Why did the German Army never advanced any further in Africa

[LineDoggie]

One part is being Japanese is very apparent. One of the reasons that I heard was, it was also set up to protect Japanese Americans from Americans. There seems to be some validity in the racism complaint. At the time, it may have been a necessary mistake sort of thing. It is a dark spot on the US history.

I could buy that except Nisei and Issei on the east coast werent touched, nor were those in the Hawaiian islands or Midwest. it was only West Coasters who went to camps.

[Panzerknacker]

My understanding Berlin had a lot to do with impeding the military advancements of Rommel. Can not fight with out the tools and supplies to do so.

The supplies was just a part of the problem, personality of Rommel also cooperates to the failed attemp to take Tobruk in april 1941 and several others sethbacks of his forces (he attacked albeit in april 1941 the knew very well his forces were very inferior in numbers to the australian defenders), it also was the risponsible for a rough relation with the italians (forgotting that italians were the majority of the component of panzer army afrika), he critizied in public several Italians commmanders an political managements, etc. He criticized his Luftwaffe commanders permantly (he personally removed 1 or 2) causing future troubles of cooperation with the Air Force, etc,etc,etc
Again I recomend to read his memoirs, for an inteligent reader who can see "between the lines" of the thing written by the General will understand very well the development of the war up to august 1942.

I dont see Rommel as brilliant strategist, in my view Germany had better ones, but they didnt want to go to Afrika as Rommel did. The only battle in wich you can say accurately Erwin Rommel outperformed the british in any aspect was the one of Gazala/Bir Hacheim (2nd battle of Tobruk) in wich he managed to defeat largely superior and well equipped armored forces time after time in spite the british knew the date and place of his attacks because "ultra". I strongly suggest anybody with a interest in the African theather of operation to get information about that battle.

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

Out of curiosity were the Italian Americans quarrantined to the extent that the Japanese Americans were?

Italian resident aliens, yes in small numbers. Americans of Italian descent, no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian...can_internment

* In 1939, the FBI began keeping tabs on suspicious Italians living in the USA.
* When Italy declared war on the USA, over the next six months over 1,500 Italians were arrested.
* This was out of 695,000 Italian permanent residents in the USA at the time.
* Most of them were released after Italy's surrender in 1943.

While harsh, I do feel that the small percentage of Italians who became internees indicates that those interned were detained for some reason and not just because they were Italian. So IMO, one MIGHT could justify this by wartime necessity (same with German internment) but that same justification does not apply to Japanese-American internment.

The real death knell for any justification of Japanese internment for me is that Japanese-Americans from the one place which had the best intelligence potential, the easiest location to contact Japan from, and had actually had known Japanese-American agents spying for Japan, were not interned. I am speaking, of course, of the Territory of Hawaii.

[Toddy1]

Italian resident aliens, yes in small numbers. Americans of Italian descent, no.

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Thanks Mate, most helpful

[Bleifuss]

Probably has more to do with the fact that Rommel was not a "badged" member of the Nazi party - there are also rumours that he was unwell at crucial times in both the North African campaign and also around D Day

He was the first commander of the "Fuehrer Begleitbattalion" , him and Hitler were quite close early on.

[Toddy1]

He was the first commander of the "Fuehrer Begleitbattalion" , him and Hitler were quite close early on.

I get that, but he was never really one of them so to speak and this cost him later on. I have the utmost respect for him being a soldier and not buying into the extermination bull**** that seemed to consume so many of the original minds, whether through undying loyalty to Hitler or self preservation.

[Hollis]

Wrote a paper on the internment a few years back...it was all about racist politicians on the West Coast and the racist commander of Western Defense Command in General John L. DeWitt. Army intel conducted a study prior to Peark Harbor what kind of threat the Japanese citizens of America posed if Japan attacked, report was on Marshall's desk. They posed no threat.

Probably more like below. I was trying to remember what I heard when I was kid.

I could buy that except Nisei and Issei on the east coast werent touched, nor were those in the Hawaiian islands or Midwest. it was only West Coasters who went to camps.

[Bleifuss]

I get that, but he was never really one of them so to speak and this cost him later on. I have the utmost respect for him being a soldier and not buying into the extermination bull**** that seemed to consume so many of the original minds, whether through undying loyalty to Hitler or self preservation.

Yeah that's true , I think a lot of the Prussian Officers like him thought the same.

[Soldat_Américain]

Probably more like below. I was trying to remember what I heard when I was kid.

My paper reflected that as well as the Nisei and Issei were not touched in Hawai'i.

[Hollis]

My paper reflected that as well as the Nisei and Issei were not touched in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i, they would have to probably have to intern everyone except the howies.

[California Joe]

This I can fully understand, I am sure the anti Japanese sentiment was running at fever pitch after Pearl Harbour

If you want to get an idea of how it was, check out the old Bugs Bunny cartoon "Bugs Nips the Nips"

Wrote a paper on the internment a few years back...it was all about racist politicians on the West Coast and the racist commander of Western Defense Command in General John L. DeWitt. Army intel conducted a study prior to Peark Harbor what kind of threat the Japanese citizens of America posed if Japan attacked, report was on Marshall's desk. They posed no threat.

Hey SA, strangely enough there was an author on the Daily Show last night that just wrote a new book about the subject. I think it was called "Remembering 1941" I'm pretty sure he makes a claim substantiated by memos and documents that if it wasn't for DeWitt asking Roosevelt to dial it back a notch they were planning to intern every Japanese they could find. In the millions, not just the 120,000 or so that ended up being interned...

[conch]

Much of the pressure to come down with a hammer on the Nesei and Issei came from then Governor of California, Culbert Olson. At the time much of the Japanese American population in California was involved in agriculture, and the war provided landowners in the San Joaquin Valley an opportunity to expand their own holdings at the expense of the Japanese. Olson was lobbied heavily by the agriculture lobby to take care of the putative security threat. Or so said a nasty, conspiracy minded, Marxist history prof I once had. Pretty sure the Army had other things on its plate at the time, and wasn't thrilled at the notion of baby-sitting a couple of hundred-thousand Japanese Americans.

[kuno888]

Colleagues; all a bit confusing here....

If the topic is "Germans in the Southern Sahara, then I can contribute the following:

The first German unit to go far south was "Gruppe Schwerin" of Regimentsstab z.b.V. 200. Starting from Sirte via Hon they went as far South as Murzuk. The mission was started in the attack of LRDGs T & G Patrol on Murzuk in December 1940 with the intention to boost th Italian morale in the far South. Hardly mentioned in the German sources is the fact that together with them was the remainder of the Italian Compagnia Autosahariana di Cufra which had made it to Hon after they had to abandon Kufra in March 1941 under the attack of Leclerc's Free French troops.

The Blaich's bomb raid against Fort Lamy was already mentioned earier here.

But there was also "Sonderkommando Dora". The unit was fairly short lived and existed only for the second half of 1942 and January 1943. It was not a "Brandenburger" unit but a unit with a scientific task under the orders of Abwehr I (Brandenburger were Abwehr II). They were well equipped with vehicles and airplanes and had to explore the south of Libya. Ghat, Tibesti, Tuemmo. The existence of this unit is well documented in photographs and documents.

The previously mentioned "Unternehmen Dora" is a myth. Even the photograph shown above from the 'Bundesarchiv Freiburg' do in fact show members of the "Sonderkommando Dora" but not the "Unternehmen Dora". The only written "evidence" for "Unternehmen Dora" comes from authors like Kurowski and Spaeter. They do not give any source in their books but tell stories wchich cannot be proven - not even the 'Bundesarchiv' has any document and the war diary of Oberst ahousen, CO of Abwehr II (and hence the "Brandenburger") does not mention at all...

[PostmandPer]

It wasnt their theatre. No reason to start conquering land outside your theatre of war.