PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ABWEHR (the German Secret Service) during World War II and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people. He gives this secret information exclusively to SHARKHUNTERS. Here he tells us:

There were still fewer U-Boats available in the Fall of 1940 than had been the case at the start of the war in 1939! Even new construction plans were way behind schedule and rarely were there more than half a dozen submarines available and able to operate in the Atlantic around England, attempting to sink merchant ships bringing those indispensable supplies to that island! But because the British held back their fleet type destroyers for the possibility to need the Royal Navy ships to protect England against such a possible landing, convoys were only escorted very lightly, usually by two or three corvettes and one or two old and obsolete destroyers of shorter range, these handful of U-Boats were very successful despite their small actual numbers and achieved substantial results.

Mussolini’s military dreams resulted in military disasters in both Africa and Albania. Wishful thinking rarely wins battles and achieves results! So Erwin Rommel’s ‘AFRIKA KORPS’ was shipped to Tunisia and Libya to stiffen the folding Italian fronts in North Africa. It was initially a largely political shut up gesture. Rommel’s few troops were lightly equipped and untrained for desert warfare, but Rommel disregarded the orders and instructions from Hitler’s High Command & their appreciation that Rommel’s supply and lack of heavy weapons and equipment would preclude anything but a largely symbolic stiffening of the Italian Frontlines, mainly for propaganda reasons. But Rommel, acting contrary to his instructions, attacked anyway and the rest is history.

Meanwhile early in 1941 a similar plan to occupy Malta was started up and conceived by Army planners with Luftwaffe support, that also was favored by Erich Raeder and the German Navy High Command (OKM), as they realized that they could not possibly defeat Great Britain with the low numbers of U-Boats available for front operations, thus the indirect approach through the backdoor was again pushed, with the hope to bring in Gibraltar lateron somehow with a parachute and seaside attack too. Army planners insisted on improving this new Malta plan several times, as it was considered too small in scope. Mussolini was giving it verbal support but sabotaging it in any other way, as he wanted the Italians to occupy Malta and not the Germans!! Though he would not accept Luftwaffe support for that. So this plan, despite many improvements, remained an ALMOST only plan that was never actually put into operation. If one looks for reasons not wanting to do something, there are always enough of them to be found, no matter how farfetched or hairbrained.

Mussolini felt at this point, after Rommel reached and occupied Egypt and the Nile Delta, Malta would fall like an overripe fruit into Italian hands anyway, without requiring heavy losses. By then the parachute attack on Crete had succeeded, but just barely, as the British had now broken the German radio codes of both the Luftwaffe and Army and the defenders of Crete had been informed on every detail about the German parachute attack. General Student, the Chief of the German parachute formations, was so shocked about his troop losses on Crete that he now changed his mind about a follow-up attack by parachutists upon Malta, which pretty much doomed that plan also.

Naturally, Rommel also never reached the Suez Canal and with British submarines based in Malta, his supply ships were sunk to such a degree that he could not proceed or even defend himself properly anymore. But the situation and the demands of the Russian campaign now ruled everything and drained everything else of supplies and men. Rommel remained an outpost, not even half-heartedly supported by Army Command, and left to hold the bag also by Göring again, as promises and boasts simply to do fly or move ammunitions and gasoline. But Göring still had Hitler’s ear, in spite of his failures as an old and trusted party member!

Everybody who had access to inside information and up-to-date details and facts, pretty much agreed that the occupation of Malta would have been possible with comparatively small losses and only a few minor operational problems, but Russia by that time sucked in every available soldier and all the equipment that could be found and built. It was the direct thorn in Rommel’s neck and directly responsible for defeating the ‘AFRIKA KORPS’ initially due to lack of supplies and support as well as replacements. No Italian help and participation would have been essential, contrary to any intent to occupy Gibraltar, which was considered almost hopeless without Spanish ground support. However, if Malta had been taken and occupied, the route through the Mediterranean would have been for practical purposes, sealed almost as tightly as if Gibraltar had likewise been conquered. In addition, there is a reasonable conclusion possible, that Gibraltar would have followed the loss of Malta, as it had lost its geographical importance to a considerable degree, once standing largely by itself with only seaside support that could be interfered with heavily, even though Germany did not rule the seas around the area, for lack of surface ships, considering that U-Boats were hardly able to give but spotty support to any landing operation, provided they had been available in the required numbers to deliver the required supplied and ground troops.

While many people consider the Stalingrad battles as the turning point of the war, in actuality the turn for the final defeat took place already in the summer of 1942 and the events following the so-called tank battle of Kursk, as at that time Germany was already bleeding to death in people and worked on down to the bottom in supplies and equipment that only allowed improvisations and compromises thereafter.