The European coalition forces showed surprising combat effectiveness on the battlefields of North Africa, especially the performance of the German army. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Unlike the French army, which assigned its armoured units to infantry, the German army used the same tactics as the armoured armoured forces of the Ming Army. They pooled their armored forces to form armored divisions, forming powerful fist units to use. After the armored forces broke through the defenses, the infantry that followed them extended the victory.

At the same time, the German air force also provided strong support for the ground forces in close proximity. This tactic, which was best suited for armoured troops, made the German army extremely capable of attacking, and defeated the Ming foreign legions responsible for the resistance.

The German Afrika Korps had already swept through most of Libya in September, capturing the important cities of Tripoli, Misrata, Sirte, and then besieging the important port city of Benghazi. Most of Libya fell into German hands.

At the same time, the French army, commanded by General Charles de Gaulle, was advancing along the Algerian coastline towards Morocco. This is the sphere of influence they have already divided.

The immensely fortified fortress of Gibraltar was in danger of being completely surrounded at this moment. With the rapid advance of Rommel and the strong strength of European navies in the Mediterranean, the extremely important island of Malta has become an overseas island at this time, and the situation is precarious.

Italy, which had just been founded, saw the benefits and offered to attack the island of Malta with its offer. Feeling that a tiny island of Malta that had been blockaded was insignificant, and that it didn't matter if they gave their little brother a little leftovers, they quickly agreed to the Italians' demands.

Italy is typical of hearts higher than the sky and lives thinner than paper. The Kingdom of Sardinia, which had previously ambitiously tried to unify Italy, was okay, and the combat effectiveness of the troops and the morale of the army and the people were very good. But not so with the rest of the Italian peninsula, especially since they were just coming under one banner. With the exception of the armies of the former Kingdom of Sardinia, the rest of the Italian units were poorly combative.

Malta is located in southern Europe, bordering Italy, 90 km south of the Italian island of Sicily, 284 km east of Tunisia and 333 km north of Libya. It is an important transit point in Europe and Africa, known as the heart of the Mediterranean.

As the main island, Malta is not a small island, with an area of nearly 250 square kilometers. The strategic position is very important, and it has always been a battleground for soldiers. More than 100 years ago, after defeating the French, the Ming Dynasty brought Malta under his command and became an overseas colonial power.

The main force of the Ming stationed in Malta was a division of the Marine Corps. In addition, there is about a regiment of fortified garrison heavy artillery units, a Maltese garrison infantry regiment, and a single regiment. A heavy artillery regiment, an anti-aircraft artillery regiment, an anti-tank regiment, a mixed armored regiment and several logistical baggage units. Daming Hainan Airlines has established three military airports on the island, stationed nearly 200 aircraft.

The Mediterranean Fleet of the Ming Navy sent a small detachment to use the Grand Harbour of Valletta as a base, while a seaplane hangar was built. Before the start of the war, a large submarine base was built according to Zhang Cheng's suggestion. The total strength of the troops on all sides is about 40,000 and is equipped with heavy shore defense artillery.

The Ming Mediterranean Fleet realized that it could not stand up to the powerful European coalition fleet, and that it would not be able to get the most effective strong support in a short period of time. They sent large quantities of supplies from the port of Tripoli to Malta during their evacuation of Tunisian waters. Combined with Malta's own reserves and air transport, as well as naval reinforcements at night, the island was well stocked, with more than 3,000 reinforcements in it.

The Italians carefully prepared to attack Malta, an isolated island in the Mediterranean, and they bombed Malta on a massive scale with all their warplanes, as well as asking Germany and France for help.

After the powerful air forces of Germany and France entered the war, the Daming Navy, which was more than enough to deal with the Italians, soon lost air supremacy. The Ming fighters on the island of Malta were quickly lost.

Subsequently, most of the light fleet stationed in Valletta was sunk, and the small submarine force could not stand up to the huge European fleet cruising the Mediterranean. The new style of Malta as a whole is unusually grim. Even, the Daming North African Theater Command is already considering whether to abandon Malta's plan to rescue all the defenders.

Under these circumstances, the plane on which the new commander of the North African Theater of Operations, Lieutenant General Zhang Cheng, arrived in Alexandria.

......

"I will never allow Malta to be abandoned, under no circumstances." Zhang Cheng, who had a grim face, glanced at the many officers in the conference room, and said in a deep voice, "The defenders of Malta will either hold their positions or destroy with Malta, there will definitely be no second way out!" ”

"But." A young staff officer raised his hand and pushed his glasses, frowned and said, "The current situation is very grim, and we cannot provide support to Malta. If the Italians launched a landing operation, they would most likely be wiped out. ”

"Don't you understand the Chinese I speak?" Zhang Cheng's cold gaze swept over, "I said, no circumstances are allowed to give up!" ”

The critical situation in North Africa forced the Ming top leadership to pay attention. Zhang Cheng, commander of the Western Pacific Theater, was transferred to the post of commander of the North African Theater of Operations, and commanded all the Ming naval and land forces in the Mediterranean. His post was temporarily temporarily deputized by Wang Dexiang, chief of staff of the Eighth Group Army, commander of the Seventh Armored Division, and who had been promoted to lieutenant general. This is also the condition put forward by Zhang Cheng, and it is impossible for him to give up his rights in the Western Pacific region.

North Africa is the preserve of the family consortium, and most of the people in the North Africa Command have their own factions. Naturally, he didn't have much respect for Zhang Cheng, the commander who came from the airborne, and because of the successive defeats, his morale was low and his will to fight was not strong.

The officers in the conference room looked at each other, and everyone was a little uncomfortable with Zhang Cheng's strength. But no one dared to speak out against it, this is the army after all.

Zhang Cheng coldly glanced around these officers, his heart full of disdain. If you can't fight, forget it, everyone is good at playing infighting. wants to play tricks in front of him, Zhang Cheng will not save them any face.

"Now I command." Zhang Cheng stood up, propped his hands on the table in front of him, and said in a deep voice, "The North African Theater has set up two command centers. The western battlefield was commanded by Major General Li Ru, commander of the garrison of the Gibraltar Fortress, and overall command of the troops in the Gibraltar, Moroccan and Algerian theaters. The Libyan and Egyptian theaters of operations are under my personal command, do you understand? ”

"Yes." There was a sparse echo in the conference room.

"Bang!" Zhang Cheng, whose face was dark, slammed his fist on the table with a fist, and let out a dull muffled sound, "I haven't eaten yet!?" If you don't want to do it, take off your military uniform and fuck off! ”

"Huh!" With a bang, all the officers in the conference room hurriedly stood up, their bodies straight, their hands tightly pressed against the seams of their trousers, their eyes wide open, and they shouted "Yes!" with all their might. ”

Zhang Cheng sat down with a cold face, took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. A cold gaze swept over such officers, and he said in a deep voice, "What kind of battle was fought some time ago?" It's simply a loss of face for the Ming Army. If you had changed into military uniforms, I would have thought you were all peasant soldiers of the Korean Kingdom! ”

Zhang Cheng's words were very stinging, and all the officers in the conference room looked angry. However, no one has spoken out to argue with it. After all, they did fight badly, badly. Hundreds of thousands of troops, not just the Foreign Legion, but also the regular Defence Forces stationed in the North African theater of operations. Since the landing of the European coalition forces, there has been basically no victory. This is a bad performance that the Ming Army has not had for many years. Later, the domestic newspapers did not even dare to report on the situation of the war in North Africa, at most they fought fiercely with the enemy army in such and such a place. Fear of affecting the morale of the people.

"It's not terrible that you can't beat the enemy if you don't have enough strength. What is terrible is that there is no courage to fight! Zhang Cheng took a stack of documents from Xiao Hongbao, who was standing on the side, and slammed it on the table, "See for yourself!" See for yourselves! Which time is not asking for tactical guidance? When didn't you ask for permission to transfer? I also wondered, are the European coalition forces all three-headed and six-armed? Or did they send millions of well-armed troops? You're the defender, even a few hundred thousand pigs are enough for them to catch for a while, right? ”

Maybe Zhang Cheng's words were too mean, and finally someone couldn't help but defend himself, "Sir, it's not that we are incompetent, but that the enemy is too powerful." ”

"......" Zhang Cheng sat on the chair, crossed his legs, holding a cigarette in his hand, and had a stunned expression on his face. This strong sense of immediacy made him not know what to say for a while. When will it become a country. Army?

"Tell me, what are they so good at?" After being slightly stunned for a moment, Zhang Cheng looked at the young staff officer who spoke up and asked indifferently.

"The German Afrika Korps is too cunning and marches extremely fast. Many times instead of attacking our preset positions, they chose to take a detour and go straight into the rear defense line of our army, which directly led to the collapse of the front line. The young staff officer began to complain loudly: "The Germans have always had the upper hand in the suppression of fire on a single battlefield, and they have been constantly attacking and attacking, holding the initiative." We can only be passive defense, and the more we fight, the more chaotic we become. Moreover, the armored forces of the Germans moved unusually quickly, many times rushing out of places that we did not expect, and the soldiers at the front fought very hard. ”

"Hmm." After Zhang Cheng was silent for a moment, the inexplicable look in his eyes kept flashing, and he said softly, "The enemy's skills and tactics are strong, you are not opponents." It's not your fault, it's just a lack of ability. ”

"Huh!" The officers in the room were all red-faced. In other words, whoever is considered incompetent will not have a good face.

Zhang Cheng casually snuffed out the cigarette, stood up slowly, and said softly with an indifferent expression, "Since the enemy has come out of the king, then the king can only be used to deal with it." I'll kill the Desert Fox. (To be continued.) )