Causes Of Operation Supercharge

The shift of German tanks led straight into Operation Supercharge. This phase of the battle began on November 2, flanking the Axis forces with the southern units with the objective of destroying enemy armor, forcing the enemy to fight the Australian infantry from the north and the British/American tanks from the south. Operation Supercharge was later seen as the decisive point that defeated the lauded General Rommel. Montgomery also received intelligence regarding the vulnerability of the German southern line. This two-sided attack depleted the German panzers by approximately 90 percent. The Afrika Korps was fighting with only 50 tanks left on the battlefield which would eventually be destroyed upon their retreat.
The Retreat of Rommel. On
General Montgomery led his Allied forces in extensive training and preparation to execute the first phase of the battle. His five-hour diversion bombardment of the Axis heavy armor allowed the infantry and engineers to move through the minefield against a confused Axis component. However, Montgomery did not take into account the slow progress of his engineers and the faulty, untested metal detectors. While the mission was still a success, the death toll of infantrymen and loss of armor surpassed the anticipated amount the Montgomery would gauge. The loss of Rommel’s “good source” halted his best intelligence. Rommel did not believe that the Allied forces could mount an attack worth countering until at least December. This led Rommel to recover from his illness in Austria, leaving the battlefield. The absence of Rommel and the loss of General Stumme on the night of the bombardment, left the German armies in disarray and took them longer to counter the progress of the northern Allied front line. The faulty equipment on the Allied side allowed the Axis forces to recompose and gave General Ritter von Thoma time to assume proper command and launch a counter
Rommel heavily relied on this information which told him the entire disposition and composition of the Allied force in the desert. After the American changed their coded messages, the Germans attempted to crack the code again; however, they did not have adequate time in which to accomplish this task. If the German broadcast never gloated about cracking the American code, General Rommel would have likely initiated the attack against Montgomery rather than playing the defensive side. This could have changed the outcome and forced the Allied units to retreat back to Alexandria or