| Original caption: “General Erwin Rommel with the Fifteenth Panzer Division between Tobruk and Sidi Omar.” Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) stands up in his Mittlerer Geländegängige Personenkraftwagen (“Medium Cross-Country Passenger Car”) Horch 901 Typ Vierzig Kraftfahrzeug (Motor Wechsle”) Fünfzehn, license WH-903944 during Operation Crusader. Note the sand caked on the headlights, and that despite driving in the desert, the Nazi German officers are dressed for colder winter weather. The vehicle lacks an aircraft recognition panel, which is a large Nazi Swastika flag on the hood. Rommel wears his trademark captured British googles on his Officer’s visor cap. The Deutches Afrika Korps (DAK) symbol is on the wheel bumper. Generalleutnant Alfred Gause (February 14, 1896 – September 30, 1967), with Rommel in the Horch 901, arrived in Africa with his staff in May 1941. OKH planned to attach Gause to the Italian High Command as a 2nd Chief of Staff; under no circumstances was he to place himself under Rommel’s direct command. But the pliant Gause – the man Halder had picked to pull the reins in on Rommel – did just that. During the 1st Battle of Sollum on June 15, 1941, Gause “marveled at Rommel’s grasp of the battle, decided the DAK’ commander could ‘cope’ very well and promptly placed his entire and impressive staff at Rommel’s disposal.” The driver is Leutnant Hellmut von Liepzig (July 18, 1921 — October 24, 2016), from Namibia. The Mittlerer Geländegängige Personenkraftwagen Horch 901 Typ Vierzig Kraftfahrzeug Fünfzehn was used at the Regimental level or above. They had radio equipment. This was 1 of a dozen vehicles used by Rommel in the North African campaign. Rommel’s counterattack during Operation Crusader reached its crescendo on November 24, 1941. Over the objections of some of his subordinates, he would move the Axis units besieging Tobruk and attack XXX Corps in a “mad dash for the wire” of Egypt. And he led the attack himself, in his Horch. Rommel sped “like a maniac” through the desert, “looking neither left nor right as he charged down the very axis of the United Kingdom Royal 8th Army [XXX Corps]. Like picnickers before an angry swarm of bees, the 8th Army began to flee eastward and southeastward as the DAK made its unannounced and desperate foray. 21.Panzer-Division rolled through parks of defenseless United Kingdom 8th Army transport vehicles and blasted them at will. General Sir Alan Cunningham (May 1, 1887 – January 30, 1983), General Officer Commanding 8th Army, himself narrowly escaped capture; his Bristol Blenheim bomber was shelled as it took off. At 1600 hours Rommel reached Qaşr al ‘Abd and the Egyptian frontier – a thick barbed-wire entanglement that stretched north and south beyond the horizon. He found himself almost alone, for his wild charge had outdistanced his own communications vehicles and left most of DAK behind. When he met Generalleutnant Ludwig Crüwell (March 20, 1892 – September 25, 1958) an hour later, only his Chief of Staff Gause, a tactical headquarters, and a modest signals section were with him. Rommel informed Crüwell, DAK Kommandant, that he had directed 21.Panzer-Division, minus 5.Panzer-Regiment, to Halfaya Pass. DAK’s job was to cooperate with the Italian Motorized Corps, bottle up and destroy the 8th Army east and west of the Sollum front and at Bardia. The order appalled Crüwell; his 2 Panzer divisions were now scattered over 60 miles of desert. Rommel’s decision, moreover, was based on “an incorrect impression of the situation on the Sollum front.” He assumed large enemy forces were located in that sector. He was mistaken. “Only one Indian Brigade, the Seventh,” writes Major Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin (August 30, 1904 – June 28, 1997), “was actually there, and this brigade had just captured Sidi Omar, where it was protected by our own minefields.” At dusk Rommel and Gause drove on into Egypt. Alfred Berndt (April 22, 1905 – March 28, 1945), Rommel’s press aide, describes the adventure: “His car’s steering column snapped. His escort car had been left behind somewhere, and the last trucks of the Panzer Division were vanishing into the distance. His driver had to get out every hundred yards and kick the front wheels into the correct angle.” Then the motor died. But at just that moment Crüwell and Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein (January 14, 1899 – January 30, 1970) – on their return trip to Qaşr al ‘Abd – “stumbled across Rommel and Gause stranded in the desert.” This was a welcome sight to the 2 Generals, Rommel and Gause, “shivering with cold.” They promptly piled into Crüwell’s captured Associated Equipment Company (AEC) Mammoth Armored Command Vehicle, which headed back for the frontier – all the senior officers of Panzergruppe Afrika crowded inside. The following few hours were extraordinary. At the frontier wire they failed to find a gap to get them back to Libya. Back and forth they drove. The frustrated Rommel even took the wheel himself, but his efforts proved quite useless. He and his staff had no choice but to laager for the night on the enemy side of the wire. It was a night filled with anxiety for the high ranking officers crouched in their dusty Mammoth. Indian dispatch riders buzzed to and fro, and trucks of all types repeatedly passed within a few yards of them. But the Mammoth, a captured British vehicle, must have looked unassuming, for no 1 disturbed it. At 1st light Rommel again took the wheel; a gap in the wire was quickly discovered. By 0700 Hours they had reached Qaşr al ‘Abd. Since the South Africans had held up Ariete at Taieb el Esem, Rommel now ordered Crüwell to attack on his own. 15.Panzer-Division was to seal off the Sollum front from the west, while 21.Panzer-Division did the same in the east. 5.Panzer-Regiment, still detached, charged the enemy outposts at Sidi Omar and lost half its remaining tanks. The rest of 21.Panzer-Division floated about, south of Halfaya Pass, without making contact with any 8th Army forces. In the afternoon 15.Panzer-Division scored a minor success when it obliterated the workshops of 1st Tank Brigade. The Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed repeatedly and inflicted heavy casualties on the DAK; at dusk 5.Panzer-Regiment had 12 tanks left; 8.Panzer-Regiment had 53. “In short,” writes von Mellenthin, “November 25 was a thoroughly unsatisfactory day in which we suffered heavy losses for little result.” Shivering in the wooden huts which served as their headquarters at El Adem, Oberstleutnant Siegfried Westphal (March 18, 1902 – July 2, 1982) and von Mellenthin “viewed the situation with increasing anxiety.” During the day the 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division had arrived in force in the Sidi Rezegh area – putting 90.Lechte-Division in a difficult situation. Westphal dispatched urgent signals and sent off 5 Fieseler Fi-156 Storch aircraft in a futile effort to locate Rommel. The next day, November, the siege of the Tobruk fortress reached a crisis. The Allied garrison smashed through the siege ring. DAK and a Bersaglieri Regiment from the Trieste Division suffered heavy losses; the important height at El Duda was lost. The night before, 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division had stormed and captured Belhamed; a corridor now existed between the garrison and the New Zealanders. Westphal, unable to reach either Rommel or DAK headquarters, bravely took matters into his own hands. He cancelled all pursuit orders and called 21.Panzer-Division back “into the crisis zone – back to Tobruk.” Rommel scarcely believed the orders when he returned, believing a great victory was at hand. He thought the British has broken his signals and sent the orders themselves. He was furious that 21.Panzer-Division wasn’t where he expected them to be. Nevertheless, he regrouped and skillfully almost surrounded the hard-fighting New Zealanders; Royal New Zealand Army Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg (March 21, 1889 – July 4, 1963) had trouble extricating a portion of the 2nd Infantry Division, but many men and much war materiel were captured. Rommel was awakening to his precarious situation. He was down to 40 tanks; senior officers of DAK were killed or wounded; thousands were casualties. Significant damage was inflicted on 8th Army, and Cunningham had faltered, requesting permission to run for Egypt, but he was sacked; United Kingdom Royal Army Lieutenant General Harold Alexander (December 10, 1891 – June 16, 1969) did not stop Operation Crusader, handing over command to Major General Neil Ritchie (July 29, 1897 – December 11, 1983). DAK now had to make a fighting withdrawal to the Gazala Line under air attack, pursued by the 8th Army. Rommel being Rommel, that situation would not last until the Spring. He would conquer Tobruk, and drive the Allies back all the way to Egypt. Ritchie would be sacked and eventually replaced with Lieutenant General Bernard L. Montgomery (November 17, 1887 – March 24, 1976). | |
| Image Filename | wwii0717.jpg |
| Image Size | 422.81 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2908 x 2091 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 24, 1941 |
| Location | |
| City | Bi’r al Ashhab |
| State or Province | Cyrenaica |
| Country | Libya |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-242-EAPC-6-M713a |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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