Defeat of Erwin Rommel

The defeat of Erwin Rommel was mostly during the Second Battle of El Alamein. It mostly had to do with the fact that British raiding parties attacked harbors and supply points in September of 1942 that were vital for the survival of Rommel's army. Because of the shortages of supplies and motorized units, his plan for the Second Battle of El Alamein was more static (in other words mostly foot infantry, making his army kind of weak) then he would have liked.

The battle started on October 23, 1942 while Rommel was away in Italy and Germany because his health was failing. However, he returned two days later (vital days) to fight in the battle. General Georg Stumme commanded Rommel's army while he was away. He (Georg Stumme) later died of a heart attack during the battle, paralizing the German HQ until General Ritter von Thoma took over.

Bernard Montgomery, the British commander stopped major attacks against the Germans when he noticed that his armored brigades were losing tanks at an alarming rate. However, he started again on November 2nd when he launched Operation Supercharge which was able to achieve a 4 kilometer penetration of the line.
On November 3rd, Montgomery found it impossible to continue his attack until reinforcements arrived. This gave Rommel an opportunity to retreat. However, he got the order to stay from Hitler ("Victory or Death").

On November 4th Montgomery recovered his attack with 500 tanks against the 20 tanks that Rommel had remaining. By this time, Rommel decided to retreat. Later, (12 hours after his decision) he got the order from Hitler to retreat but it was already too late because most of the unmotorized part of his army was already caught.

The last offensive by Rommel was on March 6, 1943 at the Battle of Medenine, where he lost 52 tanks which forced him to call of the attack. He later (March 9th) handed over command of Armeegrouppe Afrika to General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim and left Africa, because of his health failing, never to return.

On May 13, 1943, General Messe surrendered what was left of the Armeegruppe Afrika to the Allies.