Erwin, German Empire. Field Marshal Rommel's prestige reached its peak in the African theater.

When he was in charge of the German armies in Africa, the German armies were facing a very difficult situation. Even Generals Cruwell and Westphale contracted jaundice at this time. Rommel was worried: "Soon I will be the only German officer who has been fighting here all along." ”

However, Rommel was not deterred by the difficulties in front of him, he first successfully withdrew the main German army, and then successfully defeated the British attack through several beautiful battles in succession.

Beginning in May, Erwin. Rommel fought a decisive battle with the British in Africa.

A series of battles inflicted terrible losses on the British army.

On 31 May, Rommel organized an attack on Urib, with extremely stubborn British resistance and sluggish German advances. The next day, the battle continued, Waldau sent an air squadron to support, and the German infantry rushed forward in waves, and the battle was extremely fierce, and the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Rommel witnessed this spectacle with his own eyes. In the afternoon, the Germans broke through the British positions on all fronts and captured 3,000 British soldiers.

The next step is to attack Bill Hakeim.

Rommel adjusted the panzer forces and made careful arrangements for the next move. From time to time, British artillery bombarded his breakthrough in an attempt to stop the German supply convoys. On the night of 1 June-the morning of 2 June, the 90th Light Armoured and a coordinated Italian Division began to approach Bilhakeim, passing through the minefield without suffering any losses, blocking the way out to the east of the fortress. But the British and French defenders refused to surrender. Midday. The Italians attacked the fortress simultaneously from the northeast and the Germans from the southeast.

The French defenders inside the fortress were extremely stubborn and fought a tragic battle that began on 2 June and ended on 11 June. It lasted for 10 days. It was the first time Rommel had encountered such a fierce battle, and he was also deeply shocked by the infantry tactician. The French army was well fortified and well-established, full of trenches, bunkers, machine-gun bunkers and anti-tank gun positions, and laid out tight minefields, and the artillery and air bombardment were simply powerless. The Germans consumed huge amounts of ammunition and suffered heavy casualties. German sappers used their corpses to open the way for the follow-up troops. At the same time, the Air Force also contributed a lot. During the offensive, more than 1,300 combat sorties were carried out.

Subsequently, the Afrika Army took a break, and Rommel received some new tanks. He regained the initiative. It was able to free up forces to deal with the Gazala line of defense and to organize a counteroffensive. And the British suffered heavy losses, losing more than 400 tanks alone. At this point, Rommel became the true master of this war zone.

On the night of June 11, Rommel commanded the 15th and 90th Light Panzer Divisions. Together with the 3rd and 32nd reconnaissance battalions. Marching to the north of Bil Hakem. The British Gazala line was directly and seriously threatened. To this end, the British commander Litch transferred an armored brigade. On the 12th and 13th, Rommel commanded two large-scale tank battles. As a result, the British lost almost 140 more tanks, leaving only about 70 tanks.

Early in the morning of the 14th, the British were forced to begin withdrawing the remaining troops from the Gazala Line. As night fell, the Germans took control of the Viabalbia road. In the early morning of the 15th, the German 15th Panzer Division left a small number of troops to guard the road. The main force advanced towards the coastline. At this time, a large number of British troops retreating eastward easily took the road and fled. On the evening of the 16th. The Germans captured Adeum. On the night of the 17th, Sidi Rezhfo was captured. Subsequently, the Germans conquered the last fortress leading to Tobruk, Batrula. Tobruk's door opened.

Rommel's telegram said: "We have been victorious, the enemy is crumbling".

On the 17th, Rommel's encirclement once again tightly encircled Tobruk. At 15 o'clock in the afternoon, the tanks of the African Army and the Arreette Panzer Division moved eastward, completing the total encirclement of the British army. At 18:30, Rommel personally commanded the 21st Panzer Division to make another detour to the north. In order to seize the time, he took the lead and personally drove at full speed to rush to the coast over the bewildered British artillery and armored vehicles. It was getting dark. The 21st Panzer Division stormed a minefield that was not marked on the map, and a tank was reduced to a fireball in a terrible explosion. At dawn on the 18th, the 21st Panzer Division was bombed by the British Air Force, but Rommel still urged his troops to continue their northward advance as fast as possible. Soon, the troops reached the forward airfield of Gambut, the defenders had fled, and the Germans captured 15 intact planes and a large amount of fuel at once.

It was not until dawn that Rommel ordered the advance to stop. By this time, a reconnaissance battalion had arrived in Viabalbia. Tobruk's bag tightened. At 8:03 a.m., Rommel triumphantly telegraphed to the General Staff and Kesselring: "The fortress has been surrounded by our troops. "On the afternoon of the 19th, the African Army occupied new positions. The 90th Light Panzer Division struck east, occupying LinkedIn's supply depots between Viabalbia and Tobruk, disrupting the British army's view. Everything seems to have been laid out.

Rommel was full of confidence in his victory, but he also felt that everyone was inexplicably nervous while everyone was waiting for him.

The British deployed heavy groups at Tobruk, including the South African 2nd Division, the Indian 11th Brigade, the 2nd Guards Brigade, the 32nd Tank Brigade and several artillery regiments. These troops are exhausted and demoralized. The British commanders were slow to act, and the reorganization was not yet complete, not to mention the careful organization of the defense. But this does not mean that Tobruk has become a dangerous egg, it is still a hot taro. The terrain around the fortress was so complex that the sand ridges to the southeast were impassable for armored vehicles; The desert flats to the south were strewn with British bunkers and firing points, connected by tunnels, so that the defenders did not have to expose their targets unless absolutely necessary; Outside the independent stronghold, deep anti-tank trenches and dense barbed wire were built; The perimeter of the fortifications was also covered with numerous minefields.

However, Rommel was already in the fold this time. According to the defensive situation of the British army, he decided that the Italian 21st Army would carry out the feint mission, with the African Army and the Italian 20th Army as the main attack. Before the general offensive was launched, the entire German and Italian air forces in Africa were concentrated in bombing. Once the infantry had broken through the fortified lines, the Afrika Army advanced all the way to the crossroads leading to the port, all the way west to the Viabalbia road. Italy's 20th Army was responsible for occupying LinkedIn Army fortifications and preparing to eliminate South African divisional units.

On the 18th, he invited the commander of the Air Force, General Waldau, to the new command post in the Hadien stronghold, discussed the tactical use of the Air Force, personally demarcated the Air Force's air attack targets, and laid down the signal for the coordinated land-air attack. At noon on the 19th, Field Marshal Kesselring came to Rommel's command post and approved Rommel's plan of attack. In the afternoon, Rommel himself led a large army to the Egyptian border, pretending to march until it reached nearly 30 kilometers from Bardia before stopping. At 16:30, Rommel ordered the withdrawal of two Panzer Divisions, leaving only the 90th Light Panzer Division, which he himself returned to the Hatien command post.

In the middle of the night, Rommel lay in the command post trying to take a nap, but the familiar, pre-offensive excitement kept him awake. At 3:30 a.m., his men reported that all the attacking troops had occupied the designated positions and that everything was ready, and he closed his eyes and was confused for a while. But an hour later, Rommel sat in his command car again in good spirits. "Today is a crucial day. May Lady Luck be faithfully with me. I'm so tired, otherwise everything would be satisfying. At this time, he did not forget to share the joy with Lucy.

At 5:30 a.m. on June 20, the German and Italian artillery that were densely distributed on the battlefield roared. But half an hour passed, and the movement of the plane was still not heard. Rommel and the commander of the Afrika Army, Nainin, climbed a small high ground, and after a while, General Ninin got the news that the air squadron had just departed. In an instant, hundreds of planes were over the enemy's positions, and countless heavy bombs rained down, shattered barbed wire and blown weapons were thrown into the air and fell heavily on the heads of the defenders.

After the bombardment, there was a dead silence on the defenders' positions. Rommel's infantry began to storm. The company commanders and platoon commanders stood up and blew the whistle of the advance, and they rushed forward in the suffocating dust and smoke, and in a moment the guns rang out again like popping beans. The sappers also moved quickly, and at 8 o'clock and 5 o'clock, they erected a steel bridge over the anti-tank trench, and the tanks rumbled up.

By this time, Rommel had also arrived at the front line of the 15th Panzer Division, and his armored personnel carrier drove all the way to the breach of the minefield, watching the tanks and an infantry company pass through the minefield to attack the bunkers behind the defensive line. From time to time, the artillery fire of the defenders fell in his vicinity, and the vehicles near the breakthrough were crowded together. He ordered Lieutenant Burnsted to clear the way, and the tanks rushed up again, and 6 British "Crusader" tanks were hit and caught fire. At 9 o'clock, Rommel was victorious. He beckoned reporters to come and record his brilliant battlefield speech: "Today, my soldiers are attacking Tobruk with all their might. Individual soldiers may be killed, but the victory of our nation as a whole is certain. ”

On the morning of the 21st, Rommel drove to the city. Everywhere there are ruins and broken walls, and the eyes are full of desolation; On both sides of the road were tanks and cars on fire, some hit by shells and some set on fire by the British themselves; The dry rivers of the coast were crowded with countless captives. Some of the black soldiers of the South African Brigade were drunk, but they looked happy, clapping their hands and shouting, "The war is over!" ”

At 9:40 a.m., the commander of the fortress, General Klopp, commander of the 2nd South African Division, presented the instrument of surrender to Rommel on the Viabalbia road. Rommel hurriedly reported to Hitler: "The entire fortress of Tobruk has surrendered, and a total of 25,000 enemy prisoners have been captured, including some generals. ”

The whole of Germany was boiling. (To be continued......)