81_81266 Patton was actually eager to attack first, because he knew that the German troops on the opposite side were not really ready for battle. However, he could only wait patiently, waiting for his advantageous time to come.

In fact, everyone knows very well in their hearts that even if they are equipped with M4 Sherman tanks, the armored forces of the British and American coalition forces are still not the opponent of the German armored forces, and if they attack rashly, the limited armored forces in Patton's hands will suffer very serious losses.

Intelligence from the Soviets showed that the German armoured units were equally sharp in their defenses, and that they were often able to achieve astonishing results by fighting and retreating. Moreover, Patton, who was familiar with the combat methods of the armored forces, knew that the German tank guns had an advantage over the American troops in terms of range and power, and it was very likely that the German armored forces would win an overwhelming victory.

So Patton could only wait, waiting for the troops behind to catch up and send the 155 mm howitzer unit, which the Americans were most proud of, to the front line. In this way, the American army was able to rely on timely support firepower to divide the German armored forces, and then use the victory in the artillery battle to support his tank operations.

The patience paid off, and the Germans on the opposite side seemed to be waiting, so Patton could wait with peace of mind for his artillery to choose a good position, and then launch a tank attack.

While Patton was waiting for his artillery trump card, Rommel was also waiting, but he was not waiting for his own artillery, but waiting for an opportunity to come, Rommel was good at destroying the opponent's firepower system, which was a small secret to his ability to reduce casualties.

He quickly drew up a bold battle plan, that is, to concentrate all the Tiger tanks in his hands and arrange them on his right flank, and he decided to use the second roundabout method to defeat the British and American joint 8th Army in front of him.

It takes time for the troops to outflank them, so he can only sit still and wait, waiting for the enemy to attack first, or wait for the time to counterattack and then launch his own attack to entangle the opponent.

For this reason, neither Patton nor Rommel took the lead in attacking, but waited seemingly hesitantly, waiting for the opportunity that best suited their side. However, after a long wait, they almost completed their campaign deployment, and the real battle began.

Patton's tanks were the first to attack after a round of artillery fire was prepared, and hundreds of tanks covered the infantry as they began to approach the German lines. Every now and then, an M3 tank stops and fires into the distance, and then the tank that fires is overtaken by other American tanks and falls behind.

Soon Rommel's armoured forces began to return fire, but Rommel was the first to enter the battlefield with his light tank division, armed with the older P-3 tank, the No. 3 tank.

These tanks were improved and equipped with a medium-barrel length 75 mm cannon, which is not as powerful as the P-4 Leopard tank, but it is currently the world's mainstream firepower.

Under the cover of tank No. 3, the German infantry quickly stabilized their position, and the machine guns and assault rifles fired back fiercely, repelling the ferocious attack of the American troops. But before the German officers and men could breathe a sigh of relief, the second round of fire suppression by the American army began.

Shells rained down on the German positions, and several tanks No. 3, which had not had time to retreat, were destroyed on the dunes. Obviously, the combat effectiveness of the 8th Army of the Anglo-American Army, which was relatively well trained and combat-effective, was not comparable to that of the enemy that the Germans had encountered before, and their combat qualities were actually no worse than those of the German army, and the training in some links was even better.

In terms of combat experience, these British and American troops have already encountered the German army before, so they are not new recruits who have just entered the battlefield environment, although they are still inexperienced, but they have improved much compared to 1937.

The Americans don't know how to fight, and they've forgotten how they got their hands on that distant victory 20 years ago. They are accustomed to covering the opponent's position with dense firepower, and then crushing the opponent with superior forces. So the Americans will not fight, but they will cover up such a fact in various ways.

When a nation that can't fight a war can mass-produce countless tanks and planes, and can make these tanks and planes have the most advanced performance in the world, they cover up their weaknesses of not being able to fight very well, and it was not until 1950 that they met an Eastern dragon who fought a 110-year war that they knew that there were also aircraft and artillery in the world.

However, at this moment, the firepower of the American army did surpass that of the German army, and their artillery frantically poured their ammunition, blowing up the German defensive positions to a thousand holes, and it was unbearable to see. The German grenadiers stubbornly held out in the trenches they had temporarily dug up, not giving an inch in the face of the covering artillery fire of the American troops.

Many German machine-gun teams deliberately let go of the American tanks, and then suddenly appeared to attack the infantry that followed, and they did not intend to leave alive, but attacked fiercely with the mentality of killing and wounding the enemy after running out of ammunition. Soon casualties on both sides skyrocketed, and the corpses of soldiers on both sides even filled in the deep trenches on many positions.

"Hey, hey, you tell me more clearly, right! The U.S. shelling is still ongoing, stand it off!" a German officer grabbed the phone receiver and asked loudly about the casualties of a battalion on the front line, but the U.S. artillery fire made it impossible for him to hear what the other party was saying.

"There is still here, and here and here, the tanks of the American army have broken through the line of defense and are advancing to the depth of our line. The chief of staff pointed to the map and reported the engagement to Rommel.

"Let the 1st Regiment of the 7th Panzer Division go up and block the armored forces of the American army on the right flank on the second line of defense! "Rommel was waiting for his roundabout troops to attack from the flanks, so he had to defend his forward positions with weak forces.

Although the light tank division did not suffer a loss against the US armored forces, it did not take advantage of it, because there was no air support for the time being, the German No. 3 tank had been destroyed as many as 47 vehicles, and the supplies that the Italian logistics troops had fought for their old fate to North Africa became piles of burning scrap metal.

The fact that the Americans were attacking a little higher than the German High Command had estimated, and that a new American tank had appeared in some defensive positions on the right flank, made Rommel feel uneasy, and he doubted for the first time that his troops would be able to hold out until the counterattack began.

The good news was not without it, 10 Stuka bombers risked being shot down and rushed to the airspace of the engagement, and these ground attack planes greeted a US artillery position with precision, completely destroying some American howitzers and relieving some of the pressure. However, British and American fighters soon arrived and drove away the German bomber forces.

Because of the emergence of the new American fighter P-40, the struggle for air supremacy over North Africa was even more fierce than during the air battle at Britain. The performance table of the American fighter using British engine technology is very good, although it is still inferior to the FW-190D of the Luftwaffe, but there is no longer a "generation difference", and the loss rate of German fighters has become higher.

Since April 15, the Germans have lost a total of 37 fighters in North Africa, shooting down 19 P-40s and 85 other types of aircraft from Britain and the United States. Compared with the Battle of Britain, this kind of record is a bit of a small fight. However, in a place like North Africa, there are not too many planes, so it can only be trickled.

Nearly 100 Leopard tanks were put into the local theater of operations for counterattacks, and the Germans seemed to have regained the initiative on the battlefield. The two sides engaged in a massive tank battle with hundreds of tanks in an area of about 10 square kilometers, and in the end the Americans left the wreckage of 41 tanks, while the Germans lost 12 No. 3 tanks and 7 Leopard tanks. To the boast of the German armored forces, most of the Leopard tanks were destroyed by American shelling, and only 3 were destroyed by American tanks.

In order to make up for the lack of their own artillery firepower, the German army used 88 mm anti-aircraft guns as support firepower, and still could not compete with the American artillery units, and the artillery battles on both sides basically ended with the Germans finally stopping firing, not only because of the obvious gap in the number of artillery on both sides, but also because the German artillery emphasized maneuverability and weakened the performance indicators such as range.

In just half a day of fighting, the Germans had already lost more than 700 soldiers and lost a line of defensive positions. Rommel's defensive line was originally improvised so that it was somewhat reluctant to resist the Anglo-American offensive, and now the Germans were in a somewhat bad situation, their carefully prepared flank attack was not launched, and the Americans began to attack their front like a tide.

Rommel was very annoyed, he really didn't know where the opponent's confidence came from, and he really rushed over so recklessly, didn't this Patton know the strength of the German armored forces?

In fact, now Patton is also very annoyed, he came up and invested the most elite troops, wanting to crush the German troops on the opposite side in one fell swoop, he was very jealous of the armored troops in Rommel's hands, and he was afraid of long nights and dreams, so he did not plan to give Rommel a chance to breathe. He was afraid that once he gave Rommel time, he would be able to come up with all sorts of tricks.

However, Patton came up and threw one of his most elite American divisions and one of the most elite British divisions into battle, but they did not achieve the pre-planned power, and the German defensive positions were crumbling, but they still had not been breached