Under the thunderous onslaught of the German armored forces, the three divisions on the right flank of the American army were encircled, and their fate was finally decided. After several failed breakouts, the fighting will of the American troops in the encirclement plummeted, and in the face of the approaching enemy forces from all directions, the vast majority of them finally chose to disarm and surrender to the enemy. In the values of the Americans, life is the most precious thing above a qiē, and there is no psychological resistance to being a prisoner of the Germans when nothing can be done.

(In the early days of the Pacific War, the hundreds of thousands of U.S.-Filipino troops stationed in the Philippines also became prisoners of war by the Japanese with this mentality; However, the tragedy is that the Japanese did not treat these "interesting" Uncle Sam well. Influenced by extreme militaristic ideas such as the bushido spirit for many years, the Japanese considered surrender to be a cowardly act that could not be tolerated at all. As for these "rice cowards" who are trying to make a living, the Japanese did not show the slightest mercy, but gave them the most cruel treatment. In a single Bataan death march, 15,000 people were tortured and killed in the middle of the march, and the surviving prisoners of war were also tortured by the Japanese army in every way, and finally persevered until the American army recovered the Philippines and rescued one out of ten people. ）

By February 23, the fighting in the encirclement on the right flank had completely ceased. At the cost of more than 3,000 dead ≈and wounded, the Germans completely annihilated a corps deployed by the American army in this area, and because of the formation of an ideal encirclement, the German troops captured more than 30,000 American prisoners. After a search and registration of their personal information, the surrendered soldiers were soon escorted to the rear area as laborers, where they became accomplices in helping the invaders transport supplies under the threat of gunpoint. The German guards smashed the butts of the guns. Let the passive slacking people have become rolling gourds with their heads in their arms and howling. And the various automatic firearms in the hands of the other party. It completely extinguished the last trace of resistance of the American prisoners of war. Although the Germans had to take care of the food for many of them, it was well worth it: the addition of these American POWs to logistics allowed a large number of Germans to break away from their role as auxiliaries and go to the front lines where they were needed most. In addition, these American prisoners of war working in the rear also made the American pilots who came to drop bombs from time to time become taboos, which undoubtedly greatly ensured the smooth flow of German transportation lines. The Germans soon found that their rear supplies had become more open with the capture of these prisoners; Accompanied by a steady stream of reinforcements of troops and material resources. Their offensive on the front line is also more fierce and fierce!

After the victory, the German armored forces did not stop and continued to penetrate the rear flanks of the American troops. According to the reconnaissance report made by the Air Force, the Americans also deployed a large number of troops on the island of Cuba, and their mission was to break through the enemy line through a mercury-like offensive, and then use the mobility of tanks and motorized infantry to carry out a roundabout way, and cooperate with the rear infantry to form an encirclement of the target force. The flats of the Cuban wilderness gave the mighty torrent of steel that swept through Western Europe an excellent opportunity, and the thin strips of Cuban land made their offensive extremely deadly. The German tanks usually took no more than two days to make a detour, and the distance of more than 400 km with the auxiliary fuel tanks on them also made these gun-defying beasts not suffer from the lack of fuel at all. Although the U.S. military deployment is also far denser than normal because of this narrow theater of operations. But they simply could not withstand the onslaught of the German cluster with the Tiger tank as the core!

In the blink of an eye, the American army was on the front in eastern Cuba. It fell apart with this round of German attacks. Following the demise of a corps on the right flank, the central front, which was adjacent to it, was also devastated; The roaring German tanks cut off the main road from Guantanamo to the main road to transport supplies to them, causing the situation of more than 50,000 American troops in front to deteriorate sharply.

However, what was supposed to be an orderly evacuation turned into a catastrophic collapse. After the previous battles, the US officers and men had developed a kind of out-and-out fear of German tanks, and the close cooperation between the various arms of the armed forces and their superb combat skills also made the US officers and men feel that they were far from being invincible. When they learned that the supply line had been cut off again, they lost all their will to fight in extreme panic, and only thought about how to escape the giant pincers that the other side had closed. This originally complete army has become history.

"Not long after our tentative attack was launched, the American soldiers on the front line retreated. Countless open-button coats scurried around before our eyes until there was not a single figure left. In their abandoned positions, we found more than forty intact light and heavy machine guns, piles of ammunition and ammunition, and even a dozen 155mm heavy howitzers that had not had time to be towed away. If these firepower can be used correctly, then it will be impossible for our army to form a breakthrough from this theater of operations, and we must wait for strong reinforcements from the follow-up troops! Fortunately, the Americans did not have the will to fight like our soldiers, and they had great technical equipment, but they had the most important shortcomings in personnel. This was confirmed by the ensuing battles, when only 28 were killed or missing, 55 wounded, but more than 600 prisoners were captured and nearly 100 enemy soldiers were killed. And the most surprising thing is that a considerable number of these captives actually carry green dollars with them, and they give these things that are no different from waste paper on the battlefield to our soldiers, in order to get a better treatment after becoming prisoners. One of the German commanders who took part in the attack recalled afterwards with joy and disdain.

In just two days, the Germans completed another encirclement, and all four divisions of American troops laid down their arms within two days of being surrounded, except for one and a half brigades of personnel who escaped. The hordes of prisoners of war were a mixed blessing for the Germans, who were simply not prepared to take in such a large number of people. The U.S. forces on the Cuban front began to retreat westward, preparing to resist with Guantanamo as a front-line fortress, but the German Army was already unstoppable at full strength when air supremacy no longer belonged to the U.S. military. The German tanks pursued the retreating American troops, and their movements were hindered by the constant interspersed attacks of the Guò; The infantry quickly followed in the rear, easily disarming the American troops they encountered along the way. An avalanche began to appear among the retreating American troops, and the crowd was full of people fleeing in panic, and the roadside fields were full of all kinds of weapons, ammunition and auxiliary items they discarded, and the situation was even worse than that of the French army in the Battle of France!

On 27 February, the vanguard of the German 6th Panzer Corps swept through Guantanamo like a storm. To the Germans' point of confusion, the city was quite well fortified, including the harbor base in the south, although the American troops in front of them had become frightened; Their attack was quickly repulsed by the U.S. forces who had retreated into the city, suffering unnecessary casualties. As the most important U.S. base in the Caribbean, Guantanamo has been in operation for four decades, and it is by no means easy to capture by the German armored forces who are not familiar with street fighting. Realizing this, the German commander immediately shifted the direction of the attack and sped wildly towards Santiago, 60 kilometers away, from the airfields surrounding the town from which most of the American warplanes had bombed the German landing grounds. And this undefended town will not have the same good fortune as Guantanamo. The undefended field airfields soon fell to the Germans under the onslaught of German tanks, and the greatest cancer that threatened the German rear was finally uprooted, and the Germans forced the few defenders of the city to retreat westward under the threat of encirclement, and finally took full control of the area before sunset.

On 4 March, the Germans finally halted their advance due to logistical supplies and the size of their troops. During the two-week offensive, they advanced a total of 160 kilometers, which on paper was much worse than the French campaign, but it was the speed of the entire front, including the infantry! More than 12,000 square kilometers of land are covered with the Iron Cross flag, and only one part of the entire southeastern part of Cuba is still in the hands of the US military. More than 160,000 U.S. officers and soldiers became prisoners of the German army, and countless ammunition and materials were captured. After this battle, the Americans finally fully understood why the Anglo-French army completely collapsed in just one month, knowing that the total number of troops in the German attack was only 11 divisions, and the number of tanks was still not one-tenth of the French battle! More than this painful realization, the US commanders were more worried about the collapse of the status quo on the island of Cuba. With a large number of troops being destroyed or losing their combat effectiveness, the U.S. military's defenses have become overstretched; A pessimistic atmosphere of defeat prevailed in the troops, and war-weariness began to spread rapidly among the officers and men. Once the German army launched the next round of attacks, its own defeat would inevitably be even greater than this tragic battle!

A new round of the German offensive was soon coming. Due to the sudden expansion of the control area, they had too many beaches for transport ships to land troops and unload supplies, and after a short rest, the morale of the Germans pushed westward again. The unmotivated U.S. troops discarded a large number of heavy weapons and fled westward, and the important towns of Bayamo, Lastunas, and Camagüey fell one after another. The complete fall of the island was only a matter of time, and the German high command had already set its sights on the rest of the battlefield beyond Cuba. (To be continued......)

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