Looking at the endless desert, Rommel, who had already become famous, suddenly found that he seemed to be feeling a little empty inside.
He invaded Egypt and led his troops into Cairo peacefully with the famous Italian general Garibaldo and the famous French general Bertrand.
However, what was supposed to be the final battle of the war did not give Rommel any excitement or sense of accomplishment.
He had previously brought the operational plan drawn up by the Africa Army Staff to attack El Alamein, storm Cairo, and station a surprise force to control the Suez Canal. At that time, it seemed that it would be at least more than a month, or even several months in the future.
But now, as Montgomery led a group of British officials to make an announcement in the government hall in Cairo, and after the reporters took photos and wrote the articles, the war in Africa ended.
Before the Battle of El Alamein, Rommel had more than 200,000 troops. Most of them were Italian servants sent under the instructions of Italian Prime Minister Rossi.
As the core German army, there are only one armored division and one infantry division.
In addition, Berante also followed Pétain's instructions and symbolically handed over the command of a French colonial division to Rommel's Africa Army headquarters.
These soldiers are not weak at all.
First of all, the core infantry division of the German army is the famous meritorious division - the 30th Machinery Infantry Division. This division is good at fighting, has trained all the way on the European battlefield, and participated in the Polish campaign, the Norwegian campaign, and the French campaign. In terms of combat experience, in
There is no other infantry division in the German army that can surpass the 30th Division.
In addition, during these days of fighting in Africa, the German 15th Armored Division also accumulated a lot of combat experience, and completed the running-in with Rommel's command method, becoming a well-deserved elite force.
As for the Italian servants, Rommel generously gave them a lot of equipment captured from the British army. The Italian and British artillery in the African theater were all unified and assigned to the artillery columns of the African Army, led by Rommel.
Centralized command.
After Montgomery surrendered, Rommel also distributed Italian equipment captured from Egypt to Berante for a colonial division under his command.
To be precise, the equipment that Rommel gave to this French colonial division was actually the equipment that was first thrown to the British after the Italians failed, and was used by Montgomery to equip the Egyptian troops. After Montgomery surrendered, these Italian equipment were imported from Egypt.
It was transferred from human hands to French colonial troops.
As a result, the New Africa Army under Rommel had such a feature - the German troops used German equipment, the Italian troops used British equipment, and the French colonial divisions used Italian equipment.
In this way, just because of the equipment factor, the combat effectiveness of the servant armies provided by Italy and France has been improved to a higher level!
But the embarrassing thing is that this increasingly powerful African army has now lost its opponent!
After capturing Egypt and seizing the Suez Canal, Rommel's offensive options were already very limited.
On the other hand, Germany's military operations in the Soviet Union have seriously affected the enthusiasm of the Supreme Command for the African Army.
In the view of the High Command, since Britain has surrendered, the British troops in Africa have also disarmed themselves, and the colonies have been handed over to the management of the Allied Powers, there are no more interests in Africa that need to be fought for by the army.
It may be a good choice proposed by the Supreme Command to leave an armored division with the most mobility, transfer the distinguished 30th Infantry Division back to China, fill it with new recruits, expand it into an army, and then put it into the Soviet battlefield.
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However, Reinhard ultimately rejected this option.
He once again emphasized in the military conference room that the size of the German army in Africa is already very small. Only two divisions have to affect the situation in the entire Africa and ensure Germany's leadership position in Africa. All these factors do not allow any further reduction in the size of the German army in Africa.
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Even if one division was transferred back, it would be possible to expand the German army to have three more divisions on the Eastern Front. Such a deal would still not be cost-effective.
On the one hand, on the Eastern Front battlefield, Germany's allies have provided a total of nearly 2 million Allied troops. In comparison, the extra 50,000 German troops on the Eastern Front are actually not that important.
On the other hand, if the direct German army under Rommel only had an armored division of more than 10,000 people, then the influence of the German army among his 200,000-strong Three Kingdoms Allied Forces would be significantly reduced.
As a German commander, Rommel naturally did not want his already sparse troops to be redeployed again.
Besides, looking around the world, which group army commander only has two divisions of domestic troops at his command?
"General Rommel, I want to congratulate you."
After accepting Montgomery's surrender ceremony in Cairo, Hans, who returned to the new headquarters with Rommel, came to congratulate him.
The new headquarters is a beautifully decorated two-story building with Egyptian architectural features.
This was the headquarters originally used by Montgomery, but now it was given to Rommel by Montgomery.
After the grand surrender ceremony, Rommel returned here first. Lieutenant General Hans arrived here ten minutes later after receiving a telegram.
Now, as soon as Hans pushed open the door of Rommel's office, Hans smiled with joy: "The Propaganda Department sent special personnel to fly to us to film and edit a film "Africa" for General Rommel who conquered North Africa.
"The Conqueror" documentary."
Becoming the conqueror of Egypt has been Rommel's dream since he came to Africa. However, when this dream came true today, he was not as excited as he had always imagined.
There was definitely some happiness, but other than that, Rommel obviously felt that something was missing.
"In addition, the quota for the fifth marshal of the army has been released. The fifth marshal's scepter belongs to you, Marshal Rommel, who is unique in Africa!" Hans clapped his hands and laughed.
"Field Marshal!" This made Rommel's heart beat faster.
For any German, the significance of the marshal's scepter is extraordinary. In this life, Reinhard deliberately suppressed the number of German field marshals, which made this title even more valuable and precious!
Becoming a field marshal was the fulfillment of his long-cherished wish. Rommel thought with some satisfaction that even if he really didn't have many battles to fight in the short term, he wouldn't feel too painful in his heart.
"There is also good news," Lieutenant General Hans said at the end, the smile on his face became even wider: "The head of state has specially prepared a gift for you as a gift to the new marshal. I think you will like it!"
