81_81266 "Suddenly, suddenly!" The Germans' machine guns roared from the position, and the sudden attack made the American soldiers who had just arrived in North Africa a little dizzy. They were not battle-hardened German soldiers, and for a moment the recruits from various states of the United States could not even figure out which direction the attack was coming from.

"We're under attack! The Germans are firing from all sides! God! Now we're pinned down behind a sand dune, and the fire is so heavy that we can't get through the predetermined area!" a U.S. officer shouted over the radio to his superior, and on one side of him, a freshly equipped U.S. heavy machine gun squad was pouring out its ammunition, but it looked like they were in a hurry, and God knows where the bullets had gone.

An American tank platoon tried to aim at the German armored reconnaissance vehicle, but found that the main gun had nothing to do against the fast-moving four-wheeled reconnaissance vehicle, and it was difficult for the shells to hit a moving target, let alone some American recruits who had not experienced real combat.

The American armored forces in charge of the assault were even more miserable, and they were stunned by their German counterparts - a dozen German tanks began to attack at a distance of almost 1,500 meters, and the Americans paid a heavy loss of nearly twenty tanks in two rounds of extremely fast fire.

Soon the first attack of the American* team was pushed back by the Germans, but the Americans also found that the German troops on the opposite side were not as strong as they seemed. These German opponents retreated after a limited counterattack and began an organized retreat.

"They must have spotted the British team on the flank, and it seems that this guy named Erwin Rommel is still a bit of a level. Patton smoked his cigar and looked at the map of operations and said to his staff: "Our losses are not small, and the Germans, even if they are weakened, are still very effective. The German armored forces on the front were even more tricky than expected, and I couldn't think of an effective way to deal with these German tanks. ”

"Arranging for aircraft bombing may be a good idea, but it is not easy to compete for air supremacy with the FW-190D fighters, and I heard from the British pilots that the German fighter pilots were very good and could control their planes skillfully. The staff officer pouted and said to Barton.

"The combat effectiveness is out, I know that the performance of German tanks and aircraft is good, but this time they faced us, it was not so easy. Patton sneered and then said, "Collect as much information as possible about the German army, which is also one of the purposes of our here. Today we won Rommel, it's worth opening champagne to celebrate!"

On the opposite side of the U.S. team, the Germans were also dazed by the attack of the Americans, and everywhere there were reports that the defensive line had been broken and the ammunition had run out. Rommel gave all sorts of orders in his command car, which stabilized the German army.

He ordered his right-wing troops to spread out to the flank, in a desperate posture, to guard against the British detour back to his south, the 8th Army. Then he let his left flank hold his position, and he did not hesitate to use up the remaining ammunition and not take a step back.

Then Rommel personally led 30 of the most powerful Leopard tanks in his hands to carry out a counter-assault on the American * team in front. It was this counter-assault that repelled the aggressive American forces and covered the safe withdrawal of German troops from the battle.

Immediately afterwards, Rommel's combat posture was not so elegant, and he ordered the armored forces to retreat 110 kilometers back to meet General Frederick behind. And so a retreat began faster than he could advance.

As he retreated, Rommel rearranged the battle report, and found that his opponent had changed from the British to the Americans, whom the Führer had always feared. These American armies were more difficult to deal with than their long-standing British opponents, and this was another proof of Führer Accardo's foresight.

"The Americans' individual firepower is more powerful than that of the British, and their guns are this kind of ......" The staff officer handed Rommel a captured U.S. M1 Garand rifle to Rommel, and continued to introduce: "I heard that this rifle has just been equipped by the United States, and it was developed to counter our G43 automatic rifle, and it is heavier in weight, but the performance is very good. ”

In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the American soldiers under Patton's command, the US top brass also took great pains. They studied the weapons and equipment of the German army from the information provided by the British, and urgently purchased a batch of M1 Garand rifles as individual weapons against the German MP-44 and G43 automatic weapons.

Of course, they also strengthened the front armor of the M3 tank, learning from the German methods, and temporarily welded steel plates in front of the tank, hung spare tracks and even sandbags - but judging from the results of this battle, the frontal armor of the M3 tank still could not withstand the 75mm caliber cannon of the Leopard tank with an extended barrel.

More important is the news of the appearance of American soldiers on the battlefield, and Rommel knows that this is the most troublesome thing. The Führer had been trying to avoid a head-on confrontation with the Americans, and now it seemed that those efforts had been in vain, and the Americans showed up on the battlefield to fight the Germans to protect their interests in the Middle East and North Africa. Although the combat effectiveness of these Americans was similar to that of the British, their appearance still put a lot of pressure on Rommel.

Because he could not correctly estimate the strength of the British on the other side, all the intelligence from Italy became obsolete because of the addition of American troops. The combat effectiveness of the British Eighth Army must be reassessed, and the size and nature of the US Army must also be investigated as clearly as possible.

"Our fighter patrols have just arrived nearby, so they have driven away the British bombers who have come to harass us, but good luck cannot stay with us forever, and we must speed up the march and get rid of the British and Americans!" Rommel looked at the battle map, and for a long time stopped his thoughts, and spoke.

"It's not without good news, just now it was reported on the radio that a reconnaissance company had joined our team. The staff officer pointed to the location on the map to Rommel: "They brought two armored reconnaissance vehicles with 40 mm guns that could fire at high elevation angles. It seems that General Frederick also had a premonition that our situation was not good, so he made some arrangements in advance. ”

Rommel looked even more depressed, he took off his military hat, scratched his hair, sighed before saying, "Then it proves that the High Command already knows that we are defeated." I didn't manage to pull off the zào miracle, I didn't manage to take Tobruk. ”

This time the Germans suffered a crushing defeat, with about 30 trucks blown up by themselves, 14 tanks destroyed or blown up by themselves, about 700 soldiers killed or captured, 50 seriously wounded left to the British, and another 200 lightly wounded retreating with the army - almost a third of the 3,000 German soldiers who marched with Rommel in the battle.

Now he could only lead his troops to retreat until he was near the relay station where General Frederick was located in order to stabilize his position. One of the advantages of a desert war is that if you win, you can advance hundreds of miles in an instant, which sounds amazing, but one of the disadvantages is that if you lose, you can lose hundreds of miles overnight, which sounds like a miserable loss. But in fact, whether Rommel defeated the British army or the British army defeated Rommel, the actual results were not too big, at least much smaller than many people imagined.

The yellow sand is long, and the way to retreat is not much better than when attacking. In the previous days, Rommel and these soldiers relied on perseverance to chase and fight the British 9th Army, and now they have run out of breath, so the way home seems even more dangerous and terrifying.

After a day of retreat, Rommel gathered his troops and counted the number of troops, and found that only 1,810 of the 2,000-strong troops remained, and a full 190 people were covered by the yellow sand or died in the pursuit of the British and American troops. And when the night passed, when Rommel set out again in the early morning, there were only 1,770 troops that could be taken with him.

At this moment, Rommel finally realized the pain of the British 9th Army when it was chased and killed by himself, and finally bought a lesson with blood, once again proving the correctness of the old Chinese saying: the poor do not chase.

The sad Rommel found that he could not even organize a local counterattack, and the fuel and ammunition in his army were almost exhausted, and even if he could repel the Anglo-American coalition army, he would be trapped in the middle of the escape because of the fuel problem. So he could only retreat in a straight line to the west, and he didn't even have the courage to look back.

On the afternoon of the second day of the retreat, Rommel finally waited for his first glimmer of light. Three Crusader helicopters brought him much-needed fuel and a small amount of ammunition, which were not enough to turn Rommel back and fight back, but undoubtedly gave hope to the fleeing German soldiers.

When people flee in the endless desert, they will despair because of lack of water and food, and this despair is sometimes the deadliest. Many times the dead are already on the edge of the desert, but they fall in despair for the last few kilometers of the road.

Rommel's troops, before the arrival of the helicopters, were close to collapse. The 36-hour escape reduced the elite German troops to 1,500 men, but the helicopters saved Rommel and gave his troops courage and hope.

After sending off the three helicopters, the German "desert fox" now licked his dry lips and sat in his convertible car, already spreading out the map, thinking about how to meet General Frederick as fast as possible so that he could launch his revenge counterattack