Boom! Three cannon shots rang out almost simultaneously, and three armor-piercing shells were sprayed out at great speed, and in just two or three seconds, they hit the German Tiger tanks one after another, shooting a dazzling light on them. The German tank, which had been hit four times in the front and back, was finally destroyed, and smoke began to rise. Soon the hatch was opened, and several German tankmen got out and began to flee for their lives.

On Duan Anguo's side, the situation was not much better, and another Tiger tank was destroyed and completely lay on his stomach. The result of this wave of Tiger tanks 5V5 was 5:3, and the commando team led by Duan Anguo destroyed five Tiger tanks of the opponent at the cost of three damage and two injuries, plus four No. 4 tanks, which can be regarded as a small victory. Even so, this bull will be able to blow for a lifetime after they go back, because this is the first time that the tank units of the Allied camp have destroyed the German Tiger tank in a frontal battle.

The tiger hunter who opened the record will naturally leave a name in history and become a good story. "Damn, this is scary!" Looking at the several Tiger tanks burning in the distance, Duan An let out a long breath, and at this time he found that his clothes were all wet, and the thrilling battle just now had already made him drench in a cold sweat.

Courage and courage are the same thing, but the instinctive fear of death is innate, implanted in the soul, and no one can avoid it. Unless he really doesn't want to live anymore, and he has to have no regrets at all! "Take the brothers and retreat!"

Five Tiger tanks were damaged three times and two were injured, even if Duan Anguo still wanted to continue the wave, then he had to bring back those tank crews who had lost the protection of the tanks safely. These tank soldiers are all elites who have been trained for a long time, and each of them is an extremely valuable asset, and they are also the closest comrades-in-arms of life and death.

Compared to the dispensable achievements, their lives are naturally the most important. "Yes!" "Roger!" "Brothers, hurry up and get in the car, withdraw first!" After receiving the order, the remaining two tanks hurriedly drove to the escaped tank crews, shouting at them to quickly climb into the tanks, and then retreat with them.

"Good!" "Thank you, Tuanza!" "Brothers, hurry up, it's not appropriate to stay here for a long time!" Soon, after hearing the order, the more than a dozen tank soldiers climbed onto the Tiger tank one after another and hung on the hull in various postures. When everyone was in the car, the Tiger tank started again and sped away in the direction of Matroux Port. Although the off-road speed of 15~21 km/h is not fast, it is much faster than walking, especially when several tank crews are injured.

"Tuanza, there is a situation ahead!" However, when Duan Anguo and the others had just driven far, a rumbling motor sound came from ahead, and the black smoke that had not dispersed could be seen in the distance. It was clear that a tank was coming at you. "Brothers, get out of the car and get ready to fight!" Duan Anguo was taken aback, and said that he was surrounded by enemy tanks, and hurriedly aimed his nervously calibrated muzzle at the bottom of the gentle slope ahead.

"Quick! Get out! "There is a situation!" The tankers naturally knew that if they really encountered the enemy tank, and they were still hanging on the tank, even if they were not directly bombarded into slag, they would have to shatter their internal organs and vomit blood to death.

Everyone did not dare to slack off, they jumped off the tank, took off the pistol from their waist and entered the state of imminent battle, although the pistol is useless against the tank at all, but it is much stronger than barehand! "It's coming!" "Prepare for battle!" After waiting quietly for twenty or thirty seconds, Duan Anguo and the others saw the roof of a tank emerge from under the gentle slope, and everyone suddenly became more nervous.

Duan Anguo had already pressed his finger on the fire control switch, and after confirming the identity of the enemy, he would not hesitate to open fire. "Hey, it's our own people, haha!" "Lift the alert, don't be nervous, it's your own person!" "It turned out to be a false alarm." Fortunately, he had an eye and did not open fire at the first time, Duan Anguo soon found out that it was seven Tiger tanks, four armored personnel carriers, and three Sherman tanks, and they dared to be killed by reinforcements.

"Even, did they kill all five Tiger tanks of the German army?" "It's incredible, they actually won!" "The heavy tanks of the Huaxia Army are really powerful!" After some understanding, Duan Anguo figured out the situation, it turned out that a commando of the brother tank regiment encountered the British and American allied tank groups that fled in a hurry on the way, and they rushed to help.

By the way, Johnson and the others saw that the Chinese tank troops were strong and strong, and they seemed to have a great chance of winning, so after a little thought, they followed and rushed back, after all, soldiers are still soldiers, and they have to save face. However, when they came back nervously, they found that everything was over, and the German Tiger tanks, which had been majestic and combat-powerful, had turned into piles of burning scrap metal.

Although they knew before that the heavy tanks equipped by the Huaxia Expeditionary Force were very good, the number was really a bit cold, adding up to 100, so they didn't care too much, and naturally thought that they were the protagonists of the ground war. Johnson and others did not fully understand the situation until this time, it turned out that the Huaxia heavy tanks were not inferior to the German Tiger tanks at all, and it turned out that they were the protagonists of the battlefield!

Jiang Qiang's expedition to North Africa only brought 100 Tiger tanks in the first batch, mainly because there were too many things to bring, and the transport fleet had limited capacity, so it had to meet the needs of the air force first. Otherwise, there would be no air supremacy, and no matter how many tanks there were, they could only be called live targets for German bombers. As for the problem of insufficient number of tanks and large losses in the war, there is no need to be too anxious, Jiang Qiang can directly purchase Tiger tanks from Shanghai according to the situation to solve the urgent need.

"Commander Duan, you guys should withdraw and rest first, and the next battle will be handed over to us!" After a simple exchange, Xu Yuanhao, the commander of the tank battalion of the 3rd Division of the Burmese Army, waved his hand and issued the "eviction order". This is not a good place to chat and catch up, the battlefields are in the dark, and they have to rush over and join forces to annihilate the enemy. "Good! Then we'll withdraw first, and we'll come back to fight with you after a little rest. ”

Duan Anguo was not hypocritical, nodded hurriedly, and then beckoned his officers and soldiers to climb into the tank and send them back first. After all, they were armored soldiers, not combat infantry, and there was no way to go directly to the front line and use guns to fight the German Italians. The trees wanted to be quiet and the wind did not stop, not long after Duan Anguo and the others got back on the road, there was a dull roar of motors in the sky behind them, and from a distance, they saw that a group of small black dots were flying rapidly.

"Damn, it's really a twist and turn today, it's time to destroy the German tanks, the German planes are coming again, brothers rush into that grove and hide first." Judging from the flight position alone, Duan Anguo knew that it must be enemy planes even if he thought about it with his feet, and their target must be the Huaxia armored forces on the battlefields everywhere. "It's not good, quickly disperse the formation, the enemy bomber group is coming." "Hidden!"

Xu Yuanhao and the others were fighting in a fierce firefighting battlefield not far away, but as soon as they drove two or three kilometers away, they suddenly found a group of small black dots in the distant sky rushing towards them. Regardless of whether this group of enemy planes was coming at them or not, anyway, they must not be stupid to maintain the formation as a live target, Xu Yuanhao and the others hurriedly dispersed the formation, and each ran to the surrounding woods, bushes, mountain cols, slopes and other places where they could hide.

Buzz! But fortunately, when Duan Anguo, Xu Yuanhao and the others were terrified, there was also a buzzing of a motor in the eastern sky of the Tru Fortress. "Great! Our Air Force is here too! "We shouldn't be able to do anything now!" When everyone looked back, they immediately settled down in their hearts, although they may not be able to completely avoid the wanton and indiscriminate bombing of enemy planes, but with the interception of their own air force, at least it can play an effective role in jamming and deterring, and those enemy planes will not be able to calmly drop bombs and carry out accurate bombing.

Chirp, as everyone expected, the enemy bombers did not dare to stay too long, and began to throw bombs as soon as they flew over the Tru Fortress. The German escort fighters broke away from the formation to intercept the Allied fighter group that came to participate in the battle, and soon a fierce air battle broke out in an instant under the attention of everyone.

Tobruk Fortress, the war room of the Axis North African Theater Command. "Report to Your Excellency Marshal, the tank armored units of our army suffered heavy losses from a large number of 88-mm anti-aircraft guns on the front line!" "Report to Your Excellency Marshal, the enemy troops have dispatched ground attack aircraft, which have caused serious damage to our armored units, and the front-line troops have requested air force support." "Report to Your Excellency Marshal, our army is seriously blocked, and there is simply no way to break through the outer defense line of the Matru Fortress." "Report to Your Excellency Marshal, the Allied armored clusters have begun to counterattack, and our army is in a bitter battle!" "Report to Your Excellency Marshal, the Air Force of the Third Reich suffered heavy losses,......"

One by one, the unfavorable news came back, Rommel's face became more and more ugly, and his calm smile had long been thrown to Java. It was difficult to know that the Allies would definitely defend the Matlu Fortress, and the Strategically Extremely Important Fortress of Matlu was destined to be an extremely difficult bone to gnaw from the beginning. Before this general attack, Rommel Afrika Korps had attacked the fortress several times, but under the desperate resistance of the British and American forces, it was never able to make a breakthrough.

But Rommel was far from expecting this to be the situation in front of him. For this strategic general offensive, Rommel can be said to have made sufficient preparations, not only investing a large number of new fighters and new heavy tanks, but also concentrating unprecedented forces to make a frontal breakthrough. However, at this time, he discovered that the strength of the Allied forces had been strengthened almost overnight, not only in terms of technology and equipment, but also in terms of fighting will and morale.

A full 10 hours had passed since the attack began in the early hours of the morning, and it was not far from darkness. However, neither the air force nor the ground offensive units have taken advantage of the slightest advantage, but on the contrary, the ratio of battle losses is constantly increasing. In particular, the ground forces have suffered extremely heavy casualties, at least 50,000 or 60,000 casualties so far!

As for the air force, it seems that it has taken a lot advantage in the ratio of war losses, but in fact, it is simply drinking water to quench its thirst by fighting with the United States of America, which has a strong industrial supply capacity. Rommel frowned, looking down at the sand table and the military map of Africa covered with various wargames, constantly thinking about how to break the deadlock.

At present, the ultimate strategic goal of the Afrika Korps is nothing more than to conquer Egypt, take the Suez Canal and the port of Alexandria, and completely control the Mediterranean. While stranglehold the British supply lines in the Mediterranean, the Germans, who were fighting against Stalingrad and Transcaucasia, joined forces south of Transcaucasia and then acquired the Azerbaijani oil fields, which had long been coveted by the Third Reich. Further eastward attacks on Kerpos, the Middle East, and further afield in India and other regions will be a story for another time.

However, if you want to conquer Egypt, take the Suez Canal, and the port of Alexandria, you must gnaw the hard bone of the Matrou Fortress. Of course, in addition to advancing along the coastline, Rommel had another way to go, and that was to take a detour through hundreds of kilometers of Libyan desert before breaking through the Nile, or making a detour to key points such as Alexandria and Cairo.

However, it was clear that there was no way to achieve this offensive route, and crossing hundreds of kilometers of desert terrain in the first place would be an extremely difficult task in itself, not to mention that the Allies would not sit idly by and could easily cut off the back routes and supply lines. In addition, Rommel had another option, which was to attack Sudan in the south, as the Italians had envisioned. The idea of seizing Sudan's oil fields to obtain an incomparably rich oil field resource is ostensibly possible.

But with a little brainstorming, you know that this idea will not work at all, because without taking Egypt and controlling the Suez Canal, not only will the allies continue to grow and threaten themselves, but even if they occupy Sudan, they will not want to transport oil out. In the end, the best line of attack is to push along the coastline, first taking the port of Matruh to gain a solid fulcrum of advance, and then moving further into the port of Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt.

It's just that the ideal is plump and realistic, and the current Afrika Korps has hit a hard nail, and it has already hit its head and bled out. Thinking about it, Rommel's head was still a mess. In the face of this kind of three-dimensional turtle defense of land, sea and air, if the attacker does not have the advantage of crushing, even if he is familiar with military books and knows the three Taos and six strategies, it is useless. As long as the Allies held the fortress of Matrou, Rommel Afrika Korps did not want to pose a substantial threat to Alexandria and the Suez Canal, let alone conquer them.

Since it is impossible to break through from the ground front, what about the implementation of a three-dimensional operation on land, sea and air, allowing the Italian Navy to attack the port of Matru from the sea? Rommel raised a frown, and began to seriously ponder this possibility. Although the Italian navy suffered a lot of losses in the past few days in a series of fierce attacks on Malaysia and other days, it did not suffer any damage at all, and only lost a few small-tonnage ships and troop carriers.

On the British Mediterranean Fleet, three capital ships were destroyed not long ago, and the overall combat effectiveness of the fleet was greatly reduced. The British Mediterranean Fleet, which did not have an advantage in the first place, was no longer capable of a head-on naval battle with the Italian Navy. The only thing to worry about is that the fleet attacking close to the coastline will not only have to fight against the powerful shore defense artillery, but also have to watch out for the attack of land-based bomber groups.

However, as long as the air force on his side can be a little more powerful and can threaten the opponent's bomber group, it seems that this is not a big problem. Thinking of this, Rommel gradually had a bold idea in his mind.

Washington, White House Oval Office. In the midst of fierce fighting in North Africa, Mr. President was not idle, and summoned a large number of military and political dignitaries to his office for a meeting and discussion. Even if they are thousands of miles away, even if they can't command remotely, it's better than waiting for news like years of hard work. There is no way, Rommel Afrika Korps has accumulated enough strength to strike with all his strength, the momentum is very strong and terrifying, and this battle is a vital life-and-death battle in the North African battlefield.

If it loses, then the entire Egyptian and the entire North African battlefield will really have only its last breath, and there may even be a catastrophic chain reaction of defeat. "Shet! Damn the Germans, what do you want to do, is it "Mr. President's face looked a little ugly, the Chinese Expeditionary Force with high hopes has finally officially entered the role now, and Jiang Qiang is still very methodical to firmly hold the command of the Allied forces in the North African Theater, these are very good news.

However, not long ago, the Mediterranean Fleet was attacked by the frogman troops of the Italian army, and the dignified British Empire Mediterranean Fleet was actually destroyed by 8 frogmen under the nose of 3 capital ships and 1 oil tanker.

As a result, the Mediterranean Fleet can be said to have suffered heavy losses overnight, and the British Navy, the only one that could survive the North African theater of operations, now dares to hide near the port and tremble. When I first heard the news, Mr. President was almost so angry that he vomited blood, this is simply too shocking, the other side only dispatched 8 frogmen, and it took 4 torpedoes to cripple the Mediterranean Fleet, is there anything more annoying and tragic than this?

If the British Mediterranean Fleet and the Italian Fleet had fought at sea, paying such a heavy price while inflicting equal damage on the other side, Mr. President would have easily accepted this reality. However, the cold reality is that Italy has achieved major results at zero cost, so that the Italian fleet, which was originally no weaker than the British Mediterranean Fleet, instantly occupies an absolute advantage, and the sea supremacy in the Mediterranean is basically in the hands of the Axis Alliance.

This kind of unthinkable operation once made Mr. President and a number of military and political officials feel extremely pessimistic and hopeless, and if they completely lose the control of the Mediterranean Sea, this will undoubtedly be worse for the Allied camp. Immediately afterwards, the Battle of the Maldivian Islands suddenly broke out, and the German-Italian coalition forces organized extremely powerful land, sea and air attack forces in an attempt to conquer the other islands of the Malino Islands in one fell swoop.

During those few days, Mr. President was tortured enough to worry every day, desperately fearing that the strategically important islands of the Males would fall into the hands of the enemy, and that control of the Mediterranean would be completely lost. Fortunately, Jiang Qiang made a layout in advance, greatly strengthened the defense force of the other islands of Mahai, and relied on the stubborn resistance of the Sino-British coalition forces to resist the amphibious landing operation of the unprecedented scale of the German-Italian coalition forces.

Although Gozo was lost under the continuous onslaught of the German-Italian forces at all costs, as long as the other islands of the horse were firmly in hand, it was enough to choke the throat of Rommel Afrika Korps and play an unexpected role at a critical moment! The next key point is the ongoing battle for the Fortress of Matrou, as long as the fortress can be held and the Afrika Korps is inflicted heavy casualties, it will be able to continue to wear down and weaken the enemy.

Knock knock, just as Mr. President was pondering, a rush of footsteps sounded in the corridor outside the door. Mr. President looked up with feeling, and soon saw the beautiful secretary and lady walking into the office with a happy face, and before the person came to him, a pleasant voice came to his ears: "Your Excellency, good news!" General Stilwell has good news! "Oh, show it to me!"

Mr. President was immediately excited, and if it weren't for the inconvenience of his legs and feet to stand up, I am afraid that the first priority now would be to catch up and grab the telegram for a sneak peek. "What's the good news?" "Quick, let's go over and have a look." Hull, Marshall, and others, who were also in the office, all looked at Miss Secretary at this moment, and then put down the things in their hands and rushed to the president's desk.

"Haha, well done! Although this battle was only a defensive battle, although the Allies paid a heavy price in casualties, they showed determination and courage, and dealt an extremely heavy blow to the Axis of Evil Alliance! Mr. President first devoured the message at a glance and ten lines, and then read it three times in a row, line by line, sentence by sentence, and then he was satisfied to transfer the message to Hull and others to study and peruse.

After three days and two nights of bloody battles between the Allies and Rommel, the Matroux fortress was finally held, and the Rommel Afrika Korps could only temporarily retreat into a state of confrontation after a long period of attack. According to preliminary statistics of the battle, the number of casualties of the Afrika Korps reached 77,000, and 900 tanks, armored vehicles, and 750 combat aircraft were lost, which is equivalent to the loss of 40% of technical equipment.

On the allied side, the number of casualties was more than 47,000, the loss of 1,700 tanks and armored vehicles of various types, about 1,000 combat aircraft of various types, more than 2,200 artillery pieces of various types, the loss rate of tanks and armored vehicles was nearly 40%, and the loss rate of combat aircraft was nearly 50%. The losses of the Allies in the number of technical equipment far exceeded those of the Axis armies, but in terms of casualties were much smaller. Judging from the data on the surface, this unprecedented scale of offensive and defensive battles between the two sides did not lose or win, and it was a draw.

However, for the deep-pocketed United States, the loss of more technical equipment is nothing at all, as long as it can hold the fortress of Matru, as long as it can inflict heavy casualties and losses on the Afrika Korps, it is undoubtedly an exciting victory. "Viregood!" "I can finally breathe a sigh of relief!" "The Huaxia Expeditionary Force is really an army that is brave in battle and can win battles!" After carefully reading the message, Hull, Marshall and others also praised it.

That's right, although the statistics of this defensive battle are not gorgeous, compared with the continuous routs and many big defeats in the previous African battlefield, the defensive battle of the Matrou Fortress is undoubtedly the long-awaited victory of the Allied camp. "This is the first time that the North African theater has suffered such a fiasco in the Germans, which is really relieving! This is a good sign. ”

After Hull took off his glasses, he picked up the coffee and stirred it, and said to Mr. President with a smile: "Your Excellency President, we have made the right move, thanks to the intervention of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable!" "Yes, thanks to Mr. President's quick decision, if the British temper is followed, the North African theater of operations is now irretrievably defeated!" Marshall also spared no effort to praise a sentence, and sighed with palpitations: "Speaking of which, it is really very suspenseful, if the Chinese Expeditionary Force arrives in the North African Theater ten days and a half months late, I am afraid that the result will be far from what it looks like in front of it, right?" ”