At the same time that Reinhardt let go of his hands and feet and was preparing to make a big fight in the English Channel, Rommel, who was far away in Africa, was also preparing to launch a new round of large-scale offensives.

The two German divisions under his command had been thoroughly assembled in Algeria, where they had also successfully thwarted the offensive of the Commonwealth army and consolidated the defensive line.

Now, Algerian Governor Bérante, who has always had revenge, has made up his mind and agreed to take out two French mainland divisions and three colonial divisions to personally lead them to participate in the next military operation of Rommel's African Army.

And Mussolini, before he fell ill and was admitted to the hospital, the three divisions of Italian troops that he promised to put into the German-Italian African Army have also been assembled on the eastern border of Algeria.

In addition, Garibaldi had sent an Italian infantry division to support the highland operations, and more than 2,000 Italian prisoners of war were rescued after the Battle for the Highlands.

The more important division, under the auspices of Italian Deputy Prime Minister Rossi, in the German-Italian African Army, the tank equipment of the Italian armored division was also usually transported to Africa and received by the troops.

In other words, at this time, Rommel and his coalition forces had gathered a total of 2 armored divisions and 9 infantry divisions to attack. Although this army is made up of three countries, its combat effectiveness is also uneven. But, that's enough!

After all, Garibaldi's more than 100,000 Italian troops had already invaded Libya in advance. Now, it is only Rommel and Beranger to move eastward, and Garibaldi to Libya. The liberation of Libya, then, is just a matter of course.

But just when Rommel was full of ambition, a telegram from Reinhardt himself was sent to his headquarters.

"General Rommel, the Supreme High Command has called us to stop all major military operations. The Chief of the General Staff, General Paulus, reminded us to maintain the status quo as much as possible. After ensuring defensive superiority, Vichy France continued to send the newly expanded 7 French divisions, and then joined forces with the strengthened French army to launch a large-scale operation in Africa. ”

After reporting this telegram from the Supreme Command, Rommel's chief of staff felt sorry for the commander in his heart.

The chief of staff knew how much Rommel had prepared for the next conquest of Africa. In Rommel's plan, his stop line in Africa should not be central Libya, as planned by Berlin, but should include all of Libya, including Egypt, until the glorious end of the Suez Canal.

Of course, a large reason why Berlin set the stop line in central Libya is actually because the Libyan territory that Reinhardt demanded from Mussolini is concentrated in the western part of the country, which is connected to Algeria, that is to say, those areas in the east can only be taken back for Italy, which is of little significance.

However, as a pure soldier, Rommel did not value political calculations.

Frowning, Rommel gritted his teeth and said to himself: "With the victory that has just ended, the situation in Africa has completely fallen to the allied forces of our allies. If you don't seize the opportunity and chase after the Commonwealth coalition forces, then the other side can have a respite and then re-establish a new line of defense......"

Hearing this, before the chief of staff of the African Army could speak, the commander of the Second Infantry Corps of the African Army on the side, Lieutenant General Hans, saw the clue and preemptively asked: "Wait, you don't want to disobey the orders of the high command and start a war according to our original plan, right?" ”

"Why not!" Rommel did not evade, but asked Hans rhetorically: "Garibaldi has already taken more than 100,000 Italian troops deep into the territory of Libya. Now we are rushing into Libya with the second batch of troops, and it is basically a winning situation! ”

"It's just a tactical measure, and in terms of the big strategy, we should wait until France sends more reinforcements to launch an attack." Hans, apparently different from Rommel's conception, shook his head and retorted.

It is no wonder that although Rommel independently commanded the Spanish campaign before and Hans before the independent command of the Norwegian campaign, both of which were classic annihilation battles with a small number of German troops as the core force and fewer victories.

However, the two have very different conducting styles. To put it simply, Rommel is good at taking the initiative to attack, while Hans is more inclined to defend and counterattack.

When two people get together like this, it is inevitable that there will be a collision of ideas.

However, Rommel did not agree with Hans's judgment of tactics and strategy.

Rommel, a famous tactician in history, immediately pointed out to Hans's view: "War is war, and the victory or defeat of war has nothing to do with the level of strategy and tactics." Strategy is the overall situation, and tactical battles are local. Although on the surface, strategy can determine the direction of war and the allocation of resources, tactics appear to think to serve strategic goals. ”

"But in reality, in war, strategy often changes because of a battle!"

Listening to Rommel's words, he said quite conceitedly: "There is always only one goal of war." That is to triumph through violence. Therefore, when we find that a local battle is enough to improve the current strategic advantage, what we should do is not to limit ourselves with a rigid strategic direction, but to do our best to defeat the opponent at the tactical level and play a brilliant victory! ”

This is the first time Hans has heard such a statement.

Until then, he had always believed that the master-slave relationship between strategy and tactics was fixed, just as in the Polish campaign, he led the 30th Infantry Division to resist to the death in the service of Manstein's strategy of encirclement and annihilation.

But now, his new superior, was showing to him a concept of war that was diametrically opposed to Manstein's.

Moreover, as a German commander who had also independently commanded the Polish campaign, Hans actually felt that what Rommel had just said did not seem to be wrong.

"That's the way I fight, maybe it's not the same as everyone else." Rommel smiled and explained to his colleague.

Hans nodded, not speaking. It can be seen that he is still struggling with Rommel's arguments about strategy and tactics.

Seeing that the other party was silent, Rommel humorously said to Hans: "Do you know who you just said reminds me of?" ”

"Who?" Hans, who was aroused by curiosity, couldn't help but ask subconsciously.

"SS general at the head of 250,000 SS troops in the southern provinces, Moder!" Rommel directly revealed the mystery: "Many years ago, when Hitler's rebels were suppressed, Moder, who was still an SS colonel at that time, had an absolute advantage in strength and equipment, but he was willing to attack together until the Wehrmacht I brought arrived. ”

"Although we won in the end, this victory was half a day late."

Smiling slightly, Rommel looked at Hans with a firm gaze: "But this time, I will not let the empire, and our victory, be delayed by half a year in order to wait for the slow French reinforcements!" ”