Just as Reinhard was letting go and preparing for a big fight in the English Channel, Rommel, far away in Africa, was also preparing to launch a new round of large-scale offensive.
The two German divisions under his command have been completely assembled in Algeria. Previously, they also successfully defeated the British Commonwealth army's offensive in Algeria and consolidated the defense line.
Now, the Governor of Algeria, Berante, who always wanted revenge, made up his mind and agreed to personally lead two French divisions and three colonial divisions to participate in the next military operation of Rommel's Africa Army.
Before Mussolini fell ill and was hospitalized, the three divisions of Italian troops that he promised to put into the German-Italian Africa Army have also been assembled on the eastern border of Algeria.
In addition, there was an Italian infantry division sent by Garibaldi to support the highland operations, and more than 2,000 Italian prisoners of war were rescued after the battle for the highlands.
For more important divisions, under the auspices of Italian Deputy Prime Minister Rossi, the tank equipment of the Italian Armored Division in the German-Italian Africa Army was also routinely transported to Africa and received by the troops.
In other words, at this time Rommel and his coalition forces had gathered the total strength to attack 2 armored divisions and 9 infantry divisions. Although this army was jointly assembled by three countries, its combat effectiveness was also uneven.
, this is enough!
After all, Garibaldi's more than 100,000 Italian troops have already invaded Libya. Now, all that is needed is for Rommel and Berante to march eastward and Garibaldi to fight against Libya. Then, the recovery of Libya will be a matter of course.
It worked.
But just when Rommel was complacent, a telegram personally sent by Reinhardt was delivered to his headquarters.
"General Rommel, the Supreme Command called us and asked us to stop all large-scale military operations. Chief of General Staff General Paulus reminded us that we must maintain the status quo as much as possible. Ensure our defensive advantages and wait for Vichy France to continue to send newly expanded 7
After forming a French division, they joined forces with the strengthened French army to launch large-scale operations in Africa."
After reporting the telegram from the High Command, Rommel's chief of staff felt sorry for the commander.
The Chief of Staff knew how much preparation Rommel had made for his subsequent African conquest plan. In Rommel's plan, his stop line in Africa should not be the central part of Libya planned by Berlin, but should include the entire Libya, including
Egypt, to the glorious end of the Suez Canal.
Of course, the reason why Berlin set the stop line in central Libya was actually because the territory Reinhard demanded from Mussolini in Libya was concentrated in the west where it is connected to Algeria, that is to say, in the east
In those areas, taking them back will only help Italy, which is of little significance.
However, as a pure soldier, Rommel did not value political calculations of interests.
Frowning, Rommel gritted his teeth and muttered to himself: "With the just-concluded victory, the situation in Africa has now completely tilted towards our Allied forces. If we do not seize the opportunity, we will pursue the British Commonwealth forces
If you fight hard, the opponent can have a chance to breathe and then re-establish a new line of defense..."
After hearing this, before the chief of staff of the African Army could speak, the commander of the Second Infantry Corps of the African Army, Lieutenant General Hans, saw the clues and asked first: "Wait a minute, you don't want to disobey the commander-in-chief."
According to the order of the Ministry, we should launch a war according to our original plan?"
"Why not!" Rommel did not evade, but asked Hans: "Garibaldi has led more than 100,000 Italian troops deep into Libya. Now we are rushing into Libya with the second batch of troops.
, it’s basically a sure-win situation!”
"This is just a tactical method. In terms of the overall strategic policy, it would be more prudent for us to wait until France sends more reinforcements before launching an attack." Hans obviously differed from Rommel's idea and retorted, shaking his head.
It’s no wonder that although Rommel’s previous independent command of the Spanish campaign and Hans’ previous independent command of the Norwegian campaign were both classic annihilation battles with a small number of German troops as the core force, using less to defeat more.
However, the two men were completely different in their command styles. To put it simply, Rommel was good at taking the initiative to attack, while Hans was more inclined to defend and counterattack.
When two people like this get together, there will inevitably be a collision of ideas.
However, Rommel did not agree with Hans's judgment on tactics and strategy.
Rommel, a famous tactician in history, immediately pointed out Hans's point of view: "War is war, and the outcome of war has nothing to do with the level of strategy and tactics. Strategy is the overall situation, and tactics and battles are local. Although on the surface
It seems that strategy can determine the direction of war and the allocation of resources, while tactics appear to be thinking and serving strategic goals."
"But in fact, in war, strategies often change because of a battle!"
Rommel changed his subject and said quite arrogantly: "There is always only one goal in war. That is to win with violence. Therefore, when we find that a local battle is enough to improve the current strategic advantage, what we should do
, instead of limiting yourself with a rigid strategic direction, you should try your best to defeat your opponent at the tactical level and achieve a brilliant victory!"
This was the first time Hans heard such remarks.
Before that, he had always believed that the master-slave relationship between strategy and tactics was fixed, just as he did in the Polish campaign when he led the 30th Infantry Division to resist to the death and serve Manstein's encirclement and annihilation strategy.
But now, his new superior showed in front of him a concept of war that was completely opposite to Manstein's.
Moreover, as a German commander who had independently commanded the Polish campaign, Hans actually felt that what Rommel just said was not wrong.
"This is my way of fighting, and it may indeed be different from others." Rommel smiled and explained to his colleague.
Hans nodded but did not speak. It could be seen that he was still struggling with Rommel's arguments about strategy and tactics.
Seeing that the other party was silent, Rommel said to Hans humorously: "Do you know who your words reminded me of just now?"
"Who?" Hans, whose curiosity was aroused, couldn't help but asked subconsciously.
"The SS general who led the 250,000 SS troops in the southern province, Model!" Without giving away the secret, Rommel directly revealed the answer: "Many years ago, when Hitler's rebels were suppressed, he was still an SS colonel.
Model already has an absolute advantage in terms of strength and equipment, but they are unwilling to attack together until the National Defense Forces led by me arrive."
"Although we won in the end, this victory was half a day late."
Smiling slightly, Rommel looked firmly into Hans's eyes: "But this time, I will not let the empire and our victory be delayed for half a year just to wait for the slow French reinforcements!"
