In stark contrast to the misery of the British, after the capture of the fleet and the takeover of Alexandria, the Germans were shocked by the sheer volume of supplies, and the city was now a sea of joy - a large amount of supplies were being quickly counted, inspected, or put into storage, and jubilant German officers and soldiers could be seen everywhere. The swastika flag fluttered high in the city hall in the middle of the city, and the Egyptians looked at this new group of European uninvited guests with mixed feelings, and it seems that the military discipline of the Germans is not bad at the moment, and as for the future, let the politicians have a headache first.

The port transport ship was loaded with a large number of trucks, jeeps, aviation gasoline, anti-aircraft guns, Sherman tanks, submachine guns and other equipment, as well as more than 40,000 tons of wheat, flour, sugar, sausages, fat, butter, milk powder, egg powder, cheese and other military food, 4,000 tons of canned Spam meat (the predecessor of luncheon meat) and other canned food were seized, and 300,000 pairs of military leather boots were turned out on board -- this thing is not very easy to use in the desert area. But the German veterans who had been on the Eastern Front admitted that they were no worse than the high-end goods produced by Germany itself, which were light and warm.

Kesselring certainly had a knack for getting along in Italy, and on the one hand he promised the Italians that he would give them the spoils of war after the war to inspire them to fight hard, and on the other hand, he immediately decided to give them canned meat - five for each and double for the officers. In the afternoon, all the Italian naval officers and men who remained in the harbor munched on fragrant canned meat and said good things about Kesselring, believing that it would be a good loss to follow the Germans on this trip.

Rommel rushed back to the port from the Canal Zone at about 3 p.m., and as soon as he arrived, he was impatient to watch the seizure of supplies. Especially the oil that he is most concerned about.

The result was a great relief, the Mediterranean Fleet stored a total of 400,000 tons of heavy oil in Alexandria, although Andrew ordered someone to open the valve before leaving. Despite the risk of environmental damage, the Germans arrived in time and turned off the valve, and the heavy oil leaked little, leaving nearly 360,000 tons. The British army scattered a total of 8 oil warehouses in Alexandria, but only 2 were destroyed in time, and 6 warehouses were preserved intact, and an inventory found nearly 80,000 tons of various types of oil. It's really exciting.

The British destroyed a lot of food and logistical supplies, but even then there were mountains of supplies left, and then consider the food on the ship. The number is simply outrageous.

Now that the British army in Cairo has as many as 60,000 troops and is supported by fortifications, it is not an easy opponent to deal with, considering that Guderian can reinforce himself on a large scale in less than 3 days after finishing the Eighth Army, Rommel does not want to attack in a hurry. After deploying the defensive line, settling the troops, and continuing to press the defenders of Cairo. He pulled Gauss and counted the various spoils with great interest.

There is only one word to describe the feeling of all the materials after seeing it - shock!

Looking at the dazzling array of products, Rommel felt a little dizzy - this battle was too cost-effective. He only glanced at the captured materials for a few moments and let them go, but the discovery of a large number of steel structure products on one of the transport ships made him interested, because no one could understand what it was, and it seemed that the engineer unit did not understand. After inquiring about the captives in detail, I learned that it was the British and American standard Bailey Bridge - a light and standardized truss unit made of high-strength steel, which could be quickly assembled into a truss girder bridge suitable for various spans and loads with special equipment. The Americans did not have the wealth to prepare a complete set of bridge components.

Relying on instructions and drawings, the sappers quickly built a 17-meter-wide building in three hours. The military temporary bridge with a span of nearly 100 meters has a theoretical bearing capacity of 40 tons, but after temporary reinforcement, it was found that the Tiger tank of nearly 50 tons was pressed up and walked steadily.

Now everyone knows that the captured crew did not lie, and these things really were not for the British, because there were no bridges in the desert at all, and only the Red Army could use these guys. Rommel was keenly aware of the value of this shipment, and immediately asked the logistics department to ship it back to China and prepare for imitation, especially emphasizing that the size must be compatible with British and American products - everyone laughed at the second half of the sentence.

By the time the last few tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks were inspected, Rommel was mentally prepared and was still startled by the neatly stacked new tanks, which smelled of brand new engine oil, and contained 180 Shermans, 60 M3s, and more than 800 military vehicles of various types -- all new! Even the chassis number is serial. When Rommel was poor and insane, he even had to take back the rags that the Italians had thrown in the desert, and now he can not be ecstatic to see such a treasure trove? Only the last aircraft warehouse has the least number, because the ship only carries more than 100 P-39s and P-40s disassembled into parts, and the rest of the inventory aircraft have been collected by the Egyptian Air Force for battle, but there are still a lot of spare parts, including engines, wings, etc.

Stroking the new guys, he smiled at Gauss: "What a lucky guy Heinz (Guderian) is...... If he wanted all these things to be transported to Montgomery, he had to hit his head and break his blood. ”

Gauss shrugged: "It's hard to say whether he is lucky or not, he has captured so many British soldiers, and he has to provide them with food and drink, and 100,000 more mouths at once must eat him." ”

"What's the ...... Didn't he serve the British's supply depot? More than 200,000 troops of equipment and supplies were also captured, and as for the things and prisoners that were not wanted...... Rommel pouted, "he would throw them to the Italian leaders, who liked to take the prisoners and captured materials to Rome for exhibition." ”

"Sir, after counting, the equipment captured so far is enough to arm 5-6 divisions, more than 80,000 troops, and logistics materials can support 300,000 troops for 2-3 months."

"This statement is not true, to be exact, it should be 8-10 divisions, 15-200,000 people."

"Why is there such a big discrepancy?" Gauss was stunned for a moment and asked curiously.

"This ...... The ......," stammered the logistics officer, "we have found several divisions of Italian equipment elsewhere...... It was all piled up as a piece of tatters by the British, and this can also be used as a seizure? ”

Gauss burst out laughing, and he finally realized that most of the Italian prisoners captured in the previous North African campaigns were held in Egypt, especially in Alexandria and Cairo, and there were also some prisoner of war camps in the direction of Ethiopia.

At the time of the first major changes in Alexandria and the sound of gunfire outside, the German prisoners of war were actively planning riots and escapes, but the Italian prisoners of war, who were dozens of times their number, were indifferent and docile as sheep, even when the British army and the Egyptian guards dispersed, they still did not think to resist, and only obediently cowered in the prisoner of war camp and waited for the situation to clear. When the German troops went to rescue them, these Italian prisoners of war were clamoring for supplies, supplies, and treatment, and even a few generals put up a score for the Germans to quickly invite the officers to talk, so that the paratroopers were so big that they simply turned their eyes out of sight and were not annoyed, armed the captured German troops with captured weapons, and handed over the management of the entire prisoner of war camp to them.

Although they were under the same roof of the prisoner of war camp, the captured Germans were obviously unhappy with these Italian soft bones, and they were even more angry when they saw their noisy appearance now, not only did they not rescue them, but continued to blockade the prisoner of war camp under the pretext of screening British spies, and even set up a line of fire with the machine gun bunkers left by the British, and then something happened again when lunch was served at noon -- the British supply system collapsed in the morning, and the logistics office was also in trouble in the face of the tens of thousands of mouths that had been added all at once. They couldn't even get busy with the logistical arrangements of the Canal Army, so how could they bother to deal with the prisoner of war camps? As a result, the Italians were starved by the solids.

This can stab Ma Fengwo - Lao Tzu never starved when he was a British prisoner of war!

In the evening, things got bigger, the Italians were noisy and wanted to "riot", so angry that the German guards grabbed Browning machine guns and aimed them at the open space at the entrance of the camp to warn them continuously, and only then did they suppress the commotion, with the result that the Italians could not even eat dinner, and the matter finally went all the way to Rommel.

Speaking of the Italian captives, Rommel's face became a little ugly, and he asked, "Are those damned Italians still making trouble?" ”

"They are much more honest after the supply is restored, but ......," the logistics officer stole a glance at Rommel, "and they are clamoring to go to the leader to accuse you of mistreating them, and to sue General Guderian that he had left the Italian troops captured by the British." ”

"If you're so dishonest, just keep it for a few more days! Aren't they going to sue me? Good! When the time comes, I will send the leaders to the prisoner of war camps to listen to their complaints. Rommel grimaced at Gauss and said solemnly, "There must be no hurry to release them, there must be British spies in it to incite the trouble...... Carefully screen the ...... Well, you can ask the Gestapo to come forward. ”

The nearest Gestapo is still far away on the eastern front, and if you ask them to estimate that Egypt has taken it. Gauss wanted to laugh but couldn't laugh, so he only persuaded: "This is not good, the leader will come in two days and he will not be able to save face, and it will be useful to rearm them against the British army in Cairo." ”

"They will only do bad things, after being locked up in the prisoner of war camp for so long, it is estimated that even the last bit of sharpness has been exhausted, and it is better to wait for Heinz to come and support." Rommel cursed angrily, and then told his adjutant with great ambition, "Send a telegram to the Führer and the leader, and I invite them to dine in Alexandria tomorrow evening -- a complete set of American supplies for the Soviet Union, and as for the Italian prisoners of war, let the leader liberate them." (To be continued.) )