Chapter 447

A man in a German major's costume jumped down the ship's ladder, took a deep breath of fresh air, and closed his eyes with satisfaction. He was followed by two officers, a captain and a second lieutenant.

Not far away, a field car painted desert yellow is being transported down from the ship by a group of barearm Italian soldiers. Although it is only in mid March, it is still extremely hot on the ancient mysterious African continent.

"It is said that general Keitel's group B army is moving towards the Netherlands. The head of state has made up his mind to support the group a army of lundstedt?" Asked the major, wearing leather gloves to avoid sunburn.

The second lieutenant nodded: "Britain is not a group army can conquer the opponent, let alone we have been pulled out."

Two Italian officers came face to face, their clothes covered with yellow sand and dust, looking a bit embarrassed. But it can be seen that they just came back from the desert, not defeated.

"Welcome to Africa, general Rommel... In order to deceive the British intelligence service, I have to let you come here dressed as a major." The Italian officer in charge of reception reached out to shake hands with Rommel and said with a smile.

Rommel walked to the car that he had just been put down with his hands behind his back. He seemed very satisfied with the old Mercedes Benz that had followed him for many years. He said with a smile, "it doesn't matter how you get here. It depends on how you get there."

As he spoke, he pointed to the distant direction: "the Fuehrer said to me, as promised to general lundstedt, that whenever I take Cairo, I will be given the Marshal's scepter."

At this point, he said with a smile, "but my troops are still on the way. This time your failure has made the head of state very angry. The surrender of the British who were already negotiating has ended because of your defeat."

"General, since the beginning of the war, oil imports from the Middle East have been cut off by the British. Now Italy's fuel reserves can't stand consumption. We in North Africa are Italy's only hope... But the British are obviously better prepared than us. They have very elite infantry." The Italian Officer explained.

"These are all your problems. I'm only here for tourism this time." Rommel got into the open car with the canvas ceiling removed, the second lieutenant started the car, and the captain was in the co driver's seat.

Rommel said to the Italian officer who didn't know what to say: "if you are really in a hurry, drive the train faster so that my troops can arrive at the port quickly. Another thing is to tell your leader, sir, to prepare the oil and ensure the smooth transportation of ammunition..."

No one knows when the Italian army will be ready for war. However, everyone knows that the Italian army in * * is almost the best army in the whole Italian kingdom. Unfortunately, it lost to the British North African garrison whose strength is far less than theirs.

Most of the British navy, which had lost its control over the Mediterranean Sea, either retreated to Egypt or directly entered the Indian Ocean. However, the Italian Navy was unable to pursue the British Navy because of lack of oil and war preparation. Although it controlled and basically cut off the British transport line in the Mediterranean, the Italian Navy was not able to control the Suez Canal. The only shelling of Egypt was the sinking of a destroyer by the British air force.

As for the Italian air force, which can be described as shabby compared with the German air force, it has shown its youth in North Africa. Italian aircraft performance is very general, but it is superior to the large number and durable, which is very suitable for use in the vast area of North Africa.

Of course, the most elite fighters in the Italian air force are me-109c fighters, and the number is as many as 300. Moreover, Italy has purchased the production license of this kind of fighter, and the number of this kind of fighter continues to rise in the Italian army.

Rommel's new l group army is not an Italian army. This regular German main group army has four infantry forces and the seventh German armored force, with a total force of more than 300000. There are 1400 vehicles in the whole group army. After strengthening, the 7th armored army has three tank divisions, with 800 tanks.

It can be imagined how much food and fuel such a huge thing needs to consume every day. With the addition of ammunition and worn-out parts, logistics is enough to make people feel headache.

Therefore, since Italy was defeated by the British in North Africa and had to turn to the German for help, Italian leader Mussolini personally inspected the logistics preparation of the Italian army for the war in North Africa. Before the German army entered Africa, he managed to properly prepare the logistics such as transportation and supply in North Africa, and even spared no effort to transfer some supplies from the Italian army, The logistics supply of the German group army reached 90%.

In fact, the level of logistics supply is already very high. You should know that the German army's own logistics supply is only about 85%, and the transportation and distribution of some minor items are several days slower. However, this achievement of the German army has brought shame to Italy, which is in a mess of supplies.

Italy's military supplies can only be maintained at the level of 60% basically. This fragile supply rate makes Italy's troops only play 50% or even 40% of their combat capability. If you calculate that the combat level of the Italian army is only 80% of that of the British army, you can easily calculate the actual combat effectiveness of the Italian Army - only about one third of that of the British army“ In two months, I'm going to fight back here. " Standing on the seat of the car, Rommel, with a telescope, looked at the barbed wire and the defensive positions of the Italian garrison in the distance, and murmured to himself: "with the Italian troops, I have about 600000 combat troops in my hand, twice as many as the British. If there's enough fuel, ammunition and food, hit Tobruk all at once? Will it be too soon? " A gust of sand blowing, hit the car windshield, issued a crackling sound, everyone subconsciously covered their eyes. The second lieutenant lay on the steering wheel and cursed the ghost weather he had never seen before“ There are only hills and vast flat terrain in a smooth desert Rommel excitedly ignored the sand and yelled: "this is the heaven of armored forces! Give me 1000 tanks here and I can sweep everything! ha-ha! If I win the British, I'll be the German Marshal! " Shouts shouts, his voice changed the flavor, after the sandstorm, he spat a mouthful of saliva, spit out the full mouth of sand. Then found that the mouth is still astringent, or can feel the sand rubbing teeth creak. From then on, he will be far away from the main battlefield in Europe and make his own sky here. He is the highest commander here, commanding everything and being responsible for all operations. If he wins, he will win the same honor as brauchich. If he fails, he will die in the sand. His German Air Force fighter units have been refitted in Italy by technicians, installing special air filters and other equipment to make Jingui fighter adapt to the desert climate of North Africa. A total of 300 fighters, 200 old Stuka and 150 do-217 have been assigned to him to command, so as to ensure the air supremacy over his regiment. It has to be said that since the emergence of the new Stuka 2 attack aircraft, the German attack aircraft forces are gradually eliminating Stuka. So this time, Catherine of the air force can generously take out 200 Stuka to support Rommel, more with the mentality of using old things than with pain. Of course, there is no doubt that these planes are more advanced than the fighters used by the British in North Africa. Of course, German tanks and armored vehicles are also being camouflaged with desert yellow. At the same time, they are busy installing air filtration systems suitable for desert areas on their engines, distributing sleeping bags and windproof tents to troops temporarily, and dozens of seawater desalination systems have also been transported to Italian ports, ready to be sent to ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^. The grey classic German clothing can no longer be used. Instead, it is the same style German clothing made of light yellow cloth produced by an Italian cloth factory. Some places have also made appropriate improvements according to the desert geographical environment. For example, the neckline has been designed as a tightening style. According to the preliminary investigation and experts' suggestions, Rommel's l group army also temporarily customized 3000 goggles in Italy, which were distributed to tank captains and drivers, reconnaissance troops and car drivers. At the same time, all the troops were carrying out various survival training in the desert, including camping in the wild and how to avoid sandstorm attacks. Another problem plaguing Rommel is that Italy's transportation capacity can not guarantee that all of its troops will be in place, and it is impossible for all of its troops to be in place. Italy claims that they can only transport about 30000 people and equipment to Africa at the same time. Rommel himself knows that there are only 150000 people in the l group of 350000 troops, Another 200000 are still training and recruiting“ Let's see how good the British are in Africa. " Rommel finally vomited the sand out of his mouth, sat back in the car and looked at his major's dress which had been changed by the yellow sand with a bitter smile: "it seems that Italian officers were not so sloppy originally. I live here for a few days, so I guess they are the same model."