Chapter 582

Barton was in a hurry, his troops extending from Egypt. The winding road for several kilometers was dusty, full of us m3 semi tracked armored vehicles, trucks, and US and British soldiers walking on both sides of the road.

Since the United States declared war on Japan, the domestic wartime control has suddenly raised the production capacity of the United States to a higher level. In just one month, the United States launched a number of destroyers and cruisers, and almost another new Pacific Fleet has been produced by the United States, including the aircraft carriers in the dock. But this time, the core is no longer the battleship with complex production process, but the open freeboard aircraft carrier which is easy to produce.

Of course, the army's equipment is so much that it makes people feel numb. The United States sent a large number of semi tracked armored vehicles and tanks to the Middle East to protect the increasingly vulnerable oil producing areas in the Middle East. At the same time, it has stepped up oil exploration in Mexico and at home to meet the demand for expanded production capacity.

In just one month, the United States served 200 new fighters, 30 bombers, and produced more than 200 M4 Sherman tanks, half of which were deployed in the Middle East. Barton has been strengthened by at least 30 M4 tanks and 300 m3 storage tanks. The number of tanks in his hand is not much less than Rommel's. This is the capital he is eager to fight for and his biggest reliance.

At present, the 8th Army has 890 tanks, about 90 M4 Sherman tanks, more than 400 m3lee tanks with 75mm caliber guns, and the rest are mostly m3 and a small amount of Matilda. These tank troops are the largest tank troops gathered by the Allied forces. Even the US troops fighting against the Japanese army in the Philippines do not have such a large number of tanks.

However, compared with the number of tanks in Rommel's hands, Barton's armored force is a little poor. Rommel now has more than 70 Tiger tanks, nearly 700 leopard tanks, and nearly 250 No. 3 tanks and other top up junk.

Different from the last tank battle between Rommel and Barton, because the chassis of No. 3 tank was occupied by No. 3 assault gun, the German General Armament Department ordered to stop production of No. 3 tank and turn to produce more excellent leopard tank and No. 3 assault gun. So Rommel's No. 3 tank has not been replenished, but the number has dropped a lot. But the leopard tanks in his hand, as the backbone of German tanks, are absolutely too many to make people smack.

So this time Rommel is confident of a larger tank battle, completely annihilating Barton's armored forces outside Tobruk. Once we win this armored battle, Tobruk will not only become the object of the German Italian alliance, but also Egypt.

On the one hand, the German army waited for Barton to appear, on the other hand, Barton was tired of reinforcement. Rommel accurately calculated the loss of armored forces in Barton's hands. He used the mature maintenance level of the German army to estimate the tanks in Barton's hands. It was easy to calculate that there were no more than 500 tanks Barton could use to fight outside Tobruk, which was much less than the German army's counterattack strength.

Because the maintenance and repair were very convenient, and there was no long-distance attack, Rommel's armored forces were in good condition. At the beginning of the battle, Rommel was able to transfer more than 800 tanks, which made the German army surpass Barton in quality and quantity.

There are two reasons why Barton is in such a hurry to come and fight Rommel's superior army with inferior forces. One is that the production capacity of the United States is steadily improving. He is confident that he will fight Rommel's tank with two or more tanks, and the amount of supplies he will get will definitely exceed Rommel's; Another reliance is the British garrison in Tobruk. Once the battle starts, the British troops in Tobruk will take advantage of the opportunity to fight. When the time comes, the chaos will be together, and Rommel will certainly suffer losses.

He is here to give Rommel to eat these troops, just like a hot KFC luxury lunch. It's just that this big meal is hard. If you want to eat it, you may have to break a few teeth.

In fact, on the road full of yellow sand, Barton, sitting in the command car, is also repeatedly calculating Rommel's forces. The news he gets makes him feel very bad. At least he increasingly feels that rushing up is not a good way.

Rommel's armored forces did not appear in the battle of attacking Tobruk on a large scale. On the contrary, the main force of attacking Tobruk was traditional infantry combined with the artillery of Shanghai army. So Barton didn't dare to rush over and fight a decisive battle. Rommel was obviously waiting for him to bump into the front armor plate of the Tiger tank and leopard tank.

What's more, the loss of air power and sea power made Barton, a brave and brave general, in a dilemma. The loss of sea power forced Barton's materials to be transported by a detour in southern Africa. In order to ensure the absolute safety of this transportation line, Britain and the United States tacitly recognized that Charles de Gaulle entered Somalia.

After all, it's a big circle, because in this big circle, almost one third of Barton's fuel is always on the road, and almost one third of Barton's equipment is always on the road. Around the Cape of good hope, around the whole of Africa, through Somalia, scared through Suez, to reach Barton's hands.

Air supremacy can make people miserable. In good weather, they dare not gather, dare not attack, have to wait for rain, have to wait for sandstorms, and have to wait for all bad weather that is not conducive to combat. Although the German air force in North Africa is far less ferocious than that in Europe, it is still a formidable force. Barton wanted to be optimistic about how many troops he had left after he got to Tobruk, but now the report in his hand obviously did not allow him to continue to be optimistic. The failure rate of M3 tanks in the United States is higher than that of leopard tanks in the German army. After a rough estimate, he found that he could find 400 tanks to launch an attack after a thousand mile leap, which was lucky. If the interference of the German air force is taken into account, it would be very good for the US Army to have 300 tanks left. Of course, this is the result of estimation. It is likely that the United States will only have 200 or less equipment left after a long journey. With less than 300 backward m3lee tanks and M4 tanks to attack the German Leopard tank, which is at least twice its own strength? Are you kidding? If this order reaches the grass-roots units of the US Army on the front line, then there will be no need to fight this battle. If not, the eighth group army will break out mutiny tomorrow“ Send a telegram to general Montgomery and tell him that our plan is going to change. If we bump into it in such a muddle, we may be eaten by Rommel. " Patton said to the staff officer, frowning, holding an unlighted cigar. Obviously, his staff was less optimistic about the battle than he was, so he simply told the truth: "general, half of our equipment will be lost on the way. Once the German army gains an advantage in the battlefield and pursues us all the way, all the equipment lost on the way will be lost to the Germans..." button didn't speak, so the staff went to send a telegram, Montgomery's call back is not slow. Obviously, the other side has also considered the situation on the battlefield. After all, the decisive battle in North Africa is very important. Once there is a problem, the consequences will be unimaginable“ I understand, but if we don't go, the impact of losing Tobruk will be more than the total annihilation of the Eighth Army. If Britain loses India and Australia is threatened by the Japanese again, it is likely to withdraw from the war... "With the message, Barton is silent again. He doesn't understand politics. It's better to talk about military affairs with him than politics. In his eyes, it is very unreasonable to give a group army to an opponent to eat. If it is necessary to set up bait, we must kill more enemies to win. But now his allies are delaying his military operations, which makes him a little annoyed, but because of the pressure of his superiors, he can't show it for a moment. Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the French government in exile, attacked Vichy's French colony in Somalia under the pretext of protecting the air route. As a result, the French battleship off Tobruk made the battlefield in North Africa completely passive. In order to protect their Egyptian colonies and the Suez Canal, the British also tried every means to make the United States and Germany fight to death. Barton is a bit messy. He doesn't understand why the visifa team in Somalia has never intervened in any allied transportation operations, but Charles de Gaulle has to move the place where birds don't shit at this time. He didn't understand why Montgomery would rather lose Tobruk and destroy the 8th Army than lead Barton to his death. Is war not for victory? Barton really put forward the plan for the rescue, but at that time he didn't know Rommel would hold his armored forces for six days, waiting for his own home battle. At least in Barton's play, it's time to stop and gather the troops and find another way to save Tobruk. These 50000 American soldiers and 40000 British soldiers can't be buried in their own hands. This is what Barton is thinking now. He finally raised his head, looked out of the window of the car that followed a dusty tank, and made up his mind“ Order the troops to stop advancing, gather the straggling troops, repair tanks and vehicles, and wait for the next action instructions. " "Call Montgomery back and tell him we don't want to die. Let him do something else," Patton told the staff. At the same time, send our current situation back to China by telegram, and let the big people worry about it. "—— Thank you for your support to the third empire! Today's monthly ticket has moved Longling for a long time! The empire is with you! Long live the Empire! With your support, the Empire will never give up!