[Homer_J_Simpson]

B.H. Liddell Hart, History of the Second World War

[PzLdr]

Hobart will make a significant contribution to eventual victory with the ‘funnies’, specialized and equipped Shermans he developed, at D-Day and beyond.

Churchill will make the same mistake a year later, with the 8th Army at the same place [El Agheila], by stripping it of assets for Singapore.

And my childhood idol, the God of tankers, has finally arrived in Africa!

Thanks for the post!

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The complete extinction of Graziani's army had left the British with a clear passage through the Agheila bottleneck to Tripoli. But just as O'Connor and his troops were hoping to race on there - and throw the enemy out of his last foothold in North Africa - they were finally stopped by order of the British Cabinet.

Liddell Hart clearly believes Churchill screwed the pooch with his shift of focus to the lost cause in Greece. Although, at this point the Germans have yet to move to the Balkans in force. A few other accounts I have read essentially agree that it was a mistake. But just how important of a blunder was it? I see a nice "What if" opportunity here. IF the British had left Greece to her fate and consolidated their gains in Libya how would the course of the war in the ETO have gone differently? Would Rommel have been left without a beachhead to begin preparing for the assault on Tobruk? Would the back and forth desert war not have developed? Would the first American operation have been an invasion in France or Italy instead of North Africa?