The Desert Fox
Upon the arid desert sands of Africa,
Clouds of dust billowed from the daring Fifteenth.
‘Till a young Brit fired his bazooka,
Thus all the stukas let loose on the ground beneath.
Then came the roaring Seventh Amoured Division,
With tanks that were Matildas and Crusaders.
It met the Fifteenth Panzer in a head-on collision,
And the battle raged, resulting in many surrenders.
The Brits were once again beaten by their nemesis,
German General Erwin Rommel who is the Desert Fox.
It could be said that the Brits had too many misses,
But I believe they just couldn’t think out of the box.
Rommel, The Crocodile
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel,
He lies in wait, he is a crocodile.
When his prey is vulnerable,
He snaps out with his Panzer fangs.
Rommel can go with very little food,
While waiting for his supplies.
Just as the crocodile,
When game is scarce along the Nile.
Always snapping is he, pushing others,
Though never farther than he himself.
I respect this crocodile,
For he never smoked, nor drank poisons.
Except for the time he chomped the cyanide,
After the failed bomb plot of July.
‘Twas better than going on trial,
For this cunning crocodile.
He is dead for trying to get Hitler overthrown.
Now he lies in wait forever more,
In his grave for his prey.
Das Deutches Afrika Korps
Under the leadership of O’Connor,
The Brits thought North Africa they could conquer.
Then to come save the struggling Italian force,
Came Rommel who wasn’t an Aryan Norse.
His men want to work ASAP,
Before they even had time to make fun of tea.
On their day of arrival at Tripoli,
They were sent to make the British flee.
All he had was a bit of the 5th Light,
But boy did they ever fight.
First they met no resistance to their might,
But the British started to halt their flight.
Greece needed the British to come to their aid,
And for this the Brits surely paid.
The reason gains in Cyrenaica were now lost,
That was rather large cost.
The Axis now had another respectable gain,
Though the desert itself brought much pain.
Also supplies were short,
The convoy ships just couldn’t reach port.
Planning and planning the British did do,
But to desert warfare the Brits were too new.
Their offensive was called Brevity,
And it certainly had no longevity.
When the dust had cleared,
The Afrika Korps was now definitely feared.
They had gotten a good solid victory,
Although the fighting may have been rather gory.
Then came another thought up scheme,
Named Crusader by the British planning team.
And with this offensive they pushed back their enemy,
But the Afrika Korps still fought valiantly.
Not to be proven he wasn’t the true Desert Fox,
Rommel hit each British defensive box.
His offensive went as far as El Alamein,
And this caused British egos much pain.
Rommel's Achievements
His panzer division swept through France as if it was ghost,
Rommel never stayed at a fixed command post.
Although he was one of the best and brightest,
The situation in North Africa was too strenuous a test.
Winning battles was what he did in the barren land,
Moving very swiftly across the sand
Thus for his speed and achievements he became the Desert Fox.
Against the British who’s tactics were as clumsy as an ox.
In spite of his many pains,
He still managed to make many significant gains.
Though he was also constantly harassed by RAF planes,
The mighty Afrika Korps did inflict British blood stains.
Rommel Sonnet
In Gaul Rommel was a fierce German ghost
His seventh division swept across France
Of his mighty panzers he made the most
As they manuvered in their deadly dance
The French were soundly defeated by the June
But trouble was brewing in Libya
The Italians were routed through the dunes
They were being pushed back to Tunisia
British Soldiers though victory was won
But alas Hitler sent Erwin Rommel
The war in Africa had just begun
British forces he started to pummel
He made it to the town El Alamein
This was the farthest reach of his campaign
