General Ludwig Cruwell




 
 
 

"… Cruwell, acting in the spirit rather than with detailed knowledge of Rommel's orders  since decoding Rommel's long signal would have caused delay ), set of from his Headquarters just before dawn to lead the Afrika Korps on this somewhat complex operation. At 6 o'clock on the morning of 23 November most of the staff of Afrika Korps headquarters were surprised and captured by the leading troops of the Newzeland Division advancing west along the trigh Cappuzzo''. Cruwell had escaped.Then he planned, with Ariete and most of the Afrika Korps concentrated, to move north as a solid mass and destroy the residual forces of xxx  Corps . Hammering  them to pieces on the anvil of Sidi Rezegh.
'' This was the operation known to both sides as (totensonntag). " It was not an easy maneuver" .It involved across – desert march of a great mass of vehicles, a rally with an armoured division, the Ariete, of another Corps, and the then a sharp change of direction north ward, in some sort of a great formation with both Ariete and Afrika Korps. .
Rommel took in this predicated advance westward a long Trigh Cappuzzo.
Cruwell had joined forces with Ariete Division and now, using tactics somewhat novel to Afrika Korps with usual methodical interplay of tanks, ant-tank guns and (when necessary) mounted infantry, lined up his command-tanks in the front ranks, mobile infantry and soft-skinned vehicles behind –and charged northward, the Ariete on the left of the line. He suffered heavy losses from the rump of British 22nd Armoured Brigade which moved from west to east across the tail of his line of advance, but he did not considerable…" 

"By the end of the day 23November- both the Afrika Korps and most of the amour of xxx Corps were lying in different sectors of desert within a few miles of each other". To the north Sidi Rezegh was held by 21st panzer Division. Any British attempts to break out of Tobruk were being contained by 90 Light Division ".(David Fraser. Knight's Cross: A life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Harper Collins Publishers .1994.p285-286). 
 
 

- Born at Dortmund North of Rhine Westphalia Gerof many.20 / 03 /1892.
 

Died on 25 - 09 – 1958.-

08-07-1911 Cadet School.-

18-08-1912 Second Lieutenant.-

27-01-1916 Second Lieutenant.-

-10-05-1922 Captain (Panzer).

-11-01-1931 Major.

01-03-1936 Colonel.-

01-12-1939 Brigadier.-

01-09-1941 General.-

1 5-08-1941-24-08-1941 Commander of 11th Panzer Division .

31-07-1941 Commander of the Afrika Korps.-

09-03-1942-19-03-1942 General Command of the Panzer Afrika Army.

- 29-05-1942 Captured. General Cruwell was inspecting (reconnaissance) by air :Fi 156 Storch, over the British defences of the Brigade 150 near Sidi Muftah (grave of a person) south Ain- Algazala The British defenders shot him down. The Desert Fox lost the second man in the chain of the leadership in the Africa Theater..and one of the best  Panzer Generals on 29-05-1942