Chapter 475

One tank after another appeared on the horizon in the desert, bringing up the yellow sand flying all over the sky, which looked spectacular. This seems to be a natural battlefield for armored forces. Once the engine roars and the track turns, it can raise dust, which is better than the deliberate release of smoke.

Hundreds of tanks charged in the yellow sand, and the scene was incredible. As if drums were ringing in my ears, the sound of radio communication came one after another, and a classic German tank offensive started.

More than a dozen tanks opened fire together. The shells hit the sand dunes and splashed a piece of gravel. Two British African expeditionary forces in shorts bent over and ran quickly by the smoke of the shells. Not far from them, a Matilda tank was hit by the shells and set on fire.

The wide track of the German tank sprayed with desert yellow ran over the small desert plants, then stopped and opened fire leisurely. On the other side of the tank, the same tank was doing the same thing. The German attack had no sign, and even the standard artillery preparation was not carried out.

Because there was no need to prepare for artillery fire, the German tanks were more than twice as many as the British flanking armored forces. The battle of hundreds of tanks disrupted the British operational deployment, and the British troops who were preparing to move could not organize effective resistance at all.

It's like a disordered infantry square, suddenly hit by cavalry on the flank, the battlefield turned into a one-sided massacre, the British soldiers scurrying everywhere, while the German tanks galloped among thousands of British soldiers.

The British soldiers who had been fighting with the 7th German army for more than six hours completely collapsed. They were hungry and cold, most of them didn't have lunch. The soldiers on both sides of the front battlefield were struggling. They fought from early morning to noon, and then from noon to 2 o'clock, while the 7th German armored division, which entered the battle circle from the flank, was still a new force, So their presence speeded up the slow-down battle.

At the forefront of the assault was the 1st regiment of the 7th panzer division. They were ordered to cut into the British position and sweep all the resistance they saw. Under the leadership of the regiment commander, the regiment entered the battlefield from behind the southernmost British flanking forces. It took less than half an hour to take away the headquarters of a British division and capture a regiment commander and 400 panicked British soldiers.

On the other side, Rommel personally led the 1st Battalion of the 2nd regiment into the battlefield from the left side of the 1st regiment and made a limited attack detour. They were very lucky. One company rushed into an oil depot controlled by the British army, and the garrison escaped from the reserve base without setting fire. Rommel's battalion crashed into the interior of another British division, knocked down three concealed anti tank gun positions from the rear and destroyed one artillery position.

The other battalion of the 2nd regiment, led by the 2nd regiment leader, marched forward along a simple highway. Their luck was not so good. At the end of the road, they ran into the retreating troops of the 1st panzer division of the British North African expeditionary force, and there was a fierce battle between the two sides. A leopard tank was destroyed on the road, but the German troops of the battalion managed to stop the British retreat, encircling about 4000 British soldiers nearby.

The whole battlefield was disrupted by the 7th armored division. There were battles all over the area more than ten kilometers deep. At the same time, more than ten positions reported that they were surrounded by the German army, and several headquarters lost contact. Now no one can figure out where the German army is, and no one can determine the direction and scale of the German army's attack.

The battle was so intense that the thick communication antenna on Rommel's armored command vehicle was hit by the shell. The soldier who couldn't see clearly reported to the division headquarters of the 7th armored division that he saw "his general was hit by the shell". This news caused confusion for the German army for a time, but it subsided after Rommel braved the artillery fire to climb up another tank, borrowed a radio and gave the order to continue to attack. The German army continued to attack, and Rommel was kindly sent out of the battlefield by the soldiers.

"General! Several tanks of No.3 company of No.1 battalion of No.2 regiment controlled a nearby oil depot, which was very hidden. Our aerial investigation didn't find it... "A staff officer who held a radio headset on his ear reported to Rommel who just jumped out of the tank:" they said that the enemy was organizing anti attack and needed support. "

Rommel patted the sand on his body, then squinted and went to the armored command vehicle of the temporary headquarters. He took a look at his poor command vehicle and pointed to the antenna interrupted by the shell: "inform the maintenance squadron and help me repair it! In addition, take the division's tanks to support the third company. I can't find any other idle troops except you

Soon, amid the noise, the reinforcements set out, including two divisional No. 2 tanks carrying debris, a truck and 12 fully armed divisional guards. 15 Italian officers who came to observe were also used by Rommel. They were armed to guard the front temporary headquarters of the 7th Division where Rommel was located.

No one knows what the fighting is like, but some people have seen the British begin to fire on their own positions. It has been reported that many British are fleeing north, but they really have no spare forces to pursue those fleeing British. The reason is not complicated, but there are too many British prisoners in the hands of the German army.

Rommel's team to reinforce the oil depot had no trouble on the way. They defeated a small group of British soldiers and then arrived at the periphery of the huge reserve oil depot, where they were attacked by intensive enemy fire. Machine gun bullets rained down on the sand dunes, making the German soldiers unable to lift their heads. The British firepower never seemed to be so intensive, but the sharp eyed team leader soon found the problem. The opposite machine gun sounds a bit like G42 machine gun. So he climbed back to the tank behind him and loudly ordered the garrison of the oil depot to stop shooting. The misunderstanding was soon removed, and the alarmed German garrison mistook them for British troops. However, the staff officer, who had just been killed by the friendly military machine gun, had to take his troops back to Rommel's temporary front headquarters, the 2nd Battalion and 1st company of the 3rd regiment of the 7th armored division, and arrived nearby to reinforce the German defensive position with only tanks. Now there is no need for reinforcement. Like the German army in chaos, the British general headquarters is in chaos now. The operational staff is marking the position of the German attack on the map. As a result, he finds that this is a futile practice, because the map has been marked in chaos by him. An officer grabbed a ringing telephone in the chaotic headquarters, then changed his face, covered the microphone, turned back to the old general sitting on the chair and said, "the southern oil depot is lost, and the troops stationed there didn't blow up the oil depot in a panic." The Eastern oil depot is a secret oil supply base of the British army. It contains not only tens of thousands of tons of gasoline and diesel fuel, but also 10000 barrels of high-quality aviation fuel. The main reason why the British army did not retreat was that the transportation of the oil depot had not been completed, and the convoy could not empty the larger northern oil depot until tonight to get there and transport out these important strategic materials“ What? " When the old general learned this amazing news, he bounced up from his seat, but he fell down quickly. After several hours of continuous nervous tension, he encountered the disaster of chaos and collapse of the army, and then lost an important supply base. This series of attacks finally made him unable to bear and fainted. The battle lasted for three hours. At five o'clock in the afternoon, the southernmost British division surrendered under the attack of the German army. Rommel's 7th armored division and Friedrich's 7th army joined forces successfully. In this way, the most dangerous flaw of the German army, the vacancy of the 7th armored division's flank, was solved by the German army. General Frederick, who had saved his troops, immediately dispatched a battalion to the north to cooperate with Rommel's 7th Division to continue the attack. At this time, because of the crisscross teeth between the two sides, the German air force, unable to contribute, appeared again in the sky of the battlefield and mercilessly blew up the British army who had just stabilized. In order to ensure that the oil depot was safe, Rommel ordered the troops to expand their strategic depth. German tanks stormed the British positions by taking advantage of the sunset at 5 p.m., driving all the British defenders near the oil depot to the area 20 kilometers away. After learning about the oil depot, Frederick replaced part of the defense positions of the 7th armored division overnight and launched a fierce attack on the British army at night. For the first time since the beginning of the Second World War, the German army took the initiative to launch a large-scale night battle at night and took the offensive posture regardless of the losses. The battle in the South started at 7:00 a.m. on April 9 and ended in the afternoon of April 10. Despite the heavy losses of more than 3500 people and 31 tanks, the German army ate up more than half of the main force of the British North Africa 9th army. 17000 people were captured and 5700 people were killed. The rest of the troops had no intention of fighting and retreated for more than 300 kilometers at one go before they stopped retreating. It is worth mentioning that on the night of April 9, the front-line commander of the 9th group army died of heart failure, which was regarded as taking full responsibility for his defeat. Since then, the British army has lost the opportunity to drive the Italian North African troops to the sea. The African legion, jointly formed by Germany and Italy, has successfully completed its opening ceremony in North Africa.