The main purpose of the German North African Corps was oil, but it was also to further control the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.

With a battalion later, Hitler sent Rommel, and the Allies sent Montgomery.

Montgomery had an eagle-like face, and his high, heavily nasal English tone didn't sound very friendly. He bears similarities with Rommel in many ways. Both men are withdrawn and are surrounded by more enemies than friends. Both of them are imperious and arrogant, and when they obey the orders of others, they are like a fierce horse that is difficult to control, and when they are given full command, they are both excellent commanders with clear minds and the most original opinions.

Both men also paid more attention to cultivating friendships with military and political dignitaries, just as Rommel always obeyed Hitler and valued his relationship with Goebbels, Montgomery also paid great attention to making friends with military and political dignitaries.

Like Rommel who always wore that famous hat with plexiglass goggles, Montgomery also wore an eerie Australian bush hat with the team badge to show off his difference. In addition, both men liked to select outstanding, young and handsome officers to form their own staff corps. In terms of tactics, Rommel excelled in sports warfare, while Montgomery was never an expert in athletic warfare. But in the carefully arranged positional battle, he was superior to Rommel.

In the wars of North Africa in later generations, Rommel could not compare with Montgomery in terms of intelligence acquisition. Since Rommel lost his radio listening company, he had received less and less information about the British army.

British intelligence knew how to create a false impression on the enemy on intelligence sources. A large amount of easily decipherable intelligence hinted at the Germans: the Italians were constantly leaking information.

Rommel was convinced of this deception, which further deepened his contempt for the Italians. However, the British spy agencies continued to send Montgomery a large amount of German intelligence they had detected, but Rommel did not know about it.

"It was as if Rommel was blindfolded in a duel with Montgomery," a German military critic thought after the war.

However, both Montgomery and Rommel were equally aware that the victory or defeat of mechanized warfare depended largely on logistical supplies. Therefore, both of them strongly demanded that their high command send as many fighters and weapons and equipment as possible to the African theater.

Obviously, in later generations, Montgomery had an absolute advantage in this regard. The British and American war machines were at full speed, and a large number of ships poured across the Mediterranean, bringing a large amount of weapons and logistics for the British army.

This was not the case with Rommel. The follow-up support force is simply not comparable to that of the Allies. There is a serious imbalance in military power. This was the main reason for the defeat of Germany in the North African theater in later generations.

And now, because Germany has the support of Chinese weapons behind it, and Italy controls the Mediterranean, the Allied weapons and equipment can only enter Africa through other places. And also quantitatively and qualitatively. Not at all dominant. This was also the time when Germany and the Allies were engaged in naval battles. Hitler still insisted that the Italian navy stay in the Mediterranean, mainly to control the Mediterranean.

The war was not started by Germany, but by Italy. And it started very early. Germany's entry into the war began last year when Japan attacked the Pacific.

Originally, the British forces based in Egypt were ordered to undertake defensive operations, but not to provoke as much as possible. However, they began a series of attacks on Italian positions in Libya. With the defeat of the French, the Italian army in Tripolitania, which had been used to confront the French in Tunisia, was transferred to Cyrenaica to reinforce the Italian 10th Army.

Italian dictator Benito. Mussolini ordered the 10th Army to invade Egypt. Two days later, the invasion did not begin, Mussolini instructed Marshal Graziani, and at that time the German Sea Lion program was about to begin, and the European air force was continuing.

Thinking that Germany was about to carry out the Sea Lion Project, Italy began to attack.

The Italian army, weakened by the lack of transportation, the low level of training of officers, and the lack of support weapons, was ordered to begin an invasion of Egypt, a campaign planned to advance along the coastal road while the limited armored army operated on the flanks of the desert.

In response to the Italian offensive, the Allied defenders harassed the advancing Italian forces and then retreated to the main British ground forces from Melsa-Matru, where the main British ground forces were stationed. The 7th Panzer Division was placed on the flanks of the desert, allowing it to assault the Italian flanks.

A month later, Italian troops advanced about 80 miles (130 km) west of Mersa-Matru and stayed there because of supply problems. Despite Mussolini's urgation, Graziani ordered his army to dig trenches around Sidi Barani and to reinforce the established front-line camps, while the rest of the army was placed behind the main force.

Against the scattered Italian camps, Allied African Commander Montgomery planned a limited five-day offensive, Operation Compass, to attack these defensive camps one after the other. Allied troops totaling 40,000 men attacked the forward units of the Italian army. With initial success, the troops participating in Operation Compass pursued the retreating Italian army.

For most of the first half of the war in North Africa, the fortified towns of Badia and Tobruk were occupied, and the fleeing Italian troops were intercepted at the Bidav Gate by the 7th Panzer Division, which had crossed the Western Desert. At the Battle of Gate-Bidav, the remnants of the Italian army surrendered, and within ten weeks the Allies advanced to Aguhaira and destroyed the Italian Tenth Legion, capturing 130,000 prisoners in battle.

By the time the Japanese began their offensive in the Pacific, the Italian army had already suffered heavy losses in North Africa. At this time, Germany also officially decided to send troops into North Africa because of oil.

The German High Command transferred the German African Army (1 tank division, 1 light infantry division, commanded by Lieutenant General Rommel) and some aviation units to Libya. And through the Mediterranean, a large number of German soldiers and soldiers of the client state landed in Libya to form the Afrika Korps.

Subsequently, Rommel led the German-Italian African Army Group to occupy a defensive front 60 kilometers wide west of El Alamein, Egypt. The army group has 10 German divisions and 12 Italian divisions (the Italian division has a lot of water), with a total strength of about 260,000 troops, 1,540 tanks, 3,219 artillery pieces, and 1,850 aircraft. Pin down the Allied forces on the left flank, carry out the main assault from the southwest area of El Alamein to the direction of Sidi Hamid, press the Allied forces to the coastal area, and annihilate them.

The Allied forces were led by Montgomery, and the British 8th Army fighting in Egypt had 10 divisions and 4 independent brigades, with a total strength of 230,000 troops, 1,440 tanks, 2,311 artillery pieces, and 1,500 aircraft. The Allied campaign attempt stipulates that it adopts a deep echelon configuration and attempts to rely on a solid defensive line combining a support point ring defense with a large area of minelaying.

After three days of pre-aviation fire preparation and 20 minutes of artillery preparation, the Allies suddenly switched to the offensive. The breakthrough was carried out on a 9-kilometer-wide section. The Allied artillery was less dense (50 guns per kilometer of frontage) and failed to suppress the enemy's firepower, although after a full night of fighting, only wedged into the enemy's defensive positions. But the breakthrough turned into an unusually slow operation to "encroach" on the German defensive positions.

In response to Montgomery's sudden attack, Rommel also gave a resolute counterattack. The German-Italian army launched a new offensive.

After artillery preparation, the German 151st, 152nd Infantry and 9th Panzer Divisions launched an assault and met with stubborn resistance from the Allies. The 1st Panzer Division was immediately engaged in battle, and the next night it achieved a breakthrough from the junction of the Allied 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions.

In the early morning of the next day, the 10th and 7th Panzer Divisions and an Italian infantry division advanced from the breach to the depths.

The remnants of the Allied 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions counterattacked, but most of the tanks were destroyed due to the lack of air cover. The remnants of the Allied 164th Division, which had been cut off from the coast, were also annihilated by the Italian 9th Division.

Montgomery had no choice but to order the Allies to retreat on all fronts. Due to the blockade of the Mediterranean Sea by Italy, supplies could not reach quickly, fuel and vehicles were insufficient, some heavy weapons were evacuated by manpower, roads were congested, and retreat was slow.

The Germans took advantage of the situation to turn into pursuit, and sent a large number of planes to bomb, inflicting heavy casualties on the retreating Allied forces.

On the fourth day, the pursuit stopped due to rain, causing the Allied armored motorized units to retreat smoothly, and only the 10th Army composed of India, Australia, and Canada was mostly annihilated on the way back.

By the time of the campaign, the German-Italian forces had taken full control of Libya and Egypt, and the Suez Canal was under the control of the Axis powers. Unless the Allies made a detour to the Cape of Good Hope, British India and the Allied powers in the Middle East were already colonies in the Indian Ocean, and their ties were severed.

The Pacific and Indian Oceans, controlled by Japan, and the Mediterranean, controlled by the Axis powers, were on one side, and German submarines were constantly threatening the lanes of communication in the Atlantic. The situation of the Allies became smaller and smaller, and the aid that the United States had received from entering the war, the advantage of expected growth, was destroyed beyond recognition by the Axis offensive in North Africa.

Nowadays, much of China's weapons and equipment do not need to be directly transported to Europe, nor do they need to go by sea. Directly transport the armed forces to the Gulf region by rail, and then through Saudi Arabia, they can be directly delivered to Germany. However, this method is not used by China. It has always been by sea, and a steady stream of military supplies has been sent to Africa.

There is also a small episode in this, Germany bought weapons and equipment, guns and ammunition. And Italy also buys these things, but more often for food, especially red wine, and buys more than cannonballs. I have to sigh, the Italians went to Africa to fight? Or go on a tour?

However, the Allies were not without war forces in Africa, and the United States had begun to send land forces to Europe and the Pacific, with the first targets being Africa and British Australia. On the one hand, it was to break the Axis dominance in Africa, and on the other hand, it was to drive the Japanese army out of Australia. (To be continued.) )