Comments by "Ben Wilson" (@benwilson6145) on "How The Africa Campaign Exposed Churchill's Vulnerability | Hitler's Soft Underbelly | Timeline" video.

  1. I am full of admiration for the Canadians, but in North Africa which this video is about they were a minor number of them, the Forces there were British, Indian, Australian, New Zealand, Free French, South African, Rhodesian, Poles, Czechs.
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  2. Ultra was being decoded long before Monty got their. One of the early failures caused by Ultra was when Rommel first landed Britain was reading Enigma codes, this was when Wavell was in charge. The Army in North Africa had lost most of its troops caused by Churchill sending the troops to Greece. When Rommel started advancing the British Forces in North Africa were not reinforced because the Ultra code breakers were reading the instructions being sent to Rommel not to advance, he ignored his instructions and advanced.
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  3.  @robertfindlay2325  It was Auchinlecks failure that resulted in the Rommel being at El Alamein. He was a brilliant General but his appointment of Cunningham and Ritchie that caused this disaster. The slow movement of the Eighth Army after El Alamein is a myth. The advance was not as fast as Monty wanted, as he was held up by his officers not obeying orders and stopping, these included Lumsden, Freyberg and Gatehouse. The most ironic part it was Gatehouse who was sacked by Montgomery after failure to follow orders and attack Rommel’s retreating troops that made the allegations that Montgomery was too cautious after El Alamein. While the truth is he disobeyed orders sitting on a hill at Mersa Matruh saying “ This is Custances battle and I’m not going to interfere”. Gatehouse’s tanks were held up by one anti tank gun and he had approx 40 tanks. Monty had advanced so far that his headquarters were ahead of his own Generals. Rommel described the Eighth Army advance as vulture like, in a letter to his wife. The 8th Army did 1,100 km in just 17 days from El Alamein to Benghazi November 4th to 20th 1942. If you can find any one to beat that let us know, maybe look at the advance rate of the 1st Army in North Africa. After El Alamein the Germans and Italians had lost about 30,000 captured, including nine German Generals, 10,000 killed and 15,000 wounded. Of Rommel’s 600 tanks, 450 were left on the battlefield and about 1000 Artillery guns.
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  4.  @robertfindlay2325  The slow movement of the Eighth Army after El Alamein is a myth. The advance was not as fast as Monty wanted, as he was held up by his officers not obeying orders and stopping, these included Lumsden, Freyberg and Gatehouse. The most ironic part it was Gatehouse who was sacked by Montgomery after failure to follow orders and attack Rommel’s retreating troops that made the allegations that Montgomery was too cautious after El Alamein. While the truth is he disobeyed orders sitting on a hill at Mersa Matruh saying “ This is Custances battle and I’m not going to interfere”. Gatehouse’s tanks were held up by one anti tank gun and he had approx 40 tanks. Monty had advanced so far that his headquarters were ahead of his own Generals. Rommel described the Eighth Army advance as vulture like, in a letter to his wife. The 8th Army did 1,100 km in just 17 days from El Alamein to Benghazi November 4th to 20th 1942. Look at the advance rate of the 1st Army in North Africa they achieved less than half the speed of the Eighth Army . After El Alamein the Germans and Italians had lost about 30,000 captured, including nine German Generals, 10,000 killed and 15,000 wounded. Of Rommel’s 600 tanks, 450 were left on the battlefield and about 1000 Artillery guns. I respect Auchinlect, but it was his poor choice of Commanders, first Cunningham then Ritchie that allowed the Germans to get to El Alamien. The men had lost faith in him.
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  5. To understand more about the British war you should read AllanBrookes Diaries. This was published to try and achieve a balance to Churchills rewritten history. Churchill made many many errors in North Africa.
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