To the south of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the positions of the British Eighth Army have been turned into a sea of fire, and the positions of the Fifth Indian Division, which is the main direction of attack of the Yankuai team on the axis, have changed beyond recognition. [ads:This site has a new URL,Shorthand method:,.]

In the sky, German and Italian bomber groups were almost endless, giving countless fifty-kilogram bombs to the British troops on the ground for free.

The dense carpet of aerial bombs generally covered the positions of the Eighth Army, and most of them were reduced to large and small craters in the indiscriminate bombardment, whether it was trenches and barbed wire fences exposed to the ground, or minefields hidden underground and various hidden firing points.

On the ground, the artillery of the Italian Army was not far behind, nearly 1,000 100-mm howitzers and 150-mm howitzers fired unscrupulously, and with the aerial bombs of the Air Force, they did not hesitate to plow the British positions with steel and flames.

On a high ground south of Addis Ababa, the commander of the Italian 1st Panzer Corps, Giovanni. Messer stood in a bunker at the top of the high ground, using a telescope to take in the horrors of the British positions in the distance.

The smoke of gunfire covered the British positions, and the shadows of trenches, barbed wire, and pillboxes were no longer visible, except for fountains of dirt and gray-white mushroom-like smoke.

In the sky, in addition to the bomber groups of the German-Italian coalition, groups of British fighters hurried to the battlefield, intending to protect the safety of the sky and cover their army brothers, but they were entangled by the German-Italian fighters as soon as they appeared.

Spitfire, Hurricane, ME-109 and FW-190 fighter jets chase each other in the sky, circling each other, pulling white trails in the blue sky.

From time to time, fighter jets are hit and caught on fire, falling to the ground with long black smoke in tow, or having their wings broken, falling all the way into the sky.

Messer's telescope kept spinning around the sky and the ground, a confident smile on his handsome face.

Putting down the binoculars, Messer said to the head of the German teaching regiment, Colonel Barak: "The British have fewer and fewer fighters, they will not be able to hold out for long, and air supremacy will soon belong to us." ”

Colonel Barak touched his broad chin. "We have stored shells for almost two months, fuel for two months, planes, tanks and aerial bombs," he said with a smile. As well as two months of assault training for the troops, it is a matter of course to take out the British on the opposite side, who will not survive the sunset today. ”

Messer squinted at the sun, which had just jumped out of the horizon, and said with a sneer, "I guess they won't make it to noon today." ”

"It's easy to break them down, it's important not to give them a chance to turn the tables during the pursuit. They had to be driven to the sea in one fell swoop, or sent directly to prisoner-of-war camps. Colonel Barak said.

Messer nodded in agreement, then looked at his watch.

"There are five minutes left before the general attack, and the heavily armored troops are about to attack, and I am looking forward to their performance."

"This time they will definitely be able to break through the positions of the British army, and their performance will definitely surprise the British." Colonel Barak said confidently.

After all, those tankmen were trained by his teaching regiment.

Behind the British positions on the opposite side was also hidden in a bunker on high ground.

Montgomery's emaciated face was full of anxiety, shock and helplessness.

Nearly two months have passed, and Armageddon has finally begun, but what I never expected is. The general offensive turned out to be the Italian army on the opposite side.

At the beginning, he rushed to East Africa with great ambitions, led the Eighth Army from Kenya, swept through the entire territory of Italian Somalia, and recovered the lost British Somalia, and then invaded Ethiopia in a big way, and attacked the city of Addis Ababa like a devastating attack.

Who knew that Addis Ababa was like an impregnable wall, which could not be broken by any means by the Eighth Army, and the Italian army was transformed into a brave and good fighting force.

With the advent of the B1 tank and the Matilda II tank. The Italian soldier's Matilda phobia was also cured, and the days when he could rampage through the Italian army with a few Matilda II tanks were gone.

Two months have passed since the last time it received supplies from the country, and in the past two months, the Eighth Army has received only a few light weapons and supplies such as food and medicine from South Africa, India and Australia.

Important strategic supplies such as soldiers, tank spare parts, and aircraft, which needed to be replenished by the British mainland, were almost depleted. Especially valuable fuel.

There is not enough fuel, there are not enough planes and tanks, not to mention going to war with the Italians, even a retreat cannot be achieved, and the distance between Somalia and Kenya is more than a thousand kilometers.

The thought of retreating made Montgomery even more disheartened. Even if you can escape to Somalia or Kenya, what can you do?

Since the annihilation of the Indian Ocean Fleet, the Indian Ocean has become the domain of the Axis powers, and the Eighth Army has become a lone army, which has basically lost hope of returning home, and it is only a matter of time before the entire army is annihilated.

Everything was the fault of the Germans, and it was they who were behind the scenes, so that the Eighth Army would find itself in this dilemma, and it would stop outside Addis Ababa, which was only one step away from victory.

Montgomery looked up at the sky and realized that the battle in the sky was nearing its end, with fewer and fewer Spitfire and Hurricane fighters still resisting, and the Eighth Army was about to completely lose air supremacy.

"Report," a major staff officer hurriedly walked to Montgomery's side and said quickly, "General, Dukem Airport and Bischoftu Airport have just been bombed by the Luftwaffe, and the runway, hangar, and various facilities of the airport have suffered heavy losses, and they have basically lost their use function. ”

Montgomery felt his heart almost stop beating, that without the cover of the Air Force, this battle could not be fought again, and that he had to actively consider retreating.

When Montgomery was in the French campaign, he had deeply learned the power of the Luftwaffe, and was almost buried alive in the ground, and that painful experience left a deep psychological shadow on him.

Air supremacy equals victory, and loss equals defeat, especially when Luftwaffe fighters hover in the sky.

Montgomery was thinking about how to retreat safely when he heard someone shouting, "The Italian tanks have been dispatched, and the general attack has begun." ”

Even if you want to retreat, you must first repel this round of attacks from the Italians, and if you can't retreat this round of attacks, you will not retreat but flee, Montgomery gritted his teeth and thought.

On the battlefield, in the deafening sound of artillery fire. The charge of the Italian army finally began.

Two heavily armored battalions, forty-two Matilda II tanks and forty-three two B1 heavy tanks opened the way in front, followed by the Arreette Panzer Division, and nearly 300 tanks Alpine pressed towards the position of the 5th Indian Division.

On the battlefield filled with gunpowder. The cacophony of squeaky metal grinding pierced the heart of every British soldier.

"We need tanks, send Matilda quickly." On the phone of Montgomery's command, the roar of the commander of the 5th Indian Division was heard.

Montgomery had already seen that the position of the Fifth Indian Division was the key breakthrough area chosen by the Italian army, and he had already formulated a response plan, and the 1st Panzer Division soon received the order. From the assembly area, Matilda II tanks and cruisers marched in long lines to the battlefield.

The last reserve, the 2nd Panzer Division, was also combat-ready.

However, a killer from the sky shattered Montgomery's hopes.

No sooner had the British 1st Panzer Division left the assembly area than it was spotted by German fighters hovering in the air.

Stuka dive bombers then descended from the sky and dropped 500 kg of bombs and 50 kg of bombs at the British tank column.

In the sound of a huge explosion, the British tank column suddenly became a mess.

The advancing tanks collided with the tanks that came to a stop, and some of the tanks rushed left and right to avoid the air raids, only to get stuck on the hillside on the left side of the road or fall into a ravine on the right side of the road.

Two Matilda II tanks were unlucky enough to be swept into the air by 500 kilograms of bombs that exploded almost close to each other. Fly straight up to a height of six or seven meters.

The turret and hull were also in different places, tumbling and flying to the ground, with a few trapeze artists in between.

The real damage that the Stuka dive bombers brought was not the destruction of tanks, but the destruction of roads.

Large and small craters lay across the road, turning into anti-tank trenches in front of the tanks.

Shortly after Stuka left, the real air killers arrived on the battlefield.

Sixteen ME-110 fighter-bombers arrived on the battlefield, giving the British tank group a real nightmare.

In the Luftwaffe, the Me-110 fighter was originally developed as a twin-engine heavy fighter.

But in the French campaign, as well as in the British airdrop leaflet operation, the performance of the Me-110 was extremely unhappy with the Luftwaffe leadership. It simply could not fight a nimble single-engine fighter.

In the major reorganization of the Luftwaffe, the Me-110 was thrown out of the ranks of fighters and converted into fighter-bombers.

Considering that the future land battlefield would encounter the steel torrent of the Soviet Union, the Messerschmitt company added a 37mm anti-aircraft gun to the ME-110 fighter. Tungsten core armor-piercing shells were also issued to enhance its destructive power against tanks.

This battle was the first after the conversion of the Me-110 fighter into a fighter-bomber,

Sixteen ME-110 fighter-bombers circled in the sky, went around the rear of the British tank column, and rushed to the ground in turn, and the 37-mm anti-aircraft guns spewed out shells with a bang. Empowerment attack on British tanks.

The 37mm tungsten core armor-piercing projectile spun at a speed of 850 meters per second and flew towards the Matilda II tank, easily tearing through their top armor and destroying their internal structure.

After the wind on the ground cleared from the sixteen ME-110s, the "corpses" of more than 30 Matilda II tanks were parked on the road, flames and black smoke filled the sides of the road, and a scorched smell emanated from the air.

The ME-110 departed, and the ME-109 and FW-190 fighters came in succession, firing at the ground with machine guns and 20mm cannons

The Luftwaffe's rounds of strikes succeeded in slowing down the march of the British 1st Panzer Division and buying time for the Italian army's general attack.

Under the expectation of Messer, the heavy tank group steadily rushed through the middle of the battlefield in the face of British artillery fire, arrived in front of the anti-tank trench of the 5th Indian Division, and used heavy armor as cover to fire at the British troops on the opposite side of the trench to suppress the British firepower.

Matilda II's two-pounder guns, B1 tanks' 47-mm guns and 75-mm guns opened fire one after another, destroying the few remaining two-pounder anti-tank guns on the positions of the 5th Indian Division.

On the dilapidated positions of the Fifth Indian Division, there were fewer and fewer Indian soldiers who dared to show their heads to resist, and the firepower was getting weaker and weaker.

Italian sappers and infantry took the opportunity to cross the tank group and rush into the anti-tank trenches.

The infantry rushed over the anti-tank trench and stormed the British position, sweeping away the remaining Indian soldiers.

The sappers used sandbags and support logs to pave bridges in the trenches, and then guided the tanks to drive over the sandbags and continue to drive deep into the British positions.

With the loss of the anti-tank trenches, more and more Italian infantry and tanks rushed into the positions of the 5th Indian Division.

The 5th Indian Division was slow to wait for reinforcements to arrive, and the Indian soldiers' fear of death overcame the fear of the British officers, and they fled in groups and then in groups.

Running slowly was either smashed by the Italian infantry with the butt of a rifle or picked to death by a bayonet.

Soon, the British officers of the 5th Indian Division also joined the ranks of the fledgies.

After the tank charge was launched, which lasted more than three hours, most of the positions of the Fifth Indian Division were occupied by the Italian troops, and a crack of seven or eight kilometers wide appeared in the position of the Eighth Army.

More and more Italian sappers joined the battle to fill the anti-tank trenches, and the anti-tank trenches soon became thoroughfares.

The Arreette Panzer Division cut through the positions of the 5th Indian Division and without hesitation rushed towards the empty hinterland of the 8th Army.

The two heavily armoured battalions joined the infantry in flanking the British positions on the left and right flanks, and expanded the breach with the troops feinting in the front.

Seeing that the attack worked, Messer immediately ordered the Litorio Panzer Division to be thrown into reserve.

Attacked by the Litorio Panzer Division, the Australian 6th Division on the right flank of the 5th Indian Division could no longer hold out and was soon routed in flanking attacks from the front and flanks.

The positions of the two divisions were broken through one after another, and the reinforcements were strongly suppressed by the Luftwaffe and could not arrive for a long time, and the positions of the Eighth Army were tightened on all fronts.

The commander-in-chief of the Italian army, Duke Auster, gave the order for a general attack in a timely manner.

In front of the British New Zealand Division and the 1st South African Division, the Italian troops that were originally only feints turned into formal attacks one after another, and the pressure on the British positions doubled.

"Is this the end of it?" On the high ground in the rear, Montgomery looked at the battlefield that had been routed on almost all fronts, and wanted to cry without tears.

It's not my fault, and it's not the fault of the Eighth Army.

We were defeated not in combat effectiveness, nor in command, but in logistics.

If we can get enough supplies, if we can get enough air support, no one can defeat me, and no one can defeat the Eighth Army.

The Royal Navy can only be blamed, it was their incompetence and their inability to maintain the sea transport lines of the Eighth Army that led to this great rout.

In short, everything is not the fault of the Eighth Army, and even more so not its own.

After complaining angrily, Montgomery clearly realized that the general situation had turned, and decisively gave the order to retreat.

Ignoring the fighting Australian, New Zealand, South African, and Indian troops, Montgomery led the remnants of the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions, and fled frantically to the south in the face of the Luftwaffe's pursuit, and the positions of the Eighth Army collapsed on all fronts. (To be continued.) )