Infantry Division was split between the two ends of the line. Rommel's armoured forces (the Afrika Korps and the Italian XX Corps) were placed behind the northern end of the line. However Rommel knew that this line was too long to be held against a determined assault, and so he decided to launch a spoiling attack, to try and win a quick victory before Auchinleck could build up his strength in western Cyrenaica.

Rommel's counterattack began early on 21 January. The 90th Light Division and the Italian XX Corps were sent along the Via Balbia, which ran all the way around the coast of Cyrenaica (normally at least a mile inland, sometimes further). On the Axis right the Afrika Korps was sent along the Waid Faregh, which ran parallel to the coast at this point. The British forces on the front line withdrew , and joined up with the stronger forces around Agedabia.

Rommel decided to continue his advance. His first target was Agedabia, but he then intended to move north-east to Antelat, then east to Saunnu, some way inland, from where he hoped to be able to cut the lines of retreat for the two British armoured divisions that he believed to be located east of Agedabia. (Source)

(Source)
The Germans had been driven away from the frontier of Egypt, resupplied and reinforced, they were out to drive on Cairo once more. The seesaw nature of the North African campaign was about to sing once more in favor of the Axis. All O'Connell and his mates could do was hold on, weather the storm then strike back

The problem was much harder for Hoffmeister and his comrades, it was a long, long road to the Egyptian frontier. Without Tobruk, they would fail once more. This time, Rommel had told them, things would be different.





¹ The Italians were forced to provide foodstuffs for the Germans which included coffee beans, cooking oil, marmalade and tins of preserved meat which was also very unpopular with both German and Italian troops. The tins were stamped with the initials AM which stood for "Administrazione Militare" but the Germans always referred to this as Alte Mann (Old Man) or as some Italians called it "Asinus Mussolini" (Mussolini's Arse) due to it's rancid taste but they went one better calling it Arabio Morte (Dead Arab). Captured tins of British corned beef, white bread, jam, hard tack biscuits and tinned fruit were considered a luxury and was a most welcome supplement to the bland tasting rations issued to the Afrika Korps. The British thought their rations were terrible and welcomed captured German foodstuffs as well!  (Source)

36 comments:

  1. Funny how you think the other fellows' rations taste better :-)

    I wonder if someone might find a Roman Centurions diary saying much the same thing LOL.

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    1. Sometimes "better" just means different. As to the Roman thing, I'll bet you could find something like that.

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    2. To a Roman, everything tastes better with garum.

      Kind of their version of Tabasco sauce.

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    3. Fish sauce, an ingredient in many Korean dishes. Yummy.

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    4. My exposure to it was with a Vietnamese family that was a friend of Mrs. Andrew. Even they never opened the bottle of base fish juice inside the house and did all the chemistry (adding sugar and hot peppers in a mason jar) outside.

      But once fermented/combined and settled, definitely yummy stuff.

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    5. One sampling trip we had to buy food that did not have to be refrigerated until the next morning. My choice was bread, spam, and kimchee for sandwiches. Perfect. None of the other people would pilfer it. In fact, they would hurriedly leave the lunch trailer as soon as I opened them.

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    6. Beans - Yes, the processing can be malodorous, but the end product is indeed yummy.

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    7. Don - Spam and kimchee is a favorite of mine, not on bread, but with rice and a couple of eggs!

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  2. "..claimed that they could more rounds downrange faster"....missing word there after the word "could" Sarge? Just wondering. Funny how each side welcomed the other sides foodstuffs.

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    1. Saw that ommission, Nylon12, and want to add "The Germans had been driven away from the frontier of Egypt, resupplied and reinforced, thy were out to drive on Cairo once more." Looks like "thy" should've been "they", but was at least a word that passed spellcheck.
      Glad your muse is back!
      Mike the EE

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    2. N12 - Fixed the error, I wanted to write "put more rounds downrange faster" then thought "put rounds downrange faster sounded better." Went to delete "more" deleted "put" instead. D'oh.

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    3. Mike - Fixed that one as well, sometimes my fingers will move off a key that I didn't really press down far enough. Drives me nuts.

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    4. About the food, I'll bet different is good!

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    5. It certainly can be. My late uncle Charlie was an infantryman in the ETO. They got fed a lot of Spam, he hated it until the day he died. He might have enjoyed a tin of "AM" from time to time as opposed to constant Spam. (Yes, that was intentional.)

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  3. The African campaign has always confused me as, due to the extended supply lines, it always seemed a bit risky.

    Rations: The grass is inevitably greener on the other side.

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    1. Hitler sent Rommel and a small contingent of troops to Africa after the British had walloped the Italian army. (Something which seemed to happen to the Italians in WWII a lot. Good troops, antiquated equipment, and terrible generals. After I typed that I had the thought, is the USA the new Italy in WWII?)

      Rommel exceeded his orders and walloped the British. Then somebody had the idea that they could drive through Egypt, up through the Middle East, and into the Russian oil fields around Grozny. I guess no one looked at the logistics of the thing. Might have worked if they had seized Malta. There was a plan for that, but with the Russian campaign roaring along, there was nothing to spare for that. Hitler, like most megalomaniacs, wanted to do everything at once. Logistics was not Hitler's strong suit. Which is what happens when you never rise above corporal.

      So yes, risky as Hell!

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    2. Good analogy between fascist Italy and current socialist USA, Sarge.
      BG

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    3. We are a national socialist country, of which fascism is the Italian version, no matter what NPR and other national socialists want us to believe.

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    4. Goebbels would have recognized his own.

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    5. He would have thrived in the media of today.

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  4. Sarge,
    I'm pretty sure, having been on a "somewhat" remote deployment or two, ("Somewhat" meaning "has runway, fuel storage, water and some shelter"), that one would get sick and tired of Steak and Lobster if that was served 3 times a day, 7 days a week...Besides, bitching about something not problematic tends to take your mind of things that are problematic, like eating a 75mm cannon shell or an SA-8 through the cockpit. So, again, your story (s) are interesting, entertaining and accurate. Keep up the good work.
    Just my own little "bitch" subject...Bigger, better, FASTER! Please.
    juvat

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    1. Good point on the rats.

      If the troops aren't complaining, then something is very, very wrong!

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  5. "A bitching soldier, sailor, Marine, airman, coastie (pick one or use all) is a happy..." Twas ever thus. We got some repack C-rations which all had applesauce for the fruit component; the lack of variety led guys to bitch about something formerly considered a treat.
    Though I gotta say GI "steak and lobster" is generally NOT such a treat owing to loosely describing something as "steak" and cooking the crustacean into rubber make one actually prefer stews or "sliders" and such. Cutting through gristle with your K-Bar against your mess kit isn't exactly epicurean.
    I'll wager Air Force steak and lobster might be better.
    There have been improvements though; in Iraq I encountered coolers on the water bulls and the trailer mounted field kitchens put out better meals than I remembered from my days as a snuffy.
    Boat Guy

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    1. You'll have to excuse Brother Juvat, Air Force steak and lobster is indeed different from what the other services might try to pass off as steak and lobster. First week of Basic, one night steak and lobster was on the menu. I asked my instructor if I could re-enlist for 30 right then and there.

      OTOH, the food at Medina Annex (now closed) off of Lackland AFB wasn't fit for prison inmates. Serve that to POWs and you'd be answering to an International Tribunal for war crimes.

      MREs are an improvement over C-Rats, so I've heard. Never had MREs, had lots of C-Rats. The latter were better than nothing, better than most armies' rations I'll bet.

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    2. So anyone want to explain what submariners dine up at sea these dayd?

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  6. happy to see your muse has had a nice nap and is running all ticketty-boo; she (your portrayals) always makes me feel as though I'm sitting there right 'longside the guys, sweating like a pig, smelling them/myself

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    1. Then I'm doing something right!

      Thanks, boron.

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  7. Once again you have put the gentle reader on the scene, savoring the morning cool while dreading the oven the day will become.

    Rations: any are better than none. Maybe barely, and may taste like maggot barf, but still beats empty.

    Roman Legion rations: "Codex Theodosianus, being a collection of Roman laws, mentions that a Roman soldier should be equipped with buccellatum ac panem, vinum quoque atque acetum, sed et laridum, carnem verbecinam, or “hardtack and bread, wine too and vinegar, but also bacon and mutton” (VII.4.6). " Hmmm.... make the wine coffee and it's close to Civil War rations.

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    1. I remember the stories of Rebs and Yanks on picket duty exchanging tobacco (plentiful in the South) for coffee (plentiful in the North). So the "replace wine with coffee" certainly brought back some memories.

      And yes, any are better than none. DAMHIK

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  8. Mom made a great corned beef dinner ... but never when Dad was around. Poor Dad had nothing but canned corned beef for almost 2 full months during the Korean War. Very good Australian corned beef (with WWII production dates) but after the first 2 weeks it loses its appeal. The mess sergeants did their best but there's only so much you can do with CB and powered eggs.

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    1. Too true. I can't imagine having corned beef more than once or twice in a month. But if it's in a Reuben, well ...

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  9. Crusty Old TV Tech here. Another fine entry in the North Afrika story.

    Bully beef, I understand it was called Bouilli Bouef on the cans in French, and of course the Tommies called it Bully. Kinda summed up the texture too, I hear. Rations, the perennial problem for loggie weenies ("what you want C-Rats from Viet of the Nam era, not Korea?") and GI's ("man, if they give me C-Rats ham and again..."). Medina Annex chow, had AFROTC Field Training at Lackland, did the Leadership Reaction Course at Medina. Worse chow hall in the USAF, yep. But, the C-Rats from the late 50's we had in the field at Camp Bullis later on...Col Potter would be proud.

    My father came back from his AAF WW2 experience with a taste for SOS. Creamed chipped beef on toast, yum! My mother made the best, he'd say. However, Keesler AFB's transient chow hall made the hands-down best SOS I've ever had. Must have been the proximity to Nawlins.

    Now, flight kitchen box lunches...that's a story for another day.

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    1. SOS, love it! The flight line chow hall at Kunsan had the best roast beef, but seriously they served it too much!

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