After Tobruk's defeat, Rommel quietly wrote the following in his diary: "The Italian are too poorly equipped, and most of the military and political leaders are generally not interested in the war. Their incompetence has caused my battle plan to fall through completely. ”

In fact, Tobruk's defeat really had nothing to do with the Italian army. Rommel shook the pot this time, and he didn't have a good level.

In addition, it was not Italy's military and political leaders who stopped the Italian African Army, but Germany's Führer Reinhardt, who stopped it through Rossi.

In the end, it was because of the German leaders.

Of course, Rommel's remark actually has a lot to do with his strong sense of honor.

He has a phrase that is often on his lips: "There is no real soldier who does not want to receive a medal." ”

In other words, he believes that qualified soldiers should want to receive military merit medals.

When Rommel was a junior officer, he regarded honor as the best vehicle for self-fulfillment, because of his sense of honor, he even had a fight with Reinhardt 20 years ago.

And Rommel's biggest shortcoming is precisely his greatest strength.

He is always thinking about how to play to his best strengths and play the best results on his own battlefield. However, in this way, there is a suspicion of emphasizing tactics and ignoring the overall strategic situation.

Of course, it's not a bad thing to focus too much on the battlefield you're responsible for. Even Germany's most famous strategist, Manstein, actually loved to do this.

The difference is that if Rommel had done something as strategically as Maninstein had proposed to encircle Poland and counter the main force, or to bypass the Maginot Line, he would not have been caught by the pigtails of the master tactician.

But that's not a big deal.

After all, in a war, there will naturally be people who make strategic decisions, as a battlefield commander, what Rommel needs is understanding and execution, and transform the Führer's orders into beautiful tactical victories again and again through his own hands, instead of thinking on behalf of the high command, as long as he does his job well, he can already become a generation of famous generals.

In fact, Rommel could have done just that.

But in the battle of Tobruk this time, if Rommel had had the same strategic vision as Manstein and put a little more effort into logistics and supplies, then perhaps a defeat like this one could have been avoided to a certain extent.

Of course, a loss is a loss. The biggest reason for this failed attack was that Reinhardt's opposition led to the failure of the French and Italians, who were responsible for the supply of the African armies.

Therefore, Rommel was unable to concentrate all his forces due to insufficient supplies, and could only supply a limited number of troops to fight, which led to the failure of the offensive.

Fortunately, the French troops that Petain promised Reinhardt to send to Africa have now arrived on the northern coast of Algeria, and the equipment of the remaining two armored battalions of Rommel's 15th Panzer Division has also arrived.

Algeria, Algiers port.

The two German non-commissioned officers who were in charge of receiving the French landing force in Algiers watched the Vichy French troop carriers coming one after another in front of them, and the former enemies, dressed in familiar military uniforms, came to Africa to fight side by side with them.

The two German non-commissioned officers who had participated in the French campaign were filled with emotion for a while.

"What do you think the Frenchman thinks now? They used to beat us with the British, and now they come and fight the UK with us...... I really can't figure it out. One of the German sergeants joked to the youngest of the black soldiers beside him.

The black soldier, a native of Algeria, was one of the black soldiers who had been improvised by Lieutenant General Hans, who had come to Africa with Rommel, borrowing from Béronte's example.

The black soldier had been influenced by the Germans since he was a child, so he could barely understand some everyday German, and he could fully understand the German non-commissioned officer's words.

Then he replied slowly, in broken German, "Sir, I don't understand what the French think. But I don't think that's a bad thing, at least the British will be frightened when they see our position, and they won't expect that we will have reinforcements coming one after another, even though most of them are French. ”

The black soldier didn't expect to be able to speak so much German in one breath, he looked at the black soldiers next to him in surprise and nodded to them, meaning to ask if they understood.

The two German sergeants easily understood what he meant, and told him: "We understood, but it took us a while to realize what you said, and you had better practice your German." ”

Hearing the praise of the German non-commissioned officer, the black soldier laughed happily, his dream was to live in Germany in the future, and learning German was the first step to live in Germany.

In front of them, the entire city of Algiers was filled with the roar of German Leopard tanks and the cheers of onlookers, and this time the arrival of Leopard tanks seemed to be endless. Those who don't know will at least think that there are two regiment sizes!

In fact, it was Rommel who ordered the two armored battalions to arrive to make a bluff by making a few circles around the French parliament building here after entering the city of Algiers from the port.

At the same time, in order to deceive the British into aerial reconnaissance, Rommel also ordered to make hundreds of fake tanks out of wood and cardboard, and then put them on the "Volkswagen" sedan and went around, but the real tanks evaded the enemy's reconnaissance and secretly drove to the front line to build the 15th Panzer Division.

In fact, a large part of Rommel's failure in launching the attack on Tobruk last time was due to the lack of strength of the troops and the lack of strength of the various units. And this time, with the support of these French divisions, plus the delivery of the best two battalions of tanks from the 15th Panzer Division, Rommel's grasp of the African battlefield will be even better.

After all, he didn't lose much in the first place.

The Italian allies did not join, the French allies did not, and even the 30th mechanized infantry division of Lieutenant General Hans did not join. Only the 15th Panzer Division, which was not yet in formation, actually participated in the previous battles. Moreover, the 15th Panzer Division, which was not yet formed, could not all be in place because the allies were not attentive to supplies.

So, the failure in this case doesn't mean anything at all.

Now, he has put his cunning skills to good use to make the British miscalculate the number of tanks he has reinforced, so that he can better plan the next battle that will dazzle Wavell.

Fortunately, the intelligence agents planted by the British among the local population in Algiers successfully brought back the false news spread by Rommel.