Hitler sends German troops to North Africa

For Italy, the German Reich’s most important ally, the military situation in Libya in its battle against Britain’s 8th Army has become more and more ominous. On 11 January 1941 at the urging of the „Duce“ Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler soon orders in directive no. 22 the deployment of a German panzer division and its posting to North Africa. Beginning in March, the „Afrikakorps“ under General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel will intervene in the war. Rommel will soon come to be feared by his adversaries as the „Desert Fox“

Source: Archiv N. Linzer The armored division 05 in Africa, 1941