Text Volume 2274 Dawn of Victory The Germans have never stopped researching tanks. In the past ten years, from the initial Panzer 1 tank to the current Panzer 5 tank, the rate of progress has been astonishing.
The development of the Panzer V tank began in 1938. The initial plan was still a 20-ton tank, which did not widen the gap with the Panzer IV tank.
At the beginning of the year, the Russian army began to equip a large number of T34s, which posed an increasing threat to the German armored forces. The Germans had to modify the plan. The tonnage of the No. 5 was increased from 20 tons to 30 tons, and then to a higher tonnage of 40 tons.
Getting heavier and heavier.
The tonnage is getting heavier and heavier, and more and more steel needs to be consumed. Germany's steel production capacity still lags behind that of southern Africa and the United States. Southern Africa and the United States can increase tonnage without restraint to increase defense power, but the Germans cannot.
So, 40 tons is almost the limit.
The final version of the Panzer V tank has similar performance indicators to the "Leopard" tanks in southern Africa, including sloped armor, anti-aircraft machine guns, cast command towers, armored skirts, etc.
It is worth mentioning that although the Panzer V tank uses a 75mm tank gun, it is not weak in power, has good accuracy, and has a higher penetration capability than the 88mm KwK36L56 gun.
Compared with the Germans who were passionate about technology and good at absorbing advanced experience, American tank design lagged far behind. By the standards of 1941, the Sherman was not the best, and Patton definitely didn't like it.
According to Patton's standards, the "Leopard" tank is the best tank in the world.
If Patton was given the choice, he would not even need the "Tiger", and the armored forces would only need to equip the "Leopard".
This is also the idea of building up armored forces in the United States. The "Grant" itself is positioned as a battlefield all-rounder, but in fact it is built in four different ways. It is used for attacking difficulties with insufficient attack power, used for defense with insufficient defensive power, and used for reconnaissance with insufficient speed. Look,
The only way to go is to be more vigilant. After all, the Germans cannot kill the "Grant" silently.
The Germans still have to wait until they can equip a large number of Panzer V tanks. After all, the resources consumed to manufacture a Panzer V tank are more than twice that of a Panzer IV tank. Germany's industrial capacity does not allow the Germans to manufacture a large number of Panzer V tanks.
The number of "Leopard" tanks in southern Africa has reached more than 10,000. Even if the German factories are operating at full capacity, it is impossible to produce enough No. 5 equipment troops.
The production capacity and inventory of tanks are two different things. After all, they are still being consumed on the battlefield.
The consumption of "Leopard" tanks is very low. After all, the armored forces in Southern Africa have not fought many battles. Strictly speaking, the 17th Division is the first overall combat of the Southern African armored forces in the North African battlefield.
Liang Hao was very cautious and conducted a thorough investigation of Esnam before the battle.
The result made Liang Hao very unhappy.
Rommel was more cautious. After severely inflicting heavy losses on the U.S. 2nd Army, the German troops withdrew overnight without giving the Allies a chance to retaliate. This strategy was perfect and achieved the effect of wounding ten of its fingers rather than cutting off one. The Allied forces
To launch an attack on the German-Italian Allied Forces from the Western Front, it would take time to adjust the deployment.
This result made Alexander very happy. The western front temporarily lost its offensive capabilities, and the British army on the eastern front could perform freely. Montgomery couldn't wait.
After two years of fighting, the Eighth Army was now unprecedentedly powerful. Montgomery had 10 divisions and 4 independent brigades, with a total strength of 230,000 troops, 1,440 tanks, 2,311 artillery pieces, and 1,500 aircraft.
Compared with Montgomery, Rommel deployed only 4 German divisions and 8 Italian divisions on the Eastern Front, with a total strength of about 80,000 troops, 540 tanks, 1,219 artillery pieces, and 350 aircraft.
It can be seen from the number of people that the support provided by the German base camp to Rommel has been greatly reduced. Under normal circumstances, the total strength of the 12 divisions is about 180,000, but now there are only 80,000. This means that Rommel has almost no troops in the past six months. Didn't get any refills.
This is normal. Mustache now devotes all his energy to defeating Russia, so the aid to Rommel will naturally decrease.
Germany's strength is not enough to persist in a two-front war.
What's more, it's not two fronts yet. Don't forget that there are still threats from the direction of Greece. Mustache must allocate part of his troops to guard against possible Allied attacks.
Now Mustache is making a desperate move. If the Russians can be defeated, then the main force of the Axis powers can turn around and head south for a decisive battle with the Allies.
If not, then the German army will be forced to shift to strategic defense and lose the initiative on the battlefield.
This also means passively waiting to die.
Referring to the deployment of the German troops on the eastern front, Montgomery decided to launch a major assault from the southwest area of El Alamein in the direction of Sidi Hamid, forcing the German and Italian allied forces on the eastern front to the coastal area, and cooperated with the navy to annihilate them.
This plan was not originally created by Montgomery, but was formulated by former Commander-in-Chief of the Nile Army, Wavell, during his tenure.
When Weiweier formulated this plan, the strength gap between the British Army in North Africa and the German-Italian Allied Forces was too great. Weiweier was unable to formulate the plan but was unable to implement it. As a result, Montgomery took advantage.
Montgomery was also very cautious. He used troop camouflage and false intelligence before the launch of the battle, causing the German army to make wrong judgments about the direction of the British attack and the time when the battle would be launched.
On September 13, a day generally considered unlucky by Westerners, the British army in North Africa launched an attack on the German-Italian coalition.
Although the German intelligence work was not good, Rommel still made the correct arrangement. The German-Italian allied forces adopted a deep echelon configuration, relying on a strong line of defense that combined support point ring defense and large-area minelaying to block and crush the British. Army attack.
This tactic is effective. Although Montgomery sent planes to bomb the German positions for three days before, and conducted an artillery bombardment for half an hour before the battle started, the British army's attack speed slowed down after breaking through the forward positions of the German and Italian coalition forces. It began to slow down and failed to penetrate the German defense line all night long.
Rommel indeed went too far. All the troops arranged on the front line of defense were Italian, and the German troops were deployed in deep positions.
The Italian army had problems with its fighting will and combat effectiveness. In order to enhance the strength of the German army, Rommel centralized all the tanks of the German-Italian coalition and equipped them with the German army. The oil was also concentrated. The military vehicles equipped by the Italian army even lacked oil.
Unable to start.
For Rommel, the only role of the Italians was to serve as a warning to the Germans that they were about to be attacked by the British.
Although Montgomery had more tanks and Rommel had more anti-tank guns, Montgomery also had problems with the use of armored forces and could not bring out the full combat effectiveness of the armored forces, which made it difficult to attack the British army.
Armored units are used in different ways under different circumstances.
In the brutal urban offensive and defensive battles on the Russian battlefield, armored units must cooperate with infantry to ensure that the armored units will not suffer unnecessary losses.
This side of North Africa is the Gobi desert. The tank driver can press the accelerator to the bottom and go as fast as he wants. Accompanying the infantry is meaningless, which seriously slows down the attack speed of the armored troops, which in turn affects the attack effect of the British troops.
If we change to a general who has a deeper understanding of armored forces, give up the coordination of infantry and tanks, and concentrate all the tanks to break through, although there will be a certain loss of time, they will definitely be able to break through the German positions.
The consequences of tactical stubbornness were serious. For four days, the British army failed to break through the German positions and only advanced 7 miles.
Of course, this has a lot to do with the configuration of the Eighth Army.
Although the Eighth Army has a large number of troops, most of its troops are British and Indian troops, which determines that the upper limit of the Eighth Army is not high.
No matter how advanced the weapons and equipment are, it still depends on who is using them.
After the battle was launched, the Australian 9th Division on the right wing of the Eighth Army made smooth progress. After successfully breaking through the forward position, the next step was the minefield laid out by the Germans.
The Indian 4th Division responsible for demining.
As we all know, demining is a hard job. Not to mention the dangers, the merits are not great. Other troops report battle achievements by capturing so many enemies, annihilating them, destroying so many tanks, and seizing so many supplies.
How many mines did the troops responsible for clearing mines clear?
You look like a mine to me.
Compared with the rapidly advancing Australian troops, the demining progress of the Indian 4th Division is like a snail's crawl.
The Germans also went too far, and the depth of the minefield exceeded expectations.
The work of the Fourth Division was not thorough either. In an area declared safe by the Fourth Division, a New Zealand Army vehicle was blown up by a mine, killing all three soldiers on board. This incident even triggered a dispute between the two armies.
War of words.
The New Zealanders blame the Indians for being irresponsible and declaring a safe area before the landmines have been cleared. This is simply murder.
The soldiers of the Fourth Division are Indians, and the officers are all British. The British are also good at passing the buck to the cunning Germans. They also complain that the demining work is too arduous and there are no suitable tools.
Resistance is high and so on.
The troops' attack cannot be stopped.
When the Indian 11th Division on the left attacked the Ruwesat Ridge, it suffered a tenacious sniper attack from the Germans. The troops suffered heavy losses and had to withdraw from the battle when the losses reached 5%.
When the 10th Armored Division took over the attack, it was hit head-on by the German armored forces. All the "Grants" and "Stuarts" equipped by the unit were lost, many of which were voluntarily abandoned by the British army.
There is a huge gap between the "Grant" tank and the Southern African tank. The officers and soldiers of the British armored forces hated the "Grant" so much that when they were attacked by the Germans, they took the initiative to abandon the "Grant" so that the troops could be replaced with Southern African tanks.
Already.
Montgomery was well aware of this situation, but had no good solution.
The British government tries to find a balance, but the soldiers vote with their feet.
Could it be that the Americans were kind-hearted in selling tanks currently in service to the British? When did the Americans become so noble?
Now Montgomery finally understood that to defeat the Germans, he had to rely on the Australian army.
So the Australian 9th Division, which had just withdrawn from the battlefield and rested for less than 24 hours, returned to the front line.
The combat effectiveness of the Australian troops is still good. After all, they are equipped with Southern African tanks.
After the 9th Division returned to the front line, it successfully broke through the German positions, and the Eighth Army finally obtained a breakthrough point.
But then, the 9th Division was attacked by the German 7th Armored Division and the 15th Armored Division, and the battle situation was tense.
The real turning point came on September 21st.
As mentioned before, Rommel's North African Army was seriously short of supplies, especially fuel.
Tank troops relied heavily on fuel for operations. From the battle on the 13th to the 21st, the North African Army was about to run out of fuel. Rommel sent five telegrams a day requesting for more fuel support, but in the end what was waiting was an oil tanker.
News of being sunk.
When the Eighth Army launched its attack, the Mediterranean Fleet also intensified the blockade between the Italian mainland and North Africa. Cruisers and destroyers patrolled 24 hours a day to ensure that no ship reached North Africa.
Mustache knew Rommel's situation and urged the fat bald man to ensure supplies to the North African Army no matter what.
Italy's fuel supply has also dropped below the danger line. The powerful "Vittorio Veneto" class battleships are afraid to leave because of lack of fuel. Even if they have fuel, they have to face the Allies at all times because of the lack of escort force.
Battleship threat.
Even under extremely difficult circumstances, Fat Baldhead still sent oil ships to try to deliver oil to North Africa at night.
The fat bald man is not completely disappointed with the mustache yet. As long as the Russian battlefield does not decide the outcome, the Axis powers will have a chance of victory.
If Rommel failed in North Africa, the Allies could land in Italy at any time.
Compared with the British and Indian troops, the Royal Navy is still reliable. After all, the British Empire started from the pirate ocean.
The tanker was sunk, sounding the death knell for Rommel's North African Army.
Rommel, who was short of fuel, had to reduce the frequency of armored troop dispatches.
This is drinking poison to quench thirst. Rommel is best at mobile warfare. Once he stays in place and defends passively, Rommel will be pushed to death by Montgomery sooner or later.
After the Australian 9th Division, the 30th Army on the 23rd finally broke through the German position from the middle and cut the German defense line from the middle. It was impossible to take care of both the beginning and the end.
On the 25th, the 13th Army also broke through the German positions from the south. The German troops began to retreat, and the battle began to develop as Montgomery originally planned.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Rommel organized the 21st Armored Division and the 90th Light Armored Division to launch a counterattack against the 30th Army.
This counterattack completely failed. The 21st Southern African Division, which arrived from Egypt for support, blocked the gap in time, completely shattering Rommel's hope of counterattack.
By the 27th, Rommel's men had only 200 usable tanks left and had to make a full retreat.
At this time, the Eighth Army still had about 800 tanks that were not in use.
So it wasn't really that Rommel couldn't defeat Montgomery, but it was determined by the strength of both sides. Rommel had too few resources, and the opponent was not Montgomery alone, but the Allied forces as a whole.
During the retreat, various episodes occurred.
In order to preserve as much strength as possible, Rommel concentrated all the remaining fuel to supply the German troops, and the Italians were abandoned again.
At this time, Montgomery went all out and sent out all the planes to bombard the retreating German troops indiscriminately. The German 164th Division, which was fighting the Australian 9th Division, was completely wiped out.
Most of the Italian 10th Army, which was ordered to cut off its rear, was also wiped out.
After two full years, the North African Campaign finally saw the dawn of victory.
