What was Erwin Rommel's objective in North Africa?

Answer 1

Erwin Rommel Was sent to lighten the stress that the Italian forces were experiencing. Italian units were originally there for various reasons from securing ports to digging up artifacts to prove Italian culture. Hitler sent Rommel to aid the complaining Italian forces, and eventually German teams were digging for Aryan artifacts as well, many of which were staged. But The African locals, fighting forces, militia, ect. were not fully accepting occupation, and often attacked Italian forces quite effectively. Many get confused believing that Rommel had initially crossed to Africa with a large army, but that's not the case. He DID have a force, but consisted mainly of light mechanized units. this is why historical records claim that much of Rommels forces were in fact Italian, due to the joint operation. Also, Hitler didnt want Italian forces to lose air superiority and control of the waters around the North end of Africa. I also believe that the RAF was stationed around Italian operations and had superiority in the air and frequently attacked. But This I'm not entirely sure of. Eventually, Italian forces decided that they should just go ahead and move West, capturing many key cities. This is when agression swelled, and before they knew it, Germany was now in the war for Africa. Though Rommel had little to worry about, often taking entire cities in just hours, or even minutes. He had superior troops and armored forces that blew the tiny staurt tanks away like cardboard cutouts. the Italian forces however couldn't sustain themselves very long, as their troops were never trained or fitted to fight under extreme conditions. they were used to fighting in cooler, mountainous regions, and therefore failed in African combat. Though there are many accounts where they showed impressive courage and effectiveness despite conditions. So in a short while, the problems of dealing with opposition in Africa was dropped in the hands of Erwin Rommel. Hope this helped some.

Answer 2

The Italians began the war in North Africa by attacking British colonies. So a war began between Britain and Italy and then Germany joined later. Therefore, when WW2 began in full, the decision was made to fight the Axis in North Africa.

It was analogous to cutting the tentacles off the octopus that was gripping Europe instead of attacking the head. It also had the result of preventing Germany from concentrating its forces, as Africa was far from the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union.