In February 1941, the German High Command decided to despatch an extraordinary force to North Africa in support of the Italian forces which were in a difficult situation against the British. This contingent included elements that a few months later were to form the 5th Light Division, and (in 1942) the 21st Panzer Division. As a keystone of the Deutsches Afrika Korps, this armoured division was involved in the hardest battles of that theatre of World war Two, until it was finally driven out of North Africa along with the rest of the Axis forces in May 1943. The 21st then regrouped in France, where it was poorly equipped but showed great initiative in turning salvaged French and German tanks into formidable fighting weapons. On D-Day, 21 Panzer Division was heavily involved in the counter attack against the Allied landings: it held up the British attempt to capture Caen for a whole month. Finally, the 21st was despatched to the eastern front, where it was annihilated in the Halbe pocket shortly before the end of the war.
