Chapter Five Hundred and Forty-Three: How Can You Understand It?
When Rommel stepped out of his command car, he almost slammed the car door hard and closed it.
Yes, he made up his mind to disobey orders. This was the first time he disobeyed Reinhard's instructions, in order to demonstrate his military talents to the maximum extent and then obtain the reward called the Marshal's Scepter.
Then, the newly assembled German-Italian Africa Army hardly waited for a moment to break into Libya along with their commander Rommel only on the seventh day after the highland counterattack ended.
What was counterproductive was that before Rommel could start to exert his strength, Garibaldi reported another defeat.
When Sedles was defeated, Garibaldi took advantage of leaving prisoners blocking the road and sacrificing two regiments as prisoners, delaying the British pursuit.
However, when the Kingdom of Italy faced overwhelming ridiculing reports from the international community, Garibaldi was determined to wash away his shame and give it another try. As a result, in this attempt, the last main force of the Italian army suffered miserably.
When Rommel received the news and rushed to Garibaldi's new headquarters, the German general was almost mad at the losses reported by the Italian army.
Rommel regretted a little. After experiencing so much, from the last world war to this one, he still expected the Italians to play a big role in the war?!
Perhaps Germany's choice to draw Italy into the Allied camp has gradually become a mistake by now.
If Italy were a member of Churchill's axis, let Rommel lead troops to attack Italy again just like he did more than 20 years ago. If he annexed this decadent and weak country, he would not have any complaints, let alone any trouble!
"General Rommel, this failure is really unexpected..."
When he heard that Rommel was coming, Garibaldi even left the headquarters room in person to greet him at the gate of the small building that was set up as a frontline headquarters.
While he took the initiative to walk towards Rommel, he extended his right hand early to express friendly welcome: "At that time, I heard the staff report that the British army was urgently mobilizing reinforcements to Highlands 3 and 4 to stop you.
The troops..."
When he walked up to Rommel, Garibaldi's hand was still hanging in the air, but the other party showed no sign of shaking hands with him. He just responded coldly: "What then?"
Rushing to the Garibaldi headquarters with Rommel, the Italian major general, who was leading a division of Italian troops to prepare, stepped forward at the right time with some gloating, and gave Garibaldi a proud first look.
If Garibaldi had listened to his advice before, not to send troops to Libya, and to quickly retreat behind the French, there would not have been today's defeat. Unfortunately, Garibaldi thought he was somewhat capable and wanted to be a hero, which led to the consequences later.
fail.
Garibaldi glared at the major general coldly, watching the major general realize his identity and retreat to the back. Then he felt embarrassed and pretended to lift his hat with his hand, and retracted his outstretched right hand.
.
He continued to explain to Rommel: "At that time, we received news that the British army supporting the highlands was not large, with at most one division and about 10,000 people, but I still had more than 100,000 combat troops left here. I
An army from our headquarters rushed to intercept this British force, but we did not expect that the British army on the side of Sedles would suddenly dispatch at this time and appear behind us."
"Which corps commander gave the order to attack?" When Rommel walked to the door of the temporary command building, he stopped and coldly asked Garibald's first sentence.
"The one who gave the order..." Garibaldi, as the highest commander of the Italian army who personally issued the order, once again felt extremely embarrassed.
Originally, after failing once in Sedles, he was prepared to wait and see what would happen, waiting for the final battle report from the German and French forces. However, when he learned that the German and French forces had won a complete victory, at the same time, the Italian Army
His reputation was in disrepute internationally.
So, Garibaldi, who was a little patriotic, shook his teeth and decided to eliminate a small force of the British army first. Even if he won a small victory, he could save some face for the Italian army and help Italy in the future in the Allied forces.
, to gain a greater voice.
But what he didn't expect was that a small-scale battle that seemed to have no problems would suffer huge losses because of the British army's tactics of sending out another army from Sedles. A main force with nearly 50,000 troops, almost
Total loss.
He had created such a big trap now and lost half of his troops. Garibaldi really did not dare to bear this crime anymore.
Since he came to Africa to preside over the war situation, except for the initial strategy of "east and north, advancing side by side" which played a role, he has been losing troops and ground since then. The Italian army suffered a terrible defeat in Africa, and in addition to the previous
After the huge defeat in southern France, the military strength of the Italian Army in the eyes of the outside world is probably not much compared with the British Empire and the iron-blooded German Empire, even compared with Vichy France and the Kingdom of Spain, let alone the British Empire where the sun never sets.
People are still optimistic that the Italian Army can win.
If it weren't for the population and territory of the Kingdom of Italy, if it weren't for the fact that Italy was the first member of the Allied Powers to follow in Germany's footsteps and sign a steel treaty with Germany, I'm afraid that with two consecutive major defeats, Italy would have
It was time to lose its status as a major member of the Allied Powers.
"Actually, this order..." Just when Garibaldi was hesitating whether to find a scapegoat or simply take the blame himself, Rommel interrupted him impatiently with his hand.
"No matter which of your generals gave the order, I suggest you prepare to send him to a military court. You can handle this matter yourself and I will leave it alone. Now I have only one request...
.”
Hearing that the now sharp-edged Rommel did not want to delve into the matter, Garibaldi nodded happily: "If you have any requests, just ask."
"Immediately reorganize your remaining troops, and take the reorganized troops into the German-Italian Africa Army Group. The officials in charge of the logistics department immediately coordinate with Rome to ensure the logistics supply of your two units after the merger." Long Mei.
Er looked at Garibaldi with some force and said seriously: "In addition, from today on, I don't want to see any instructions in the African Army that are not issued by our army command!"
"Okay, no problem!" Garibaldi, who had already made up his mind to avoid this time and never take risks or take responsibility again, nodded in a cold sweat.
In fact, Garibaldi didn't know that Rommel was more nervous than he was when he said these words...
