【Thousands ♂ of ÷ small → said ◇ .], wonderful free reading without pop-ups!

This was of course Qin Chuan's idea.

Sidioma has been under the surveillance of British reconnaissance aircraft, which has a bad side as well as a good side.

On the downside, supply trucks coming in and out of Sidioma were often bombed, and the whereabouts of the 21st Panzer Division were easily exposed.

On the bright side, the Germans could use this to counter the British......

"We were ordered to get to Matru within three days!" General Stryk said: "That's a distance of two hundred and twenty kilometers!" ”

"We can do it!" Colonel Albridge said: "We can go at a speed of eighty kilometers a day!" ”

"The problem is that our air force was used by Rommel to cover the frontal attack of the 15th Panzer Division!" General Stryk replied: "All they can offer us is a few reconnaissance planes!" ”

Hearing this, the officers couldn't help but be silent.

Armored units without air force cover can be said to be difficult to move an inch, unless they are covered by wind and sand as before.

But now that the wind and sand have passed, the sky is clear, the whole desert is empty, and what is worse is that the British "mosquito" reconnaissance planes are almost constantly circling around Sidioma...... It can also be seen that the British army was very afraid of the German 21st Panzer Division, which had repeatedly defeated the British Panzer Division.

In this way, the 21st Panzer Division can be said to be detected by British reconnaissance planes as soon as it exits Sidioma, and then there will be bombing by the British Royal Air Force along the way...... Not to mention 80 kilometers a day, whether you can walk 40 kilometers is a question.

"Why can't we march in secret?" Qin Chuan said.

"You mean not to let the British know that we are heading towards Matroux?" Colonel Albridge shook his head and replied: "It is unlikely, the night march will not catch up with Matrou, not to mention that the British will send warplanes to search for our whereabouts everywhere, they will soon find us!" ”

Colonel Albridge was right, in the case of good sight, it was not difficult for reconnaissance planes to find an armored division, and the vehicles of the armored forces were as obvious in the desert as lice on a bald man's head, and the smoke and dust raised would attract the attention of the pilots, and even if "anti-aircraft covering" was implemented, it was difficult to avoid being undetected.

"What if they don't search for us?" Qin Chuan said.

"It can't be!" Colonel Albridge laughed: "The British are not fools! ”

General Stryk looked at Qin Chuan with a serious face and asked, "Sergeant, tell me how to keep the British from searching our whereabouts!" ”

"It's easy!" Qin Chuan replied: "Let the British think that we have been in Sidioma all along, just like General Rommel did in Tripoli!" ”

Hearing this, the general couldn't help but suddenly realize.

This is indeed not a difficult task, what is to be done is to transform armored vehicles, jeeps and even side three-wheeled vehicles into "tanks".

A bit of a hassle is that Sidioma is a village, and the surrounding area is deserted, and it is difficult to find enough planks to camouflage the tanks.

But the trouble was quickly resolved.

If there are no planks, use canvas instead, just prop up the relevant nodes with branches, and then cover them with canvas as if you were setting up a tent...... One after another "tanks" are freshly baked.

Of course, these tanks will not be as realistic as the fake tanks made of wooden planks in Rommel's Tripoli.

But there is also a difference: the fake tanks in Tripoli are designed to fool British spies and civilians, and they can observe them up close, while Sidioma's fake tanks are designed to fool enemy reconnaissance planes, and the pilots are constrained by anti-aircraft fire and can only look at them from a distance, and they are still flying at high speeds, so they are not so realistic enough to cover up the past.

Then, that night, the 21st Panzer Division secretly sneaked out of Sidioma and went straight to Matru, leaving only a battalion or so of air defense troops and a few hundred logistics troops, whose task was to drive "tanks" out from time to time to move.

Of course, in order to be more realistic, there are also several real tanks.

The British reconnaissance planes were really fooled, and their reports to the command were:

"Everything is fine, they are not moving!"

"Yes, they're still in Sidioma!"

……

So there was the previous scene......

When the German 21st Panzer Division suddenly appeared on Matru's flank, General Auchinleck thought that the 21st Panzer Division should be in Sidioma.

"Retreat, retreat now!" General Ochinlake ordered: "The New Zealand Infantry Division is responsible for covering, and at the same time the Air Force is ordered to intercept!" ”

"Yes!" The staff officer immediately conveyed General Auchinleck's order.

General Auchinleck: This is a mess.

If General Auchinleck had kept his senses, he would have known that he should choose to fight a tough battle with the Germans at this time, for the simple reason that he ...... Most of the tanks in the 13th Army were Matilda and Valentine infantry tanks, and the 200 new arrivals were not even under the command of the 13th Army.

And these infantry tanks, due to their slow speed and thick armor, are more suitable for defense than for maneuvering and not suitable for retreat...... "Valentine" is better, "Matilda" can only drive ten kilometers in the hot desert, and it breaks down all the way, where can it run and how far ?!

That's why Churchill didn't have the wisdom and mind to use people, and if Wavell had continued to command, he wouldn't have made this mistake, because Wavell had already suffered such a thing in previous battles, and more than once...... The British had a painful retreat from Tripoli to Tobruk, and in the end they even had to blow up the tanks in Tobruk and flee alone.

Therefore, what should be done at this time is to let the 13th Army organize the defense of the tanks, and under the influence of the armor of the "Matilda", the British 6-pounder anti-tank guns and air superiority, not to mention the victory, it is not a problem to hold out a considerable number of German tanks for a few days.

Then the German Panzer Division, having suffered heavy losses, could no longer afford to attack Cairo.

But the inexperienced General Auchinleck made the British make the mistake of retreating once again.

The New Zealand 2nd Division moved very quickly, and they immediately rushed to the flank and formed a defensive line...... They used everything they could do against tanks, mines, barbed wire, anti-tank guns, anti-tank grenades, and even their homemade Molotov cocktails.

There was actually an incendiary grenade in the British army's equipment...... The No. 76 incendiary grenade, as mentioned before, its main problem is that it is very dangerous to transport and store, so the troops basically do not use it.

But incendiary grenades were a good weapon against tanks and infantry, so New Zealand soldiers simply stuffed gasoline into glass bottles and stuffed the bottles with rags to make their own Molotov cocktails.