The Finest Half Hour: The Desert Fox

Commanders!

The tenth episode of our World War II podcast series, "The Finest Half Hour," is here!

The Desert Fox comes to North Africa! One of the most cunning and able tacticians of the Wehrmacht, Erwin Rommel takes over where the Italians have failed. He has new tactics and a core cadre of German troops, but he's continuously short on supplies. Will he have enough to make a run on Cairo? The whole world waits with bated breath to see.

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To help tell the story, we’ve partnered up with The Tank Museum, Bovington to showcase the Crusader Tank, which helped the British turn the tide against Rommel in North Africa. The Crusader I first saw service in North Africa in 1941. The Crusader II increased armor thickness to 49 mm and the Crusader III improved the main armament of the I and IIs from a 40 to 57 mm gun, which helped make it more of a match for Rommel’s Panzer IIIs and IVs. By late 1942, however, the British army replaced the Crusader with M3 Grant and Sherman tanks.

The Tank Museum’s Crusader III at Tankfest in 2006. (Photo: The Tank Museum, Bovington)

General Montgomery at Alam el Halfa, standing on a Crusader tank. (Photo: The Tank Museum, Bovington)