12 February 1941: Brig. Gen. Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli in command of the Deutsche Afrika Korps. Not unlike Napoleon Boneparte, he highly valued the effectiveness of guns when masterfully positioned, and his most successful Panzerscharfschütze were Luftwaffe units. Trained to shoot down planes, they found tanks much easier to hit.

The composition above was composed with 2 Tamiya kits, their included figures, a bashed Rommel, and a set created in Photoshop. The illustration below was inspired by a figure I'd acquired from AliExpress that was perfect for this scene as one of Rommel's dispatchers taking a smoke break. I call this piece 'Miep Miep'.

9 December 1942: Arrival of the newly formed 5th Panzer Armee in Tunisia has Rommel immediately planning to launch offensives against the encroaching Americans. Below I imagine Generalmajor von Broich of the 10th Panzers discussing the approaching operation with a senior tank commander. Units of the 10th are noted as having captured a U.S. tank battalian completely by surprise, destroying most of their tanks and capturing all of their crews.

April 1941: Rommel is reinforced with the 15th Panzer Division and below I imagine a unit attached to an infantry battalion seeing some action during Rommel's first attempt to seize the vital port of Tobruk. The 3 troops attached to the halftrack are included with Tamiya's Sd.Kfz. 251, and the 2 at right are from Dragon Model's El Alamein series.

February 1941: Among the first of Rommel's forces deployed were units of the 5th Lt. Panzer Division. Primarily tasked with reconnaissance missions, it was comprised primarily of motorcycles, armored cars and light tanks, and was soon rolled into the 21st Panzer's. Below is a composition featuring 2 Tamiya Afrika Korps figures, an Sd.Kfz. 222 Panzerspahwagen by HobbyBoss, a bashed gunner, and a location composed in Photoshop.

My first 135th figures were the MG42 team included with Dragon Models' Afrika Korps El-Alamein set. They were sharp and well defined, but required some knife work and putty sculpting to get their poses precise. The open ammo box was not hollow, as described in the instructions, and the 'belts required careful reshaping to conform to anchored positions. More views of this work are seen under Germany's Order of Battle above.