File:Colonel-General Erwin Rommel helping to move his Škoda Superb Kfz 21 car, which had gotten stuck in the desert sand, as General Siegfried Westphal looks behind, 1941 (42085424941).jpg

A propaganda picture of a photographer named Valtingojer showing then Colonel-General Erwin Rommel helping to move his Škoda Superb Kfz 21 car, which had gotten stuck in the desert sand, as General Siegfried Westphal looks behind, 1941. This picture was dated as 9 February, impossible since Rommel was in Germany at the time. The date might be 2 September. On 6 February 1941, Rommel had been appointed commander of the Deutsche Afrika Korps and Operation Sonnenblume had been started. The operation consisted on the recapture of Cyrenaica, in Lybia, in order to support Italian forces severely decimated after the prior British operations. Rommel didn’t step in Libya until 12 February, as Italian General Italo Gariboldi -de iure, giving orders to Rommel- replaced Rodolfo Graziani after its failure in affronting Allied forces. The German operation quickly switched from a defensive to an attacking role and eventually saw Cyrenaica falling in Axis hands again.

Original picture: Bundesarchiv / Valtingojer