Chapter 503

It turns out that Barton and Montgomery are not the only ones who want to attack. Rommel of Germany is also planning an offensive. But he was banned by the German Supreme Command before it was implemented.

General Frederick is now reporting to Rommel in the conference room about his preparations for the campaign in recent days. Near this supply depot, he divided the 7th infantry into three echelons, placed the 27th division and some Italian troops in the first line, and placed the elite 7th and 17th infantry divisions in the second line of defense, Some fragmentary assault guns and Italian tanks were placed on the third line of defense, ready to reinforce the enemy's attack site.

Although this arrangement is very safe, but in the long line of defense, the German African Legion only put one army, obviously not enough. Well, here comes a problem. Excavator Technology... I'm used to it. I'm sorry. So the question is, where is the 7th armored force that Rommel has been supplemented and strengthened?

This is not the small unit with only the 7th armored division half a month ago, but a huge armored unit with three armored divisions. If some tanks, fighters and No. 3 tanks are included, Rommel probably holds more than 700 tanks. This is not a decimal word.

After troubleshooting and maintenance, Rommel can send at least 500 tanks into the battlefield at a time. For a battlefield like North Africa, the number of tanks is considerable.

You know, opposite him, Patton and Montgomery's armored forces are ready to attack. The total number of tanks is only 910. Of course, these tanks can't be put into battle together, and Barton can use no more than 500 units to attack.

Therefore, since the beginning of the war, the battle with the closest strength between the two sides will begin. What Rommel is confirming at this moment is exactly the amount of material reserves he can use in this campaign.

"The number of fighters we can use is about 75. There is no problem in fighting for the air supremacy nearby. The British have lost seven planes in recent days, and rarely send patrol formations to attack." The head of the air force helped Frederick report the situation in the sky, and once again assured Rommel that they could take control of the air on the battlefield.

Rommel still believes this, because the German Air Force has rarely lost its air supremacy since the beginning of the war. Even if it was jammed by the British air force in the battle of landing in Britain, it has not lost its superiority over the theater. The sky in North Africa has been controlled by the German and Italian air forces. The me-109c fighter of the Italian air force is responsible for peacetime patrol, and the fw-190d of the German air force is responsible for killing the invading British air force.

But to tell the truth, except for a few Stuka bombers, the German and Italian air forces do not have a high degree of suppression on the ground battlefield. Even under the cover of the German air force, Italian bombers only dare to drop bombs at high altitude. The word precision can only be a good wish. Therefore, Rommel did not expect the North African air force to defeat the British and American allied forces directly from the air, just like its European counterparts.

The real duel still depends on the ground battlefield. When Rommel thought of this, he put aside the telegram in his hand that prohibited him from attacking the British and American allied forces. He sneered and listened to the officers of his Italian allies explain the coordination of artillery support. In fact, there is nothing to decorate. For a long time, the attitude of German senior generals towards the Italian troops is basically very simple and rough, that is: you beat you, I beat me.

"General Rommel, you have mobilized the whole 7th armored force. Are you really going to organize an attack by force, regardless of the order of your supreme command?" General Garibaldi of Italy, sitting next to Rommel, asked, "are you going to disobey the order of the head of state again?"

"General Garibaldi, just one day ago, the Supreme Command changed the communication code and sent a telegram with the latest code." General Friedrich handed a document to his Italian ally.

General Garibaldi took the document, looked at it carefully, gave it back to Frederick with a wry smile. The above is a message sent by akkado in his own voice. The content is not much: Rommel, I know that interfering in the command of a front-line general is a very dangerous thing, and the order that you can't attack without completing the logistics supply may have been deciphered by the enemy. How to deal with it depends on your own decision. Akado? Rudolph.

It can be said that this telegram has withdrawn the instructions of the supreme headquarters that ordered Rommel not to attack. In fact, this is not the "constant change" of the head of state akado. On the contrary, it is that he "knows his mistakes and can change them".

There are two reasons for akado to establish the supreme command. The first is the need for all services to cooperate in combat. The second is to grasp the control of the army in his own hands reasonably and legally - there is no command of the army in these two articles. Because akado set the bottom line for himself from the beginning, that is to try not to interfere in the command of the troops.

He deeply knew what kind of disaster Hitler's reckless command had brought to the German army. It was because of his stubbornness and autocracy that the German army was defeated like a mountain in 1943. It was also because of his unrestrained interference in the military that many battles that could have been fought better were defeated.

Later, because the orders issued by the Supreme Command became more and more puzzling, and Hitler's mistakes became more and more intolerable, the German senior generals began to cheat Hitler and modify Hitler's operational deployment, which led to a more disastrous consequence - their subordinates deceived their superiors, who made a wrong estimation of the situation and made a wrong judgment, As a result, his subordinates had no choice but to fight a more hopeless war. Such a vicious circle, how can we be invincible? For example, there was such a situation in the later period of the war. Hitler ordered the expansion of the German army, but there were no weapons, equipment and personnel, so the generals had to deceive Hitler that these nonexistent troops had indeed been formed and had already joined the war. Naturally, it would not be any result for Hitler to take these nonexistent troops to fight back, and the front-line troops would collapse faster without support. The collapsing troops did not dare to report to Hitler, so they remained and were taken out by Hitler next time to support other German troops. Akkado didn't want to commit suicide in the basement like Churchill, but also used grenades to destroy his body; He also doesn't want to be like Hitler, let people pour gasoline to light a fire after death... He has three beautiful women waiting for luck, he has a lot of money waiting to spend. Rommel, inspired by akado, naturally decided to fight the offensive he was best at according to his will. He didn't want to stay in the trenches waiting for his opponent to knock on the door, which was not his dream of fighting, nor his personal art of war. Attack! Only attack is the best defense! Only when the enemy is defeated for thousands of miles can we make our defense line as stable as Mount Tai! This is Rommel's Creed. This is the German general who can attack most. As long as he has a liter of gas, he will use it on the road of attack. This is in line with his style, which is in line with the classic sentence "attack, attack, attack again" in his book "infantry attack"“ Don't worry about fighting a battle you are familiar with. Here, general Garibaldi and I will stick to the last moment. " Frederick said with a smile: "I remember, general, in your book infantry attack, you mentioned:" the stronger the firepower, the deeper the fortification, the less the casualties. ", So we've been preparing for a long time this time. " General Garibaldi, the Italian defender, also said: "I know that the Italian Army's combat ability is really not good in front of the German team, but this time we have the most elite Italian troops on the front line. I'm not sure about the attack, but I'm very confident in the defense." While bragging to his troops, he pointed to the map to describe the defense configuration of the Italian troops. In many defense points, he laid artillery, mines between positions, and even made fortresses with steel plate welded covers in some important areas. This time Mussolini reinforced the black shirt army of garibo's first division, which is a little similar to the German SS. It is a young volunteer army with firm faith and incomparable loyalty. Its combat effectiveness can be regarded as the strongest army in Italy. Rommel also knows that what Garibaldi said is true. Now the Italian North African first army, which is accompanied by the German attack, is very effective. At least there should be no big problem in defense. However, there is still a problem bothering Rommel who is ready to attack, that is, his logistics supply does have a problem. An Italian oil tanker carrying oil was sunk by a British submarine in the Mediterranean Sea, which made 2000 tons of gasoline and 1000 tons of aviation fuel that should have been sent to Rommel sink into the sea. This is also the most important reason why the Supreme Command banned Rommel from launching offensive operations. Lack of fuel is the biggest problem facing the German army. If Rommel had not captured a British fuel depot for such a long time, he would have been chased back to Tunis by Barton. However, after a few days of fighting and reserve oil in advance, Rommel found that his resources could only fight a short offensive. Although he has more oil, he has more equipment to drink oil. After all, tanks, planes, assault guns and armored vehicles are all oil tigers. However, Rommel is still full of confidence. He firmly believes that his troops can approach Tobruk and win this important defense node in this counterattack.