"There's the Egyptian border ahead, right?" One of the commanders of the 15th Panzer Division looked at the wasteland in front of him and said with a smile to the gun commander who was half-bogged out on the other side of the turret. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

It has to be said that, at least in the case of the German tanks No. 3 and No. 4, the Germans have not yet found the kind of design ideas that will swallow thousands of miles in the future.

At this time, the German tank still retained a little cutie to explore the unknown.

The most direct manifestation of this is that the No. 3 tank has escape doors on both sides of its turret, which can provide entrances and exits for the loader and the gun commander in normal times.

This kind of opening behavior, which seriously affects the side defense of the tank, can no longer be found in the future tank design.

And it was this design of the turret side openings, rather than the top openings on the turret, that made the No. 3 a tank with a turret that was not large enough.

This was a painful foreshadowing for future improvements, making the No. 3 tank, a fairly good tank, unable to adapt to the modification of heavier and larger tank guns.

Of course, as a product of the No. 3 tank, which is close to the ultimate improvement, the No. 3 tank with a 50 mm caliber extended barrel gun is now no different from the Tiger tank of 43 on the African continent.

Definitely not bragging, at a time when the enemy's artillery is generally equipped with either short pipes or insufficient caliber, it is equipped with a powerful weapon that is enough to destroy the opponent at a distance of more than 700 meters.

At the same time, the added armor makes it almost impossible to penetrate from the front, and the sides are difficult to destroy because of the covering......

In the face of the A9 and A10 cruiser tanks, which were the most heavily armed by the British in North Africa, the No. 3 modification was really about the same as the Tiger against the enemy M4.

It's a very comfortable, wonderful feeling in a completely crushed state. The German tank crews could attack calmly, striking the enemy from a distance without danger - until the target was destroyed.

"According to the map, if we go any further, we will enter Egypt......" The artillery commander held in his hand a very detailed map, also from their Italian allies.

Sometimes the German officers really didn't know what to say about the Italians, because in many ways the Italian soldiers did a good job, but they couldn't win the war.

As the two of them checked their positions on the map and pointed to the compass to discern the direction of their attack, the roar of the engines overhead grew closer.

Two ME-109E fighters, painted sky blue on the bottom and black iron crosses on the wings, roared past from low altitudes.

The two ME-109E fighters flying through the sky had auxiliary fuel tanks hanging under their bellies, and they flew up and down quickly, and their bodies looked agile in the sun.

Squinting, the members of the German crew sitting on the tank looked up to the sun and saw two planes of their own people passing at low altitude, and they all set up a pergola with their hands and watched the two planes go away.

Compared with the British fighter fighters, the German fighters flying in the sky were obviously much more advanced, and this time the Luftwaffe took the initiative to attack and suddenly gained absolute air supremacy over the battlefield.

Although it was a great victory in the sky, it was clearly not as thrilling as the battle on land.

The German pilots flying the ME-109E fighter jets, after shooting down about 20 plus British fighters, could no longer find any British aircraft in the skies over Libya......

Almost exactly as a few months ago when they dominated the skies across the continent, they defeated the British Air Force in North Africa without much effort.

"That's fast!" Sighing as he watched his own planes fly overhead, the commander withdrew his gaze.

"An order from the command to find an opportunity to rush to the road and encircle and annihilate all the British troops we find." Not far away, on a German command tank with a high-powered radio, the officer who jumped down shouted to this side.

"Refuel the tank! Use spare fresh water! Hurry! Get your tank ready! Fast! Orders were given one after another, and soon everyone was busy.

The armourers began to help each other, carrying down the armor-piercing and high-explosive shells from the ammunition trucks that followed them.

Because there are many openings on tank No. 3, it is very convenient to replenish ammunition.

There is no need to go through a narrow entrance, so there is no need to be cautious. Tank No. 3, with all the hatches open, was no different from a convertible by today's standards.

Others began to open the boxes on either side of the tank, and from it took fresh water, which had been warmed by the sun, and distributed it into the soldiers' individual water bottles.

They were more careful than the people who were restocking the shells, and even put a basin at their feet to catch a few droplets of water.

A full armoured battalion does not contain only 45 combat tanks, but also a number of supply vehicles and armored vehicles for transporting non-combatants.

Although Ronmel's No. 3 tank was not a complete 3 tank battalions, he still allocated the armored battalion trucks and the infantry that followed them according to his experience.

So, these German panzer detachments for the offensive were more like armored battalions reinforced with infantry than a separate tank battalion.

On the one hand, this chaotic configuration is due to the fact that African armies are smaller, which is more likely to be chaotic when fighting; On the one hand, because in doing so, it proved to be effective and combat-ready in France.

This distribution is entirely based on the fact that the quality of the German individual soldiers is relatively high at this point in time, and when they are mixed together to carry out combat missions independently, it is easier to give full play to the superiority in the quality of the soldiers and play a more complex coordination.

The topic is a little further away, this kind of small-scale arms with tactics, many countries participating in the war have not been proficient until 44 years, I have to say that the highly educated and high-quality German Wehrmacht was really very elite in the early days of the war.

On the other side, several commanders are arranging the offensive route on the map for a while, although they can communicate instantly, but the planning and arrangement in advance is also a very important link.

"In a moment, 4 tanks from the 1st platoon rushed up from here!" The battalion commander in charge of directing the battle said, pointing to a flat area on the south side of the road on the map.

The platoon commander of the chariot platoon who received the order nodded, indicating that he had understood the order.

The battalion commander then asked the remaining tank platoons of the company to act as support, forming a barrier on both flanks - the remaining tank companies would make a detour from a farther distance along the road in order to disrupt the defenses organized by the enemy along the road.

"That's it! After 5 minutes, the tanks of the 2nd and 3rd companies were dispatched first, and after 10 minutes, the 1st company began to attack in the front! The battalion commander got up with his index and middle fingers together and pointed forward, then turned back to his tank.

The remaining German officers nodded, then they all dispersed, climbed into the tanks under their respective commands not far away, and began to check that their equipment was in order.

It didn't take long for the tanks of the 2nd and 3rd companies, which were ready, to rush into the distance.

Then, after they disappeared on the horizon, a company of tanks responsible for the frontal attack was also launched.

"Start attacking! Start attacking! "Pressing his throat intercom, the commander of the 1 company gave the order to attack.

Their tank tracks kicked up billowing yellow sand, and their engines rumbled in the dry desert.

When these tanks and trucks carrying infantry appeared on the horizon, the retreating British soldiers along the road immediately spotted the uninvited guests.

"Enemy Army!" The British retreating troops, who were already chaotic on the road, became confused when they heard this warning.

Some soldiers began firing back with their weapons at distant targets, while others began fleeing across the road.

British commanders ordered their soldiers to organize defenses, and machine guns mounted on some armored vehicles and cars began to roar.

An encounter began abruptly, until a 50-millimeter shell fired by German tank No. 3 crossed the distance between the two armies and knocked a British truck off with one shot.

This powerful shot completely disrupted the position of the British, and reminded them of a terrible fact - it seemed that they had no decent anti-tank weapons in their hands......

"Fire! Can't let them cross the road! Fire! Although he knew that his efforts would be in vain, the conscientious British officers kept urging their soldiers to continue to fight back.

Lieutenant General O'Connor watched in frustration as his troops collapsed on both sides of the road, but there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening.

He tried to restrain his troops as much as possible, but the Germans were like appendages, and they could not get rid of them.

"Aren't these Germans afraid of us fighting back? Are they so sure we don't have reserves? The lieutenant general, who was in charge of commanding the armored forces of the British front, looked at everything in front of him and complained with annoyance.

Before his whining could land, a shell hit a British truck in the distance, detonating the ammunition on the truck and turning it into a huge black mushroom cloud.

The poor British lieutenant general was so dizzy that he couldn't get up for a while.

"Quick! Fast! Let the guard battalion ...... Let them cover Admiral Wavell and go first! Fast! He must get out of here! Get out of here! With the help of his adjutant, he sat up on the wheel of the car and shouted loudly.