One day later, General Garibaldi in a submarine finally arrived at the Benghazi front line on the Libyan battlefield in North Africa.
It can be seen that the morale of the Italian army is low at this time. After the defeat of Sidi Barrani just now, this is reasonable.
The first thing a new officer did when he took office was that General Garibaldi first gave a morale-boosting pre-war mobilization and acceptance speech to the Italian officers in North Africa.
It has to be said that the third governor of Libya does look like that, at least his speech will not sound as distorted as Mussolini's.
"The 300,000-strong army in East Africa has already set off from Ethiopia and Eritrea. They will join us in Cairo... We must believe in the decision-making of leader Mussolini and believe in our ability to unify Africa and complete the leadership of
Conception of a New Roman Empire!”
The officers and soldiers present burst into thunderous applause, seeming to be resurrected and full of vitality.
It can be seen that Garibaldi's strategy is correct, and the Italian army seems to be full of vitality again under his guidance.
In addition, Mussolini recently ordered the new tank destroyer to be transferred to Africa, which is the Stalker tank destroyer he imported from Germany at a high price.
At this time, Garibaldi was fully confident that he could resist the British attack in Benghazi until the Italian army in East Africa attacked Somalia and Sudan, thereby easing the pressure on the Italian army in North Africa.
In fact, the big reason why Graziani lost so badly before was because of the bad tanks equipped by the Italian armored forces. These Italian mini tanks, which weighed only a few tons, faced the British army's dozens of tons of heavy main battle tanks.
Not to mention not having any advantage when it comes to tanks, they are still being chased and beaten by the British army.
And Garibaldi now has 50 German-made Stalkers, and his anti-tank capability has immediately increased by several levels.
Not to mention that the Stalker is a weapon that is powerful enough to fight any tank before 1943.
In terms of the characteristics of this tank alone, it is even more suitable for the African battlefield than the Panther tank, which was used as a secret weapon by the German army.
After all, in North Africa, the harsh environment and flying sand are more terrifying than enemy shells.
In the original historical time and space, whether it was the German Panzers 1 to 4 or the British Crusaders and Matilda tanks, the turret and even the internal structure of the vehicle would be severely worn due to the raging wind and sand in North Africa.
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For ordinary tanks in the deserts of North Africa, the worn turret will have great difficulty rotating, so it has to be repaired, repaired, and repaired again.
Open-top weapons such as the British Archer anti-tank will basically suffer huge turret losses.
But the Stalker tank destroyer is like a sealed soap box, and it has no turret at all, so there is no need to worry about wear and tear from wind and sand.
In addition, its front armor can almost ignore most anti-tank weapons, and the machine gun above its head makes it easier for our own soldiers to climb up and control the machine gun to kill enemy troops.
The low body and desert-colored camouflage paint make it difficult to spot them in the desert.
It's just that...these 50 Stalkers have just been delivered to Italy by Germany and are still parked in the country, waiting for shipment. It is estimated that it will take about half a month to deliver them all to North Africa.
Moreover, their drivers are all SS armored personnel donated by Reinhardt.
On the surface, this was because Reinhardt was worried that the Italians were not familiar with its use and would not be able to quickly prepare the sent stalkers into combat effectiveness.
But in fact, Reinhardt sent SS armored personnel to drive the Stalkers entirely out of fear that the Stalkers would be captured by the British.
After all, judging from the combat effectiveness of the Stalker, not to mention the British Matilda and Crusader tanks, even the German Army's own Panther tanks and even the Soviet KV tanks will be threatened.
If the British captured a Stalker that was a replica of the German army, Reinhardt would probably faint from crying in the toilet.
Therefore, the Stalker sent by Reinhardt only allowed the Italians to control the top machine gun, but they were not allowed to act as the driver. Once an accident occurred, those fanatical SS soldiers who drove the Stalker would naturally start from
A cluster grenade was fired internally to destroy the Stalker tank destroyer.
All in all, this stalker anti-tank unit is the trump card in Garibaldi's deck, but it has not been drawn by him yet.
Before drawing this card, he still had to adopt defensive tactics.
At the same time, the Italian East African commander, General Auster, was following Mussolini's personal orders, leading the 300,000 Italian troops in East Africa to launch an offensive according to Garibaldi's plan.
In Eritrea and Ethiopia, 300,000 Italian troops gathered in Tesene and Shirabo respectively, preparing to attack the British troops stationed in Somalia and Sudan respectively.
The Italian troops in Eritrea have successfully attacked Kassala from Tesene to the west, and then controlled the north-south highway passing through Sudan.
His forward troops have now advanced north along the highway, aiming directly at Port Sudan, an important port city for the British army in Africa.
As long as the Italian army controls Port Sudan, it can control the Red Sea and then control the southern gate of the Suez Canal, exposing all British ships passing through the Suez Canal to the artillery fire of the Italian army.
In other words, controlling Port Sudan is like controlling the British army's rear supply line. The Italian army can cut off the British supply in North Africa from the rear at any time and indirectly support the Italian army in the Benghazi area on the North African front.
And even if the British commander Wavell orders the rearrangement of troops, withdraws the offensive troops from the Benghazi front line and returns to defend Port Sudan, the siege of North Africa will still be solved, and the 200,000 North African Italian troops will be able to reorganize their organization and restore their combat effectiveness.
In fact, the Italian army that attacked Port Sudan was only half of the 300,000 Italian troops in East Africa.
The remaining 150,000 Italian troops are heading south via Beledweyne in the south of Shirabo, along the north-south highway in central Somalia, attacking Bulobul Embankment, Jowhar and Bale Ad in order to achieve their goal.
The encirclement of the capital Mogadishu.
If Italy captures Port Sudan and Mogadishu, two strategically important cities, then the British forces in Africa will be in a desperate situation of being encouraged and helpless.
The British commander General Wavell knew very well that if Italy's East African offensive succeeded, even if he captured the entire North Africa, wiped out all 230,000 Italian troops in Libya, and lost the British troops in the rear, it would still be impossible to achieve final victory.
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Fortunately, the 7th Infantry Division and the 9th Infantry Division sent by Australia have landed in the Middle East and can immediately enter the African battlefield. And Wavell did not send the British divisions that were supposed to be replaced by these two Australian divisions back to the mainland.
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Therefore, the troops in Wavell's hands are far from exhausted.
At the same time, with the imminent arrival of reinforcements from two Australian divisions, the fighting will of the British troops on the front line was also greatly encouraged.
