In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the bomber wing of the German North African Air Division suffered too many losses in the previous battle to defend Casablanca, and that Spain's Luftwaffe planes did not have many planes, and that the combat efficiency was seriously affected because of the long distance, the hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles of the US 2nd Army would have been blown up rather than suffering heavy losses

However, even in such an unfavorable situation, Patton still showed his true qualities, and under his leadership, the 2nd Army, which had been repeatedly humiliated not long ago, was as fierce as if they had taken medicine (well, they had already taken medicine). The 2nd Division of the Algerian Corps and the 1st Division of the Tunisian Corps, which Krim sent to intercept, were completely annihilated under the heavy artillery fire of the US 2nd Army and the rapid assault of armored units, much to the great joy of Eisenhower, who was sitting in the rear.

Although he succeeded in annihilating all 30,000 of the enemy's elite soldiers, the casualties of the 2nd Army also exceeded 20,000, and it was the first time that Patton had seen such a strong enemy in his military career. What made Patton's heart palpitate the most was that the two main divisions of the United Arab Emirates knew that they had no chance of winning, and they still fought to the death until the moment of Zuihou, not only did not a single one surrender, but not even escaped from the battle, except for a few people who were wounded and unconscious and were captured, the US army did not capture a single prisoner

"Even when we reach Zuihou, they still shout 'Allahu Akbar' and the name of the leader Kerim and pull grenades at us, if the enemy's army is like this, how much will it cost us to defeat it completely?" , the always brave Barton thought of this. Unconsciously, he sighed secretly, "I knew that it was so difficult to fight here, it was better to land directly in Europe, no matter how fierce and good the Germans were, they would surrender when they reached a desperate situation."

What made Patton even more unsettling was that although he had asked his subordinates to conserve as much ammunition as possible, how could the American officers and soldiers who were used to spending a lot of money change it for a while? As a result, after the two wars, the ammunition reserves of the 2nd Army had been depleted by more than 70%, and Patton had no choice but to shrug his shoulders and send a telegram to the headquarters. Urging the rear to speed up the delivery.

The Northwest Plains is the quintessence of Morocco. The population is relatively large, so Klim has not forgotten the mass killing weapon of guerrilla warfare, and the sabotage and sparrow warfare of the local militia once caused a headache for the US military, and the occasional suicide attacks made the US officers and soldiers even more frightened. Barton soon realized the danger. The troops were required to fire warning shots at any local people who came within 200 metres of the troops. If not, stay away immediately. They were to be shot at the first opportunity, and the adjutant said that doing so would likely attract criticism at home, but Patton replied. "I'd rather have my reputation damaged than let my men die in vain!"

But reports of U.S. military shooting civilians outraged Kerim, who was determined to eliminate this "inhumane" Western army, no matter what the cost. In Kerim's eyes, they are defending their homeland from aggression, so they can take any means, and the US military, as the aggressor, is already evil, and it is even more unforgivable to kill innocent civilians.

Although he has a certain understanding of Western civilization, Kerim's values and mindset are still Arabic, so he does not fully realize what it means to join the Axis camp in the first place, but only according to the traditional thinking, "Since I didn't fight you, but you hit me first, then you are the aggressor, even if you fight for the allies, you still can't change the identity of the aggressor." ”。 However, in the eyes of Patton and other US officers and soldiers, they were fighting against fascist bandits, and they were absolutely "great, bright and just", and even if they had to do some inhumane things because of the situation, it would be forgivable. The differences in understanding, combined with the old feud between the Berbers/Arabs and Western Christians during the colonial era and even earlier in the Middle Ages, made the North African war more brutal than expected, which is a terrible misunderstanding

There were many difficulties, but the barrier northwest of Casablanca, and the second largest city in Morocco, Rabat, was so close that Patton would not retreat at this time, but the road ahead was so completely destroyed by the local militia that it was difficult for American cars to pass, and the infantry had to rely on their footboards. Patton originally wanted to draw out armored vehicles and jeeps with strong off-road ability to form a mobile force to go directly to Rabat, or even simply bypass Rabat and directly attack Casablanca, but at this time, the German aircraft group rushed over at the strong request of Krim and launched the largest air raid on the US Second Army since its landing with a limited number of aircraft from the Arab Federation, although the Second Army successfully shot down and damaged more than a dozen enemy planes with various anti-aircraft weapons. However, 119 tanks and armoured vehicles were completely blown up or suffered severe F-class damage (incapacitated and unable to be repaired in the field), and Jeeps were blown up and injured even more

After learning that the total number of tanks and armored vehicles that could still be operated was less than fifty, Patton sighed deeply and weakly, if the mobile force only had this strength, even if it rushed to Casablanca, it would only be killed. So Patton immediately wanted to send a telegram to the headquarters asking for additional tanks and armored vehicles to come over, but at this time, the headquarters sent a telegram first, telling him that there had been a series of supply convoys that had been attacked by the enemy and all the troops were annihilated, and that a large number of enemy troops appeared behind the 2nd Army, isolating it from the main force, and asked Patton to immediately lead the army back to flank this force with friendly forces in order to reopen the supply line. Knowing that his troops had fallen into unprecedented danger, he couldn't help but have another thought at the same time, "If the enemy has two or three hundred thousand troops behind me, then how many troops can the enemy in front of me have?" As long as we can take Rabat and Casablanca, get the airfields in both places, and transfer a steady stream of domestic aircraft, there will be no more suspense about victory in the North African battlefield."

Patton therefore decided to ignore the orders of the command for the time being and concentrate all his forces on Rabat, but the 2nd Army was met with unprecedented force, and in the way of them was a strange force of Arabs, Berbers, Syrians, Iraqis, and even many blacks and even a very small number of yellows (to be continued......