North Africa, Libya.

Ever since Rommel came to Africa with two German divisions, the situation of the Allies in the African theater has been getting better and better, and they have turned defeat into victory all the way without encountering any decent difficulties.

Then, even the remaining Italian remnants of the German-Italian African Army, this group of pig-like teammates, won the battle under the leadership of Rommel.

In view of the good situation, Rommel began to confidently want to conquer Libya and Egypt and the Nile Delta in one fell swoop, and be crowned the conqueror of Africa!

And Tobruk, a key fortress lost by the Italian army, naturally became the primary target of Rommel's African Army.

As the best and most important strategic port in the whole of North Africa, Tobruk is located in a strategic point in northern Libya, bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya to the south, and Egypt and the Nile Delta to the east.

At first, Rommel did not realize that the British were going to fight Tobruk to the death, and he believed that the British would still abandon Tobruk in Africa, as they had done in other victories in Africa.

But he soon discovered that he was wrong!

The British only evacuated Cyrenaica and then stationed Tobruk, and did not want to evacuate Tobruk.

But at this time, due to a mistake in judgment, Rommel had ordered his German-Italian troops to advance for hundreds of miles to Tobruk, but this made the German supply line drag very long, and the fuel of their locomotives was already very tight.

It took a lot of physical strength for the troops to advance such a long distance in a short period of time, and they thought it was a simple task of harvesting corn, but now it seems that it is not so simple.

What's more, Rommel is now faced with one of the most difficult problems, that is, how to first solve the problem of providing supplies to the troops on such a long front.

From the very beginning of this battle, Rommel had no way out.

Because he had already become a hero in the eyes of the German public, especially as his Army Group Africa was sweeping towards Egypt to the east, any German thought and was sure that he would sweep through Africa without much effort.

Moreover, this attack was not what the Führer wanted, but Rommel launched it on his own initiative.

Whether it is to the people or to the Führer, he can only explain it with victory. Otherwise, Rommel could not find a way out the next day.

In the past month, Rommel and Hans have led their elite German chariots and infantry to occupy Bardia and Capuso Fort respectively, blocking the way for the British army that had attacked Algeria to retreat into Egypt.

Later, the French army of Belante joined forces in time to capture the first Egyptian city, Selum.

It can be said that the results of this period of war have preliminarily proved that there is no problem for Rommel to launch an offensive.

At least, so far, nothing has gone wrong.

After discussions with the famous French general Berente, Rommel already knew that the most important problem of desert warfare was to destroy the enemy's heavy weapons - tanks and artillery. But the current situation is that Tobruk's British army is not only well-armed, but also makes full use of the fortress artillery left behind by the German pig teammate Italian Army to build a strong defense.

No way, since it has been carried out to this point, judging by Rommel's stubborn character, no one can stop him from carrying the battle to the end.

On 11 March, Rommel ordered Major General Newman, commander of the 15th Panzer Division, who had been completely reduced to his aide-de-camp, to launch the first attack on Tobruk.

Because recently, under Rommel's offensive orders, Newman's armored division has advanced more than 300 miles in the desert continuously, and it is extremely tired.

And, most crucially, because of Lieutenant General Hans's strong opposition, his 30th Infantry Division had refused to join Rommel's battle plan. And the two Italian infantry divisions of the Second Army of the African Army under the command of Hans were also detained by Hans because of this.

Hans did this precisely because Reinhardt was afraid that Rommel would not heed his warnings and insisted on launching an attack, which would make a mistake at the moment of the British campaign. Therefore, as another veteran general of the African Army, Hans was personally summoned by Reinhardt and explained that in case of emergency, he had the right not to blindly obey Rommel's request, but to consult the Supreme Command first.

The result of Hans's request to the Supreme High Command was that he was allowed to break away from Rommel's headquarters and take command of the German and Italian Second Infantry Corps independently.

Even the French army in Belante received a suggestion from the German High Command that it was better to stop all senseless attacks.

In fact, even the troops that Rommel was supposed to command were not full at the moment.

The Italian Panzer Division was waiting in the rear for the completion of the supply due to lack of ammunition. And also because of the supply problem, in the Allied army that did not have Tobruk as a strategic supply depot, even the German army could not go all out because of insufficient supplies.

But the rigid Newman obeyed Rommel's orders and ordered Colonel Bonas to attack from the southern front with his exhausted machine-gun battalion, and Colonel Albrech's remaining 20 Leopard tanks advanced parallel on the right flank. However, the attack was blocked by tank trenches and barbed wire, and Boonas's machine-gun battalion was stuck in front of the enemy and could not retreat.

Rommel never imagined that the opponent holding the fortress would be a British army of 34,000 men armed with 20 tanks. It is clear that their attack will not be successful.

But Rommel still did not give up, and the vanguard of his 15th Panzer Division, which was involved in the battle, temporarily withdrew and waited for the opportunity to attack again.

And by the next day, the army had been assembled. As a violent sandstorm had begun, Rommel immediately ordered his assembled troops, using the sandstorm as a cover, to organize a new assault at three directions at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, the sandstorm suddenly weakened before it could attack. The forward units of Newman's Panzer Division were blocked by heavy British artillery fire when they were not superior in strength, and the attack was again forced to stop.

It was only in the evening that Rommel again ordered Newman to take Tobruk, and use the two armored battalions that had just been assembled to launch a third attack on Tobruk, but the attack still ended in failure, and the losses were very huge, and the number of tanks on the front line had been reduced from nearly 150 at the beginning of the battle to less than 40.

At the same time, the machine-gun battalion attacking from the south was already in danger. The battalion was less than 1,000 meters from the British front line, and the ground was too hard to dig a pit to hide, and its situation was becoming more and more dangerous. That night, the soldiers were frozen to the point that their hands and feet were stiff; During the day, they had to lie motionless in the scorching sunlight and remain hidden, for the slightest movement would provoke a burst of fire.

It was obviously irresponsible to expect them to attack, and on the contrary, Rommel had to send the troops assembled along the next route to rescue them......