Why did Germany send Erwin Rommel to Libya in February 1941?

Germany sent Erwin Rommel to Libya in February 1941 to provide critical military assistance to the Italian army, which was on the verge of total defeat in North Africa following a series of successful British offensives.123

After British forces under General Richard Nugent O’Connor decisively defeated Marshal Rodolfo Graziani’s army at the Battle of Beda Fomm in early February 1941, the Italian position in Libya faced collapse. In response, Adolf Hitler appointed Rommel to command a small German mechanized force—initially consisting of the 5th Light and 15th Panzer divisions—to stabilize the front and rescue the Italian forces. Rommel arrived in Tripolitania and, despite having only a portion of his assigned troops, launched an aggressive campaign that quickly reversed the British gains and pushed them back toward the Egyptian frontier.23