The fall of Tobruk to Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika was Rommel’s last absolute victory of the war. Certainly he would have great success in smashing the green American army at Kasserine Pass in 1943, but the split German command in Tunisia denied Rommel command of the 10th Panzer Division which might have allowed him to have delivered a major victory to the Axis. 

So Tobruk was Rommel’s last undisputed victory. The fruits of that victory turned out to be poison for him. The loss of Tobruk proved to be enormously rewarding for Winston Churchill. It played out having a decisive effect on the shape of the Allied war effort that led to victory on May 1945. Meanwhile Rommel had been given more than enough rope to hang himself, which he now proceeded to do.

Tag words: fall of Tobruk; General Rommel; Panzerarmee Afrika; Winston Churchill; General Claude Auchinleck; El Alamein; Siegfried Westphal; Andrew Roberts; Masters and Commanders – How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West; Theordore Roosevelt; George Marshall; Allan Brooke; Ismay; Operation Sledgehammer; Operation Roundup; Operation Bolero; Operation Gymnast; Dr. Moran ; Harry Hopkins; Stimson; Clement Attlee; Malta; Grand Harbour; Afrika Korp; Kasserine Pass; Sherman tanks; General George S. Patton Jr;