On the other hand, General Auster, the Italian commander in East Africa, was very confused when he saw that his troops would pay a heavy price for every step forward in British Somalia.
He secretly thought: "What happened to these British people? They used less than one-fifth of our troops to resist our attack. This is simply unimaginable! It's this group of British people.
Are they crazy, or do they have some back-up they can rely on?"
After three full days of advancement, the Italian army had only advanced 30 miles on the Somali battlefield, and was still 50 miles away from Beledweyne, the first key city on the Somali battlefield.
The situation on the battlefield in Sudan in the north is similar. The Italian army there has just occupied Kassala.
Fortunately, after General Garibaldi learned about the situation on the East African battlefield, he immediately had a phone call with General Auster.
He analyzed on the phone: "General Oster, I suggest that your troops march straight in, attack only the big cities occupied by the British, and ignore the attacks of the small British troops, so that your troops can carry out strategic advancement as soon as possible.
It achieves the two major strategic effects of conquering East Africa and supporting North Africa."
After hearing what Garibaldi said, Auster suddenly felt enlightened.
It turns out that not every place, large or small, has to be captured. In this barren land of East Africa, only important large cities need to be captured to achieve the goal of occupying the surrounding areas based on this city.
Therefore, Oster, who found the trick, successively captured Beledweyne and Blobuldi, two large cities in central Somalia, on the battlefield in Somalia.
Soon, the Italian army on the battlefield in Sudan also made effective progress, captured Kassala and Haiya, and approached Port Sudan.
However, because the equipment level of the Italian army was far inferior to that of the British army, even with its advantage in numbers and firepower, it still suffered heavy losses, always maintaining a battle loss ratio of 1:2 with the British army.
Even so, for the Italian troops whose strength was five times that of the British army, this was already a proud victory that made them happy.
........
News of the Italian Army's staged victory in Africa soon reached Mussolini's ears.
Mussolini, who was sitting on the hospital bed, jumped off the hospital bed happily after hearing the news of the victory, and said excitedly to his secretary: "I knew I had chosen the right person. Look, this General Garibaldi
Not long after I took office, such great news came. I think in a few days, the British will have to get out of Africa. By then, the Mediterranean Sea will be the inner lake of my new Roman Empire!"
After that, Mussolini happily hummed a ditty again.
Unexpectedly, Mussolini’s confidential secretary, who had been silent just now, suddenly felt a violent heart palpitation!
It’s over, why is the leader humming a ditty again?!
.........
North Africa, Libya battlefield.
Unlike the great victory of the Italian army in East Africa, the Italian army in North Africa suffered much worse.
Although the morale of the Italian officers and soldiers in North Africa recovered a little after General Garibaldi took office, there was nothing the Italian army in North Africa could do in the face of the British army's advance.
Just a few days ago, the northern Libyan towns of Badia and Tobruk were captured, and the fleeing Italian troops were intercepted by the British 7th Armored Division at the Bidav Gate.
You must know that Tobruk is the only available deep-water port from Benghazi to the east. The Italian army has been operating here for many years, repeatedly strengthening the defenses in this area and building firepower points.
The Tobruk Defense Circle includes the 32-mile-long Balbia Avenue. The Italian army has built a large number of permanent fortifications in this area, and has large-caliber fortress artillery as long-range fire support.
However, Garibaldi heard a report from the commander of the defeated troops that when the British troops passed through Balbia Road, they were not violently blocked at all, and basically reached Tobruk Fortress easily.
"Bang!" Garibaldi, who always prided himself on being good-tempered, finally couldn't help but get angry.
He slammed the battle report he received onto the ground, gritted his teeth and stepped on it with his boots, rubbing it back and forth.
Although Garibaldi did not speak, the staff officers around him felt the anger of the new commander.
A staff officer who had followed the two marshals Balbo and Graziani stepped forward and comforted Garibaldi, who had just arrived: "Commander, your ability is obvious to all. The defeat on the front line is...
It has nothing to do with you. I believe the leader will also understand your difficulties and will not blame our headquarters for this failure."
"The reason I'm angry is not because I'm afraid that the leader will blame me for my failure." Shaking his head, Garibaldi said with a wry smile: "Tobruk Fortress is a strategic city that we operate all year round. It was even more so when Marshal Balbo was serving as the governor of Libya.
It took a lot of effort and a lot of financial, material, and manpower to build a super strategic point. Countless supplies, arms, oil, and equipment, along with Tobruk Fortress, became the spoils of war for the British army overnight!"
As early as Roman times, Tobruk was a fortress guarding Cyrenaica. Today, the largest airport in eastern Libya is only 15 miles away from the port of Tobruk, making it a strategic point.
It can be said that whichever side, the British army or the Italian army, occupies Tobruk, will have the absolute advantage of using Tobruk as the axis and threatening a radius of dozens of miles.
Originally, if the Italian army in North Africa wanted to invade Egypt, they only needed to use Tobruk as a logistics base, make good use of this transit station, and continuously invest troops to suppress the British army in Egypt.
But now, Tobruk Fortress has been captured by the British army. What makes Garibaldi heartbroken is not only the large amount of supplies seized by the British, but also the "wedge" that restricts the logistics lines of both sides along the Mediterranean coast.
The British obtained this fortress, and it would be very difficult for Garibaldi to resume his offensive against Egypt in the future.
"Without the fortress of Tobruk, our entire North African Army will be stuck around Benghazi by the British. Once we leave Benghazi too far, our logistics will not be able to keep up, and we will have to retreat to Benghazi."
Garibaldi gave instructions to his subordinates in the headquarters: "But with Tobruk, the British can concentrate their forces to garrison in North Africa. As long as they hold on to this unavoidable fortress, our army's logistics cannot be guaranteed.
Let’s fight to Egypt.”
After Garibaldi said this, everyone discovered the mystery.
Only then did they understand why Marshal Balbo had spent year after year reinforcing Tobruk Fortress.
But despite the regret, everyone seemed to feel a little more at ease.
Since Garibaldi can accurately understand Marshal Balbo's intentions and strategies, does this mean that his military talent is no worse than Balbo, Italy's number one general?!