Looking out at the endless desert, Rommel, who had become famous, suddenly found that he seemed to have some emptiness in his heart.

He entered Egypt, and the Italian star Garibal, the French star Belonte, and the three of them led the troops into Cairo peacefully.

However, the final battle, which was supposed to be the climax, did not give Rommel the excitement and sense of accomplishment at all.

Previously, he led the battle plan drawn up by the General Staff of the African Army Group to attack El Alamein, blitz Cairo, and enter the Suez Canal to control the Suez Canal, which seemed to be at least a month or even many months in the future.

But now, with Montgomery and a group of British officers making a proclamation in the government hall in Cairo, after the reporters finished taking photos and writing scripts, the war in Africa was over.

By the time of the battle of El Alamein, Rommel's army had exceeded 200,000 men. Most of them were Italian servants sent by Italian Prime Minister Rossi.

As the core of the German army, there was only one armored division and one infantry division.

In addition, in accordance with Petain's instructions, Beronte symbolically handed over the command of a French colonial division to Rommel's command of the African Army Group.

These soldiers are not weak at all.

First of all, the core infantry division of the German army is the famous meritorious division - the 30th Mechanized Infantry Division. The division was able to fight well and trained all the way in the European theater, and participated in the Polish campaign, the Norwegian campaign, and the French campaign. In terms of combat experience, no other infantry division in the German army could surpass the 30th division.

In addition, during the days of fighting in Africa, the German 15th Panzer Division also accumulated a lot of combat experience, and completed the run-in with Rommel's command style, becoming a well-deserved elite.

As for the Italian servants, Rommel generously gave them a lot of equipment captured from the British. The Italian and British artillery in the African theater of operations were all unified into the artillery column of the African Army Group, which was under the centralized command of Rommel.

After Montgomery's surrender, Rommel also distributed Italian equipment captured from Egypt to a colonial division that Berente had given to his command.

To be precise, the equipment that Rommel gave to this French colonial division was actually the equipment that was first lost to the British after the defeat of the Italians, and was used by Montgomer to equip the Egyptian troops. After Montgomery surrendered, the Italian equipment was transferred from the Egyptians to the French colonial forces.

As a result, Rommel's new African Army Group had such a characteristic scene - the German troops were equipped with Germans, the Italian troops were equipped with British, and the French colonial divisions were equipped with Italian equipment.

In this way, just because of the equipment factor, the servant army provided by Italy and France has increased its combat effectiveness to a higher level!

But the embarrassing thing is that this increasingly powerful African army has now lost its opponent!

After taking Egypt and taking the Suez Canal in his pocket, Rommel's offensive options were very limited.

On the other hand, German military operations in the USSR had already seriously affected the enthusiasm of the High Command for the African armies.

In the eyes of the High Command, now that Britain had surrendered, and the British army in Africa had been disarmed and the colonies had been handed over to the Allied powers, there was no need for the military to fight for the interests of Africa.

Leaving behind the most powerful armored division, transferring the highly decorated 30th Mechanized Infantry Division back to China, filling in new recruits, expanding into an army, and then putting it into the Soviet battlefield may be a good choice proposed by the Supreme Command.

However, Reinhardt ultimately rejected the option.

In the military conference room, he once again stressed that the German army in Africa was already very small. With only two divisions, it is necessary to influence the situation in the whole of Africa and ensure the leading position of Germany in Africa, and all these things do not allow the size of the German army in Africa to be reduced at all.

Even if one division is transferred back, it can be expanded and the German army will have three more divisions on the Eastern Front, and such a deal is still not cost-effective.

On the one hand, on the Eastern Front, Germany's allies had already provided a total of nearly 2 million Allied troops, compared to the 50,000 more German troops on the Eastern Front, which was actually not so important.

On the other hand, if Rommel had only a 10,000-strong Panzer Division under his German army, then the influence of the German army would have been greatly reduced in his 200,000-strong Triple Allied army.

As a German commander, Rommel naturally did not want his already scarce troops to be transferred again.

Besides, looking at the whole world, which army commander has only 2 divisions of his own troops under his command?

"General Rommel, I want to congratulate you."

After completing the process of accepting Montgomery's surrender ceremony in Cairo, Hans, who had returned to his new headquarters with Rommel, came to congratulate him.

The new headquarters is a beautifully decorated two-story building with Egyptian architectural features.

This was the headquarters that Montgomery had originally used, but now he was given to Rommel by Montgomery.

After the solemn surrender ceremony, Rommel returned first. Lieutenant General Hans went to receive a telegram and arrived ten minutes later.

Now, as soon as Hans opened the door of Rommel's office, Hans smiled with joy: "The Propaganda Department has sent special personnel to fly to us to shoot and edit a documentary "The African Conqueror" for General Rommel, who conquered North Africa. ”

Becoming the conqueror of Egypt was Rommel's dream since he came to Africa. It's just that when this dream came true today, he was not as excited as he had always imagined.

There was certainly joy, but other than that, Rommel clearly felt that something was missing.

"In addition, the place for the 5th field marshal of the army is out, and the 5th field marshal scepter belongs to you, Marshal Rommel, who is alone in Africa!" Hans clapped his hands and laughed.

"Field Marshal!" This made Rommel's heart beat faster.

For any German serviceman, the significance of the marshal's scepter was extraordinary. In this life, Reinhardt deliberately suppressed the number of German field marshals, which made this title even more valuable and precious!

Becoming a field marshal is also a big long-cherished wish of his own. Rommel thought with some satisfaction that even if he really didn't have much to fight in the short term, his heart would not be too painful.

"And there is good news as it comes by," said Lieutenant General Hans at the end, and the smile on his face increased: "The Führer has prepared a special gift for you for the new marshal, I think, you must like it!" ”