According to "Germany and the Second World War" Volume VI even Kesselring was onboard after he took Tobruk and captured a lot of supplies and equipment. It was decided that rather than wait for 6 weeks and refit and allow the British to recover from losing over 50k men and heaps of supplies and equipment that it was better to move quickly despite the risks. Everyone was on board.MarkF617 wrote:Hitler and mussolini only got enthusiastic when he looked like winning. Kesselring, Rommel's boss, ordered him to stop at the Egyptian fronter mainly because he couldn't provide adequate supply and Luftwaffe support. When he was beaten he retreated with every vehicle he had left even going as far as commandeering Italian lorries and making the Italians walk. He never abandoned any vehicles due to lack of fuel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_a ... _World_War
When he was beaten he left a bunch of stuff behind due to fuel losses. Every book on the subject I've read mentions that, including "Brute Force", the above cited book, the Osprey campaign series on the El Alamein battles, and the New Zealand official history of the El Alamein battle. Even the Ramcke Brigade got left behind and were written off, but they got lucky and ambushed a British supply column and took those trucks and supplies to retreat back into Libya. By the time Rommel got back to Libya he only had a few dozen tanks left to his name.