In a trench, two German soldiers were opening their cans with openers. Since the capture of Tobruk and the massacre of German paratroopers on the island of Crete, the supply of the Afrika Korps has become unimpeded, and in addition to being able to deliver a sufficient number of consumables such as shells and bullets, German soldiers in Africa can also get a lot of luxury goods that they would never have dared to think of before.

The enemy they were on was an abandoned British trench, where 110 British soldiers were once stationed, but now that the Germans occupied it, an 88mm cannon was rearranged not far away to prevent the British from counterattacking, and the main task of this machine gun group was to protect the flanks of the 88mm cannon.

An MG42 general-purpose machine gun was mounted on a new tripod with a chain hanging down from one side of the machine gun, and in this state the "Accardo Saw" could be used as a heavy machine gun temporarily, as well as an anti-aircraft weapon at an angle.

The two German soldiers, old fritters from the battlefields of North Africa, one of them carefully opened his own can of treasure, and the other poured warm water into the fried noodles and stirred evenly. This magical method of making fried noodles is said to come from the far East, and it doesn't taste very good, but it is easy to carry. On the front line, you can use all sorts of stuff to hold cooked powdered food, and when there's no way to stop and prepare food, it can relieve you of a qiē problem: you can eat it without heating, you can grab a handful to satisfy your hunger at any time, and it has a certain cushioning function when you lie down quickly!

In the heat of North Africa, if you don't want to eat cold food, it's very simple to find a way to make it warmer. Just place the food or kettle on the sunny stone and wait for a while to get warm water or food.

"Didn't we already conquer the British mainland, why did they still fight us in such a hellish place when they lost their homes?" the slightly younger soldier mixed his own fried noodles, took a piece of canned meat with fat that the veteran handed him, threw it in the pasty fried noodles, licked his fingers with his tongue, and complained.

The veteran took the fried noodles handed to him by his companion, poured the canned food mixed with meat and beans into his lunch box, stirred it with a folding spoon a few times, and then said disapprovingly: "The British are not used to us Germans, so we have to fight a war, and one of the two countries must fall before it is over." ”

"Boom!" Before he could take a bite of food, the 88 mm caliber anti-aircraft cannon not far away let out a deafening roar, and the huge cannon muzzle wave rolled up a lot of sand and dust, making the two German soldiers who were about to eat discouraged.

"The British have counterattacked!" On the side of the trench, a German signal soldier bent over the machine-gun position with his steel helmet and rifle, loudly reminding his companions: "There is armored vehicle cover, ready to fight!"

"Don't you even have a good meal?" picked up a large piece of lunch with a spoon and stuffed it into his mouth, the veteran put down his lunch box, and stuck his head out of the trench with wooden planks and sandbags on the wall, and not far away, a large area of British soldiers was slowly approaching the German position here.

"Good fellows! It looks like there are three or five hundred people, a battalion of infantry, and they are still following armored vehicles, and this is going to play with us!" The veteran leaned his shoulder on the butt of the machine gun, pulled the bolt with his hand, tilted his head slightly, and put his eyes on the back of the scope.

This set of actions was only a short time, and on the German artillery position, the second shell had already flown out of the slender barrel of the 88mm cannon with a whistling. The terrifying rate of fire and the crushing penetration of the German 88mm cannon were the two magic weapons that made the armoured forces the nemesis, and in the vast and sparsely populated desert, the Germans with such cannons were much luckier than the British soldiers with outdated weapons on the other side.

As the other side continued to approach, a German soldier pulled his trigger on a position in the distance, and the first to fire was a Mauser Model 98K rifle, which undoubtedly had a certain advantage in range.

"Open that ammunition box at your feet and prepare the chain first!" the veteran commanded the young man beside him, "The enemy is still about 900 meters away!"

The slightly younger co-shooter bent down, opened the tin box, pulled out the neatly stacked chains inside, and placed them in the most convenient position. Then he silently removed the grenade from his body and placed it next to the chain.

"Machine gun! Fire!" Not far away, the platoon commander of the infantry platoon shouted the order to attack, the words had not yet landed, the veteran's fingers were slightly forced, the MG42 machine gun roared wildly, because the rate of fire was too fast, the bullet chain hanging on the gun next to it jumped up and down with the huge attraction, and the bullet casings on the other side fell on the veteran's feet like raindrops.

Or the peculiar sound, or the unpleasant sound, like sawing wood or tearing linen. But for the German soldiers, this is the most beautiful melody, this is the most joyful and beautiful note. Because every time such a sound was heard, a torrent of hot steel flew towards the enemy's position, and it was so dense that the opponent could not raise his head like hail.

For the German soldiers, this weapon was a whip of God, a scythe of the devil, a gift from the Führer. There is no machine gun comparable to the MG42 machine gun, this weapon can be said to be one of the most perfect machine gun design schemes, you must know that 80 years later, the Germans are still using similar machine guns, and the original MG42 is still shining in Africa to this day.

The dense bullets formed a rain of bullets, swept towards the British soldiers on the opposite side, tracer bullets accurately indicated the trajectory and the location of the target, the veteran moved his shoulders slightly laterally, and the barrage of machine guns formed a fan, knocking down more British soldiers.

Soon someone fell in the British attack formation on the opposite side, and the British began to fire at the German positions, and the bullets hit the sand by the trenches, sending a cloud of white smoke. However, this white smoke seems to be a bit far from the position of the German machine gun position, a distance of more than ten meters. It was at this time that the 88 mm caliber cannon opened fire again.

With a whistling sound, the shell hit a British armored vehicle in the distance in one fell swoop, and the huge impact force knocked the front of the armored vehicle out of shape. The armored car immediately exploded and burst into flames, and the people inside did not even have a chance to escape from the car. The force of the explosion seemed to be quite small, and it was clearly visible even from the German positions a few hundred meters away.

"Oh!" there was a cheer from the German positions, obviously the huge explosion was helpful to the morale of the Germans, and the wonderful performance of the 88mm cannon was enough to deter the opponent and make this attack anticlimactic. However, it was clear that the Germans were destined to be disappointed this time, because after one of the British armored vehicles was destroyed, the British did not flinch, but launched an even more ferocious attack.

"Medic, someone was hit!" As time went on, the distance between the two sides became closer and closer, and casualties began to appear on the German positions, the first poor German soldier who was hit was hit in the face, directly through the head, and there was no need to rescue again, and the second soldier who was hit was not so simple, he was hit in the shoulder, and let out a heart-rending scream.

His companion was helping him call for help from the medics, and two medics with white red crosses on their arms strapped to their steel helmets and carrying the medical kit hurried towards the accident site, they passed by the machine gun position, and it happened that one of the medics was hit by a stray bullet, so frightened that the co-shooter who was helping to reload the machine gun ammunition almost lost the chain in his hand.

However, the medic who was hit was apparently lucky, as the bullet pierced his sleeve, leaving two holes, but did not hit his arm in the sleeve or hurt anything else.

"God forbid!" he laughed, and continued to run forward with his steel helmet, leaving the stunned secondary shooter there not knowing what to say.

"It's a common thing, don't take it too seriously. The veteran continued to pull the trigger and shoot the bullet at the enemy in the distance, while loudly reminding his assistant: "Don't be stupid, bring a new chain! The machine gun is overheating a little, where is the new barrel?"

Before his voice passed, a shell fell not far away, it was a British howitzer firing, obviously this attack the British had been preparing for a long time, and they even managed to get support artillery.

"It's a large-caliber howitzer, pay attention to concealment. The platoon commander loudly reminded his soldiers to pay attention to their safety, and just as the smoke of explosions rose from the German position, behind the position, a German Leopard tank was moving forward slowly, followed by more German tanks.

"The offensive begins!" a tank commander put down the binoculars in his hand, held the throat intercom, and gave the order to attack loudly: "Break through the British frontal defense, and then expand the breakthrough to the two flanks!"

Just after lunch, the elite German tank units appeared in front of the Allied positions, and they quickly repelled a counterattack by British infantry before taking advantage of the situation and attacking the British positions, and the battle became even more fierce.

In the evening, next to the wreckage of a burning German Leopard tank, two German machine gunners set up their new machine gun positions, with the same 88mm anti-aircraft cannon next to them – they advanced a distance of 3 kilometers in the afternoon battle, but the Germans paid a heavy price for the destruction of 21 tanks.