The newly transferred Italian commander Giovanni Messe asked how many British troops there were in Northeast Africa.
The staff officer reported that there were about 100,000 people in Northeast Africa. 23us.
Fastest update
When Rommel heard the strength of the British army, he was not panicked and said that it was just a mob. Our real enemy was actually the British army in Egypt.
The African contest between Britain and the Axis powers was not limited to Egypt. Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and other places were actually British colonies. Italy was also disgraced by the British-backed guerrillas in Ethiopia and had to retreat in the end, leaving Selassie
Reset, that is to say, the entire northeastern part of Africa is actually controlled by the British army.
But just because the territory is large, it does not mean that it is good. The British army originally lacked troops. At this time, in places such as Sudan and Kenya, they can only rely on local troops. There are more than 100,000 troops in these places, and Egypt is the British
The real focus, most of the U.S. aid coming to Africa is also placed here.
Rommel looked at the map and said: Now in our German-Italian coalition, the German troops have three infantry divisions and two armored divisions in place. The Italian army has also returned to twelve divisions, including two armored divisions. We have a total of seventeen divisions, which is enough.
To deal with the British army on the opposite side, the head of our country and the leader of your country jointly sent me a message asking me to solve the Egyptian problem in the first half of the year. I have already agreed. Everyone must be mentally prepared. Next, we will face a war.
There was a big war
At this time, Rommel's conditions were much better than in history. In history, when the Soviet-German war began, the German army only had 2 armored divisions and 1 infantry division in place, and the Italian army suffered heavy losses in the early stage.
As a result, morale has never been restored and he can only provide support. When Rommel gained the advantage, because the main force of the German army was on the Soviet-German battlefield, he was unable to provide effective support, so the advantage was gradually lost, and was eventually defeated by twice the army's three times the air force.
Montgomery died alive in Africa. But now, because Rommel is backed by large oil fields, there is so much oil that it can be spilled everywhere. Hitler is even more interested in the oil fields in Libya and has increased investment in North Africa, leaving the German troops in his hands
The number of troops was almost double that in history, and because of his rescue, the Italian army did not suffer a devastating blow, and its morale and strength were much better.
Rommel pointed to a bunch of photos of British generals on the wall and said that our opponent is the Eighth Army, Commander Rich. This is good news for us. The original Eighth Army commander Alan Cunningham was killed in the last battle.
Error had disagreements with Claude Auchinleck, the British commander-in-chief in the Middle East, and had been transferred away. And Ritchie, we have already learned about his history. He had little experience in leading troops alone and had always been in the capacity of a staff officer.
He is in the army, so we can make good use of his lack of experience in grasping the situation and give him a fatal blow.
Messer asked so what should we do?
Rommel walked to the map and said that the British were still holding on in the British Isles. Although they used sneak attacks to win a naval battle, they did not have any major victory on land, especially against the enemy.
Our German army is even more like this. They must desperately want a victory. In this case, we will give them victory.
Everyone was stunned when they heard this, but Mesai started to think thoughtfully.
Rommel went on to say that Ritchie was a new officer when he took office. Before that, he was just a major general. He must also hope to get a victory to prove himself. Therefore, as long as he is given a hope of victory, even if there is intelligence telling him that there is a problem, he will
Having trouble controlling myself, I ordered General Messe
Mesai stood up and said.
You lead three Italian infantry divisions, one Italian armored division, and one German infantry division to attack the British army. You must fight hard, bravely, and with great momentum. I will send planes to provide support to you. You must keep fighting.
Do you have the confidence to stop at Matruh Port? Rommel asked sharply.
Your Excellency, Commander, Matruh Port has a sound defense fortification by the British army. Please give me two more armored divisions. I can find a way to capture Matruh Port. Messe said, Messe is one of the few in the Italian army who is good at taking advantage of opportunities.
A member of Unit A, he used motorized units to achieve considerable victories on the Ethiopian battlefield and the Greek Peninsula.
Rommel shook his head and said no, I don’t need your victory, I want your defeat.
Everyone was stunned for a moment, and Rommel continued: The British army has received support from the United States, its technical equipment has increased a lot, and their navy is even more powerful. From us to Egypt is an endless desert. If we capture each stronghold one by one,
Our losses will be huge. What I need is for the British troops to come out of their turtle shells. When you retreat, use our German troops as the rear troops. In this way, they will definitely come out in order to completely eliminate a German division, and I will
Wait for them in the middle of the road
Messe nodded excitedly, but said worriedly that Egypt belongs to the British, and their air power is also very strong. If we have troops ambushing in the middle, it may be difficult to escape their eyes.
Rommel glanced at Messer appreciatively and said: This is why I haven't launched an attack for so long. The war in the desert is all about logistics, so there are more cars in the logistics. I believe they will not doubt it.
Come and take a look, everyone.
Rommel led everyone outside and saw many tanks and huge trucks. This truck was so big that it was abnormal.
Rommel opened a tank, and everyone laughed. They only saw the door of the tank on the side. It turned out that it was a tank disguised as a truck. Naturally, the truck on the other side was disguised as a truck. Rommel
I pointed to these tanks and trucks and said that my truck fleet will stay well in Libya, waiting for the British to take photos, and my tank fleet will become your logistics force, waiting for the British to come.
On February 10, 1942, the German-Italian forces began the second North African campaign. Italian General Messe led his troops, with the help of the powerful German air force, to raid Saloum, less than a hundred miles away from the border. The British troops guarding here
After three days of fighting, they were forced to retreat. Messer led his troops in hot pursuit and captured four strongholds along the way until they stationed troops in Matruh Port on February 27.
In this month, the British troops in Matruh Port increased to three divisions and two brigades, more than 70,000 people, and the British warships also moved here to provide flanking firepower.
Under the double blow, Mesai began to retreat.
port matruh
Rich looked at the German and Italian troops that disappeared overnight, and said with some disbelief, quickly send a reconnaissance plane to check the situation.
After a while, the reconnaissance plane reported back that the German and Italian troops had retreated more than 20 miles away.
It seems that they fought so fiercely in the middle of the night last night just to hide their eyes from others. Richie smoked his pipe and said happily that this is another victory for Britain in Africa. The next step is to drive them out of Egypt completely.
Got it
General, I think we should be more careful. There are not many German troops among the troops fighting us. Is there any conspiracy here? A staff officer asked worriedly.
Richie smoked his pipe and thought about it. On the one hand, it was a possible conspiracy, and on the other hand, he was leading the Eighth Army to drive the Axis forces out of Egypt. It was really difficult to determine.
Is there any conspiracy in this? Let's just let the reconnaissance plane take a look. This is Egypt. It's all desert and there's no way to hide the troops. Another staff officer came up with an idea.
It makes sense. Rich nodded and said that before sending out reconnaissance planes, they must carefully investigate the situation of the Axis forces along the way.
The British Air Force was indeed working hard. Within half an hour, the news came back and the photos were lost.
The rear troops were flying German flags. We only saw logistics troops along the way, but not tanks or artillery. Well... Richie took another puff on his pipe.
This is a real retreat. Messe is an Italian, and the main force of his army is also Italian. According to our intelligence, Germany and Italy have signed a secret agreement. After Egypt is captured, Egypt's interests will be obtained by Italy, and Germany will
To obtain the interests of Libya, if you think about it from this aspect, then there is a reason for the main German force not to dispatch, and it is understandable that Messer put the German army in the rear and died. Germany and Italy are not as close as we imagined.
Ah Richie seemed to have seen through everything and said to the staff around him.
In fact, Ricci was right. In history, when the Italian army cooperated with the German army, they basically got hard work. There were even many jokes about the Italian army in later generations. If you look at the context, you will find that they are not jokes.
But a tragedy.
Ritchie immediately ordered to mobilize the three divisions and all vehicles at the port to chase the Mesai troops. Ritchie thought that he had the navy as cover and so many army troops that even if he encountered danger, he would not
If something big goes wrong, even if you can't fight, you can still escape.
But he met Rommel.
After Rommel received the news that the fish had been hooked, he immediately sent a message to the Italian Navy. The Italian Navy, which had been prepared for a long time, quickly lifted anchor and rushed to Assanta Port. Naturally, such a big movement could not be hidden from the British intelligence network. In Matruh Port
After receiving the news, the British fleet quickly returned to the port of Ashland to aid. After all, there was an unknown amount of supplies shipped from Asia and the United States stored there. If it was bombarded by Italian naval artillery, Churchill would have to cry in bed for a while.
When Rich realized that he had lost naval support, he had already broken through the three enemy defense lines set up by the Mesai troops. Full of confidence, he continued to advance forward and came to a Gobi sand dune. He learned that there was another German army in front of him.
The defense line was set up, and there were also a lot of logistics troops. He immediately said with great joy, "Children, there should be a lot of pasta and red wine in front of us. We should capture them and have a nice dinner."
After listening to Richie's words, everyone screamed, and on the opposite side, 88-guns were aimed at the British tanks that were charging up.
There were more than 400 tanks in the three divisions led by Ritchie. He sent out half of the tanks in the first batch, preparing to overwhelm the German army on the opposite side in one go. This was not the first time he had done this.
Boom boom boom, the 88 guns half buried in the fortifications roared one after another. The 22-pound armor-piercing projectile could punch a four-inch diameter hole in the frontal armor of the British heavy tank at a distance of nearly 2,000 meters. At this time,
The distance between the German and British tanks was only about 1,000 meters. Whether it was a British-made tank or an American-made tank, it was no different from a toy in front of the 88-gun. In response, a group of Panzer IV tanks rushed out of the German position.
, the British army, who had not yet figured it out, thought it was these tanks that had done something good.
Damn it, send me the tanks. This is their main force. They must have kept all the tanks here. As long as they are defeated, they will be finished. Richie shouted loudly.
Groups of British tanks rushed forward, but the German tanks started to retreat halfway through each time, tempting the British tanks to catch up, and then combined with the British tanks of the 88th Anti-aircraft Artillery Group to strangle. In less than half a day, more than
Two hundred tanks lay in the desert forever, and Richie completely woke up.
Damn, this... this is a trap, Richie waved his hand and retreated, but it was too late.
In the distance, Rommel saw that the British were about to retreat. He smiled slightly and waved his hand. The special truck hiding behind began to take off its camouflage, and he saw only more than 300 tanks and tens of thousands of German soldiers looking like wolves and tigers.
After rushing out, the German counterattack began.
In the sky, hundreds of fighter planes of all kinds also launched attacks on the British army. Richie felt that his head was buzzing and he was about to crash. What he didn't know was that on his way back, there were already
There were several small motorized troops waiting for him.
On March 11, 1942, the German Army Rommel defeated the pursuing British Eighth Army in the Byrani area, and mobilized the three armies, dispatching four German divisions and four Italian divisions, with tank troops as the forerunners, and mixed
Established, pursued for 150 miles in two days, captured the port of Matruh, and then continued eastward without stopping, attacking Claes Hikme on March 13, attacking Fouquet on March 15, and descending on March 16
Pakistan, on March 22, attacked the Alamein defense line, and its troops were directed towards the port of Ashland.
The beaten and dizzy Richie retreated all the way back to Ashandaw Port before taking a breather. He almost fainted when he saw the losses. The Eighth Army had lost half of its troops. He quickly sent a message to Auchinleck to ask for support. After receiving the news,
Claude Auchinleck, the commander-in-chief of the British Army in the Middle East, ordered Rich to be relieved of his duties and let London handle the matter. At the same time, he flew to Egypt to prepare for a king-on-king battle with Rommel.
And Rommel also felt that this was his most critical battle in Africa. While gathering up the troops that were somewhat scattered due to the attack, concentrating his strength, he lined up his troops and prepared to fight all the way to Ashland Port and Cairo. To be finished.