The problem that gave Rommel a headache was: for a teammate like the Italian army, he couldn't rely on it and couldn't lose it, after all, North Africa was still an Italian colony in a practical sense, and Germany not only needed supplies and support from Italy across the Mediterranean, but also needed the Italian army's strength supplement. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

As a result, the Italian army became "a chicken rib that is tasteless and abandoned".

As now, Rommel knew that the Chinese army had set a trap in Alexandria with the help of the Italian army, but what could Rommel do?

To the rescue, as Marshal Cavalero requested?

This is obviously not possible, because the British and the Chinese expeditionary force are ready to wait for the Germans in Alexandria, not to mention the fact that the Germans have lost many tanks in the battle of Maherrama not long ago, and the Germans no longer have enough, or arguably not enough, tanks advanced enough to defeat the Chinese army.

But could Rommel refuse to aid the Italian army?

Of course not!

Because the Germans and the Italians were allies, and they were allies with problems with trust in each other...... Just like before, the German army was always suspicious of the Italian army when it leaked intelligence, and no matter how thoroughly the Italian army investigated, it would be useless.

If there is no trust problem between the German and Italian armies, then this problem seems to be easy to solve, and after a discussion at the top level, they feel that the rescue of Alexandria is worth the loss, then simply let the 133rd Panzer Division surrender, anyway, there are not a few troops surrendered by the Italian army, and these surrendered troops will also ask the British army for this and that, and in this regard, it can also consume the supplies of the British army.

The problem lies in the trust between the German and Italian armies, so if the German army chooses not to rescue, it is easy for the Italian army to be regarded as "seeing death and not saving", and then the Italian army will not cooperate from top to bottom, and even the German-Italian alliance will collapse.

That's why Rommel was reluctant to talk to Caballero.

Since saving is not not saving, Rommel pretended not to know.

But as Thomas said, hiding like this is not the way to go, and the Germans will eventually have to face this problem.

Thomas also made a creative suggestion for this.

"General!" Thomas said, "We might have the option to attack somewhere else!" Like Mahairama, so we can avoid the traps of Alexandria! ”

"Very interesting idea!" Rommel nodded in approval, but he objected: "But you know what? The British or the Chinese just want us to do it! ”

"How?" Thomas asked, "Don't they want us to attack Alexandria?" ”

"No!" Rommel said: "It's not just Alexandria, they actually want us to attack, understand? In fact, it was the British who wanted to attack our line before our supplies improved, but they thought they could not break through our defense, so they lured the snake out of the hole and drained our strength. That is, the enemy is ready to defend and is waiting for us to attack at any moment. For example, Maherama, I believe that at this time the front of the Maherama line was already covered with mines, and the defense line was also full of anti-tank gun fortifications! ”

After a pause, Rommel pointed to the location of the Chinese troops in Alexandria and said, "Worse still, they are there...... These guys, having created a unit similar to our armored regiment, completely subverted the characteristics of the British armored forces, which made them our greatest danger! ”

Thomas nodded, and followed Rommel for a long time to use tank troops to attack the enemy, so that he also knew the tactics of tank group operations, and the advantage of the Chinese troops concentrating "Sherman" tanks in one unit is that the whole of China makes it have the same high mobility as the German armored division, so as long as the German armored division dares to penetrate the British defense line as Thomas said, it must risk being cut off from supplies and rear routes by the Chinese armored division horizontally, especially most of the tanks used by the German army do not have" Sherman: "Advanced.

"So General!" Thomas then asked, "What are we waiting for?" ”

Rommel just smiled and replied, "Be patient, Thomas, you'll find out soon!" ”

While Rommel was maneuvering with Carvalero, Zhang Chi and the new 1st Division were nervously building a defensive line in the direction of Alexandria...... At this time, the Chinese army needed to build two lines of defense, one was outward, and this line of defense could actually use the defense line left by the British, and only needed to make up for the mines that had been removed by the Germans.

The other is inward, that is, facing Alexandria.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Italian army can be said to be a chicken feather, if it is in a hurry to flee for its life and cooperate with the outside, it will still pose a threat to the Chinese army...... In fact, the word "escape" does not exist here, it does not seem to be in the dictionary of the Italian army, and the war thing is not very dangerous for them, because they have a universal talisman...... Surrender.

The Italians were able to hold out only because Litorio told them that reinforcements would soon be available, so the Italians chose between walking back to be Italians with dignity and raising their hands as prisoners.

Of course, some people chose the latter, and as soon as it was dark, many Italian troops secretly escaped from the city and surrendered to the Chinese army, which made the Chinese army nervous for a while, because they did not know whether the people who appeared in the darkness came to attack or surrender.

Therefore, the defense line built by the Chinese army inward was mainly to prevent internal and external cooperation.

Of course, the construction of the defensive line did not require the soldiers of the expeditionary force to do so, there were ready-made Italian prisoners to use, and the soldiers of the 1st South African Division followed, so the task of besieging Alexandria was entrusted to them.

Of course, Zhang Chi was still not very confident about the combat effectiveness of the 1st South African Division, so he arranged an additional infantry battalion and a tank company to go over.

What made Zhang Chi a little crying and laughing was that the South African soldiers began to dance the "great god" that night...... Originally, they wanted to light a bonfire and jump around the fire, but they gave up under Zhang Chi's strict order.

"Didn't you have a problem with this before?" Zhang Chi asked Brigadier General Jack, commander of the 1st Division in South Africa: "If you light a fire on the battlefield, won't you attract enemy fire?" ”

"It's their habit, General!" Brigadier General Jack replied: "And the enemy seems to be used to it, so when they see the bonfire, they know the location of the South African soldiers, and they usually have little interest in the South African 1st Division, because the place where we are stationed is always the least important!" ”