ABSTRACT
A leading exponent of the blitzkrieg theory, Rommel executed it with remarkable results. In employing that hard-hitting combination of rapidly moving weapons — the tank, the airplane, and motorized infantry — he showed his genius in his power of imagination to create surprise, to produce the unexpected. The British, who had meanwhile hurriedly assembled a modern, mechanized army in Egypt — with tanks, airplanes, long-range artillery, and motorized infantry — attacked the Italians in Africa, virtually destroyed them, and drove them out of Egypt. Mussolini exercised supreme command in North Africa through Comando Supremo, which issued operational instructions and sent copies of them to Kesselring for his information. Returning to Rome, Kesselring persuaded Mussolini and Hitler to give Rommel the authority and discretion to act as he deemed best in the fluid conditions of crisis, which required instantaneous, on-the-spot tactical decisions. The Battle of Kasserine, though formless and unnamed, was conceived in that prospect.
