The British army moved very quickly. Garibaldi's Italian army had just completed its combat deployment to support the French army, and Wavell's British army had already advanced in front of the French army's defensive positions built around Highlands 3 and 4.
But the Italian army's actions were not too slow.
Individual leading infantry divisions of the Italian Mixed First Army have reached a position less than 10 miles away from the French defense positions on Heights 3 and 4.
The current situation is that the French Colonial 5th Infantry Division was divided and surrounded by the British on several hills on Highlands 3 and 4, but the Italian army attacked the British troops surrounding it from a farther position.
Launch an offensive.
Major General Anthony, who was in charge of commanding the British offensive force, judged through the results of several attacks that among the several points held by the 5th French Colonial Division, the French position on Highland 4 was currently the weakest.
In order to prevent the surrounded French army from successfully breaking through or counterattacking, the British army must first remove the French army's black infantry regiment nailed to Hill 4 and knock out the French army's flanks.
As the commander-in-chief of the French army, in order to keep this nail embedded in the British encirclement, Berante waited for the arrival of the Italian army and even used the few air forces at hand to support the 5th Colonial Infantry Division.
The purpose of the British army is obvious. They want to seize Highlands 3 and 4 at all costs, and then occupy or destroy the vast oil fields behind the highlands.
Although Berante's small French air force, with the cooperation of the African remnants of Garibaldi's Italian air force, jointly gained air supremacy on some battlefields, the British air force aircraft still persisted in fighting French and Italian aircraft.
In order to disturb them, they would not be able to bombard the British troops attacking the highlands with all their strength.
At the same time, the British army also mobilized enough artillery units and used a large number of artillery previously captured from the Italian army to continuously bombard the French positions.
Therefore, the colonial regiment position on Hill 4 of the French Army has been bustling with activity since dawn in the morning.
The British army first used artillery to bombard the two hills where the black French soldiers were holding on for half an hour.
These two small highlands are the supporting points of the black regiment's defense. Once they fall, facing the British army with superior strength and firepower, the French army on Hill 4 will inevitably be defeated and annihilated.
The more important the place, the more powerful the British army's firepower will be.
As a result, the British army's raindrops of heavy artillery shells almost covered the entire defensive position on Highland 4.
Although Highland 4 underwent some emergency reinforcements at the request of Colonel Jefferson, many fortifications were soon collapsed due to the indiscriminate bombardment by the British army, and some temporary shell-proof holes were built.
It was also blown up, and none of the French soldiers inside survived.
What is even more unfortunate is that the command post of the black colonial regiment stationed here was one of the first batch of fortifications to be destroyed.
It's unlucky to say that the concealed part of the regiment's command post was originally built fairly solidly, but there happened to be two howitzer shells fired immediately by the British army, which hit the regiment's command post squarely.
As a result, French Colonel Jefferson, who was directing operations at the regiment headquarters, was blown to pieces on the spot, and the radio set up at the regiment headquarters was also blown up, which disrupted the regiment's contact with the headquarters of the 5th Colonial Infantry Division.
The sub was interrupted.
After the bombing, when the soldiers of the first regiment came out of their anti-gun hiding place, they found that their commander and division staff had been sacrificed, leaving only broken eaves and broken walls and various body parts.
.
Basically all the regimental commanders of the Jefferson Regiment were sacrificed in this bombing. Now they can only be replaced by the white French commander of the first battalion as the acting commander.
In fact, out of the three battalion commanders of this regiment, only the commander of the first battalion is left. If the first battalion commander is killed again, the Jefferson regiment will no longer have a white French commander.
The first battalion commander was also very lucky that he escaped because he did not stay around the regiment headquarters when he was bombed by the British army. And just a few minutes before the headquarters was bombarded, Colonel Jefferson had just informed him that
Go to the regiment command post to discuss combat missions.
Now he could only take over the command immediately and lead a regiment with less than a battalion of troops to continue to hold the position.
Soon, the British army once again launched a fierce attack on Highland No. 4. The British Army, with the cooperation of an armored battalion of the 7th Armored Division, slowly advanced in an orderly and calm manner.
Emergency on Highland 4!
Seeing that there was no hope of defense, the French army on Hill 4 had no choice but to start retreating to Hill 3. A battalion commander chose to take about two remaining companies of black soldiers under his command to withdraw to Hill 3, and jointly with the French army there
Resist the swarming British troops.
However, as expected before the war, after occupying Highland 4, the British army took advantage of the geographical advantage and launched an offensive on the flank of Highland 3. After a while, the French army on Highland 3 suffered nearly 300 casualties.
"Damn it! How long did it take for the Italians to arrive? We are all exhausted, why haven't they come yet?" Seeing that his army suffered such heavy casualties, Major General Stephen of the French Army, who was personally stationed on Hill 3, finally couldn't bear it anymore.
I saw him yelling, "Go! Call Jefferson here. I want to ask him what kind of battle he fought, but he lost No. 4 Heights to me!"
"Division Commander, Colonel Jefferson has died." Stephen's adjutant reminded in a low voice: "Don't think about Hill 4 anymore, just focus on guarding Hill 3 now."
In fact, it was not just Highland 4 that was bombarded by the British army at this moment. Even Highland 3, where the division headquarters was located, was also shelled by the British army for half an hour.
Just because of Major General Stephen's insistence in advance, the fortifications on this highland were stronger than those on Highland 4, so the casualties were smaller.
As a result, the British army also discovered that the effect of their shelling here was obviously not as good as that of the shelling of Highland No. 4. In addition to a small number of black soldiers being injured and some soldiers who were slow in the British shelling being killed, No. 3
The French troops on the highlands did not suffer much losses.
The commanders of the regiments under Stephen's command are basically fine, the command system is still relatively complete, and they can still get in touch with the division headquarters.
On the other side, after a new round of shelling by the British army, ground troops also began an offensive on Highland 3.
Their tactics are still the same, with tanks and armored vehicles charging at the front, and infantry attacking behind the tanks and armored vehicles like black ants.
Because the 5th Colonial Division was a black unit, its equipment was not good. It was equipped with a total of 18 anti-tank guns, 6 of 47 mm caliber and 12 of 25 mm caliber.
Major General Stephen attached great importance to the few anti-tank guns he had and built semi-underground fortifications specifically for these anti-tank guns.
However, in the British artillery attack just now, two 25mm anti-tank guns were still destroyed, and there was also a 47mm anti-tank gun. Because the sighting device on the gun was damaged, the artillery visual method could only be used.
Shooting, of course, the shooting accuracy will not be so accurate.
"The Italians haven't arrived yet!" Stephen roared after repelling yet another British attack.
"Division Commander, we have received news from the Italian army!" A staff officer suddenly reported to Stephen, his voice was crying: "The Italian frontline commander said that they ran out of ammunition in the previous round of attack.
It is temporarily unable to launch a new offensive."
"They asked us to find a way to hold on for a while longer, because replenishing ammunition may take a long time." The staff officer finished the last sentence in the telegram sent by the Italian commander with some exhaustion.
With a thud, Major General Stephen fell to the ground in anger at the words sent by the Italian reinforcements.