The battle was almost a nightmare for the British army. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition to being aware of the possible presence of mines under their feet, the British army must always be careful of the German snipers to give them a fatal blow...... At this time, any British army or British colonial army found that the situation of the attack before the war was too optimistic, and they always thought that the artillery would detonate most of the mines, and the remaining mines would be fine if they used mine detectors carefully.

But the fact is that there are a large number of mines remaining, which may be related to the quantity and quality of mines and the geology of the desert: too many of them will always slip through the net, uneven quality will cause some mines that should have been detonated not to be detonated, and desert geology will reduce the distance of the shock wave when the shell explodes.

To make matters worse, the British Commonwealth Army was generally unfamiliar with the terrain and the desert area had no obvious geomorphological features, and the smoke and dust from the explosion of the shells completely obscured the stars and moonlight in the sky, making the battlefield pitch black, which made it necessary for the British army to advance with flashlights.

As one surviving British soldier described after the war: "We obviously cannot stay where we are, because we are attacking rather than defending." Then we have a painful choice, we will either be killed by enemy snipers with flashlights, or we will be killed by mines because we can't see! Yes, I saw a lot of corpses on the road, and you can't forget that scene, the ground was full of New Zealanders and Indians, and many seriously wounded people who were anxiously calling for help. ”

Later, the British soldier found a more reliable way, and he crawled on the ground, probing the road with his military thorn little by little...... The thorn is stuck diagonally into the sand in front of it, and if there is a mine in front of it, the thorn will hit a hard object.

Doing so was slow, but it saved his life.

But this was only an isolated phenomenon, and almost the entire offensive of the Commonwealth army was under heavy German casualties, with the exception of one unit......

The exception to this force was the South African 1st Division.

It is a coincidence that when the South African 1st Division was stationed in Alexandria, the Chinese army trained them not to shoot guns or artillery, but to train them to toss explosives and deal with mines.

The Chinese military did this in the hope that they would be able to carry out harassment missions, but this was when they came in handy...... In fact, a large part of this is due to the advantages of the South African soldiers themselves, such as their habit of not wearing shoes, which gives them a specialty that other armies do not have, even the Chinese army: using their feet to sense landmines.

Of course, there will inevitably be defeats, but it allows the South African 1st Division to walk in minefields more freely than other units, and at the same time does not need to use flashlights.

What's more, their dark skin color made it difficult for German snipers to detect their presence.

As a result, the South African soldiers were always unaware of the German snipers, but the German snipers did not know anything...... Then, when the German snipers shot the target, or contacted the rear artillery through walkie-talkies, the South African soldiers easily knew the enemy's position.

At this time, most of the South African soldiers chose a very sensible way of attacking: throwing grenades at the target.

Throwing a grenade at this point is an absolutely correct option.

On the one hand, this is because the South African soldiers are so poor in marksmanship that they often can't hit the target even if it is close at hand, not to mention that it is still dark and they only know the location of the target.

On the other hand, throwing a grenade is not the same as firing a gun, when you shoot, the muzzle spark and the sound of the gun are exposed, and a grenade is thrown over...... Who knows in the dark which direction this grenade is coming from?!

After the war, Zhang Chi also went to interview these South African soldiers, how could he know that at this time, he used grenades instead of shooting indiscriminately like before?!

The South African soldier replied, "Didn't you teach us?" That's what you have to do in the harassment war! ”

Hearing this, Zhang Chi almost vomited blood...... It turned out that they were treating this offensive war as a war of harassment.

But it was a mistake, the German snipers fell one by one under the hands of the South African soldiers, and the South African 1st Division advanced eight kilometers in one night, the farthest advance of all the Commonwealth armies, leaving all the troops who followed far behind.

If the well-trained German snipers knew that they had been defeated by South Africans, who were considered to be the worst in quality, they would have climbed up underground and cried out.

And the South African soldiers shocked the Chinese instructors into heaven, and they all shouted in their hearts: God, those Chinese are really powerful, everything they taught was immediately fulfilled on the battlefield!

Here's the problem......

The South African 1st Division was arranged on the southern flank of the feint, and it goes without saying why it was so arranged, the South African 1st Division has poor combat effectiveness!

When Montgomery knew this, although he didn't say anything, anyone could see the regret in his heart...... If the South African 1st Division had been placed in the direction of the main attack in the north, the situation on the battlefield would have been much better: the South African 1st Division had cleared the German snipers and artillery scouts in front, followed by several infantry divisions to clear the mines, and then the Panzer Division could advance smoothly and achieve its goal as planned.

But there were no ifs in the war, the reality was cruel, the results achieved by the feint troops, that is, in the direction of the South African 1st Division, had no meaning for the Commonwealth Army, and the main attacking force on the northern flank was stuck in a minefield and could not move.

Two hours later, just before dawn, the British 1st Panzer Division, which was following behind the demining infantry, panicked.

This sounds difficult to understand, given that the British colonial troops, who were demining at the front, were in greater casualties and danger, and the Panzer Division, which was following up behind and was providing fire cover, was panicking...... In particular, this armored division is still the ace unit of the British army.

But it's not surprising at all.

At this time, there were problems with the entire promotion system of the British Army, such as officers generally had to have noble status...... In other words, there are forces and connections, so it is inevitable that there will be many officers who are greedy for life and afraid of death. This is especially true of the 1st Panzer Division, which is known as the ace force, and the problem is even more serious, because powerful people want to use the signboard of this "1st Panzer Division" as a springboard for rapid promotion.

To paraphrase a common phrase on the Internet, it is "a system problem!" ”。

The problem was the 7th Armored Brigade under the 1st Armored Division.

(Note: During World War II, the British Armored Division was a divisional brigade system, and the 1st Armored Division was under the jurisdiction of the 7th Armored Brigade and the 20th Armored Brigade)