What level of force was needed to eject Britain from the Levant in 1941

By mid 1942 Italian ship after ship was going down. Rommel didn't know why and every time he would call the Italian Navy and they would tell him a new ship was going out to supply the troops it seemed to quickly be sunk. According to his son he suspected the British bribed someone in the Italian Navy, but as it turns out the codes he and the Italians were using had been broken.

I've read somewhere that Wallies never broke Italian naval codes. However Germans forced Italians to use Enigma, with predictable results.

There is honestly no way short of Rommel taking the port of Alexandria that he could have held out until 1944 and made North Africa a much more difficult war for the Western Allies and he was aware that the Americans were in the war after December 1941 and would be likely landing to his West.

That's true and I don't think there was any way Germans could win. Different general might help but would be faced with same problems Rommel was. Different general might take more realistic look at his capabilities and reach better conclusions but in the long term standing on defensive or limited offensives from start wouldn't change end result.
 
That's true and I don't think there was any way Germans could win. Different general might help but would be faced with same problems Rommel was. Different general might take more realistic look at his capabilities and reach better conclusions but in the long term standing on defensive or limited offensives from start wouldn't change end result.

Realistically I think the post war Germans (at least the ones living in West Germany) were happy that they didn't have just another Prussian General at the helm fighting in the main war front against the Anglo-Americans in North Africa for two years like those in the East who followed the Commissar Order and other illegal orders and turned it into an ugly war with hate.

Honestly the war in North Africa easily could have become a war with hate by following any number of Hitler's illegal orders and between the Axis and Allied forces in North Africa they issued ordered at times that one side or the other would say led to POW deaths and was dishonorable and they would avoid doing it again.

Rommel was somewhat of a media whore and his desire to endlessly talk to Allied troops didn't serve any military purposes, but it was not without purpose as he was trying to build up the image of himself and the German Army and liked doing it anyway. He always read the Western newspapers about what they were saying about him, his forces, as well as Germany and its actions and knew even if Germany lost it mattered greatly what the Americans and British thought of the German Army and Germany herself.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
I've read somewhere that Wallies never broke Italian naval codes. However Germans forced Italians to use Enigma, with predictable results.


True, Italians used one-time pads for naval communications.

So there are some pretty easy POD to vastly buff the Japanese or German navies. It is not like the techniques were unknown to the other powers, it is that they did not want to endure the costs associated with one time pads. A few small things like Japanese ships sending only there daily position updates in one-time code would have a major impact on the war. Or the Germans being less chatty at land or sea.
 
it's be a fair stretch to even have an Afrika Corps by the end of 1940 - the Italians did not even seem to be in trouble at that stage.

Yeah, there are big political obstacles to getting Germany involved in North Africa. Mussolini regards the Med as his sphere of influence and he won't be keen on German intrusion into it.

Looking at dates is interesting. Wiki says that the Afrika Korps was formed on 11th January, at which point Operation Compass is besieging Tobruk, a month before the final destruction of the Italian 10th Army at Beda Fomm. This indicates that Hitler is keen to deploy German troops into Libya. But when did Mussolini agree to the deployment? The first troops didn't arrive until 11th February, but I don't know if that gap indicates a reluctance on the part of Mussolini only overcome by the scale of the Compass defeat, or if it simply reflects logistical difficulties.
 
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