Chapter 967

It took more than two months for Germany to prepare for this massive attack, which also meant that Americans spent more time and effort on the Suez Canal defense. △ ↗ Top story: after the defeat of the defense war in Alexandria, the American and British troops were preparing for this defense line. At that time, Germany had not occupied the Nile Valley.

So, even if Rommel prepared this raid carefully, it would be a fantastic thing to say that he would tear up the whole Suez Canal defense line in two hours. When the marshals of the Third Reich were eager to break through the Suez Canal defense line, the United States and Britain were also trying to prepare a very big surprise for Rommel.

"Ignite the stock of oil, with a special line of defense to stop the German advance!" At the same time of withdrawal, the US battlefield commander issued an order and began to launch the long prepared Countermeasures in a planned way.

In fact, speaking of this special means, the US and British forces in the Middle East are also very helpless. Losing Egypt, which has better infrastructure and some light industries, is a fatal blow to the whole Middle East Strategy of Britain and the United States. Many weapons and ammunition have become difficult to produce on the spot, and most of the materials have to be transported from the rear as far away as India.

From the beginning of the war to now, Britain has lost Tobruk, the United States and Britain have lost Alexandria and Egypt, and most of the Middle East construction has been lost to the German Italian alliance, which has shortened the logistics route of the German Italian African Army by more than half - because it is obvious that Alexandria is much better than the remote places such as Tunis and Tobruk.

Most of the American weapons are transported from the distant United States. These weapons bypass the Atlantic Ocean, enter the Indian Ocean from the Cape of good hope, and finally reach the Middle East. The distance of this route is so long that the U.S. military rarely get timely supplies.

In addition, there is a certain gap between the combat effectiveness of the United States and the British allied forces and that of the German North African legion, so the commanders of the United States and the British really can not find the possibility that they can defend the Suez Canal. In the past, when the balance of power between the two sides was not so obvious, Alexandria was occupied by Germany. Now the gap between the two sides is even bigger. How can the small Suez Canal hold?

Driven by this idea, the British and American Coalition forces began to constantly think about their own advantages. Because ammunition can only be processed by small factories in India, the quantity of ammunition is not as good as that of the German Italian African Legion: because ammunition transported from Italy can directly reach Alexandria, the distance between the two sides is almost the same, but India and Italy are not at the same level of industry.

Although the number of troops has barely maintained a balance of power after replenishment, there are huge differences in equipment, morale and fighting will between the two sides. Most of the British soldiers are at the same level as Italy. Compared with the German soldiers, the American soldiers can only be described as ha ha.

In terms of armor, Barton was intercepted by German Paratroopers in Damanhur, leaving half of his tanks in Egypt. The domestic supplement of the United States simply could not supply the American soldiers in the Middle East to rebuild a powerful armored force. Finally, relying on their huge production capacity, the Americans barely made the number of American tanks in the Middle East reach two-thirds of the German troops.

The air force... After numerous supplements, the Americans are still unable to gain air supremacy in North Africa - this is a polite official statement. In fact, to put it bluntly, the US Air Force was beaten to pieces in front of the superior German air force.

On the Pacific battlefield, the American soldiers, who had defeated the Japanese by their firepower and production capacity, and made outstanding achievements, seemed to encounter natural enemies in the face of the German army, which had stronger firepower and more convenient supplies. They had no confidence to win at all. What's the difference between the bad luck of a group of recruits looking for those hundred war veterans of the African Legion and looking for death?

After thinking about it, the senior leaders of the British and American allied forces did not come up with any good ideas. In the end, general montbarton, who was far away in India, put forward a plan: use oil! This barren desert in the Middle East needs little infrastructure and few natural barriers, but it has only one advantage, that is, the amount of oil is appalling.

Since the British Navy lost its control over the Mediterranean Sea, the oil in the Middle East can no longer feed back to Britain. With the end of the British domestic war, the transportation of oil from the Mediterranean has become a joke. The share of oil in the Middle East of the United States and Britain has lost its role, and the development investment in the Middle East has become a burden for more than ten years.

Fortunately, the United Kingdom will continue to transport oil from the Middle East to India, hoping that the oil accumulated there can be used as a resource for the recovery of the country in the future. But the United States is pitiful. The oil transported back to China is not as cheap as the oil mined in the Gulf of Mexico. After all, the cost of the whole Africa has been raised horribly.

As a result, the Middle East has become an oil storage warehouse, with 100000 tons of oil left idle in the United States, and a lot of British production can not be transported out. Germany's share, Italy's share, and France's share of oil after its surrender are also withheld. Such a huge amount of oil production capacity is cheap for the local people.

Since there is so much oil and most of it is useless, montbarton suggested that we burn it directly to stop the German attack? So the British and American allied forces began to build a "oil defense line" by burning oil to prevent the German army from advancing.

The oil was neatly stacked in the trenches, and the crisscross trenches were only covered with a layer of floating soil. These terrible incendiary bombs, like fishing nets, were built about 20 kilometers behind the first position of the United States. The United States intended to use such a sea of fire line to stop the advance of the German army after the first line of defense was broken. The American soldiers began to retreat along the scheduled Road, and hundreds of German troops began to cross the Suez Canal. All the scripts seemed to be developing according to Rommel's design. He watched as his troops climbed the embankment on the other side of the river. He watched as his engineers had built the pontoon across the middle of the canal. Only give him half an hour, his leopard tank can drive through the Suez Canal, and the defense line that blocked him for several months will be left behind by him. The army of the Third Reich will occupy this land, and those Americans and Englishmen will be defeated by themselves in the end. While Rommel was imagining his future, an old Stuka bomber in the sky was looking for its target. The pilot on Stuka finally found a trench full of US troops on the ground, and began to dive to lower his height. This trench is one of the retreat routes reserved by the US Army. No one expected that the German attack was so fierce that the US Army's retreat was in chaos. The planned retreat in batches turned into pushing and shoving in the tunnel. The previously inconspicuous trench has now become the main target of Stuka bombers. The battlefield is changing rapidly, and any planned program may change in the process of implementation. Although the US military tried to imagine the means of attack of the powerful German army, it still did not expect that the German army could build a bridgehead on the other side in an hour. The Stuka plane rushed to its target with a roaring sound. It was as close to the ground as possible, and then dropped the terrible aerial bomb under the fuselage into the trench. With the vibration of the fuselage, the pilot knew that his bomb had left the fuselage, so he began to pull the control lever and let his plane quickly pull up. But at this time, a bullet from nowhere broke his cabin glass. The bullet hit him in the throat, and the blood immediately splashed on the stitched glass of the Stuka plane like a burst water pipe. The pilot pulled the control lever twice with his only consciousness, then drooped his head and did not breathe. So this Stuka fell to the ground, and then with the unburned aviation fuel, a huge explosion occurred at the moment of hitting the ground. Next to the plane that exploded, a node with dozens of barrels of oil buried exploded with a loud bang, raising black smoke and flames several meters high. The American soldiers next to the positions were completely silly. Although they buried the oil, they didn't know that the explosion of these terrible things would be so terrible. We should know that their positions were not far away from these terrible burial places. Everyone thought that the oil burning would become a wall of fire, but no one knew that this thing would burn to several floors. Other places full of oil connecting here also began to explode and burn. The whole position was full of smoke and couldn't see anything clearly. Many American soldiers who didn't retreat were forced back by the flames, and some of them who escaped were covered with dirt. Rommel and garibal witnessed this amazing scene with their own eyes. At the beginning, the marshal of the third empire thought it was the bombers he was chasing that hit the enemy's ammunition depot, but he was stunned by the next explosion. I've seen luxury, but I really haven't seen such luxury! German armored forces have been plagued by their own fuel supply. Burning gasoline for heating is forbidden in the east line. What's more, burning a wall of fire with oil to stop the enemy from advancing? For the first time, Rommel's heart emerged such a question: with so much oil, is it not good to use armored forces and infantry to support the defense line? At this moment, he suddenly found out that he didn't understand the world of local tyrants. The United States, which is so rich and powerful, can really be regarded as the enemy of the third empire.