After retreating, Li Mo soon received three divisions that continued to be transported, one armored division, two infantry divisions, Li Mo's total strength reached 120,000, Hitler appointed Li Mo as the commander of the newly formed African Panzer Army, unified command of the African Panzer Army.

Hitler also had no way to transport more troops to Limer, because the troops that reached Sicily, Italy, were still transporting other troops, after all, the large forces of the German army were also very scattered, and Limer estimated that it would take at least more than 20 days to transport the large forces of the German army to Sicily, Italy, and then send these troops to the land of Africa in ten days. And the British are also stepping up their rush to transport troops, and everyone is using refueling tactics against each other.

Li Mo decided not to wait for Montgomery to attack, that is, to attack him first. However, Montgomery knew the direction and exact time of Limer's attack from the information obtained by the Wehrmacht, so he transferred artillery and troops from the coast to the southern zone that Limer chose as the breakthrough point, and gathered nearly eight divisions, 1,400 tanks, 1,350 artillery pieces, and 1,470 anti-tank guns near Medenin, and established a tight defensive line.

In the early morning of August 8, Li Mo launched an attack on Mednin with 460 tanks from three armored divisions, supported by 600 artillery pieces and 10,000 infantry. At 8 a.m., when German armored units advanced to a ridge about 15 kilometers from Medning, they were heavily bombarded by nearly 500 anti-tank guns deployed by Montgomery. By noon, the German armored units of the German army broke through. Documents captured by British prisoners and reconnaissance battalions confirmed that Li Mo knew that Montgomery had known about his battle in advance. At 5 p.m., Li Mo ordered the attack to be canceled. 460 tanks were lost 50, he lamented:

"From the very beginning, we failed to catch the enemy by surprise, so the operation lost its own significance."

Li Mo, who received the report, was also quite angry, the plan he handed over to the headquarters would be leaked, there must be something wrong with the turtle grandsons of the Wehrmacht, of course, it is not necessarily a spy, but it is certain that there is a problem with the Wehrmacht's Engel code. Li Mo has always used the original codebook. It is to arrange all the German words irregularly, print them, and then number them numerically, and change them once a month. There is simply no way for the allies to decipher this code. But the Wehrmacht's turtle grandsons. I have been clinging to the ignorant confidence that Engel's code cannot be cracked, and continue to use Engel's code, which is a problem. If it weren't for the documents seized by Li Mo this time, everyone would have been in the dark, and Li Mo immediately magnified this extremely urgent situation tenfold and sent it to the Command, so that the eight grandsons of the National Defense Force would have a headache.

Montgomery relied on the strength of the outnumber, Montgomery's strength at this time had reached more than 500,000, there was no way to suggest that the Italian troops defend on the perimeter, and their German troops were used as mobile forces, and at the same time prepare for the next attack, Montgomery commanded the troops to slowly approach the Maret Line. Hitler also agreed with Limer's approach that Italian troops should not be placed in peripheral positions.

Compared with the Allied and German forces, the German army had a certain air supremacy within the range of the aircraft on the island of Malta, and beyond the island of Malta was the world of Allied aircraft and navy, and the supplies of the Allied countries were also transported through the navy, and the German and Italian forces lacked supplies and reinforcements. Li Mo clearly realized that his troops were at an absolute disadvantage, and Li Mo could only choose to hold on.

Li Mo was also anxious, and repeatedly urged Moder to speed up the transportation, even if he could not transport all the German troops to Sicily, it would be good to transport hundreds of thousands of German troops to Tunisia in advance, but the railways in Italy were in frequent situations, either the bridge was blown up, or the railroad tracks were picked, and the Italian military and police were simply helpless, which greatly limited the transportation of the German army.

After all, Britain has been operating in Europe for hundreds of years, and the spy organization is still very perfect, and the British spies in Germany are much better under the blow of the Gestapo, while the Italian and British spies are much more rampant, and the damned Italians can only stare at it.

Montgomery commanded the British 8th Army to attack the Maret Line, and the British 2nd Army under Genesey's command had attacked the rear of the Maret Line from the southwest three days earlier. Messer was forced to retreat north with the Italian 1st Army from the Maret Line. Montgomery broke through the Gabez Pass and joined the army of Genesi who were advancing east from Gafsa. The British 8th Army occupied Sfax again.

By mid-August, the Allies had completed the encirclement of the German and Italian forces. Li Mo led more than 100,000 people from six divisions of the African armored group to retreat to northern Tunisia, and his three armored divisions had more than 420 tanks left, and the combat materials were extremely scarce and there was no supply. Alexander's 18th Army Group, on the other hand, had 33 divisions of 500,000 troops, 1,400 tanks and more than a thousand artillery pieces.

Alexander issued a general attack order, codenamed "The Blacksmith", which required his troops to storm the retreating Italian units along the entire arc of the front. Anderson's British 1st Army served as the main attack, breaking through the enemy's central line of defense and taking the city of Tunis; Montgomery's British 8th Army was to the south, attacking the enemy's left flank; Bradley's British 2nd Corps was to the north, striking at the enemy's right flank with the aim of capturing the port of Bizerte; The French 19th Army expanded its gains by waiting for an opportunity to join the attack on Montgomery's left and Anderson's right.

At 9.30 p.m., Montgomery launched the first attack to the south. Anderson commanded the British 1st Army to launch a main attack on the central front, with Li Mo concentrating most of his armored forces to put up fierce resistance, and the British 1st Army was slow to advance. Alexander then transferred the 7th Panzer Division, the 4th Indian Infantry Division, and the 201st Guards Brigade from Montgomery to Andersen to augment the strike force of the British 1st Army.

With the support of 400 artillery pieces and tactical air force, the British 1st Army attacked with all its might, and the Italian troops finally could not parry and all surrendered. At the same time, under the continuous pressure of the British 2nd Army, the Italian defense line in the north also began to crumble, so that only a small part of the Italian army ran to Limer's troops, and the rest of the Italian troops went to the British prisoner of war camp to "enjoy the blessings".

Anderson's British 1st Army attacked Tunis, and soon after, Bradley's British 2nd Army also reached Tunisian port. In his book The Last Days of Africa, the Englishman Morshid said: "The Italians were completely frightened, and they were overwhelmed when they saw the British tanks flying by." The Italian general was no longer able to give orders, as he had lost contact with his subordinates. In fear, the Italian army rushed to the beachhead, but they found that there were neither ships nor planes, and the army completely collapsed. ”

…… (To be continued.) )

PS: Thanks to the brothers for the tips and gifts:

nrdchen

10 copies of the chapter will be given as a gift

Elevation 1.75

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