If Rommel plays Patton, who will win?

If Rommel and Patton had commanded a similarly sized Panzer Corps and were facing each other head-on, who would have won?

This would not be true in the other world, because the two had never really fought each other. However, there are many striking similarities between the two people in different camps, it can be said that both are noble soldiers who were born for war and regard honor as their life, and both are known for the tactics of tank mobile warfare, the two were the first to propose and create armored forces in their own countries, and each of them has created unique military events in their military careers - Rommel led 10,000 prisoners, 10,000 Italian troops, Patton ordered his subordinates to steal oil from his flank troops, and the casualty rate of the troops under their command in battle was usually very low, Both of them wanted to compete with each other on the battlefield once in their lifetimes ("The Life of Rommel Legend" and "General Patton"), but in the end they both died under abnormal circumstances.

As two commanders of armored forces with great personalities, Rommel and Patton also have many very different characteristics, different camps - Axis and Allies, different positions - the red man in front of the Führer and the troublemaker in front of the Allied commander-in-chief, different hobbies - no tobacco and alcohol and cigar champagne lover, different ways of governing the army - very friendly to his subordinates and extremely strict with his subordinates, different physical conditions - thin and burly. Of course, Rommel always fought without air supremacy and logistics, and General Patton was the opposite, so it is difficult to judge the victory or defeat by the historical record of the two men alone.

In this world, two outstanding warriors met again after the Mexican War.

As the commander of Mexico's 1st Panzer Division, which was composed of German and Mexican officers and soldiers, Rommel successfully led his troops to break through the US border defense line after the ground offensive began, and then carried out a resolute and rapid interspersed operation against the US defense line from behind. With the cooperation of three Mexican divisions, they almost completely annihilated three infantry divisions of the US army after a day of hard fighting, and pursued the retreating American troops overnight despite fatigue. By the evening of the 18th, the armored unit, which had 120 tanks, 60 assault guns, 80 full-tracked infantry fighting vehicles, 180 half-track armored personnel carriers, 560 trucks, 3,600 motorcycles, and 18,000 German-Mexican soldiers, was galloping across the plains of Oklahoma, USA.

Forward and forward, this became the slogan that Rommel's soldiers shouted the most, and they advanced almost at the speed of march into the heart of the United States. So much so that they even overtook many retreating American troops along the way, and these American soldiers surrendered and were amazed at the speed of their opponents' advances.

On the evening of the 18th, Rommel's troops finally stopped temporarily at Amarillo, about 300 kilometers away from Oklahoma City, because at this time they were not only far away from the starting point of the attack, but also the closest friendly troops to themselves were also 50 kilometers away, and the three Mexican infantry divisions and one German semi-mechanized infantry division were pulled down 80 or 90 kilometers when they coordinated the attack on the US border defense line. Although the American ** team against himself has collapsed. But after all, this is still the home of the Americans, and a large number of American troops are coming from the central and northeast, and perhaps one will fall into a situation of fighting alone if he is not careful.

In the previous border offensive and defensive battles, the place of operation with Rommel's headquarters was Fredendoll, the commander-in-chief of the New Mexico Border Line, this temporary major general was only a small infantry regiment commander before the US army expanded its army, and because of his good relationship with the chief of the army General Peyton March, he was entrusted with the important task When an army expanded several times in a short period of time, this phenomenon is really not surprising, so by the outbreak of the war, Fredendoll had become the supreme commander of more than 100,000 troops in five infantry divisions, Responsible for the New Mexico Gentle Border.

After the ground battle began. Fredendoll gave a terrible answer. While Texas has a border that is 5 times longer than New Mexico's. However, Pershing still launched an extremely fierce counterattack on the night of the 16th, and although this counterattack failed, it caused considerable losses to the German and Mexican army. and slowed down the German advance into the heart of the United States.

In contrast to Pershing, Freddendor barely made any effective decisions after the start of the war, and instead watched the front lines being divided and surrounded by German troops, and if it had not been for the 27th, 29th, and 33rd Infantry Divisions that broke through at night, he would have become a bare-bones commander by now.

In this way, the unfortunate Fredendoll led a group of unfortunate American officers and soldiers to retreat desperately, while Rommel's armored division desperately pursued behind, and sometimes even the German tankers had to admire the speed of the Americans' retreat, and the American infantry covered the more than 200 kilometers with their feet in three days when the roads and railways were destroyed. Naturally, I can't take care of any light and heavy equipment.

Three crippled U.S. infantry divisions escaped after Rommel's advance was halted, and a few days later they withdrew to Oklahoma, the state's capital. Upon learning of Fredendore's "feat," the U.S. War Department quickly made a decision to remove Fredendol from his post as commander of the 7th Army, and his troops were temporarily taken over by Brigadier General Keyes, commander of the 6th Military Region in Oklahoma.

Although Brigadier General Case had only two infantry divisions at his disposal, and Fredendor's remnants of more than 50,000 men, he did not panic in the face of the approaching German-Mexican forces, because he had already learned from the War Office that the 1st Armored Corps would arrive in Oklahoma City by the 23rd. Although the ultimate mission of this armored corps was to rush to the aid of General Pershing's Dallas-Houston Line, it was clear that they would not surrender Oklahoma City to the Germans.

As Case had anticipated, after consulting with General Swifert, commander of the 1st Pantry Corps, the U.S. War Department decided to leave behind an armored division of the Panzer Corps, commanded by Interim Major General George Patton, to assist in the defense of Oklahoma City.

Since General Pershing was relieved of his post as commander of the U.S. Expeditionary Force, Patton's good fortune seemed to have come to an end, as he returned to the United States as one of the first expeditionary forces to evacuate Mexico, and after losing his provisional rank, he was supposed to return to his former cavalry regiment as his lieutenant, when Pershing, who had been tasked with training the reserves, summoned him again.

In the Reserve Army, Patton served in the 34th and 45th Reserve Divisions, and in 1920 he was promoted to commander of the 45th Reserve Division. At this time, it coincided with the end of the South American War, and the contradictions between the United States and Germany had gradually become clear, and drawing on some experience in the South American war, the United States began to expand its own armored forces - the United States had only established its first regimental armored unit in 1915. After the end of the European War, a group of British and French tank experts went into exile in the United States, and with the assistance of these technical experts, the level of tanks and armored vehicles of the American army was greatly improved, and by 1918, the armored forces were expanded to the size of divisions, and in 1921, the armored divisions were expanded again. and to select two divisions from the reserve forces as reserve armored divisions, and at Patton's strong request, Pershing ceded one of the places to his 45th reserve division.

After the promulgation of the "Selection and Recruitment Law" in 1924, the 45th Reserve Division was officially upgraded to a regular army division, and its name was changed to the 6th Mixed Armored Division of the 1st Armored Corps of the United States.

The U.S. state of Missouri is home to vast plains and meadows, beautiful rivers and lakes, and the U.S. Army's most heavily guarded base, the Chilikosi Army Barracks. Located in the prairie district, this staggeringly large barracks with neatly arranged barracks and garages in sight was the place where Patton spent three of the most important years of his life. Until the outbreak of war in 1924.

For the sake of confidentiality. The US Army's First Armored Corps has been in a state of almost isolation from the outside world for a long time, and not only has every officer and soldier within the corps been re-examined and screened, but it has also been strictly ordered not to mention any affairs of the unit to outsiders when they go out on vacation. In such a case. The US First Armored Corps has become a mysterious force in the eyes of various countries, and the Christie Company, the American Vehicle and Foundry Company, and the Cadillac Automobile Company, which produce tanks and armored vehicles for the US Armored Forces, are also under the strict control of the US side, and the relevant technical data are all listed as the state's top military secrets.

In addition, the U.S. Army has funded the establishment of an armored weapons research center, which since its establishment in 1915 has not only attracted many British and French tank experts who fled Europe because of the war, but also brought together the best group of engine experts, mechanical designers and weapons experts in the United States. Such a very important research center was naturally the target of many excellent spies, but until 1924, it is said that no foreign spy had managed to infiltrate the center, and the base had all kinds of daily necessities. The soldiers and staff in charge of the vigilance are not allowed to go out on a regular basis, and even if they go out on an exceptional basis, they must bring special "bodyguards".

The reason why the Americans strictly keep the secrets here is to prevent outsiders, especially the Germans, from peeping into the secrets, and it is not known what the effect of this closed-door construction is, but it is said that there are no less than ten kinds of tanks born here from the beginning of its establishment, and there are also many armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons, and once the war breaks out, the Christie Company, the American Vehicle and Foundry Company, and the Cadillac Automobile branches throughout the United States will quickly switch to the production of tanks and armored vehicles in a short period of time.

Despite this, German intelligence still deduced the approximate size of the US First Panzer Corps - 3,000 to 4,000 combat vehicles from the side information of the three US "royal" tank and armored car manufacturers, such as the consumption of steel, the employment of workers, and the delivery of products. About 800 of them are tanks, the rest are tracked armored vehicles and wheeled armored vehicles, as for the specific model, German intelligence only knows that the United States once introduced two British nomad tanks in 1915, and the Christie company is good at manufacturing fast light tanks, the American vehicle and casting company is good at the armor and artillery of tracked vehicles, as for the Cadillac, it is naturally superior to engine and mechanical technology, and the number of products of these three companies in the United States First Armored Corps is roughly 2 to 1 to 1.

When the order to enter the war came from Washington, in the Chilicosi Army Barracks in Missouri, tanks with steel bodies slowly drove into the special train cars, and although some preparations had been made in advance, it took a whole day for more than 3,000 tanks and armored vehicles to be loaded with more than 1,000 cars, plus other equipment and soldiers, a total of more than 200 trains took the entire US First Armored Corps towards the southern battlefield. There were more than 150,000 officers and logisticians accompanying him, including George, Interim Major General Patton, and his 21,000 soldiers.

In order to defend against German air raids, each train was equipped with a special anti-aircraft company, which was equipped with 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and twin anti-aircraft machine guns, although these weapons could not attack medium and high altitude targets, but they were a certain threat to dive bombers and horizontal bombers - in this era, tactical bombing was carried out at low altitudes, and correspondingly, the air defense weapons of the front-line troops of most countries were mainly small-caliber and high-rate guns.

At first, the southbound columns were not disturbed too much, but as the distance from the front line became closer, the number of German fighters increased, and to make matters worse, many sections of the road were damaged by the Luftwaffe bombing, and an American engineering regiment was transferred to open the way for these columns, so that the speed of the southward movement of the US First Panzer Corps was greatly delayed, so that it did not reach Oklahoma City until the 25th.

At this time, Pershing's defense line had long been swallowed up by Guderian's armored forces, and by the 22nd, there were only two isolated support points left on the entire defense line, Dallas and Houston, but the stubborn Pershing did not retreat, but took the remnants of the army to fight street battles with the Germans - although the German armored forces were strong, they still encountered a lot of trouble in big cities such as Houston and Dallas, and a large number of buildings in the city provided good fortifications for the defenders. Every house and even every room fights. On the 24th, with the participation of a large number of German and Mexican infantry and artillery, the battle in Houston became extremely fierce, a large area of the northwest of Houston was turned into ruins, and the important oil refining area in the southwest was also occupied by the Germans.

On the 25th, Rommel's 1st Mexican Panzer Division advanced about 60 kilometers from Oklahoma City, and once again left the infantry far behind. On the same day, Patton's 6th Panzer Division arrived in Oklahoma City and began unloading, while the other divisions of the Panzer Corps continued their advance to Dallas, 300 kilometers away, where the battle for the city was equally intense, and if reinforcements arrived, the defenders had to choose between surrender and heroism.

By the evening of the 25th, Rommel once again paused the pace of advance, this time not because of supply problems, the German reconnaissance plane had noticed the American armored forces heading south and informed the troops on the front line, not only Rommel's armored division, Guderian's armored corps was also slowly withdrawing from the city, and the two elite armored units began to prepare for a confrontation with the opposing armored corps.

After realizing that the two torrents of steel were bound to collide, the German commander, General Ollie, quickly gathered the available fighters, dive bombers, and bombers and prepared to give the American armored corps a warm "reception."