The weather in Tripoli at the end of December was still hot, and although it was on the Mediterranean Sea, it still made General Antonescu, who had just arrived, very uncomfortable.

That's right, Antonescu had only met the Lord Mussolini from Rome, two days after his arrival in Tripoli. When he met the leader in Rome, Antonescu remembers it vividly. As if he were summoning his subordinates, the Italian leader questioned Antonescu as if he were trying to place his North African legion under Roman control.

It's just that Antonescu doesn't eat that, he directly pointed out that the Romanian army is here to help Italy repel the British and French troops invading Libya, so it will make a battle plan according to the actual situation on the battlefield. It was neither soft nor hard to push back the hand that Mussolini stretched out.

At present, the Romanian North African Corps is on its way, and the only troops that have been transported to Tripoli are the 2nd Armored Division, the 29th Division, and the 48th Motorized Rifle Division. There are more than 10,000 people, more than 200 artillery pieces, 25 self-propelled guns, 97 tanks, and 49 anti-aircraft guns of various types.

Although the arrival of troops was small, it greatly boosted the morale of the defenders of Tripoli, at least letting the defenders of Tripoli know that they had reinforcements.

Of course, the reinforcements were not only the North African Corps led by Antonescu, but Italy's own reinforcements also landed a lot, but their reinforcements were more in Benghazi and Tobruk. Especially in Tobruk, the current reinforcement of the Italian army has reached more than 60,000 people in 8 divisions.

In fact, with Antonescu's North African Corps deployed in Tripoli, Italy also has its own selfish motives. Although the previous attack on Egypt was a crushing defeat, it still did not dampen Italy's ambitions for Egypt. After all, the Suez Canal is so tempting that no one wants to control this artery.

Of course, Italy will not do too obviously, and troops have also been brought in Tripoli, and the Ram Panzer Division, one of the only two Italian armored divisions, has also been transported to Tripoli. As for the other armored division, the Trento division was transferred to Tobruk.

In fact, Antonescu preferred the Trento division to support him than the Ram division. Because of the huge gap between the two divisions, the Ram Division was armed with Italy's own tanks, while the Trento Division was a Romanian tank.

Let's see what tanks are in Italy?

First up was Italy's first tank, the Fiat-3000, which was an imitation of the Renault-17, but not very different in performance.

The second is the famous armored Alto CV33 ultralight tank, this armored Alto is only 3.2/1.4/1.28 meters in length, width and height, and the total combat weight is 3.2 tons.

Then there is the M11/39, the strongest medium tank in Italy's possession, which is 4.72 meters long, 2.23 meters high and weighs 11.0 tons. To add a word, its M11 represents a total weight of 11 tons. Moreover, this tank is still bolted with rivets, and its armor is frontal upper: 30, lower: 14, side: 14, top: 8, bottom: 8, turret front: 30, turret side: 30.

In addition, the layout is somewhat similar to the M3 Li tank, and the 37mm tank gun it is equipped with is arranged on the left hull. (If you are interested, you can check it out, this tank is very confusing)

Such a new tank, how can Antonescu rest assured. Luckily, I heard that Italy was improving its medium tank, and they got their hands on the Romanian R10 light tank, and after testing it, they found it to be much better than their own. (Italy: Can anyone tell me why this R10 light tank is 6.9 tons heavier than my medium tank?) ）

However, the new prototype has not yet been developed, so Italy's own tank is still the M11/39.

Although Antonescu did not look down on the Italian tank, he still had to admit that this time the Italian chose to cooperate with his commander well. Lieutenant General Giovanni Messer was in charge of commanding the Italian army in the Italian coalition, and in Antonescu's view, the lieutenant general was one of the few officers in the Italian army who could use tanks.

At present, Italy has also transported two divisions to Tripoli, in addition to the Rams armored division, there is also the Brescia infantry division, and it may be worried about the safety of Tripoli, the two divisions are basically all transported to Tripoli, and these two divisions have been incorporated into the Italian North African Army. In the future, the North African coalition formed by the two armies will have a strength of up to 240,000 troops.

In the face of the continuous influx of reinforcements from Tripoli, General Catroux, as the commander of the French army, is now somewhat shaken by the confidence of the capture of Tripoli, because the French army is still 15 kilometers away from Tripoli. Although the most important city in Libya can already be seen, it is difficult to go any further.

General Catroux had sent a telegram to Paris for more reinforcements, and he felt that he was only one step away from Tripoli, and that he could take the city with reinforcements on his own.

So early in the morning the attack of the French army began, and in the face of the French shelling, the defenders ate breakfast, and then the day's fighting began again.

Antonescu got off the plane in the dust, he had just taken the plane to inspect the battlefield. This can be described as quite risky, as long as it is discovered by French fighters, the RY58 transport plane he is riding will definitely not be able to run. Although it was escorted by four RF20 fighters, it was too dangerous to be known that there was a Romanian lieutenant general in it.

"Hey, Messer, why are you here?"

Antonescu, who had just gotten off the plane, saw Messer at the edge of the airport as if waiting for him. He was a little embarrassed to say hello.

"Lieutenant General Anthony, are you inspecting the battlefield again?"

As soon as he saw Antonescu's figure, Lieutenant General Messer was a little angry. He thought he was bold, but he didn't expect this person to be even more daring and dare to inspect the sky over the battlefield. It doesn't matter if he's dead, but it's not at all wonderful when it comes to army morale.

Seeing Lieutenant General Messer with a disgruntled face, and thinking of his promise to stop flying to the battlefield inspection yesterday, Antonescu couldn't help but touch his nose.

"Lieutenant General Messer, don't keep a straight face and be happy. On the other hand, didn't I come back? ”

“……”

"Listen to me, when I was inspecting, I found a hole in the French army."

"What, you found a hole in the French army?"

At this time, Maese couldn't pretend anymore, and asked directly, and he almost wrote a few words on his face to say quickly.

"Yes, I have found several loopholes in the French army, and if we take advantage of them, we will not only be able to eliminate the disadvantage of the current war situation, but also keep most of the French troops here."

Speaking of this, Antonescu's eyes also showed a sharp desire, which was his desire for battle achievements.