Rommel sat in his bumpy car, thinking about how this battle should be fought. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The rolling yellow sand in front of him looked like a monster that could devour people's lives, churning and swelling with little peace for a moment.

Compared to the 200,000 Italian troops, Rommel's current strength can be called small or rare.

However, as a general with his own ideas and a firm belief in the way he believed in warfare, Rommel did not consider his army weak.

In the writings expounded by Rommel in later generations, it is easy to find a set of effective combat styles that he firmly believed.

On the one hand, he advocates offense and believes that offense is the best defense; On the other hand, he emphasized the firepower of the army and was ready to exert its full firepower at all times.

He despised the large, scattered armies. So he had always thought that the Italian Legions were not very effective, and although sometimes they would be heroic, it did not help.

As a battlefield commander, he believes that strength is not the decisive factor, only firepower.

This is also the main reason why he dared to counterattack the British army with only a few thousand men.

Despite the fact that the Italian and German armies in North Africa were often inferior in terms of numbers in terms of numbers, Rommel was able to win battle after battle.

Because he always concentrated all the firepower he could find to strike at the weakest link of Britain at some unexpected point.

"The tank troops of the British must have copied from our southern bread." Looking at the terrain on his front line, he said to himself in his head.

The roads near the coastline were not wide enough for a large-scale armored offensive by armoured forces. Rommel imagined that if he had been British, the tank force would have been wider to the south.

He was indeed right, and at this time, the British general Wavell was ordering the British 7th Panzer Division to continue to advance southward, threatening the Italian rout from the flank.

At this time, the North African battlefield seemed to have been decided, and part of the Italian defenders were divided and surrounded by Bairdi, and the other part did not dare to turn back at all.

According to the historical trend known to Li Le, the British army even took Tobruk all the way and occupied the important seaport city of Benghazi......

Rommel did not know about Admiral Wavell's compass operations, nor did he know that the opponent he was now facing was supposed to be brilliant on the battlefield.

The German top brass did not know that the other side could actually advance as far as Benghazi and even almost drove the Italians out of Africa!

Now, all he knew was that the other side had formally encircled the border port city of Bairdi and had captured more than 50,000 Italian soldiers.

Of course, what he also knew was that the main force of the British actual attack was only more than 20,000 people at most, and they had been attacking for several days.

Such a unit, even if it is well supplied and does not have any problems, should be very tired, and its combat effectiveness is reduced.

Moreover, Rommel knew that he had another advantage - the enemy did not seem to know that his force was counterattacking and was already on the road east of Tobruk.

Even now Admiral Wavell began to shrink his forces, it seemed that it was too late, because the German army, which was advancing at high speed, was like a sandstorm at this time, and crashed head-on into the British army.

Just as Rommel was thinking, an armored car pulled the German soldiers in charge of reconnaissance and saw the British enemy they had been looking for.

The British soldiers, not noticing in the slightest that the enemy directly in front of them had changed, sat down next to their cars to rest.

Because the operation to catch up with the Italians was going so smoothly that the British soldiers did not expect that someone would rush at them with weapons.

German armored vehicles drove all the way to the front of these British, and the British realized that something was wrong.

However, the MG-34 machine gun mounted on the armored vehicle did not give the poor British soldiers any chance, and after a single strafing shot, the Germans easily captured 3 British prisoners.

"General! There may be news from the reconnaissance force! Rommel's car stopped in the bumps because they saw the gesture of the radioman on another car with a radio.

As soon as the car stopped, someone reported the news they had just gotten: "Report! Your Excellency General...... The scouts captured 3 prisoners, and these prisoners were from the 4th Indian Infantry Division! ”

Rommel was stunned, he obviously did not realize that the British would advance so quickly, because, according to the Italians' description, these British troops should still be near Baierdi.

"The intelligence of the Italians is simply misleading us!" An operational staff officer complained as he spread out an operational map.

It has to be said that the maps drawn by the Italians in North Africa are still very accurate, at least not to mislead their own people as much as their intelligence.

A simple scan of the map with his eyes, and a glance at Byrddy's location, and where he was now—Rommel smiled bitterly.

After all, he still underestimated the determination of the British to eat the Italian 10th Army, and it seemed that the British on the other side were even more tired than he had calculated.

The other party kept biting Marshal Graziani's tail and did not waste even a second in Bairdi...... They hurried in order to prevent the Italians from resting in Tobruk.

"Wavell's target, not Tobruk......" Rommel withdrew his gaze from the map, then picked up his binoculars and looked at the terrain around him.

Then he lowered his binoculars: "The British want to annihilate the Italians and take away the Bagassi and enter the depths of Libya!" ”

"Quite an appetite!" The staff officer laughed, because they had now begun to counterattack, and naturally the British missed the most fatal link at the beginning: the Germans!

"Since we are already blocked in front of the British, they will soon be rushing over......" Rommel pointed to several mounds around him, and ordered his troops to arrange their own lines along the line.

"Basic crossfire, forming a situation of flanking attack! Holding out for about 5 hours, I think the British are about to start retreating. Rommel glanced at his watch and said to his staff.

The staff officer nodded and agreed: "The key battle is not near the road, but on the operation of the armored forces in the south. ”

He said as he pointed to the south in the distance: "If we eat the opponent's armored forces and then threaten the opponent's flank, then they will have to retreat." ”

"Frontal reinforcement of our line of defense with 88 mm caliber cannons! I need troops to be able to turn into a counterattack at any time! Rommel spoke suddenly, arranging a frontal defense.

Then he drew a few arrows on the paper and handed the paper to his staff officer: "The tank troops attack in the south, hit the enemy's tank units and kill them, and if they don't find them, outflank them directly!" ”

Having heard his order, the German troops, who had rested for only a few minutes on both sides of the road, began to lay out a defensive offensive on both flanks.

They simply set up some foxholes, and some soldiers helped to build very strong tank gun emplacements.

Because for the Afrika Korps, expensive 88 mm caliber cannons are weapons and equipment that must be protected as a priority.

"It's all the old troops I brought out, do you know what to do?" Rommel asked, looking at the commanders of the armored forces who had rushed to listen to the mission.

"Understood! We flanked forward, and after breaking through the enemy's defenses, we moved on! The commander of an armored battalion said, pointing with his finger in the direction of the British attack.

"Excellent! Radio to stay in touch! Let's go! Rommel waved his hand and motioned for his men to get ready.

In the distance, on the mound, the German soldiers were already beginning to prepare a concave semicircular defensive position, which was like a pocket, a pocket that could swallow the lives of many British soldiers.

On both flanks of the line, machine guns were erected under the cover of soldiers armed with rifles, and behind some hidden plants, 88-mm caliber cannons were ready for battle.

These anti-aircraft guns, which have been carrying anti-tank tasks since the days of the Condor Regiment in the Spanish Civil War, were probably the most powerful flat-fire weapons of this era.

It can penetrate British tanks from a distance of 1,000 meters, and it has a very accurate sight, as well as a terrifying rate of fire.

"Now, all we can do is wait, wait and see if the British will run headlong into our pockets!" Seeing that his troops had largely become concealed and had established a solid defensive line, Rommel spoke.

Just after he finished speaking, a British truck, full of soldiers, appeared at the end of the road.

At first, it was just a small black dot, but the truck gradually grew larger, and finally it was clear that its silhouette could be seen.

This truck was followed by another truck, and the British soldiers had no idea of being watched, and had no intention of stopping and looking around.

Who would have thought that on a high ground less than two kilometers from them, the German machine-gun group in the foxhole had already aimed at the car's drive with a crosshair on an optical sight.

Because of the heat, the steaming air on the ground made the distant scenery shake, and everything seemed so quiet that the silence made the German soldiers looking at their prey a little nervous.