One of the most notable ironies of warfare during WWII must surely have been the sound thrashing Rommel’s crack Afrika Korps received on the endless sand dunes of Cyrenaica.

Rommel’s defeat was due to the lack of oil supplies – critical for his tank and motorized units – and being virtually cut off by determined and deadly (mainly) British air and sea attacks from forces stationed in Malta!

This was happening at a time when the Afrika Panzers were rumbling virtually unopposed across vast desert areas literally flooded with underground oil reserves.

Had someone on the Axis side thought of digging a few metres below the desert surface, inexhaustible reserves of oil would have come to light.

The colossal amount would have been sufficient to meet not only the needs of the North African theatre of war, but would also have been a boon, capable of returning previous favours of oil deliveries from Italy, by supplying all the European Axis powers with oil volumes in excess of their war needs.

This at a most critical time when they had to resort to laborious and highly costly process of extracting oil from coal from an ample natural resource, which they fortunately possessed, in order to keep their tanks and vehicles going.

Such indeed happened to be the incredible and funny tricks played by lady luck during a phase of the nation’s history, initially struggling to dominate and subdue others but finally struggling infinitely harder to ensure its own existence and survival!

Edwin Calleja

BALZAN