81_81266An explosion broke the tranquility of the dawn, and in the middle of the desert, the German and Italian troops launched an all-out assault on Tobruk. This attack was not ordered by the Supreme Command, nor was it planned by the General Staff, it was entirely the work of Rommel alone, and this attack was completely a huge gamble.

After breakfast, the Italian troops began to storm the British perimeter in the frontal direction, bombarding them with heavy artillery, and then sending light tanks to cover their infantry and attack the opponent's carefully arranged trenches and pillboxes. The battle began at 6:40 a.m., without warning to the point of startling Montgomery.

It stands to reason that Germany's announcement of the expulsion of Japan from the Axis system after the Pearl Harbor attack can be regarded as making up for the hatred of the American people towards Germany in a certain way.

However, the battle did break out, and the Italian troops were pressing densely into the British defensive positions. A tragic offensive and defensive battle began. Without the slightest hesitation, the British defenders of Tobruk immediately began their fierce return fire.

Tobruk is not a temporary defensive position, but a fortified fortress that has been carefully built for many years. The outermost part of the fortress was an anti-tank trench with layers of barbed wire, and anti-tank cement piles buried deep in the yellow sand.

Behind these obstacles is a system of trenches reinforced with timber and sandbags, designed almost as complex and effective as the trenches of the First World War. These fortified trenches supported the main defensive points, allowing Tobruk to form a ring of perimeter defenses.

Those key defensive positions are covered with reinforced concrete bunkers and main trenches, and there are a large number of anti-tank gun positions and howitzer firing positions, which are simply independent small defensive fortresses. In the vicinity of these fortresses, a large number of mines were laid.

Most deadly, there are about 50,000 well-trained British soldiers who have fought here. These soldiers are also equipped with hundreds of tanks, forming a flexible defense system with internal mobile forces to reinforce everywhere at any time, and each independent enough to complete the defense.

Half an hour after the start of the attack, the Italian army in front learned the strength of the British opponent. The 300 Italian soldiers were immobilized by a blockhouse hidden in the shadows, and after the British shelling, only 70 of them escaped.

Garibaldi's 1st Italian Army suffered heavy losses, losing 500 soldiers within twenty minutes of the battle, a number that increased almost every second. The dense firepower of the British positions hindered his advance, and more than 30 Italian light tanks were destroyed in their path, still burning violently.

"Support! We need artillery support! Push the anti-aircraft guns up! Or find a mortar!" an Italian officer shouted as he watched two of his soldiers fall to the ground from the British machine guns in the bunker, turning back to his men.

Bullets flew everywhere on the chaotic battlefield, and an Italian soldier huddled behind a sand dune with his steel helmet, surrounded by the corpses of his long-dead companions. Not far away, several soldiers lay in a minefield, their arms and thighs scattered around.

Blood and black smoke from explosions were everywhere, and soldier after soldier fell in their path, the 1st Army, Italy's most elite unit in North Africa, but they could not hold out for long in the face of such a ferocious defense.

Two Italian soldiers carried their bazookas to their designated positions, and then, under the cover of the soldiers, began to aim at the British pillbox on the opposite side, which was spitting tongues of fire. The loader expertly loaded the rocket into the bazooka, then tapped the steel helmet of the launcher in front of him.

"Bang!" followed by a dull thud, gas gushed out from behind the bazooka, blowing grit everywhere around it. A rocket flew towards the target at great speed, accurately hitting the British bunker not far away.

With the sound of a loud explosion, a huge flame rose from the British bunker, and the surrounding Italian soldiers cheered, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to start charging forward, but less than 30 seconds later, another machine-gun defensive position diagonally behind the British machine-gun bunker once again stopped the Italians from advancing.

"Let's be clear! Yes! I can't hear what you're talking about? What does it mean that the attack has been stopped? You haven't broken through the first line of defense?" In the rear headquarters, Rommel was looking at Tobruk's terrain sand table, and silently stroked the ups and downs on the sand table with his fingers.

Not far behind him, General Frederick was holding a telephone and talking to General Garibaldi, the Italian commander in charge of organizing the attack at the front, and the sound of artillery fire there was too noisy, so General Frederick loudly confirmed the situation of the attacking troops.

"It's still too reluctant, the British are really holding on to Tobruk's determination, and we are not well prepared for battle. Rommel shook his head, sighed and said: "The large-caliber shells were consumed too quickly, and they did not play the role of suppressing the British army as they should be, and the Italian attack was too disorganized." ”

General Frederick just put down the phone, and said with a wry smile: "Tobruk has always been an important defensive fortress for Britain, and we are so hasty to attack, of course, it is impossible to get any bargains...... If it had been my 7th Infantry Corps attacking now, the result would not have been much better. ”

"At least you can break through the first line of defense, right? These Italians are so useless. Rommel said angrily: "After 2 hours of fighting, so many large-caliber shells were fired, and in the end even the first line of defense of the British could not be broken, how did this battle be fought?"

Frédéric beside him shrugged his shoulders: "Let General Garibaldi withdraw the main force, it will not be good for us to fight the elite of Italy - at least General Garibaldi's Italian 1st Army defense is still relatively reliable, and it will be replaced by the 3rd Army behind the back, you can rest assured that you will hand over the flank to them?"

Of course, don't worry, the Italian army is divided into several ranks, okay? Garibaldi's 1st Army can still do some serious business, if it were replaced by those Italian third-rate troops, Rommel would rather retreat than hand over his flank to them.

"If we haven't been able to take Tobruk, we're going to have to bear the wrath of the General Staff. Seeing that Rommel was silent when he thought about the problem, Frederick continued to talk to himself: "I guess you can't escape a naming criticism, and if you and I can't get it, you and I will have to go back to Berlin to explain what happened this time......"

"I'll go back......," Rommel said with a sigh, "after all, I've made my mistake more than once, and I don't care about another one." ”

This time, he took it upon himself to attack Tobruk, apparently gaining a very favorable combat opportunity, and Frederick also agreed to this attack plan, which shows that this timing is still very tempting.

Because Patton's 8th Army retreated to Egypt to rest, and only the British 9th Army remained in the entire Tobruk area, so that the British army on the front line was almost halved, which was enough for Rommel to muster up the courage to challenge Tobruk's defenses for the first time.

Unfortunately, however, it was clear that he had failed, and his frontal assault had not put the British in danger at all, so the German assault he had prepared on the flanks would not be of use at all: the reserves had not moved at all, and the flank attacks could not have been of good effect.

Rather than wasting valuable German armor and elite German grenadier units, it would be better to halt this costly test without any disastrous consequences for the Axis North African forces. The losses were enormous, but bearable: about 1,200 Italian troops were killed in front of the British positions.

"Send a telegram to Berlin, the first attempt to attack the Tobruk region failed. Rommel began: "If necessary, I can leave for Berlin at once and explain to the Führer himself the reasons for this defeat......

"Okay, I'll go back, you're the military commander here, and it's not good to leave the front line in this state of war. General Frederick thought for a moment and said.

An hour later, in Berlin, at the Führer's residence, Accardo threw a telegram from North Africa on the table: "This Rommel likes to find me something at a time like this!"

"The empire is repairing relations with the United States and easing tensions between the two countries. At this time, he actually launched an attack on Tobruk, so he didn't know how to cooperate with the decision of the Supreme Command?" Merkel of the Foreign Ministry happened to be reporting at the Führer's residence, and he also glanced at the operational intelligence from North Africa.

"Suspend a military operation in North Africa and let Rommel return to Berlin to report on his duties!" Accardo thought for a while and said: "You can't ignore it like this anymore, after all, he is a general of the empire, and it is not a way to always make decisions on his own! Arrange a special plane for him, and I will wait for him in Berlin." ”

It seems that the Führer is really angry, and Merkel is sweating for this Führer's henchman Rommel. Anna had already gone out to issue the Führer's order, and this time Rommel was going back to Berlin to face the Führer's rags