Those German forces in North Africa may not have seemed like a decisive distraction based upon raw numbers but in training and in equipment they were tops. It was a second front and by November of 1942 the Americans had joined the Brits in North Africa. The Germans sure could have used a few of Rommels batallions backing up the flanks of Stalingrad that November.
I know the Americans didn’t want to do it at first, but North Africa turned out to be the perfect operation for us. Almost no one besides very senior officers and NCO’s had seen combat. Clearly the Army was not ready for prime time and needed seasoning before hurtling into France.