[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

After this, the Africa campaign was pertty much over for the Axis Powers. German forces were locked into a pocket on the coast of northern Tunisia. FM Rommel asked Hitler permission to withdraw his forces from Africa. Hitler refused, much as he did with Paulus at Stalingrad. After supplies and ammo ran out, over 300,000 German troops were taken into captivity-—3X the haul taken at Stalingrad. It amazes me how Hitler threw armies away like that. As Gen. Patton noted, what a waste of fine infantry-—whether that was said just in the movie or not, it is very true.

[colorado tanker]

Throwing away armies like that was sheer idiocy. It was obvious Germany had fewer manpower resources than the Allies and it was only going to get worse as the US mobilized.

At least in Stalingrad the defense served some sort of purpose in buying time for troops to escape the Caucasus. No purpose at all was served by throwing away the North Africa army.