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German Panzer Army Afrika


As the number of German armed forces committed to the North Africa Campaign of World War II grew from the initial commitment of a small corps the Germans developed a more elaborate command structure and placed the enlarged Afrika Korps, with Italian units under this new German command and a succession of commands were created to manage Axis forces in Africa:

When the Afrika Korps was formed on 11 January 1941 it was officially subordinated to the Italian chain of command in Africa. In the middle of 1941 the German Armed Forces High Command (German acronym OKW) created a larger command structure in Africa, forming a new headquarters called Panzer Group Africa (Panzergruppe Afrika, Gruppo Corazzato Africa). On 15 August 1941, Panzer Group Africa was activated with newly promoted General der Panzertruppe Erwin Rommel in command. The Panzer Group controlled the Afrika Korps plus some additional units that were sent to Africa (notably the 90th Light Infantry Division), as well as two Italian corps, X and XX.

Panzer Group Africa was redesignated as Panzer Army Africa (Panzerarmee Afrika, Armata Corazzata Africa) on 30 January 1942.

Panzer Army Africa was redesignated as German-Italian Panzer Army (Deutsch-Italienische Panzerarmee, Armata Corazzata Italo-Tedesca) in October 1942 during the long retreat after the defeat at the Second Battle of El Alamein during the Western Desert Campaign.

In February 1943, the headquarters was upgraded to Army Group Africa (Heeresgruppe Afrika, Gruppo d'Armate Africa) to manage the defense of Tunisia during the final stages of the North African Campaign. Army Group Africa included the German Fifth Panzer Army (5. Panzerarmee) and the Italian 1st Army.


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