Chapter 643

For northern Africa, the boundless yellow sand is the unchanging theme. It's extremely hot here. Everything can be related to the temperature.

A lizard lies lazily on a stone. A small pile of dry and withered bushes in front of it is its whole world. It relies on its skin to receive the temperature of the sun light source to raise the temperature of its blood and accumulate enough heat for its own movement.

The distant roar of artillery seems to have nothing to do with it. Human activities here are still not huge enough to change. Here is still the area ruled by nature, and everything here still maintains a relatively primitive style.

Compared with lizards, humans don't seem to like the distant sun very much in the desert. The high temperature makes people feel uncomfortable, and they can't take off their clothes to resist the heat. In order to reduce the evaporation of sweat and maintain the humidity of the skin surface, it is necessary to wrap it tightly and cover up the whole body as much as possible.

Rommel stood in his car, holding his binoculars in both hands, looking out into the distance, where his troops launched the attack, smoke filled the sky, the gunfire continued, but because of the distance, he still could only see the black smoke rising on the horizon, and the fighter planes that had become black spots in the sky in the distance.

The air was steaming and rolling because of the heat, and all the scenery on the ground was distorted and distorted with the waves. Rommel's neck was still wrapped with an old scarf, which was covered with yellow sand and looked very old. But he still liked to wear the scarf, which was a little broken at the corner, because it was something his wife sent him from his motherland.

He loves his wife deeply and cares about his family. He seems to be a good man without blemish. He can be called a rare model husband. When he started to work, he had the unique preciseness and thoroughness of traditional German men. It can be said that he was a tall character who would only appear in the storybook.

Sherner was not disappointed. As soon as the general with the title of beast arrived at the front line of North Africa, he launched a new round of offensive with his troops who were not fully in place. The German troops broke through the three lines of defense of Montgomery in Egypt. Now they are attacking Alexandria. Once they occupy there, the situation in Egypt will be irreversible.

What is unpleasant is that the British Army showed a much greater sense of resistance than expected. They fought fiercely with the German army at all costs, one trench after another. Rommel took turns in fierce attacks, and only pushed forward a short distance in the 20 day attack time.

"General, my troops need rest, and so do your troops! Order the attack to stop. At least we have to find a way to get the shells from Tobruk before we plan Standing beside Rommel's car, general Garibaldi of Italy asked to stop the attack. In the past few days, his first Italian army has stormed the British positions 17 times, losing 41 tanks and a large number of infantry. Yesterday, he inspected the front-line combat forces and found that these Italian soldiers were ragged and yellow faced, no different from beggars.

After all, not all countries' armed forces are as effective as the German national defense forces. The Romanian expeditionary army, which came to North Africa recently, obviously did not adapt to the harsh desert environment. This group army under schelner's command performed very mediocre. After a fight, it could only perform logistic tasks such as guarding the warehouse.

In order to speed up the attack, Rommel sacrificed his mace today. He ordered a regiment of armored forces to take part in the attack and launched a surprise attack on the flank of the British defense line not far away. Now the two sides are engaged in fierce fighting. The final result depends on what the report from the front line says.

"The first attack aircraft of the air force have run out of fuel. They are returning after informing us." An air force liaison officer came up behind Rommel with the documents. After saluting, he said in a loud voice, "the second wave of take-off bombing planes are already flying in formation. They are expected to be over the battlefield in seven minutes."

Not far behind Rommel is the headquarters of the entire African Army, where more than a dozen huge radio antennas are erected, and more than a dozen armored command vehicles are parked together. Cobweb like wires connect to each car, eventually converge and plug into the back of a truck carrying a diesel generator.

The German Air Force's dominance over North Africa is much greater than expected. At least in North Africa, there are no Rolls Royce powered P-40 aircraft with the latest improvements. The Allied air power here is still dominated by the old-fashioned British hurricane fighters and the most primitive P-40 fighters. These planes were obviously reluctant to fight against the well-established German fw-190d fighters, so when the German Stuka dive bombers visited the British positions over and over again, it was rare for allied fighters to take off and intercept.

But Montgomery is also not a layman. Although he is not a strong player in attack, he is absolutely excellent in defense. The defense lines arranged by him were crisscross, and there were specially reinforced key fortifications not far away from each other, so that the German army could only pull out one by one, and could not interpenetrate and break through on a large scale.

Because of the visual interference effect caused by the surface temperature in the desert area, some things close to the ground can not be seen from a long distance. Therefore, the troops of both sides are fighting at a very close distance, and the casualties are huge.

Just this morning, kurlow, commander of the 12th division of the German SS, was hit in the head by a stray bullet while commanding the front-line battle, and died on the spot. This loss caught Rommel by surprise, but then the SS 12th division, under the command of the acting division commander, advanced 8 kilometers and captured 700 British soldiers, which was revenge for their former division commander“ Never think about what we can do after the fall of Alexandria! Gentlemen, it will never fall In front of Rommel, beyond the position where the two armies exchanged fire, and extending to the depth of the British position, Montgomery said to his generals, "we can't lose Egypt, never!" One day, two generals of the British army were killed and the troops of the two divisions were completely crippled. But it seems that the British army does not intend to retreat one step this time. They stick to their position until the last soldier, but they still do not retreat one step. The losses were unbearable. In 20 days of fighting, more than 29000 British soldiers were killed, more than 40000 injured and about 10000 captured. They lost three defensive positions, and the fourth one was riddled with holes. But they also made the German pay a heavy price. Rommel lost 170 tanks and assault guns, most of which were Italian junk. In addition, the African Legion has killed more than 9900 people, and more than 18000 people have been injured and missing. Montgomery is in a good mood now. He relies on his 9th army to hold the defensive position, which makes him more confident and more confident in stabilizing the situation in Africa. Behind him is General Patton's eighth group army, a whole group army's reserve team, and almost all the tanks and armored vehicles of the Allied North Africa are in the hands of the eighth group army. As long as the time is ripe, Patton will take his troops to move westward, launch defensive counterattack, and defeat Rommel's African Army“ Rommel has nothing to fear! As long as we hold our defensive positions here and here, Alexandria will become the most stable supply base behind us! Ladies and gentlemen, the fate of the British Empire is here. Please do your utmost to fight for your country“ general! Please rest assured! The officers and men of the two divisions of the 9th army of the 9th group army, backed by Alexandria, will never step back! " As the most important position in the whole defensive position, Montgomery's most elite troops were also deployed here. They were responsible for defending the outer position of Alexandria until General Patton launched a counterattack. Unlike other defensive positions, the defensive positions here have been carefully arranged and covered by naval vessels and the fort in Alexandria. Rommel has not invested too much offensive forces here. It seems that the Germans want to encircle Alexandria from the flank, as Tobruk did, and then slowly conquer here“ Don't worry! We are on Alexander's flank, and would rather die than step back The general of the 19th army also patted his chest and assured Montgomery that Rommel would have to make a big detour around Alexandria if he wanted to keep the two troops on guard, which would leave a huge flaw for Barton. Just as the Germans dug a huge trap for the Soviets in Poland, Montgomery also set an attractive trap for Rommel in North Africa. The bait is Alexandria, the most important port in North Africa. It depends on whether Rommel is cheated“ be fooled! Why not be fooled? " Rommel pointed to the map and signaled his attack plan to Garibaldi, Frederick and other generals: "encircle Alexandria from the flank. Although it's risky, I don't think it's an irreparable mistake!"“ However, general, we have not yet waited for Barton's Eighth Army to appear. If we are attacked by Barton in the process of encirclement, the losses will be very heavy! " Frederick is more conservative. He doesn't approve of such a risky action plan“ Don't worry! General Frederick, we still have one unit left, so... Alexandria, we're going to win! " Rommel thought of the brave action plan from wolf cave, and couldn't help laughing.