Ever since Rommel led two German divisions to Africa, the situation of the Allied Powers on the African battlefield has been getting better and better, turning defeat into victory all the way without encountering any decent difficulties.
Then, even the remaining Italian remnants of the German-Italian Africa Army, these pig-like teammates, won the battle under the leadership of Rommel.
In view of the excellent situation, Rommel began to confidently want to conquer Libya, Egypt and the Nile Delta in one go, and gain the title of conqueror of Africa!
Tobruk, the key fortress lost by the Italian army, naturally became the primary target of Rommel's Africa Army.
As the best and most important strategic port in North Africa, Tobruk is located in a strategic location in northern Libya. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya to the south, Egypt and the Nile Delta to the east. It can be said that as long as the British army controls Tobruk,
Rommel would never be able to touch Egypt, because even if Tobruk was bypassed, the British garrison here could cut off the supply lines of the attacking German troops at any time.
At first, Rommel did not realize that the British army was going to fight to the death in Tobruk. He believed that the African British would still abandon Tobruk just like they had achieved by abandoning other battles in Africa.
But he soon discovered that he was wrong!
The British army only evacuated Cyrenaica and then garrisoned Tobruk, without intending to evacuate Tobruk.
But at this time, due to misjudgment, Rommel had successively ordered his German-Italian forces to advance hundreds of miles, approaching Tobruk. However, this made the German supply line very long, and their locomotives were already running out of fuel.
It's tight.
The troops advanced such a long distance in a short period of time, which consumed a lot of physical strength. What they thought was a simple task of harvesting corn, now seems not that simple.
What's more, Rommel now faces one of the most difficult problems, which is how to first solve the problem of providing supplies to the troops on such a long front.
From the beginning of this battle, Rommel had no way out.
Because in the eyes of the German public, he has already become a hero, especially since his African Army is sweeping towards Egypt in the east. Every German thinks and is certain that he will sweep across Africa effortlessly.
Moreover, this attack was not what the Führer wanted, but was initiated by Rommel on his own initiative, killing first and then attacking later.
Whether to the people or to the head of state, he could only use victory as an explanation. Otherwise, Rommel would not be able to find a way out the next day.
In the past month, Rommel and Hans have led elite German tanks and infantry to occupy Bardia and Caputso Fort respectively, blocking the way for the British army that originally attacked Algeria to retreat into Egypt.
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Then, Berante's French army launched a timely cooperation and occupied the first Egyptian city of Salum.
It can be said that the results of this period of battle initially proved that there was no problem with Rommel launching an attack.
At least, so far, there haven't been any problems.
After discussions with the famous French general Bélante, Rommel already knew that the most important issue in desert operations was to destroy the enemy's heavy weapons-tanks and artillery. But the current situation is that the British army in Tobruk not only has weapons
It was abundant, and it also made full use of the fortress artillery left behind by the Italian army, the German pig teammates, to build a powerful defense.
There was no way, now that it had reached this point, judging from Rommel's stubborn character, no one could stop him from carrying the battle to the end.
On March 11, Rommel ordered the commander of the 15th Armored Division, Major General Newman, who had been completely reduced to his adjutant, to launch the first attack on Tobruk.
Because recently, under Rommel's offensive instructions, Newman's armored divisions had continuously advanced for more than 300 miles in the desert and were extremely exhausted.
And the most critical thing is that because of the strong opposition of Lieutenant General Hans, his 30th Infantry Division has refused to join Rommel's combat plan. And the two Italian infantry divisions of the Second Army of the African Group commanded by Hans have also
Therefore, they were detained together by Hans.
The reason why Hans did this was precisely because Reinhard was worried that Rommel would not listen to his warning, insist on launching an attack, and cause some trouble at the beginning of the British Campaign. Therefore, as another senior general of the African Army,
Hans was personally summoned by Reinhardt and explained that in an emergency, he had the right not to blindly obey Rommel's request, but to consult the Supreme Command first.
The result of Hans's request to the Supreme Command was that he was allowed to separate from Rommel's headquarters and independently command the German and Italian Second Infantry Army.
Even Berante's French army received advice from the German High Command that it was best to stop all meaningless attacks.
In fact, even the troops that Rommel was supposed to command were not at full strength at the moment.
Due to insufficient ammunition, the Italian Armored Division was waiting for supplies to be completed in the rear. Also due to supply problems, even the German Army, which did not have the strategic supply station Tobruk, was unable to go all out because of insufficient supplies.
But the rigid Newman still obeyed Rommel's order and ordered Colonel Bonas to attack from the southern front with his exhausted machine gun battalion. Colonel Olbrich led the remaining 20 Panther tanks to advance in parallel on the right wing. However, the attack was blocked.
Blocked by barriers such as tank trenches and barbed wire, Bonas's machine gun battalion was trapped in front of the enemy's lines and unable to retreat.
Rommel never expected that the opponent defending the fortress would be up to 34,000 British soldiers, equipped with 20 tanks. It was obvious that their attack would not succeed.
But Rommel still did not give up. The forwards of his 15th Armored Division who participated in the battle temporarily withdrew and waited for the opportunity to attack again.
By the next day, the large forces had not yet been assembled. Because a violent sandstorm had just begun, Rommel immediately ordered the assembled troops to use the sandstorm as a cover to organize in three directions at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
New raid.
Unfortunately, Sandstorm suddenly weakened before launching its attack. Newman's armored division's forward troops were blocked by fierce artillery fire from the British army even though they did not have an advantage in strength, and the attack was once again forced to stop.
Just waiting until evening, Rommel once again ordered Newman to capture Tobruk, and used the two armored battalions that had just been assembled to launch a third attack on Tobruk. However, the attack still ended in failure, with huge losses.
, the number of tanks on the front line has been reduced from nearly 150 at the beginning of the war to less than 40.
At the same time, the machine gun battalion attacking from the south was also in danger. The battalion was less than 1,000 meters away from the British front line. The ground was too hard to dig holes to hide, and the situation became increasingly dangerous. That night, the soldiers were frozen to the point of numbness.
During the day, he had to lie motionless under the scorching sun to remain hidden, because the slightest movement would result in a burst of fire.
It is obviously irresponsible to expect them to attack. On the contrary, Rommel had to send all the troops assembled on the next route to rescue them...
