After Graziani took over the post of Marshal Balbo as Governor of Africa, he flew to Tripoli the next day, and then went to Tobruk Fortress in Libya, North Africa, to plan the Italian Army's attack on the British Army in North Africa.
Although Graziani has 230,000 troops in North Africa, the British army according to intelligence is only about 30,000.
However, even with this advantage, Graziani still did not dare to attack the British army rashly.
The reason is simple, because he has always had a fear of the British army, and this "British fear" also made him very cautious when making every decision to attack the British army.
In fact, this was the reason why Mussolini initially handed over the war in North Africa to Balbo instead of Graziani.
But now, Balbo's plane was shot down by his own people. For a while, they could only let Graziani, a general who feared the British army, take the lead.
"Come here, bring me a topographic map." In the war room, Graziani lit a cigarette and lectured to his subordinates.
"Yes, General." The staff officer took out a map of North Africa that had been in use since two years ago from a pile of thick documents and handed it to Graziani.
"Where is the main force of the British army currently?" Graziani took a puff of cigarette and looked at the map calmly and asked.
"Report to the general, according to our previous intelligence, the British army is currently entrenched in a small Egyptian city called Salum at the junction of Libya and Egypt," the staff officer said.
"The main force of the British army is more than 20,000 people here, and most of them are light infantry. There are only more than 200 tanks, more than 100 artillery pieces, and less than 200 aircraft." the staff continued.
But Graziani, the new marshal, still did not dare to "underestimate the enemy".
Although he and Balbo were both marshals in the Italian army, Graziani's character... at best, was much more cautious than Balbo. At worst, he was as timid as a mouse.
He asked cautiously: "Are you sure the British army only has this many troops?"
"That's right, Marshal, there are only so many. If our army attacks on all fronts, with our strength advantage, we will definitely win a complete victory!" This staff officer who had been following Balbo before was obviously very confident. He asked Grazi
Marshal Yani described the strategic concept that Balbo had previously set, hoping that Marshal Graziani, who took over, would make up his mind, resolutely implement Balbo's tactics, and attack with all his strength.
However, Graziani was getting more and more worried and said: "We cannot underestimate the enemy. The British have a lot of clever ideas. If we are not careful, we may have to suffer their losses."
In the end, Graziani, who had an army of 234,000, for the sake of caution, took a full 230,000 Italian troops before he dared to attack the Egyptian border, leaving only 4,000 soldiers to maintain order in the rear.
Because he was overly worried about the British army, he also sent 50,000 Italian troops as the vanguard to investigate the strength of the British army in the Salum area. However, the 180,000 troops he led could only advance slowly.
But who would have expected that before the Italian vanguard arrived at Salum, the British troops had already abandoned the city and fled, leaving only the officers and soldiers of the Italian vanguard who arrived at Salum, staring with big eyes.
"The British army is nothing more than this!" Marshal Graziani in the rear suddenly gained confidence when he heard the news that the British army had fled.
The general, who was usually frightened out of his mind by the British army, was very happy, thinking that now he finally had the opportunity to show off his skills in front of Prime Minister Mussolini.
In his eyes, the scene of the leader praising himself at the tri-service war meeting even appeared.
"Order all the troops to move forward quickly, chase the British and show off our momentum!" Graziani, who was full of self-confidence, was uncharacteristically ambitious and wanted to wipe out all the British troops in North Africa in one fell swoop.
Maybe it's because he stayed with Mussolini for a long time. It has to be said that Graziani learned all over Mussolini's shortcomings of "giving a little sunshine and everything will shine".
"But, if we advance rashly like this, what if there is an ambush by the British army?" A staff officer who was also left behind by Balbo's command stood up and said worriedly.
"What? Ambush? What a joke. The British army has been defeated and fled. Where did the ambush come from? What we should do now is to pursue the victory and completely eliminate them. Do you understand?"
Graziani had obviously completely forgotten his previous fear of the British army, and now all he could think about was achieving great achievements.
"Our military strength is several times that of the British army, and our tanks, aircraft, and armored vehicles are more than twice as many as theirs. So what if they have an ambush? Can they still defeat us with their small number of troops?"
Because the British retreated without a fight, Graziani could be said to be very impressive, and at the same time he regained his long-lost self-confidence.
He continued: "Don't think so much, just follow my orders. Also, send a message to the leader and tell Rome that our army has captured Salum and is now advancing steadily into Egypt."
"Understood, Marshal, I'm going to give the battle order right now." After hearing this, the staff officer nodded in understanding, and then went to the telegraph room to draft the message.
Therefore, after receiving Graziani's order, the frontline troops bypassed Saloum without any scruples and advanced directly to Matruh, an important town in northwest Egypt, with their swords aimed at Alexandria and Cairo.
On the way to Matruh, the Italian army happened to pass through a small town called Sidi Barrani.
This town is located in the middle of Salum and Matruh. Although the terrain is open, the inside of the town is more complicated, making it a good place to ambush infantry.
Graziani's vanguard did their duty fairly and quickly reported the situation to him.
And Graziani is not a fool if he can achieve the position of marshal.
Along the way, he felt more and more that something was strange.
The British army retreated nearly 30 miles to the east without firing a shot. This is not consistent with common sense. Unless their commander is a man who is less courageous than himself... No, it should be unless their commander
The commander is a more cautious person than himself.
However, is this too cautious?
The 30-mile strategic buffer zone can be lost at any time!
Immediately, Graziani ordered 50,000 frontline troops to prepare for battle, and 180,000 follow-up troops were divided into three routes: east, west, and south to surround the strategic location of Sidi Burani.
At the same time, Graziani also sent 3 battalions of Italian armored troops to cover the light infantry in the lead, and the artillery unit and air force provided fire support as they slowly advanced towards Sidi Burani.
Soon, when their forward troops were about 500 meters away from the town, they were suddenly attacked by unknown firepower from the town.
Immediately, Graziani, who was well prepared, immediately ordered the Italian army to quickly respond with firepower.
At the same time, the air support and ground artillery support called by Graziani also went into battle.
Sidi Burani instantly turned into a sea of flames, and the British troops ambushing in the town instantly lost their temper and became silent.
"Hahahaha, Chief of Staff, did you see that sea of fire? This is the feast I prepared for the British army. What do you think?" Graziani took a high-power telescope and saw Sidi Burani from a distance.
He happily boasted to the Chief of Staff about the sea of fire.
"Commander, I think that artillery fire is enough to kill the British army twice." The chief of staff also replied with excitement.
However, except for the chief of staff brought by Graziani and the two other staff officers of the author, the other staff officers left by Marshal Balbo looked at the smiling faces of Graziani and his party, and felt something unknown in their hearts.
Why worry.
After several rounds of artillery bombardment, Graziani quickly ordered an all-out attack in an attempt to wipe out all the British troops in the city of Sidi Burani.
After giving the order, Graziani returned to his combat headquarters with peace of mind, happily lay down on his recliner, closed his eyes and began to look forward to his future.
"How will the leader reward me then? Will he continue to promote me or reward me with endless glory and wealth? Or award me some medals and gold?" Graziani thought about it and fell asleep with a sweet smile.
It’s on.
When he woke up, the Battle of Sidi Burani was basically over.
At this time, his chief of staff had a complicated expression on his face and was standing in front of him with a battle report.
"What are the gains of our army?" Graziani asked the chief of staff as soon as he woke up.
"Report to the general, our army has completely wiped out the garrison of Sidi Burani. But..." the staff officer replied timidly, his voice was very low, as if he had made some mistake. Especially "But..."
"" Two words, if the battle had not been basically over and there was no interference from the sound of gunfire, these two words might not even be heard.
