Round Two in North Africa

Panzerjäger-Abteilung 39 (part of Kampfgruppe Gräf, from the 21st Panzer Division) of the Afrika Korps on the move.
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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
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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)

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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)