Although the commander of the 7th Armored Division was killed at about 10: 00 this afternoon, it was the deputy commander who led the fierce attack of American tank forces, and they also conducted a limited counterattack until Rommel, the former commander of the African Corps, arrived at the scene.
The fighting lasted until 12: 10 noon. The Americans lost 21 tanks and still didn’t retreat. Barton obviously had reached the death order. He didn’t intend to bring a tank back to the east of the Suez Canal, but Rommel probably lost 45 tanks, most of which were leopard tanks, which also made Rommel feel distressed.
Beside the crater, Rommel saw his hand, the body of Major General Pulitwitz. The brave general was no different from reckless, and he seemed to be satisfied that he could die in such an important battlefield.
Just a few tens of meters behind Rommel, two 4-pack 4 mm Bofors self-propelled anti-aircraft guns are adjusting their shooting angles. They are responsible for the defense of the general headquarters of the African Corps. The American attack has been repelled, and this has become a relatively safe place.
"Flank attack exactly to what position? Damn line contact hasn’t been restored yet? " Rommel stared at the body of his hand for a long time and finally asked his chief of staff. He seemed to be in a bad mood, with a little anger in his voice.
Just as he asked, suddenly a sentry soldier fired a warning shot. Everyone looked in the direction of the sentry and saw a huge British command vehicle coming at a high speed not far away.
That car was designed by the British and destroyed by the Germans. Rommel had seen the wreckage of this car, but the front of the car was painted with a white five-pointed star, which was the unique symbol of the American team. Even Rommel followed the doubts and couldn’t tell whether it was an English or an American car.
"The British? Americans? " Rommel frowned and muttered, while the security forces on the other side were ready to meet the enemy. Soon, a leopard tank came up, and the turret pointed to the British command vehicle, which was gradually approaching. The British command vehicle was really a big one, and it looked very big, and it looked like an elephant.
"Prepare the fire!" One side is responsible for the alert officer has reached the fire command, but Rommel waved his hand and denied the fire command. "Have you ever seen a car attacking a tank idiot? Wait till they get close and see what these idiots really want to do! "
Soon the car stopped next to Rommel’s headquarters, and the people inside the German tank in front of the dark artillery hit the door, and these people were all wearing German troops
"hey! This is my captured American command car! Why should the cannon be pointed at me to fight for profit? " Lieutenant General Stryker, commander of the 7th Armored Army and another armored division commander, walked up to Rommel and smiled and showed off his achievements. "I repelled the American tank troops from the flank and now I am chasing the remaining American soldiers."
"Are you crazy? Stryker! How dare you approach my headquarters with an English car? You know, I almost let the fire destroy your broken car! " Rommel pointed to Stryker’s reprimand.
"no! General! In that case, at most, you will lose two armored division teachers in one day. "Stryker laughed and pointed to the British car behind him." This thing is very big and suitable for being a headquarters and room, so I deliberately sent it to you. "
"Don’t do it again, or I’ll really set you on fire!" Rommel punched Stryker in the chest and smiled and walked to the car that looked really good. armoured command vehicle "This car is good. I like it very much. I can stretch inside. Show me the map of where your troops are now."
"Our troops have cut into the left side of Barton’s troops from the flank, and now they can retreat to the desert. I ordered them to chase for 5 kilometers and then return here for standby." Stryker pointed to the map and reported his achievements. "The sandstorm was a little big and the antenna of my command car was broken by the wind a few hours ago, and the communication was interrupted."
"Three tanks Barton lost about three tanks. Is it too fast to retreat at this time?" Rommel suddenly felt that something was wrong and immediately reached the order to stop attacking. "Barton still has a reserve team that didn’t fight! We have to close the formation! "
Chapter 662 662 The fastest reinforcements
Just as Rommel and Barton’s troops were entangled, a group of Italian soldiers behind the German front were trying to level a field airport with all kinds of machinery and his individual equipment. The construction scene proved that the scale of this huge construction site was quite large
It seems that it is not suitable for Italian soldiers to fight on the front line. When they attack, they are weak and defensive, and they are as uneasy as the leaky house. But once they are not on the battlefield, these soldiers are full of energy, and the construction process is also excellent.
So Rommel ordered Italian soldiers of two armies to secretly build a large number of front-line airports after the first battle plan was drawn up. No one knows exactly what they were doing at these front-line airports.
"The Germans are willing to make trouble. They have nothing to do, so they have to build fortifications and dig trenches, and then investigate the terrain and collect information everywhere. It seems that they can’t stop the machine." An Italian soldier complained to his comrades-in-arms while leveling the sand around the airstrip with a shovel. "I am still very grateful that they got us here and didn’t participate in front-line combat. As a result, they got us this job, and we were tired to death all day long."
While working, his companion replied without lifting his head, "Well, we are lucky. I heard that thousands of people in the Black Shirt Army have been killed or injured. It is already a very good job for us to build the airport in such a safe place. It would be miserable if the frontline troops are not enough to push us to the top."
No one knows what these German temporary front-line airports are doing. These airports have no pre-set defensive positions and no cover measures. The most pitiful thing is that there are few maintenance ground staff except some refueling trucks and supply trucks.
These places may be just wondering about the fake target of the opponent’s army, or it may be the reason why the plane landed on the temporary runway when it failed to return. So many field airport runways should be built. This is not something that ordinary Italian soldiers can know. Anyway, they manage to build endlessly.
"You didn’t see those people in the Black Shirt Army replenish German canned food. That’s the real food." When complaining, I felt that I was treated unfairly and differently. The Italian soldier saw the supplies of the Black Shirt Army, which was about the same level as the German regular army, which naturally envied these second-tier Italian soldiers.
The original Italian army’s food supply was still good. As a result, Rommel did not intend to evenly distribute the supplies of his long supply line. He made the front-line troops receive more than 100% of the supplies, while the second-line troops maintained 70% or even 50% of the supplies.
As a result, many Italian second-line troops received very poor supplies, and many local troops even had two meals a day. With the advance of the German army, the Black Shirts and the German own troops had canned food and fried noodles every day, and sometimes beef and chocolate candy were distributed.
"The food is literally eat? If you eat it, you say you’re going to the battlefield. Is that easy for the British? That is to say, the Germans are even worse. If we were to change, we would have lost Tusi at this time. "An Italian veteran sighed and said," You are new here and have never heard of that … "
"What is it?" Obviously, several young Italian soldiers who are new to Africa have never experienced the defeat of Italian troops by the British, and they are very curious about this kind of thing.
"Alas, when the Germans didn’t come, our general didn’t listen and tried to provoke the British. As a result, we were defeated. I was a guard force and was not captured by the encirclement, but I heard that the British reported that they had captured the Italian troops." The old Italian soldier sold one and then continued until everyone’s curiosity reached its peak. "The British said that we had captured five acres of Italian officers and two acres of Italian soldiers …"
"…" Now everyone knows what they have been crammed into the German army of engineers to build this front-line field airport. With such a group of seniors laying a good foundation, it is estimated that they need more than courage to go to the front.
"We captured about 5 acres of officers and 2 acres of British and American soldiers!" Just as a group of Italians lamented the shameful record of their predecessors, a German official was proudly reporting to Rommel about the German achievements today.
Everyone thinks Barton didn’t put into his reserve because of a hidden counterattack plan. During the whole battle, there was a smell of conspiracy everywhere. The Germans finally decided to ignore Barton’s possible trap. Their superior armored forces crashed into the core of Barton’s army.
In the end, the Germans found the largest tank force they could organize, including 4 Tiger tanks and 11 Leopard tanks, and formed an offensive team to storm the core position of Barton regiment, where they destroyed about 4 latest 4 Sherman tanks of the US military, and then the whole Barton regiment collapsed completely.
The main force of Patton’s regiment did not appear in the battlefield, and even a decent counterattack did not appear. The whole regiment was defeated by the Germans, and the battlefield became a one-sided pursuit. Many American soldiers were very different from their previous performances. They raised their hands and surrendered very neatly, and the previous resistance to tenacious winds was completely opposite
Because of a terrible rumor, they broadcast this rumor that "Alexandria has changed hands and the British 9 th Regiment has collapsed, and a large number of German soldiers have appeared behind the whole army. The first regiment has been encircled by the Germans." Even this rumor has been directly proved-the headquarters of the first regiment has retreated and everything has been defeated.
Sit by yourself. Barton in armoured command vehicle looks tired and depressed. Even his favorite cigar is not in his mouth at this moment. He is surrounded by the main armored division, which is the "coffin" in Barton’s hand. He can now take away all valuable possessions.
Yu said that he lost something, and the front-line troops chose to escape in a humiliating way. Actually, he said the reason a few hours ago. A few hours ago, Barton deployed Luo to the south area of Alexandria, and the supply line was suddenly cut off. His guard troops were ordered to fight back, and the information returned surprised everyone.
Intelligence shows that the German army has supply lines and rear areas, and its strength is so huge that Barton really has no idea where the deadly German troops came from. What he can do is to lead himself to find all American troops to break eastward, recapture the supply lines and return to Romania.
A battle that Barton and Montgomery tried their best to organize suddenly collapsed and ended in an anticlimactic way. The Germans won a face-to-face victory from the stalemate battlefield, and soon they will surround Alexandria from the side, or they have already surrounded Alexandria.
Then Rommel’s army will drink the horse, and the Nile Luo Shoujun is unable to resist the devastating footsteps of the German army. Whether it can finally hold the Suez Canal depends on Barton to take away so many troops.
"Bastard! Where did these fucking Germans come from? Did the British reply? Still no news? " Shake armored vehicles in Barton pale asked his war staff.
He had to lose most of his troops and defeat with the elite, which was absolutely a great shame for him. He carefully prepared a counterattack plan and could not implement it. His idea of consuming the effective strength of the German army and dragging the war into a stalemate was smashed by his opponent before it was realized.
"Witnesses said that they saw a large number of German planes flying westward. Some said that they were bombers taking off from Turkey. Some said that they were Crete bombers, but no one saw these planes dropping bombs. Now they can’t confirm what happened." The war staff put down their walkie-talkies and replied to their commanders.
"The plane? It is a soldier! " Barton’s eyes suddenly lit up. He knew that it was still possible for him to make a profit in this situation and then run away. If the German troops behind him were paratroopers, they could not fight against their own armored torrent.
"It’s a drop! German troops from Crete! They didn’t withdraw to Germany, so they waited for this surprise attack in Crete! They are the fastest reinforcements and can reinforce Rommel’s German troops as quickly as possible! " Montgomery, Alexandria, flapped his desk and panicked at himself. His hands shouted, "Send troops from Alexandria and fight back immediately! Any word from General Barton? Go and contact me! Quick! "
"general! General Patton’s side must have retreated. After all, they didn’t see the huge German fleet like us. "A staff officer’s face was as sad as a dead mother. He saw with his own eyes that five German planes flew over the positions of both sides because of the delay in preventing contact. After all, no one expected that some anti-aircraft gun positions had been bypassed by the Germans when the Germans appeared from behind.
The war has gone for seven years, but the blood and pain are still worth pondering. Forgetting history is betrayal and self-improvement to stand in the world national forest!
Chapter 663 663 genius plan
Just as the Italian soldiers were dumbfounded, a German ju52 transport plane stopped slowly at the airport runway, and there were still several bullet holes in its wing, but its solid structure still allowed it to return safely to the German-controlled area.
Followed by the second plane, the same runway stopped and the sky was endless. German transport planes and cover these transport planes, butchers and bombers, and 11 fw19d fighters who were responsible for cover told everyone how huge the German paratroopers were this time.
It didn’t take long for a total of ju52 transport planes to be put into service. Only seven new ju62 transport planes were available. If we count the pre-bombing and cover, two butcher bombers and 11 fw19d, the Germans will put in nearly 12 planes in one breath.
Such a huge fleet marks the maturity of the corresponding experience in the control of German military aircraft formation command, and also marks Germany’s existing ability to send a large number of paratroopers into distant battlefields at one time to destroy the enemy’s rear.
It is very difficult for the former German ju52 to travel to and from several airports in Crete, east of Alexandria. As a result, it was deeply influenced by the one-way bombing plan of American long-range bombers in later generations. arcado came up with a plan that shocked everyone
Arcado was bombed by another American bomber and flew directly to China instead of returning to the starting base in the future. Inspired by this, a bold paratroopers dropping plan was drawn up. After the completion of the departure from Crete, the ju52 transport fleet returned to the Egyptian field airport to refuel and then returned to Crete. This plan was immediately implemented by Studente. Rommel even mobilized the Italian second-line troops to take on the construction of the airport.
Two German paratroopers, nearly 21,000, with 17 gliders and 4 tank gliders, were lost in one breath. In the desert battlefield of North Africa, these German paratroopers even had long sleeves and gray-green pants.
These German paratroopers were given some light yellow desert-coated raincoats. Even after all the preparations for desert warfare were completed, they also studied desert warfare manuals before the plane, such as preventing desert scorpions from climbing into their boots.
It was such a hasty but effective plan that completely disrupted the deployment of the US and British troops. It was like a steel knife inserted into the heart of the US team. The US troops were originally mercenaries. Later, although they joined many regular army troops, after all, not all of them were the elite Barton who fought regular battles, and it was barely enough for them to risk being surrounded. That would be a bit overwhelming.
What’s more, when Barton knew that his posterior route had been robbed, he immediately took the main force of the regiment, the first armored division and some independent armored combat units, including a main infantry division, to retreat quickly, which led to the interruption of command for a time, and the scene immediately became chaotic.