Damanhur, which was the only way from Cairo to Alexandria, was an important transportation hub, with a railway line that connected to Cairo and even the hinterland of Egypt, and was one of the important stockpiling sites for the Allied rear. However, the place has just undergone a baptism of 600 tons of aerial bombs, and now the fire has not been completely extinguished.

On the ruined streets of Damanhur, Egypt's most important town, a squad of German paratroopers sit on the roadside on either side, munching on the food they carry with them. The soldiers, armed with weapons and bags, had just arrived. There was a huge crater next to them, and there was a little bit of heat bubbling inside, and there were many civilian corpses piled up next to the crater, and they had not had time to clean it up.

The butcher bomber dropped all the bombs it was carrying, which was the best way to ensure the safety of the German paratroopers after they landed, and the entire city system was destroyed, but both General Student and the other army generals believed that good soldiers would always find what they were looking for in the ruins.

The city, which had a population of more than 100,000 people, should have been on the verge of fleeing when the fighting spread to Alexandria. Now after the bombers are bombing, it is as quiet as the dead zone, and the occasional crackling sound of burning can be heard, which makes people feel uncomfortable.

The bustling neighborhood is now as gruesome as hell, and German paratroopers are reinforcing nearby defenses with everything they can find. They used collapsed houses as shelters, set traps and fire points everywhere, and the whole city was turned into a murderous temple at the hands of these experienced soldiers, each position seemed to be saved for the sake of killing more people.

"Take the people, bury these dozen mines over there! Yes! It's the side of those rubble, and the other side's tanks and infantry may appear over there!" Borol was analyzing the configuration of various firepower points in his defense area with the deputy battalion commander, and when he saw a company commander walk in, he immediately pointed to the dozen anti-infantry mines placed under his feet, and spoke.

The types of weapons and equipment used by paratroopers to fight are not very large, and most of the time they only have the gun in their hands can be used, but this does not mean that they only rely on rifles to fight, for example, now, the division headquarters has found an ammunition depot set up by the Allies in Damanhur and found 5,000 mines in it.

This batch of munitions was distributed to all the front-line combat units as ammunition supplements, and Borol's battalion, as the main force of the frontal defense, was allocated a full 300 of these mines, and he had laid a huge minefield on the flanks and fronts of his troops, and the remaining mines were now used as filling, buried in the combined parts of several company positions.

Several 75mm short-barreled infantry guns of the battalion have been arranged to fire positions, and some shelters and bunkers have been set up as cover, after all, these paratroopers are veterans of bloody battles in Crete, and they are accustomed to using a qiē time to strengthen their defensive positions when there is no enemy counterattack.

"Clean up the back of a few machine gun positions, after all, we don't have a lot of heavy weapons in our hands. Borol drew a few times in a pencil notebook, representing the 13mm heavy machine gun positions of several battalions, which were used to suppress large forces with sudden fire, and of course against targets such as light tanks and armored vehicles.

Looking at the surrounding terrain, Borol pointed to a place in the distance and said to the deputy battalion commander: "Inform the logistics team of the battalion headquarters to distribute a third of the grenades and machine gun ammunition, according to the plan, the Americans may be arriving here soon." ”

Before he could say anything, dust rose from a short distance, and a barrel truck still painted in gray rolled up sand and drove from a distance, and the soldiers in the car swayed back and forth with the vibrations, but the steel helmets and costumes showed that they were soldiers of the German paratrooper reconnaissance unit.

Before the car could hold up, the soldiers above began to shout loudly: "The enemy is only less than 5 kilometers away from here, I think you have to speed up and hide, so as not to be discovered by the enemy." There are a lot of tanks, there is too much sand and dust, and you can't see what is going on behind you, and this is really not a good enemy. ”

"You ran back so fast, you must have been seen by the enemy?" Borol smiled and threw the cigarette he was carrying to the brothers who were trying to investigate, and the other party obviously appreciated it, and kept the two magazines he was carrying.

"I thought you needed help, so I brought it here. "On the other side of the road, a paratrooper tank armed with a 75 mm cannon drove up, the front of the tank was full of sandbags, and the gaps in the yellow sandbags were also filled with sand, and as soon as the vehicle started, sand fell from the gaps from time to time.

Soldiers on the battlefield are always trying to keep themselves alive, and they give up any chance, even if it's a blank slate, and if they have the chance, they will find a way to put it in the direction where the bullet might fly.

"Thank you for coming to our aid, over there, we left a low wall, behind which there is an old house where you can hide, the roof is gone, if you need it, I will have someone to help you tear down the courtyard wall behind it. Borol pointed to the smoking house, which had collapsed, leaving four walls, stubbornly refusing to fall.

"Thank you so much, I'll try to help you take out all the enemy tanks before you retreat. The commander of the paratrooper tank smiled and nodded, then knocked on the edge of the open turret of the paratrooper tank, and gave the order in a loud voice: "Drive to the house over there, we will set up a defensive position there." ”

"Hey, Donner, you go and call the platoon commander of the 1st Company and 2nd Platoon, I need him to arrange a covering group to set up a covering position around the paratrooper fighting vehicle, move quickly, we don't have much time!" After Borol finished his mission, he ran to the location of the battalion headquarters.

There he also prepared 4 iron-fisted anti-tank groups, and now he must arrange them all and paralyze all the American tanks at the first time, otherwise his infantry alone may have to pay a very heavy price to stop the opponent's advance.

"All right, gentlemen, enter the trenches, and don't light a fire. Open the cans and fried noodles. Eat your stomach before the battle, it is estimated that this battle will take a long time, so don't starve to death. Carrying his Mauser 98K rifle, which he didn't like, Borol walked past his defensive positions and shouted, "Ready to fight!"

When he walked back to the camp headquarters, looking at the sand and dust raised in the sky, Borol knew that the distance between the other party was very close, he tore open a bag of fried noodles, unscrewed the kettle, and ate a mouthful of fried noodles, to be honest, the fried noodles had a peculiar smell, and there was a faint smell of gasoline in the water, which was not very delicious in his mouth, but he still ate very carefully, as if this was a French meal.

In order to preserve the easily perishable fried noodles for a longer period of time, the Germans used vacuum packaging technology, but because of the large quantity and the processing technology is not very advanced, many of the vacuum packaging is damaged in the process of transportation and storage, so whether the front-line soldiers can eat better food depends entirely on luck.

"It's really a disliked enemy-breaker. Swallowing a mouthful of fried noodles, Borol looked at the surface of his sand-covered leather boots and smiled wryly. Although it is already October, the temperature here during the day is still very high, and in order to keep it hydrated, he is still wearing a desert yellow raincoat in the style of a windbreaker, which can be imagined how uncomfortable it is.

Originally, he had heard that General Rommel had fought thousands of miles in the desert and beaten the enemy so pitifully, after all, he had never experienced this kind of hardship, but now he knew how desperate it was to fight a battle in the desert.

He raised his binoculars, put them in his eyes, and looked at the position where the Americans would appear, where an American tank had already appeared on the horizon, nothing unusual, the M3lee tank that had been seen in England, with a thin skin and a large filling, nicknamed "Tin Chimney". But who knows what else is behind this tank, because Borol saw a second American tank, and then a third.

Grabbing the battalion headquarters' new portable field phone, Borol smiled and said to the other end of the silence: "Discover the American armored forces, and the battle will start in a few minutes! Long live the Führer!"

"Good luck! Long live the Führer!" came over the phone, and the voice of the regimental commander came over, and it was extremely clear.

Soon a staff officer knocked on the door of a house in the center of Damanhur, which was the general headquarters of the German paratroopers and the temporary front-line headquarters of General Student. Outside the door, another room was filled with radio equipment, and huge antennas were hidden among the rubble, all of which looked indistinguishable from the wreckage around them.

"General, the news from the troops on the front line has found that American troops, a lot of tanks, and the battle is about to start. "The staff officer gave the information to General Studenter, the father of the German paratroopers and the supreme commander of the paratroopers.

Student took the report, then raised his head and looked out the window, and said: "Announce to the whole army that Student is with all the paratroopers in Damanhur and will never leave early! Long live the Führer!"

A rifle sticks out of the rubble, and not far away another rifle is also aimed at its own enemy, and the German paratroopers are crawling between the rubble and the ruins, a pair of resolute eyes staring at the American soldiers in the distance, they merge with the ruins, they seem to be unconscious corpses, but only when they get close enough can you notice that their eyelashes are beating slightly.