AFRIKA KORPS: When the Italian Dictator Mussolini’s forces were chased across the North African desert into Libya by inferior British forces, Hitler decided to halt the route by sending a few “light” divisions into Africa to stem another Italian defeat. “The Afrika Korps,” as this force came to be called, was suppose to halt the British advance and stabilize the front lines for the Italians. But its commander, Field Marshal Irwin Rommel, had much greater things in mind. Carefully marshaling his meager forces and applying a brilliant mix of aggressive tactics his forces drove the British out of Libya, all the way back, deep into Egypt.