pgollin wrote:.
THAT is why I said "German Idiocy" - the supplies required to make some sort of difference (????) (*) were a pittance compared to what were used on the Eastern front, and also Germany made men and material available after the Torch landings (throwing good after bad).
(*) What "sort of difference" extra German men and material would have achieved is unknowable (at least to me) but with the Italian's lack of drive in the merchant navy war it is arguable about how much more could have been handled.
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... as a rule of thumb, one shouldn't open other fronts until he is in control of those already engaged.
As it was, North Africa was a bridge to far for the Wehrmacht, and remained that way until the final surender in 1943.
Another way to look at it is: send all African troops (Rommell, 15th, 21st panzer, etc) to the Eastern Front and perhaps they would make a difference (or not). Anyway , it would have been probably better than to throw them away thousands of km away from their resupply bases, and all the time with very little resupplies available anyhow. That way, the Italians would have received the nice plastering they deserved (and continously searched for) much earlier than 1943, at least in Africa.