Embattled Tobruk lies under a pall of smoke during Rommel’s push to capture the vital North African port city in the spring of 1941.

Afrika Korps

The Siege of Tobruk: WWII’s Debacle in the Desert

by Michael D. Hull

Sidi Barrani, Bardia, Sollum, Sidi Rezegh, Mersa Matruh, Bir Hacheim, El Agheila, Beda Fomm, Sidi Omar, Benghazi … The names of many remote villages in North Africa were written into history in 1941-1942 as British and Axis armies battled back and forth across the scrubby desert wastelands of northern Egypt and Libya. Read more

Afrika Korps

General Douglas MacArthur’s Navy

By Glenn Barnett

In November 1941, the U.S. Asiatic Fleet weighed anchor in Shanghai, China, for the last time. Alarmed by the growing hostility and aggressiveness of the Japanese, Admiral Thomas Hart ordered the outnumbered and outgunned American vessels moved to the relative safety of Manila Bay in the Philippines. Read more

Wehrmacht infantrymen march through a Belgian town to occupy territory overrun by armored divisions.

Afrika Korps

German Intelligence Chief Wilhelm Franz Canaris

by David Alan Johnson

In most popular spy thrillers, secret agents are tall, handsome, virile, and irresistible to women. Whether their name is Dirk Pitt, Jack Ryan, or James Bond, all are hard-drinking, well-tailored ladies’ men. Read more

Afrika Korps

The Afrika Korps at El Alamein: Beginning of the End

By John Brown

Tobruk, the vital Libyan seaport on the coast of Cyrenaica, fell to General Erwin Rommel and his victorious Afrika Korps in less than 24 hours after an unexpected and devastating air, armor, and infantry attack on June 21, 1942. Read more

Laying the foundation stone at the Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben on the occasion of Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday.

Afrika Korps

The Volkswagen Beetle

By Albert Mroz

The Volkswagen, or “People’s Car,” that so many millions have known for more than half a century had its genesis in Nazi Germany. Read more

The German crew, which has manned a captured British Matilda tank in the Western Desert in 1941, surrenders to a group of New Zealand troops after the vehicle has been disabled by antitank fire. Note the German markings and flag draping the tank. (Australian War Memorial)

Afrika Korps

Captured Allied Armor: Enemy Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

By Christopher Miskimon

The German crewmen occupied the various stations in their tank as they approached the American roadblock ahead. It was 2100 hours on Christmas Eve, 1944, just outside the town of Manhay, Luxembourg, which was occupied by elements three different U.S. Read more

Heinz Werner Schmidt commanded a heavy weapons company during Sidi Rezegh, but was until just days before aide-de-camp to General Erwin Rommel.

Afrika Korps

Erwin Rommel & Heinz Schmidt at Sidi Rezegh

By Thomas Haymes

On the afternoon of November 23, known as Totensonntag to the Germans, General Ludwig Crüwell, commander of the Afrika Korps, decided to launch both of his armored divisions at the box being defended by the 2nd South African Brigade which had laagered just south of the contested airfield at Sidi Rezegh. Read more

Afrika Korps

Reassessing Rommel: Anti-Nazi Hero or Opportunist?

By Blaine Taylor

Even before the end of World War II, German General Erwin Rommel’s fame was such that he was already being elevated into the Valhalla of such legendary warriors as Hannibal against the Roman Empire, Napoleon during his defensive campaigns of 1813-1814, and Robert E. Read more