The tanks roared and roared through trenches and bushes, and the infantry braved the scorching waves of air and flying sand and dust to rush forward.

Rommel, who had always calculated correctly, was wrong this time, he thought that the British army was weak in minefields and defenses, but in fact it was very dense. The entire El Alamein positions were densely planted with all kinds of mines, and the SS planted about half a million mines in front of their positions, how many were the Anglo-American forces? Rommel doesn't know the exact number, but conservative estimates will not be less than one million, basically every inch of land in front of the British and American positions there are mines, and all kinds of mines are mixed together and planted, what anti-tank mines, anti-infantry mines, jumping mines, etc., there are too many varieties to say, which increases the difficulty of demining, and there is no way to remove so many mines.

Rommel's tank assault group was soon noticed by the Anglo-American forces, and the Anglo-American forces began a large-scale artillery bombardment, and under the fierce fire of the British troops, the German armored vanguard was squeezed into a small area of the minelaying area. At this time, Rommel hurriedly dropped his rocket artillery behind his armored assault group, and 300 rockets covered by artillery fire, he could blow up a large area, and no matter what mines he had, he would directly disappear.

However, the fire of the rocket artillery fire was particularly large, and it was easy to expose the target, of course, the assault of several armored divisions could not be hidden, and the artillery of the British and American forces was still very powerful, and they hurriedly launched a fierce artillery attack on Rommel's armored assault group.

Of course, Rommel's armored forces also suffered a little loss under the shelling of the British and American coalition forces, but as soon as the artillery group of the British and American coalition opened fire, their target was also exposed, and the FA223 helicopter group that had been waiting in the air for a long time swooped down on the artillery group of the British and American coalition forces, and the rockets on the FA223 were a fatal threat to all the artillery, and the artillery of the British and American coalition forces suddenly all fell under the attack of the German helicopters, and the violent explosions occurred one after another on the artillery positions of the British and American coalition forces.

At 3 o'clock in the morning, planes from both sides flew over the El Alamein front and began a blind bombardment.

For the first time, the heavy bombers of both sides launched a large-scale air attack on each other at night, Rommel's German armored troops had already broken out of the dense minefield, and the bombers of the British and American coalition forces had to face the attack of German planes in the air on the one hand, and on the other hand, they had to guard against the anti-aircraft fire on the ground, not to mention that it was still night, and the heavy bombers of the British and American coalition forces returned after dropping bombs indiscriminately, and the SS planes were the same, and after a burst of indiscriminate bombing of the positions of the British and American forces, they also hurriedly returned home, and the SS planes were all on the island of Malta. They won't be staying long in El Alamein either.

The German sappers, under the blind and indiscriminate bombardment of British aircraft, desperately opened a not too narrow passage in the minefield with rocket artillery, and the SS tanks swooped down on the British and American positions as soon as they broke through the minefield. For a moment, in the British positions, the flames and flares illuminated the entire battlefield as if it were daylight; Explosions, shouts, and the rattle of heavy machine guns rang out.

After consideration, Rommel decided to change the original battle plan. The troops were ordered not to advance 20 miles east to the Alam Halfa ridge as originally planned, and then detour back to the ridge to attack the main British forces from the rear, but to turn all their forces across the ridge as quickly as possible. He targeted Montgomery's weakness – Alam Halfa. This modification by Rommel overwhelmed Montgomery.

The Alam Halfa ridge had become a dangerous and fortunate area for the German Panzer Corps. At 3 o'clock in the evening, Rommel's tanks began to storm according to the new plan, but misfortune befell the heads of the Afrika Korps one after another.

At this time, a great storm blew in the desert, and the sky that was still moonlit was completely gone, and the whole sky was full of fingers. Although they managed to avoid the storm and the threat of the British Air Force, they had to slow down when they began to attack northward, but they entered a soft desert and had to slow down.

At this time, they were facing the commanding heights of the ridge, the 131 Heights. They stepped into the "death zone" on both sides. The British troops holding on to the 131st Heights relied on the advantage of the terrain to block the SS assault with all kinds of firepower. The SS's ground wave of impact did not work, mainly at night, the Anglo-American soldiers used a large number of "Super Bazooka", the tank could not find the British and American soldiers hidden in the shadows, a cheap rocket is likely to destroy a tank, after Rommel who commanded in the back saw this situation, he decisively ordered his armored assault group to temporarily retreat, and then sent a small number of copycat Type 99 tanks to charge with the infantry, Rommel even ordered the infantry to rush in front of the tank, And the copycat Type 99 tanks that followed these infantry were only used as mobile batteries.

Soon the effect was revealed, the SS used RPG rockets of this range, which was slightly more advanced than the American "Super Bazooka", and for mountain battles, it was still more advantageous for infantry, and tanks were indeed not the best weapons in mountain warfare. The Anglo-American forces began to retreat to the Alam Halfa ridge, which was the commanding heights. This ridge is about three square kilometers, and the British and American forces have a division here, but the fortifications are improvised trenches dug only before, and there are no permanent cement fortifications.

Soon, as the sky slowly brightened and began to clear, even greater doom befell the Anglo-American forces. SS tanks and artillery under the ridge let out an earth-shattering roar in unison. In an instant, the positions of the Anglo-American troops were completely covered by artillery fire, and SS bombers also flew. The two sides launched a battle on an unprecedented scale, and in order to fight for the highest point of El Alamein, the battle in the air and on the ground did not stop.

At dawn on January 12, Rommel drove to the front line of the battlefield, and the first thing that caught his eye was the wreckage that was covered in this narrow area; Many tanks are still burning, there are SS tanks and Anglo-American allied troops, of course, the Anglo-American tanks have been destroyed a lot, after all, the SS RPG range is 300 meters away, the Anglo-American medium tanks can't be carried even if they are frontal, they can be killed with one shot, and the SS tank No. 4 and Tiger are also very dangerous under the "super bazooka" of the Anglo-American coalition.

That morning, Rommel and his troops were bombed six more times by the British. The SS air force also attacked desperately, and the Anglo-American planes suffered great losses, and the choking smoke mixed with fine sand was suffocating; Fragments of red-hot metal fell everywhere. The Alam Khalefa ridge was finally occupied by the SS, Rommel immediately drove to the Alam Khalefa ridge, and ordered two divisional artillery groups to immediately move to the Alam Halfa ridge to launch a comprehensive artillery bombardment of the British and American defensive lines, and then the British and American coalition forces could only watch countless shells fall on their heads, and there was no way, the British and American coalition forces close to the Alam Khalefa Mountains 20 kilometers around them hurriedly fled, so that the El Alamein defense line carefully arranged by the British and American coalition forces was torn open a gap of almost 40 kilometers, Even if Montgomery tried to plug the huge opening, it would be impossible.

Montgomery's Anglo-American forces were crushed by Rommel's Afrika Korps. On January 12, Montgomery felt that he could no longer support him and began to retreat, and on the 13th, the Anglo-American forces accelerated their retreat. It was only at this time that Rommel allowed his armored forces to carry out a limited pursuit, but he absolutely forbade the capture of the Himamat Heights, which were held by the Anglo-American forces.

Rommel said he was going to keep Montgomery at the observation post there so that the Anglo-American could see all the deception that the SS would take in preparation for the next big campaign. The Battle of Alam Halfa lasted only three days, and by 17 January, Rommel's Afrika Korps had completely and completely defeated the Anglo-American forces and approached Egypt. Rommel's current forces were not enough to encircle the tightly knit Anglo-American forces at once, and they had to disperse the retreating Anglo-American forces to defend their strategic points, such as Cairo, the Suez Canal, and their ports

As a result, Rommel ordered the campaign to be stopped. Because he knew that Montgomery's troops could not be completely annihilated in the current situation. And he was not willing to let his precious armored forces lose too much in the pursuit as they did in the past. After the Anglo-American coalition lost the El Alamein line, the door to Cairo was completely opened, and if Cairo could not be defended, the Middle East of the Anglo-American coalition would be in danger, and they would directly face Rommel's troops. Once Britain and the United States lose oil in the Middle East, they will not be much better than Germany. If the port city of Tobrug could not be defended, the Anglo-American coalition would even close its last place of escape, either surrender directly, or directly cross the Suez Canal and run to Iraq.

As for the Anglo-American counteroffensive, the Anglo-American coalition still had lingering fears about Rommel, the cunning "desert fox", after all. Montgomery still put forward a counteroffensive plan, but Eisenhower also opposed Montgomery's plan, and the American monarch opposed it, and Montgomery, the person who stole the commander-in-chief, had no choice but to deploy his troops to strategic points such as Tobrug and Cairo.

Rommel's major victory greatly boosted the confidence of the SS officers and men, and restored their trust in their commanders, who had previously achieved brilliant results under the command of Zhang Jun, and now the deputy commander-in-chief could also lead them to victory and glory, and the soldiers' trust in their commanders was the most important morale.

On the same day, at a dinner in Berlin, Hitler said firmly:

"There is no danger in Egypt anymore, and I will finally destroy the Anglo-American forces, there is no doubt about it."

…… (To be continued.) )