Rommel sandstorm attack?

[Beppo Schmidt]

In the film "The Desert Rats", Rommel attacks Tobruk under cover of sandstorm, and I have heard this mentioned in other places as well. Could anyone tell me if this was an actual event, and when it happened?

[David W]

Do you mean the failed attempts in 1941, or the succesful one in 1942?

I would need to check the weather reports in the DAK war diaries.

Either way, my guess is that this is fiction. Any attempt to move in a sandstorm, either on foot or in a vehicle would be madness. You would be almost certain to get lost & or bogged down.

[Beppo Schmidt]

Well, it was in The Desert Rats, so if real, it would have been a failed attack in 1941.

It does sound like movie material...but I thought I had heard it mentioned elsewhere, unless it was just one of those things that people saw in a movie and then thought was real, and it ended up becoming part of the "Rommel legend".

[phylo_roadking]

I don't know if you could call it a "sand storm" but Rommel DID order his panzers to churn around a bit and throw up sand just before the 11th April attack, in order to mask how few tanks he had at that point...

[Beppo Schmidt]

Thanks, Phylo.

[Landser]

Shortly after the war I've met Afrikkorps members which were amused over the simple trick Rommel had them use.Besides the few tanks,they used any moving vehicle and dragged anything to stir up the sand and make it look like they came with a overwhelming tank force. Later the Allieds naturally could'n be fooled that easy,but still it got him to El Alemain with his sceleton force.