Shurka no longer has to worry about the African battlefield.
With the attention of the Soviet military and the British government, and the participation of a large number of amphibious landing ships in the battle, it is expected that it will be enough for Rommel to eat.
This is indeed the case. The reason is that Rommel's supply line is too long... It is a full 1,900 kilometers from the Egyptian capital Tripoli to Alamein, and there is desert along the way. A large amount of supplies will be consumed while transporting supplies.
The reason why it had to be transported from Tripoli was that the British army occupied the island of Malta.
The supplies of the German and Italian armies mainly come from Italy, and the island of Malta is located between the African continent and Italy.
Originally, supplies from Italy could cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach the Alamein front line. There was no need for Italy to go to Tripoli and then travel nearly 2,000 kilometers overland to Alamein, which was a painful process.
However, the British army controlled Malta and had command of the sea and air.
This is a nightmare for the Italian transport fleet. They can only choose to cross the Mediterranean at night as much as possible and stay at sea for as short a time as possible.
The problem that arises from this is that the land supply line is too long and consumes a lot of money.
Such a long supply line is in front of the British army, and the defending troops are basically old and weak Italian soldiers, and there are even Libyan troops... Libya is an Italian colony, and Italian rule is not benevolent at all, so of course the Libyans will not be willing to replace them.
The German and Italian troops worked hard, and they were the kind of troops whose morale was extremely low and could collapse at the first touch.
This is equivalent to a piece of fat being placed in front of the British, but they cannot eat it because of insufficient troops, insufficient equipment, and difficulties in landing.
It's different now. With the amphibious landing ships, all the British need to do is send these amphibious landing ships and infantry to the island of Malta in batches, and then send them to the African continent in batches.
The British could even conduct a kind of guerrilla warfare on supply lines: secretly sending a force ashore to set up an ambush, and then retreating to the sea after fighting the ambush.
This left the German and Italian armies, which had no sea and air superiority, with no choice but to look at the Mediterranean Sea from a distance and sigh.
What Shulka didn't know was that the Soviet Union was not at all ambiguous when it came to tricking its teammates. A considerable number of the amphibious landing craft they sold to the British side were retired from the battlefield.
The Soviet Union’s explanation for this was: “We don’t want this either. You know, our production is limited. At the same time, the military has a great demand for amphibious landing ships. Almost all amphibious landing ships are put into use on the battlefield as soon as they leave the factory. Therefore,
We can only gather the used ones in the amount you need!”
This reason seems to be very sufficient, because the 500 amphibious landing craft requested by the British side is indeed not a small number.
What's more, the Soviet Union promised to send a group of maintenance personnel and parts there, so the British side had nothing to say.
However, it was not until the amphibious landing ships were transported to the island of Malta to start training that the British discovered that there was a serious problem. These amphibious landing ships frequently broke down and it was difficult to ensure long-distance navigation. However, the British need to sail 00 kilometers, at least 00 kilometers, to land in Africa from Malta.
Faced with the British question, the Soviet maintenance personnel responded confidently: "Isn't this normal? If they can't start, it will be different if they give it a kick!"
These maintenance personnel are telling the truth, because this is what they did in the Soviet Union. Soviet equipment often has this characteristic: it is rough and has many faults, but it is durable.
But of course, if it is a brand new amphibious landing craft, the failure rate will be much less.
Brigadier General Marne, the commander of the British army stationed on the island of Malta, blushed and argued: "This is not possible. We can't go to the battlefield with this garbage and expect to defeat the enemy!"
Of course, Brigadier General Marne was worried, because this was no joke. The amphibious landing ship was directly related to the force projection and supply issues of the landing operation, which could directly affect the outcome of the battle.
But the maintenance staff just spread their hands and expressed helplessness.
Brigadier General Marne had no choice but to report the problem to Churchill.
Churchill immediately negotiated with the Soviet Union... At this time, the Soviet Union gave another suggestion: "If this is the case, I think you should buy more amphibious landing ships... Or, you can wait for us to produce new ones.
Amphibious landing craft to replace them!"
Churchill was speechless.
This cannot be said to be the Soviet Union's bad faith, they just failed to produce new amphibious landing craft in time.
Of course, Churchill could not choose to wait. He could wait for El Alamein but not wait.
Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the campaign, Churchill had no choice but to grit his teeth and purchase an additional 300 amphibious landing ships.
The Soviet side said: "You can tie two landing craft together with a tow rope, one carrying personnel and the other loading supplies and equipment. If one of them fails, you can tow it forward or gather it on one ship.
!”
"What if both ships are broken down?" Churchill asked angrily.
The Soviet representative laughed loudly: "Then just swim over!"
Obviously, Churchill was very unhappy after being cheated, but the Soviet Union was just the opposite.
Shulka doesn't care about any of this, as long as he knows that the British will not fail in Africa.
Shulka once again turned his attention to the training of the Ministry of Internal Affairs troops.
As previously imagined, the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs gradually realized their tactical weaknesses during training with ordinary infantry... It is not terrible to have weaknesses. The terrible thing is that after having weaknesses, you don't know what they are.
Especially on the battlefield, if you know your weaknesses and correct them after a battle, that's it.
On the contrary, if you never realize that it is a weakness and regard it as a strength, you may not understand what is going on until you die.
This is the case for the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They thought that the high casualty rate in previous battles was because they were braver than ordinary troops. This was an advantage. It was not until they trained with ordinary troops that they discovered that this was not the case.
Since the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have strict discipline and generally have high physical and cultural qualities, they have made rapid progress during training.
If there is any unpleasantness, it is that there will occasionally be minor frictions with ordinary troops, but they are basically resolved in a military way.
From this point of view, Shulka's previous "military regulations for the use of infantry" are somewhat redundant. The Soviet character is often to have a fight and then nothing will happen.
The most important thing is that their mentality has been changing...the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs increasingly regard themselves as ordinary infantry, and Shulka can feel this.
Originally, Shulka thought that the training would continue like this, but he did not expect that soon a telegram would transfer the 11th Division and the 8th Infantry Regiment to other places. (To be continued)