The Third Reich in Desperation

Third Reich Episode 374

After all, he knows better than anyone how dangerous Britain, the time bomb left behind by the Third Reich, is!

However, alas, Stalin was not stupid either.After missing the opportunity to intervene in the German-French campaign as in history, he resolutely inserted in the current Anglo-German campaign in time.

But this intervention is fatal to Germany!

Therefore, any leader in history will not be an idiot who can be complained by any editor on the Internet.

The seemingly flawed choices made by the leaders of various countries during World War II were basically the best choices at that time.

Don't say why Hitler was so stupid that he didn't know how to take Britain first, and don't scold Stalin why he was so stupid that he didn't know how to deploy enough deep troops.Judging from their situation, many things summed up by later generations are biased.

Of course, there is one exception among the leaders of various countries, and that is the Italian leader Mussolini who is still lying on a hospital bed and is not yet fully conscious.A lot of the decisions he made... were [-]% pure stupid!

And now, on the German Eastern Front.

A country that has twice as many tanks as the German troops stationed in Poland, 2 more cannons than the Germans, 1 times more fighter planes, and nearly twice as many troops as the German troops on the Eastern Front that have not yet assembled, has declared war on the Third Reich!

Main body Chapter 572 The Third Reich in a desperate situation ([-])

North Africa, Libya.

Since Rommel led two German divisions to Africa, the situation of the Allied Powers in the African battlefield has been getting better and better, and they have turned defeats into victories all the way without encountering any decent difficulties.

Then, even the remaining Italian remnants of the German-Italian African Army, this group of pig-like teammates, all won the battle under the leadership of Rommel.

In view of the excellent situation, Rommel began to be full of confidence and wanted to attack Libya, Egypt and the Nile Delta in one go, and won the title of Conqueror of Africa!

And Tobruk, the key fortress lost by the Italian army, naturally became the primary target of Rommel's African Army.

As the best and most important strategic port in North Africa, Tobruk is located in a strategic location in northern Libya, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the north, Libya in the south, and Egypt and the Nile Delta in the east. It can be said that as long as the British army controls Tobruk, Rommel would never be able to touch Egypt, because even if Tobruk was bypassed, the British garrison here could cut off the supply line of the attacking German troops at any time.

At first, Rommel did not realize that the British army was going to fight to the death in Tobruk. He believed that the African British would still abandon Tobruk just like they had abandoned other achievements in Africa.

But he soon discovered that he was wrong!

The British army just evacuated Cyrenaica, and then stationed in Tobruk, and did not intend to evacuate Tobruk.

But at this time, due to a misjudgment, Rommel had already ordered the German-Italian coalition forces under his command to advance hundreds of miles, approaching Tobruk. It's tight.

It took a lot of physical strength for the troops to advance such a long distance in a short period of time, and what I thought was a simple task of harvesting corn, but now it seems that it is not that simple.

What's more, now Rommel is still facing one of the most difficult problems, that is, how to first solve the problem of providing supplies for the troops on such a long front.

From the beginning of this battle, Rommel had no way out.

Because in the eyes of the German public, he has already become a hero, especially his African Army Group is sweeping towards Egypt in the east, and any German thinks and is sure that he will sweep Africa effortlessly.

Moreover, this attack was not what the head of state had hoped for, but Rommel made his own claim and launched the attack first.

No matter to the people or the head of state, he can only use victory as an explanation.Otherwise, Rommel could not find a way out the next day.

In the past month, Rommel and Hans have led elite German tanks and infantry to occupy Bardia and Fort Capuzzo respectively, blocking the British army that attacked Algeria and retreating into Egypt. .

Then, Berente's French army initiated cooperation in time and occupied the first Egyptian city, Sallum.

It can be said that the results of this period of time have initially proved that there is no problem with Rommel's offensive.

At least, so far, nothing has gone wrong.

After discussions with the famous French general Berente, Rommel already knew that the most important issue in desert warfare was to destroy the enemy's heavy weapons-tanks and artillery.But the current situation is that the British army in Tobruk not only has plenty of weapons, but also makes full use of the fort cannons left by the German teammate Italian army to build a strong defense.

There is no way, since Rommel has reached this point, no one can stop him from carrying the battle to the end in view of Rommel's stubborn character.

On March 3, Rommel ordered the commander of the 11th Armored Division, Major General Newman, who had been completely reduced to his adjutant, to launch the first attack on Tobruk.

Because recently under Rommel's offensive order, Newman's armored division has advanced more than 300 miles in the desert continuously, and is exhausted to the extreme.

And most importantly, because of Lieutenant General Hans' strong opposition, his 30th Infantry Division has refused to join Rommel's combat plan.The two Italian infantry divisions of the Second Army of the African Army commanded by Hans were also detained by Hans.

The reason why Hans did this was precisely because Reinhardt was worried that Rommel would not listen to his warning and insist on launching an attack, which would cause some trouble during the British campaign.Therefore, as another senior general of the African Army, Hans was personally summoned by Reinhardt and explained that in an emergency, he had the right not to blindly obey Rommel's request, but to ask the Supreme Command first.

After Hans asked the Supreme Command for instructions, he was allowed to separate from Rommel's headquarters and command the German and Italian Second Infantry Army independently.

Even Berente's French army has received advice from the German Supreme Command that it is best to stop all meaningless attacks.

In fact, even the troops that Rommel was supposed to command were not at full strength at the moment.

The Italian armored division is waiting for the supply to be completed in the rear due to insufficient ammunition.Also because of the supply problem, among the Allied forces without Tobruk, a strategic supply station, even the German army was unable to go all out due to insufficient supplies.

But the rigid Newman still obeyed Rommel's order, ordered Colonel Bonas to take the exhausted machine gun battalion to attack from the southern line, and Colonel Albrecht led the remaining 20 Panther tanks to advance in parallel on the right.However, the attack was blocked by barriers such as tank trenches and barbed wire, and Bonas's machine gun battalion was trapped in front of the enemy's line and could not retreat.

Rommel never imagined that the opponents holding the fortress were as many as 34000 British soldiers equipped with 20 tanks.Obviously, their attack will not succeed.

But Rommel still did not give up. The forwards of his 15th Armored Division who participated in the battle temporarily withdrew to wait for the opportunity to attack again.

But by the next day, the large forces had not yet assembled.Because a violent sandstorm just started, Rommel immediately ordered the assembled troops to use the sandstorm as a cover to organize a new raid in three directions at the same time at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, the sandstorm suddenly weakened before launching its attack.The vanguard of Newman's armored division was blocked by fierce artillery fire from the British army when its strength was not superior, and the attack was forced to stop again.

Just waiting until the evening, Rommel again ordered Newman to capture Tobruk, using the two armored battalions that had just been assembled later, to attack Tobruk for the third time, but the attack still ended in failure and the loss was huge , The tanks on the front line have been reduced from nearly 150 at the beginning of the war to less than 40.

At the same time, the machine gun battalion attacking from the south was already in jeopardy.The battalion was less than 1000 meters away from the frontier of the British army, and the ground was too hard to dig holes to hide in. The situation became more and more dangerous.That night, the soldiers were numb from the cold; during the day, they had to lie motionless in the scorching sun to keep cover, because the slightest movement would provoke a burst of fire.

It is obviously irresponsible to expect them to attack. On the contrary, Rommel has to send the various ministries assembled on the next route to rescue them...

Chapter 573 The Third Reich in Desperation ([-])

The German machine gun battalion on the southern front of Tobruk is now in danger.

It stands to reason that the soil of Tobruk, a port city on the Mediterranean coast, should appear very soft due to the influence of sea water, and this is indeed the case. The soil on the north, west and east sides of Tobruk is indeed very soft, but However, the soil in the south is relatively hard, and attacking Tobruk from the south is originally an attack from low to high, which made it impossible for the German boys of the machine gun battalion to find a bunker, and they were always exposed to the firepower of the British army. .

"Major Stauffenberg, we tried a few more times, but we still couldn't move the soil below with a shovel." A private soldier was sweating profusely with a shovel and reported to Deputy Battalion Commander Stauffenberg.

Stauffenberg shook the Mauser pistol in his hand, and said to the private soldier: "If you can't shovel, give me another place to continue shoveling. In such a large place, the soil in every place will not be so hard."

"Major, I have tried many places, and there is really no place to shovel. In addition, our place is very close to the British defensive position. Every attempt will attract the attention of the British, and many officers and soldiers will be lost. When we stood on the ground and waved our shovels, we were almost a living target for the British!" The private soldier explained helplessly.

"I know all of this, why don't we build bunkers because of this? That will only make our situation worse!"

Just as Stauffenberg was about to get angry, the battalion commander stopped him and said, "Forget it, Major Stauffenberg, don't get confused. Now our top priority is to get out of the current predicament immediately."

Stauffenberg quickly calmed down after hearing what Bonas said, nodded and said: "Yes, if we couldn't build a machine gun position, we had to find a way to retreat in time. But as long as we retreat now, the British army will definitely counterattack. , then our situation will be even more dangerous. We can't put bayonets on our machine guns and fight the British to death."

"You're right, we can't withdraw now, and we can't withdraw." Bonas stroked his hair and said sadly: "And as far as I know, our division's progress on other fronts is not going well. I think It is almost impossible to rely on them to save us. Now, we can only rely on ourselves."

It can be seen that he is very worried about the current situation of his machine gun battalion.

"We have to find a way. If this continues, we will be dragged down by the British." Stauffenberg worried.