Manstein is not the only one who is interested in the 251 rocket type, Guderian, who is far away in Africa, knows that there is such a good thing, and he decisively reaches out to ask for it, but he knows that his popularity is not good, and he is very smart not to force his head, and only puts the problem on the head of Marshal Kesselring, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Front, and the words are very tactful but the meaning is very clear, and the latter really lives up to expectations and snatches a company (16 vehicles) over, so angry that Manstein has a lot of complaints after he knows, but Kesselring pushed him back with a word- What's wrong with grabbing a rocket artillery company? This month, in order to support your armored operations, more than 50 No. 4G vehicles were originally intended to be allocated to you.

Of course, this is a strong rhetoric, because although the No. 4G of the Afrika Army was taken, the General Staff still allocated the same number of T-34s, but Kesselring did not see it that way, he thought that the No. 4G was more useful than the T-34, if you don't believe it - let's change it! This made Manstein bitter and bitter, the African army can fight with both the T-34 and the 4G, but the Eastern Front cannot be equipped with the T-34 on a large scale, so he can only retreat, but fortunately, Schmund promised him another Tiger armored battalion in December, and he put down this stubble.

After the victorious conclusion of the Battle of El Alamein and the retreat to the fortress of Tobruk, the Afrika Korps went through a series of reorganizations and additions to reach the size of three full armored divisions (4th, 15th, 21st), one full armored brigade (Flying Fortress armored brigade), one infantry division (164th infantry division) and an Italian paratrooper brigade, plus some remaining troops and air force, the total strength was restored to nearly 100,000. At the same time, it also has 800 tanks and nearly 900 aircraft in 5 air wings, although it is a little worse than the British 8th Army opposite, but it is still a strong army.

At the critical moment of Operation Torch in early November. In order to effectively deter the British and American troops, Guderian launched a diversionary attack on the 8th Army besieging Tobruk on Hoffman's orders, and he easily penetrated Montgomery's painstakingly deployed defensive line with the spearhead of two armored divisions, and then expanded in depth, inflicting heavy losses on a South African division, a Free French division, and the British 10th Panzer Division, which had just received a large amount of supplies and recovered most of its strength in just one and a half days, but this time Montgomery learned the lessons of the Battle of El Alamein. The construction and construction of a multi-layered defense system was carried out, and instead of simply transferring reinforcements from other directions, all the tank reserves in the hands of the group army were pounced on to fill the gap. Desperately fighting for huge losses, Guderian's assault was finally contained.

At this time, Montgomery had a total of 14 divisions and 3 brigades, the total strength of the army alone was close to 300,000, and he also had more than 1,500 aircraft of the desert air force, in order to deal with the Afrika Korps. He mobilized nearly 200,000 men and most of his tanks and planes to besiege Tobruk. Another 100,000 men served as army group reserves and maintained a supply line from Cairo and Alexandria via El Alamein to Tobruk, and the British had 30,000 troops in Cairo and Alexandria in the rear.

In view of the fact that the 8th Army was not fooled this time, and at the same time the situation in Morocco was very tense, Guderian finally retracted to Tobruk by alternating the cover of the retreat. It's not that he doesn't want to fight, it's that his logistical channel is occupied - this is a helpless thing, because all the naval capacity sent from the Italian direction is so small, in order to intimidate the British and Americans not to land in Morocco. The Führer's reserves were quickly transferred to the French colony in Vichy, where they enjoyed priority transport and support. The Afrika Korps supply sequence had to be delayed, and even the deployment of the two heavily armored battalions, which Guderian was most concerned about, had to be delayed.

According to the Führer's proposal and requirements, the General Staff drew up a total of 12 heavy armored battalion formation plans, the serial numbers from 501 to 512 respectively, but 501-504 these four heavy armored battalions were organized before Hoffmann crossed, so the formation of the army was very fast, according to the original plan, before the end of 1942 these four battalions were to be put into battle, of which 501 and 502 were to Guderian, 503, 504 two battalions were used by Manstein.

Although the 501st Battalion was sent to North Africa, due to the defeat of the Battle of El Alamein, the German and Italian troops had been driven to Tunis, so the battle of the 501st Battalion was in Tunisia to deal with the Anglo-American wing, and now Operation Torch has not happened, and Germany still has Tobruk, so the enemy of the 501st Battalion has become the British Eighth Army; Historically, the 502nd Battalion was sent to the Eastern Front, but this time it was also the turn of North Africa. Due to the delay, although 501 and 502 entered the battle earlier than 503, it was 503 who actually arrived on the front-line battlefield.

Compared with history, the current heavy armored battalion has undergone important changes in both quantity and connotation, the original history was 45 full strength, but now it has become 54 full tanks, and this time there is neither a Porsche Tiger to interrupt it, nor is it made up with No. 3 tanks because of insufficient numbers, and they are all the first batch of new mass-produced tanks of the standard. The Tiger tank is also different from the historical model, the tonnage is generally nearly 10 tons lighter, the triple load wheel has become two, and the inclination has been slightly increased under the premise that the armor thickness has not changed, and in general, both the failure rate, the level of passage and the degree of reliability have greatly exceeded the historical level, and all those who have come into contact with this weapon have fallen hopelessly in love with him, and if you insist on finding a disadvantage, it may be that the number of spare ammunition has been reduced and the space is not as spacious as in history.

But for the officers and soldiers of the heavily armored battalion who have not been in contact with the original model, this is not important, as long as those who have seen the T-34/76 know that the air force in the Tiger turret is like upgrading from a compact 60 square dwelling to 100 square meters at once, and the Germans can even stay with the T-34, why can't they use the Tiger type? With 88mm thick tubes, 100mm thick armor, and the most advanced and reliable sighting equipment, everything indicates a powerful weapon.

Now Guderian has 114 Tiger tanks under his command (108 Henschel Tigers in battle, and 6 rescue and maintenance vehicles converted from Porsche chassis), according to the estimates of the Quartermaster Department of the General Staff, 30-40 Tiger tanks should come next month to replace the damage, and then the new heavy armored battalion will be put into battle in 1943.

Despite the tight capacity, Marshal Kesselring still did his best to let the personnel of the 2nd Battalion arrive in North Africa with Ar-232 transport planes first, so as to adapt to the climate and combat ideas in advance, and their equipment was only late after November 20, and a group of T-34s and Guderian's long-awaited self-propelled rocket artillery companies arrived at the same time as the Tiger tanks. Hoth's victories in Voronezh and the upper reaches of the Don and Manstein in the meanders of the river captured a large number of T-34s, so the T-34 resources in the Czech reconstruction plant were particularly large.

Beginning on November 8, with the British and American joint forces in Operation Torch turned to South Africa, Guderian and Montgomery fought again, and the two sides engaged in a tug-of-war around the defense line around Tobruk for three weeks, although the position of the defense line did not change much, but the African Army generally took a lot of advantage, Guderian was well versed in the principle of "persimmon should pick a soft pinch", and every time he used armored troops to surprise the colony and other British allied troops, Montgomery knew that there was no way to do it, Because nearly half of his troops are non-native troops, as long as Guderian wants to fight, he can find weak links at any time.

In the three-week war of attrition, the African Army lost more than 4,000 people and nearly 100 tanks one after another, and the Eighth Army lost 30,000 people and more than 300 tanks, neither side was satisfied with this result but had to continue to grit their teeth and persevere, Guderian waited for the new reinforcements that came in, while Montgomery waited for a large number of reinforcements from the American troops - due to the ambush of German submarines in Operation Torchlight, 97 of the 200 Sherman tanks originally given to Britain were lost, which made Montgomery very dissatisfied, Fortunately, after coordination, the Americans with deep pockets agreed to make up for it, and the only good news was that due to the long time, the Americans had enough time on board to replace the Shermans with new tank guns according to General Hewitt's method, which was considered the key to fighting the T-34s in North Africa.

Unfortunately, they didn't know that a more formidable opponent had arrived in North Africa - Guderian had access to much-needed resources and equipment earlier than they did, not to mention a powerful weapon like the Tiger. Now the number of tanks in the African Army has increased to 900, of which the 4th and 15th Panzer Divisions are equipped with T-34 tanks (the 15th Panzer Division was originally equipped with German tanks, but with the successive battle losses, all tanks were assigned to the 21st Panzer Division and replaced with new equipment)

Faced with relatively favorable timing and sufficient strength, and at the same time having no worries for the time being, the restless Guderian was replanning the offensive, this time no longer a small war of attrition, he was determined to use the firepower advantage of the newly arrived Tiger armored battalion to make a surprise gap, with the goal of eating Montgomery's 3-5 divisions.

Now, the commander of the 501st Battalion on the offensive mission is Major Lüdel, and the commander of the 502nd Battalion, Major Shad Merkel, leads the whole battalion of officers and men waiting for the order to attack, which will be their debut on the African continent with the Tiger tank...... (To be continued.) )