As Italian Prime Minister Rossi personally supervised the arrival of a batch of strategic supplies urgently shipped to North Africa, Rommel immediately issued an order to start a new operation.
Although the Italians' reckless attack lost a lot of valuable supplies, in contrast, the French victory in Tobruk also captured a large amount of loot for the Allied forces - including ammunition, food, and all other military supplies.
In a sense, Italy, Germany's pig teammate, kept sending supplies to the British army, but another French teammate of Germany successfully stole the British army's supplies from the British. One and the other, Rommel
He was pleasantly surprised to find that he still had a lot of inventory in his hand, which was enough for him to perform a full round.
Therefore, Rommel ordered that the African supplies newly transported by the Italians be kept as strategic reserves, and then all the original reserves were transferred out for the subsequent offensive against Egypt.
According to the African intelligence network established by Italy in the early years, Rommel probably also learned a lot of news about the British military camp.
Of course, the intelligence network provided by Italy is nothing more than the use of low-level insiders planted in Egypt and other British African colonies to transmit some intelligence information that is not core. It is no better than Reinhardt's omniscient God's perspective golden finger.
However, for Rommel now, this level of intelligence collection is enough!
First, he learned that the current strength of the British Eighth Army was extremely weak. Its core consisted of only one regiment of Australian infantry, plus three Egyptian divisions equipped with Italian weapons.
As for the reserves of the British Eighth Army, it was just that the front line had just experienced the failure of "Operation Tomahawk". Less than 10,000 troops retreated, and only a few dozen tanks escaped.
The reason why Montgomery arranged these troops as reserves is not because of anything else. It is just because these broken troops and tanks lacking fuel are now unable to form combat effectiveness at all. They can only barely regain combat effectiveness after reviving and replenishing ammunition and fuel.
.So, since they have to wait for a while to recover their combat effectiveness anyway, it is better to simply put them in the rear as a reserve team, and then join the front line after their combat effectiveness is slightly restored.
In short, Rommel concluded that the Allied forces under his command were very dominant at this stage. What he wanted to do now was to launch a blitz attack as soon as possible, and when the British reacted, they mobilized new forces from the Middle East to support the Eighth Army in Africa.
Before, completely destroy the African Commonwealth forces in Montgomery's hands.
Rommel had repeatedly confirmed the accuracy of the information in his opponent's hands.
He did not simply believe everything after receiving information from the Italians. As an old fox who was good at using deception and other means in combat, Rommel was also very guarded against the British deceiving him in turn.
In addition, there were often problems with the links in charge of the Italians, so Rommel very carefully compared and calculated the accuracy of every piece of information.
First of all, regarding the strength of the British Eighth Army stationed in Egypt, Rommel has confirmed this many times using the simplest but least likely to be thought of means.
Rommel, the "Desert Fox" who was full of novel ideas, ordered after breaking Wavell's Tomahawk operation that all the captured British officers of the rank of major and above were taken to different rooms for torture and interrogation.
They got information about the size of the British troops stationed in the rear.
This method was very successful. After all, while defeating Wavell's army, Rommel captured a total of 72 colonel-level officers in the Commonwealth forces, and even captured two more with the rank of major general.
According to common sense, officers who have reached the colonel level should have a clear understanding of the size of the garrison. Coincidentally, because of the dispute between Montgomery and Wavell before sending troops, the British Eighth Army
The exciting inside story of that combat meeting was almost spread internally.
"General Wavell had serious disagreements with the newly appointed Lieutenant General Montgomery", "Lieutenant General Montgomery was ignored and was sent to command three Egyptian divisions with low combat effectiveness and three Australian infantry battalions that were not used in Operation Tomahawk.
.”
The spread of such news unconsciously revealed the size of the rear garrison commanded by Montgomery.
Among the 74 Commonwealth officers who were tortured by Rommel, there were always some who were lax in their speech. As long as among the people who were tortured separately, there were multiple officers who contacted each other and gave consistent information, then the size of the British army's rear garrison
, you can basically confirm it.
As for the number of defeated British troops and tanks that fled back to serve as reserves, it is very easy to calculate in the same way. Just ask the captured Commonwealth officers, the size of the troops participating in Operation Tomahawk, and the number of tanks, and then reduce it.
By taking the number of captured personnel and tanks on the battlefield and subtracting the number of heads killed and tanks destroyed, we can roughly calculate a figure.
By comparing and matching this data with the intelligence provided by the Italians, we can basically determine the situation of the British Eighth Army.
In addition to the intelligence information he wanted to know, Rommel also heard some incidental information about Montgomery from British prisoners.
According to those who had lost the war, Montgomery had a face like an eagle, and his high-pitched voice with a strong English nasal accent made people feel that he did not sound very friendly. This was reflected in Montgomery's previous relationship with Wavell.
The controversy can be seen.
Of course, Wavell has now been completely suppressed by Montgomery, and was reassigned by Montgomery to become the "Supreme Commander of Kotvo" at a stronghold called Kotvo on the Egyptian border, commanding all two Egyptian infantry companies there.
In addition, a British colonel who was close to Wavell but was now captured by Rommel also revealed that Montgomery was similar to Rommel in many aspects. Both men liked sports, and neither smoked nor drank hard liquor.
, pay attention to maintaining good health.
Perhaps it was what Berante said when describing Montgomery: "They say he is your nemesis." that made Rommel pay some deliberate attention to it, or maybe it was because Montgomery, as the supreme commander of the enemy forces in Africa, deserved attention for his abilities.
In short, Rommel specifically asked the colonel for more details about Montgomery afterwards.
Coincidentally, the colonel happened to be a well-informed person. From his words, Rommel discovered that Montgomery was somewhat similar to himself.
For example, both of them tend to be lonely in character. They both have their own arrogance in tactical command. When taking orders from others, they are both like strong horses that are difficult to control, but they are both clear-headed and calm.
The kind of commander who has unique insights.
Rommel once refused Reinhardt's guidance and forcibly attacked Tobruk Fortress with two battalions. When Montgomery first came to Africa and took office, he had a stalemate with Wavell and had serious differences, so he was pushed out to take charge of the remaining defense.
.
In addition, just as Rommel always wore the famous hat with plexiglass goggles, the colonel confessed that Montgomery also liked to wear a weird Australian bush hat with a team crest to show his distinction.
different.
The more he listened, the more Rommel felt that he had met an interesting opponent this time!
