Chapter 801： Battle of the Middle East (1)

Although I was worried before, the transportation of materials went smoothly.

The fast delivery of the supplies made Hoffman, the commander, also very happy. Although there are still a small amount of troops that have not arrived, he thinks it is enough.

It needs to be said here that after having worked overtime for transportation, the current strength of the Middle East Group Army under Hoffman’s command has basically reached 16 divisions and two brigade-level troops, as well as various other affiliated troops, with a total strength of 410,000. Not at all smaller than the British army on the opposite side.

Now that the troops are in place and the materials are in place, then the next action is logical. For this, Hoffman was also well prepared. During the one-month waiting time, he would not just stay at the command post, write, paint, and issue various orders. This month, he traveled all over Lebanon and Syria. , Do enough to understand this.

In addition, he took the risk of flying to observe the terrain of Palestine and Jordan on the spot, and even observed the deployment of British troops. For this reason, he was accused by his chief of staff Mordelk, accusing him of being irresponsible to himself and the entire war.

Faced with Mordelk's accusation, Hoffman readily accepted and said on the spot that he would not do it again. However, on the second day after saying this, he went to observe the British troops again on the grounds of inspecting the troops in Damascus.

This made Mordelk half to death, and he directly reported his risky actions to Marshal Fereit, the chief of the general staff. This also led to Fereit to send a special telegram to Hoffman, asking him to stop such risky actions. At the same time, two military discipline officers from the General Staff flew to Hoffman to provide protection (or surveillance). .

Only then did Hoffman, who had been closely guarded, ceased. Of course, it had a lot to do with the fact that he had basically watched the British armed forces all over.

It can be seen from this that the British Air Force's disadvantage in the Middle East is too great.

Now that you know your opponent and you are almost ready, when to attack becomes the next focus. On this point, Hoffman and Modelke agree, that is, the sooner, the more necessary, and the enemy cannot be given more preparation time.

For this reason, the two had already made a plan, intending to use a pincer offensive to carry out a devastating attack on the British army.

Since it is a pincer-shaped offensive, then the two blade-point forces must be hard, able to smoothly tear the enemy's line of defense, and not give the enemy time to react. Isn't this requirement set for the armored forces?

Hoffman happened to have four such units in his hands, they were the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth armored divisions. There are currently 7 armored divisions in Romania. The second armored division is currently in the North African army commanded by Antonescu. Among the other two, the first armored division guards the Soviets on the newly occupied Polish territory. The Fifth Armored Division is deployed at the Rosso border.

It can be said that Hoffman’s armored force occupies more than half of Romania, and if he suffers a huge loss, it is estimated that it will not be alleviated for several months.

However, in Hoffman's view, the opposing British army did not have the ability to greatly lose the strength of its armored forces. Take a look at the armor and anti-tank weapons currently used by the British army. They are characterized by the crusade cruising tanks that run as fast as the thief, and the Matilda infantry tanks that are as slow as a tortoise.

The former, the armor is weak, even the R10 light tank can penetrate its armor at 500 meters away, and the firepower is also weak. The equipped 2 pound (40 mm) main gun will also be as powerful as the R10. What can be used to block Romanian groups? R20 tanks and more powerful R30 tanks.

As for the latter, the feature is the advantage of thickening, which can be ignored, especially the weakness of slow speed, so that R10 can go around and destroy Matilda, after all, the wings and tail don't have that thick armor. However, the armor he is proud of is also like paper in front of the main guns of the R20 and R30.

After all, one of these two tanks weighs more than 30 tons, and the other weighs more than 40 tons. The tonnage alone crushes them. Not to mention in terms of firepower and protection, in addition to being incomparable to Crusader tanks in mobility, it can be regarded as a perfect masterpiece.

Now that he has such a weapon, Hoffman has no reason to abandon it. At present, he has deployed four armored divisions on the Lebanese coast and the Golan Heights in Syria.

In addition, in order to increase his ability to attack tough, four independent armored battalions in his hands were also assigned to them. Don't underestimate such independent armored battalions. These battalions are uniformly equipped with R30 heavy tanks. Each battalion has 4×6 tanks per company +2 reserve tanks.

The number of tanks in these four battalions is half an armored division, but the combat effectiveness is comparable to that of an armored division. , Even to some extent, an armored division may not be able to beat them. It can be seen that Hoffman is serious about this attack.

In addition, in order to avoid too few armored infantry, Hoffman also assigned the only three motorized infantry divisions in his hand to each side, and their task was to assault along the coastal zone and the Jordan Valley.

Among them, the troops attacking along the Jordan Valley have the heaviest task. They need to rush all the way to the Dead Sea, and then attack Jerusalem and Amman to contain the enemy's strength. This task is not simple at all, it might be easy to be surrounded by the enemy in the Jordan Valley.

On the other hand, troops advancing along the coastal zone will fight westward to the Sinai Peninsula, completely encircling these British troops.

That's right, the encirclement that Hoffman plans to fight this time will wipe out the British troops in Jordan and Palestine. As long as you open the map, you can see that the areas connecting Jordan and Palestine with Saudi Arabia and Iraq are all deserts. As long as the connection with the Sinai Peninsula is broken, these forces will be under siege. Except for a few people who can leave through the desert, a large-scale army walking through the desert is completely self-seeking.

Not to mention that Romania has an overwhelmingly superior air force, which will let it know that marching in the hot and uncovered desert will become a hell.

Now that Hoffman has such a plan, there are naturally many arrangements. Among them, the navy, which has been transferred to the main fleet, is also in charge. They need to help protect the coastal areas of Palestine, and also to deter the coastal areas of Egypt. The task of the navy is not easy at all.

Now that the preparations are much worse, only the time for the attack to be launched, and Hoffman set a time for them on April 24, which happens to be the same as the time for the German attack on France. There was no such thing as this. Have done any communication, but it's just such a coincidence.

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