The newly transferred Italian commander, Giovanni Messer, asked, "And what about the British troops in Northeast Africa?" How many of them are there? ”

The staff officer replied, "There are about 100,000 in Northeast Africa. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Rommel listened to the strength of the British army, and did not panic, and said, "It's just a rabble, our real enemy is actually only the British army on the Egyptian side." ”

In fact, the African contest between Britain and the Axis powers was not only in Egypt, but also in Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and other places were actually British colonies, and Italy was also disgraced by the British-backed guerrillas in Ethiopia, and finally had to retreat, so that Selassie was reinstated, that is, the entire northeast of Africa was actually under the control of the British army.

At this time, in Sudan, Kenya and other places can only rely on local troops, and there are more than 100,000 troops in these places, and Egypt is the real focus of Britain, and most of the assistance from the United States to Africa is also placed here.

Rommel looked at the map and said, "Now the German army in our German-Italian coalition has three infantry divisions and two armored divisions, and the Italian army has also been restored to twelve divisions, including two armored divisions, and we have a total of seventeen divisions, which is enough to deal with the British army on the opposite side, and the head of our country and the leader of your country jointly sent me a telegram, asking me to solve the Egyptian problem in the first half of the year, I have agreed, you must be mentally prepared, next, we will face a big war!" ”

At this time, Rommel's conditions were much better than in history, and the troops in his hands in history were not until the Soviet-German war, the German army only had 2 armored divisions and 1 infantry division in place, and the Italian army was due to heavy losses in the early stage, so that the morale could not be restored, and could only play auxiliary, and when Rommel got the advantage, because the main force of the German army was in the Soviet-German battlefield, it could not provide effective support, so that the advantage was gradually lost, and finally Montgomery was consumed alive in Africa by twice the army strength and three times the air force. And now, because Rommel is backed by large oil fields, so that there is so much oil that can be sprinkled everywhere, Hitler is even more interested in the Libyan oil fields, increased investment in North Africa, so that the German army in his hands is almost twice as many as in history, and the Italian army has not suffered a devastating blow because of his rescue, and the morale and strength are much better.

Rommel pointed to a pile of photos of British generals on the wall and said, "Our opponent is the Eighth Army, Commander Richie, this is very good news for us, the original commander of the Eighth Army, Alan Cunningham, has been transferred due to the mistake of the last battle and the disagreement between the British commander-in-chief in the Middle East, Claude Auchinleck, and Richie, we have learned his history, he has little experience in leading troops alone, and has always been in the army as a staff officer, so, We can make good use of his lack of experience in grasping the situation and deal a fatal blow! ”

Messer asked, "So what do we do?" ”

Rommel walked to the map and said, "The British are still dying in the British Isles, although they have won a naval battle by means of a sneak attack, but on land, there is no such thing as a great victory, especially for our German army, they must be desperate for a victory, in this case, we will give them a victory!" ”

Everyone was stunned, but Messer was thoughtful.

Rommel continued: "Richie is a new officer, he was only a major general before, he must also want to get a victory to prove himself, so, just give him a hope of victory, even if there is intelligence telling him that there is a problem, it will be difficult for him to control himself, I order!" General Messer! ”

"Yes!" Messer stood up and said.

"You lead three Italian infantry divisions, one Italian armored division, and one German infantry division to launch an attack on the British army, you must fight fiercely, bravely, and with momentum! I will send planes to provide you with support, do you have any confidence that you will have to fight until you reach the port of Matru to stop? Rommel asked sharply.

"Your Excellency Commander, there are sound British fortifications in Matroux Harbor, please give me two more armored divisions, I can find a way to take Matroux Harbor!" Messer said that Messer was one of the very few people in the Italian army who was good at using mecha troops, and he used motorized troops to achieve significant victories in Ethiopia and the Greek peninsula.

Rommel shook his head and said, "No, I don't need you to win, I want defeat!" ”

Everyone was stunned for a moment, Rommel continued: "The British army has the support of the United States, the technical equipment has increased a lot, and their navy is even stronger, from us to Egypt is an endless desert, if one stronghold is captured, our losses will be great, what I need is for the British army to come out of their turtle shells, and when you retreat, take our German army as the rear force, so that they will definitely come out in order to completely destroy a German division, and I will wait for them in the middle of the road!" ”

Messer nodded excitedly, but said worriedly, "Egypt is a place for the British, and their air power is also very strong, if we have troops in ambush in the middle, I'm afraid it will be difficult to escape their eyes." ”

Rommel glanced at Messer appreciatively and said, "That's why I haven't launched an attack for so long, the war in the desert is about logistics, so there are more logistics cars, I believe they won't doubt it, everyone come with me to take a look." ”

Rommel led the crowd outside, only to see a lot of tanks and a huge truck, which was unusually big.

Rommel opened a tank, everyone laughed, only to see that the door of the tank was next to it, it turned out that this was a tank disguised by trucks, naturally, the truck on the other side was disguised by trucks, Rommel pointed to these tanks and trucks and said, "My truck team will stay in Libya, waiting for the British to take pictures, and my tank team will become your logistics troops, waiting for the British to come." ”

On February 10, 1942, the German-Italian coalition began the second North African campaign, the Italian general Messer led his troops with the help of the powerful German air force, raided Selum, which was less than 100 miles away from the border, and the British troops guarding here fought for three days and were forced to retreat.

In the course of a month, the British forces in Port Matruo increased to three divisions and two brigades, more than 70,000 men, and the British battleship units were also transferred here to provide flank fire, and under the double blow of naval guns and the British Army, Messer began to retreat.

-- Port Matroux

Richie looked at the German and Italian troops who disappeared overnight, and said in disbelief, "Quick!" Send a reconnaissance plane to see what is going on! ”

After a while, the reconnaissance plane reported back that the German and Italian troops had retreated more than 20 miles away.

"It seems that they fought so fiercely in the middle of the night last night, all to hide people's eyes." Rich smoked his pipe and said happily, "This is another victory for our British in Africa, and the next step is to drive them out of Egypt once and for all!" ”

"Your Excellency, I think we still have to be careful, there are not many German troops in the troops fighting with us, will there be any conspiracy here?" A staff officer asked worriedly.

Richie smoked his pipe and thought about it, and it was hard to be sure that there was a possible conspiracy on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was leading the Eighth Army to drive the Axis forces out of Egypt.

"What kind of conspiracy is there to talk about, let's just let the reconnaissance plane take a look, this is Egypt, it's all desert, and the troops can't be hidden at all." Another staff officer came up with an idea.

"Makes sense!" Rich nodded and said, "Send a reconnaissance plane again, and you must carefully reconnoiter the situation of the Axis forces along the way." ”

The British Air Force was indeed desperate, and within half an hour, news came back, and photos were dropped.

"The troops behind the palace are flying the German flag, and along the way you only see the logistics troops, not the tanks and artillery, well...."Richie took another puff of his pipe.

"This is a real retreat, Messer is Italian, and the main force of his troops is also Italian troops, according to our intelligence, Germany and Italy have signed a secret agreement, after the capture of Egypt, the interests of Egypt will be taken by Italy, and Germany will get the interests of Libya, if you think about it from this aspect, then there is a reason for the main German force not to move, and it is understandable that Messer put the German army in the back hall to die, Germany and Italy are not as close as we imagined!" Richie seemed to see through everything and said to the staff officers around him.

In fact, Ritchie is not wrong, in history, when the Italian army cooperated with the German army, basically all they got was hard work, and even many jokes of the Italian army in later generations, if you contact the context, you will find that it is not a joke, but a tragedy.

Rich immediately ordered three divisions in the port and all the vehicles to chase after the Messer troops, in Richie's mind, he had the navy as a cover, and there were so many army units, even if he encountered danger, there would be no major problems, even if he couldn't fight, he could still escape.

But he ran into Rommel.

After Rommel got the news that the fish was hooked, he immediately sent a telegram to the Italian Navy, which had been preparing for a long time, and quickly lifted anchor and rushed to Alexandria, such a big movement naturally could not hide from the British intelligence network, and after the British fleet in Matroux Harbor got the news, they hurriedly returned to Alexandria, after all, there was a stockpile of materials from Asia and the United States, and if it was bombarded by Italian ships, Churchill would have to cry in bed for a while.

When Richie got that he had lost naval support, he had broken through the three lines of defense set up by the Messer troops to block the enemy, and he continued to advance forward with confidence, and came to a Gobi sand dune, and learned that there was a defense line set by a moral army in front of him, and there were many logistics troops, and he immediately said with great joy, "Children, there should be a lot of Italian pasta and red wine in front, we should take them down for a good dinner!" ”

Listening to Richie's words, everyone screamed, and on the opposite side, a door of 88 guns was facing the British tanks rushing up.

Of the three divisions that Richie brought out, there were more than 400 tanks, and he sent half of them in the first batch, ready to crush the German army on the opposite side in one go, which was not the first time he had done so.

"Boom" "Boom" "Boom", the 88 guns half-buried in the fortifications roared in turn, and the 22-pound armor-piercing shells could knock out a large hole in the frontal armor of the British heavy tanks with a diameter of four inches at a distance of nearly 2000 meters, and the distance between the German army and the British tanks at this time was only about 1000 meters, whether it was a British-made tank or an American-made tank, it was no different from a toy in front of the 88 gun, and correspondingly, a team of No. 4 tanks rushed out of the German position, The British, who had not yet figured it out, suddenly thought that these tanks had done a good job.

"Damn it, send me tanks! This is their main force, they must have left all the tanks here, just defeat them, they are finished! Richie exclaimed.

A team of British tanks rushed up, and the German tanks began to retreat every time they rushed halfway, luring the British tanks to catch up, and then combined with the 88 anti-aircraft artillery team of British tanks to strangle, in less than half a day, more than 200 tanks were lying in the desert forever, and Richie was completely sober.

"Damn, this.. It's a trap, retreat! Fall back!! Richie waved his hand, but it was too late.

In the distance, Rommel saw that Britain was about to retreat, smiled slightly, waved his hand, and the special trucks hiding behind began to uncamouflage, only to see more than 300 tanks and tens of thousands of German soldiers rushing out like wolves, and the German counterattack began.

In the sky, hundreds of warplanes of all kinds also launched attacks on the British army, and Richie only felt that his head was about to crash with a buzz, and he was completely defeated. What he didn't know was that on his way home, there were already several small motorized units waiting for him.

On March 11, 1942, the German Rommel broke the British Eighth Army that came to pursue in the Birani area, and raised three armies, dispatched four German divisions, four Italian divisions, with tank forces as the lead, mixed formation, pursued one hundred and fifty miles in two days, took Port Matrou, and then continued to the east non-stop, Krashikekmai on March 13, Fuquet on March 15, Lower Deba on March 16, and El Alamein on March 22, and the troops pointed directly at Alexandria.

Richie, who was beaten and dizzy, retreated all the way to Alexandria, only to take a breath, and almost fainted when he saw the losses, and the Eighth Army had lost half of its troops, so he hurriedly sent a telegram to Auchinleck asking for reinforcements. Claude Auchinleck, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, ordered Ritchie to be dismissed from his post and dealt with in London, and at the same time flew to Egypt to prepare for a king-to-king battle with Rommel.

And Rommel also felt that this was his most critical battle in Africa, and while gathering the troops that were somewhat scattered due to the offensive, he concentrated his forces and arranged his troops, preparing to fight as far as Alexandria and Cairo in one go.