Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2331 Dawn of Victory

The Germans' research on tanks has never stopped. In the past ten years, from the first No. [-] tank to the current No. [-] tank, the speed of progress is astonishing.

The research and development of the No. 1938 tank began in 20. The original plan was still [-] tons, and the gap with the No. [-] tank did not widen.

At the beginning of the year, the Russian army began to equip a large number of T34s, which brought more and more threats to the German armored forces. The Germans also had to modify the plan. The tonnage of the No. 20 increased from 30 tons to 40 tons, and then to a higher [-] tons. Getting heavier and heavier.

The tonnage is getting heavier and more steel needs to be consumed. There is still a gap in Germany's steel production capacity compared with southern Africa and the United States. Southern Africa and the United States can unscrupulously increase tonnage and increase defense, but the Germans can't do it It turns out that 40 tons is almost the limit.

The final version of the No. [-] tank has similar performance indicators to the "Leopard" tank in southern Africa, with sloped armor, anti-aircraft machine guns, cast control towers, armored skirts and so on.

It is worth mentioning that although the No. 75 tank uses a 88mm tank gun, its power is not weak, and its accuracy is also good. Its penetration ability is higher than that of the 36mm KwK56L[-] gun.

Compared with the Germans who are passionate about technology and good at absorbing advanced experience, American tank design is far behind. According to the standards of 1941, Sherman is not the best, and Patton certainly does not like it.

According to Patton's standards, the "Leopard" tank is the best tank in the world.

If you let Patton choose, you don't even need the "Tiger" type, and the armored forces only need to be equipped with the "Leopard" type.

This is also the idea of ​​​​the United States to form an armored force. "Grant" itself is positioned as an all-rounder on the battlefield, but in fact it has four different shapes. It is not enough for attacking, not enough for defense, not enough for defense, and not enough for reconnaissance. Look at it. The only way to be vigilant is to be reliable. After all, it is impossible for the Germans to kill "Grant" silently.

The Germans had to wait to equip a large number of Panzer [-] tanks. After all, the resources consumed to manufacture a Panzer [-] tank were more than twice that of the Panzer [-]. Germany's industrial capabilities did not allow the Germans to manufacture a large number of Panzer [-] tanks.

The number of "Leopard" tanks in southern Africa has reached more than [-]. Even if the German factories are running at full capacity now, it is impossible to produce enough No. [-] equipment units.

The production capacity and inventory of tanks are two different things. After all, tanks are still being consumed on the battlefield.

The consumption of the "Leopard" tank is very low. After all, the armored forces in Southern Africa have not fought much. Strictly speaking, the 17th Division is the first overall battle of the Southern African armored forces in the North African battlefield.

Liang Hao's attitude is very cautious, and before the battle, he first conducts a full investigation on Eisnam.

The result made Liang Hao very unhappy.

Rommel was more cautious. The Eisnam German army withdrew overnight after severely injuring the U.S. 2nd Army, and did not give the Allied forces a chance to retaliate. To launch an attack on the German-Italian coalition forces from the western front, it will take time to adjust the deployment.

This result made Alexander very happy. The western front temporarily lost its offensive ability, and the British army on the eastern front could play freely. Montgomery couldn't wait.

After two years of combat, the Eighth Army is now stronger than ever. Montgomery has 10 divisions and 4 independent brigades, with a total strength of 23 troops, 1440 tanks, 2311 artillery pieces, and 1500 aircraft.

Compared with Montgomery, Rommel deployed only 4 German divisions and 8 Italian divisions on the Eastern Front, with a total strength of about 8 troops, 540 tanks, 1219 artillery pieces, and 350 aircraft.

It can be seen from the number of people that the support of the German base camp to Rommel has been greatly reduced. Under normal circumstances, the total strength of the 12 divisions is about 18, but now it is only 8. This means that Rommel has almost Didn't get any refills.

This is also normal. Mustache now devotes all his energy to defeating Russia, and the assistance to Rommel will naturally decrease.

With the strength of Germany, it is not enough to insist on fighting on two fronts.

What's more, there are not two fronts yet. Don't forget that there is still a threat in the direction of Greece. Mustache must arrange a part of his troops to guard against possible attacks by the Allied forces.

Now Mustache is desperate. If the Russians can be defeated, then the main force of the Axis powers can turn around and go south to fight the Allies.

If not, then the German army can only be forced to switch to strategic defense and lose the initiative on the battlefield.

This also means passively waiting to die.

Referring to the deployment of the German army on the eastern front, Montgomery decided to carry out a major assault from the southwest of Alamein towards Sidi Hamid, pressing the eastern front troops of the German-Italian coalition forces to the coastal area and annihilating them with the navy.

This plan was not original to Montgomery, but was formulated during the tenure of the former commander-in-chief of the Nile Army, Weaver.

When Weaver made this plan, the strength gap between the British army in North Africa and the German-Italian coalition forces was too great. Weaver made a plan but was unable to implement it. As a result, Montgomery took advantage of it.

Montgomery was also very cautious. Before the start of the battle, he used camouflage and false intelligence to make the German army make a wrong judgment on the direction of the British attack and the start time of the battle.

On September 9, on this day that Westerners generally consider unlucky, the British army in North Africa launched an attack on the German-Italian coalition forces.

Although the intelligence work of the Germans was not good, Rommel still made the correct arrangements. The German-Italian coalition forces adopted a deep echelon configuration, relying on the support point circular defense and a solid line of defense combined with large-scale mine laying to block and smash the British army. army attack.

This tactic is effective. Although Montgomery sent planes to bomb the German positions for three days before, and bombarded them for half an hour before the start of the battle, the British army broke through the front positions of the German and Italian forces. It started to slow down, and did not penetrate the German defense line all night.

Rommel was indeed too much. The troops arranged for the first-line defense were all Italians, and the German troops were deployed in deep positions.

There were problems with the fighting will and combat effectiveness of the Italian army. In order to strengthen the strength of the German army, Rommel allocated all the tanks of the German-Italian coalition to the German army, and the fuel was also concentrated. The military vehicles equipped by the Italian army were even lacking fuel. Unable to start.

For Rommel, the only role of the Italians was to alert the Germans to the impending British attack.

Although Montgomery had more tanks, Rommel also had a lot of anti-tank guns, and Montgomery had problems with the use of armored forces, and could not exert the full combat effectiveness of the armored forces, which made it difficult for the attacking British army.

Armored forces are used in different ways in different environments.

In the brutal urban offensive and defensive warfare on the Russian battlefield, the armored forces must cooperate with the infantry to ensure that the armored forces will not suffer unnecessary losses.

North Africa is the Gobi desert. Tankers can step on the gas pedal to the end and they can fly freely. It is meaningless to accompany the infantry, which seriously slows down the attack speed of the armored troops, which in turn affects the attack effect of the British troops.

If you change to a general who has a better understanding of armored forces, give up the coordination of infantry and tanks, and concentrate all tanks to focus on breakthroughs, although you will suffer certain losses, you will definitely be able to break through the German positions.

The consequences of tactical obstinacy were severe. For four days, the British failed to break through the German positions, advancing only 7 miles.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the configuration of the Eighth Army.

Although the Eighth Army has a large number of troops, most of the troops are British and Indian troops, which determines that the upper limit of the Eighth Army is not high.

No matter how advanced the weapons and equipment are, it also depends on who is using the weapons and equipment.

After the launch of the battle, the 9th Australian Division on the right wing of the Eighth Army progressed smoothly. After successfully breaking through the forward position, the next step was the minefield set up by the German army.

The Indian [-]th Division responsible for demining.

As we all know, demining is a hard job, not to mention the dangers, but not much credit. Other troops report how many enemies they have wiped out, how many tanks they have destroyed, and how many supplies they have seized.

How many mines have been discharged by the troops responsible for demining——

I see you like a landmine.

Compared with the furiously advancing Australian troops, the progress of the Indian Fourth Division's demining is like a snail crawling.

The Germans also went too far, and the depth of the minefield exceeded expectations.

The work of the Fourth Division was not complete. In an area declared safe by the Fourth Division, a car of the New Zealand Army was blown up by a landmine, and all three soldiers on board died. War of words.

The New Zealanders blamed the Indians for their irresponsible work, claiming it was a safe area before the mines were cleared. This is simply murder.

The soldiers of the Fourth Division are Indians, and the officers are all British. The British are also good at throwing the blame on the cunning Germans, and complain that the demining work is too heavy and there are no suitable tools. The resistance is high and so on.

The saliva returns to the saliva, and the attack of the troops cannot be stopped.

When the Indian 11th Division on the left attacked the Ruwesat Ridge, it was doggedly attacked by the German army, and the troops suffered heavy losses. When the loss reached 5.00%, they had to withdraw from the battle.

When the 10th Armored Division took over was attacking, it was hit head-on by the German armored forces. All the "Grant" and "Stuart" equipped by the troops were lost, many of which were voluntarily abandoned by the British army.

There is a huge gap between the "Grant" tank and the southern African tank. The officers and soldiers of the British armored forces hated the "Grant" very much, so when they were attacked by the German army, they took the initiative to abandon the "Grant" so that the troops could replace it with the southern African tank. up.

Montgomery is well aware of this situation, but there is no good way.

The British government is trying to find a balance, but the soldiers will vote with their feet.

The Americans sold the tanks in active service to the UK. Could this be out of good intentions? When did the Americans become so noble?

Now Montgomery finally understood that the defeat of the Germans depended on the Australian army.

So the Australian 24th Division, which had just been withdrawn from the battlefield and rested for less than 9 hours, returned to the front line.

The combat effectiveness of the Australian troops is still good, after all, they are equipped with southern African tanks.

After the 9th Division returned to the front line, it successfully broke through the German positions, and the Eighth Army finally got a breakthrough point.

But immediately afterwards, the 9th Division was flanked by the German 7th Armored Division and the 15th Armored Division, and the battle was tense.

The real inflection point came on September 9st.

As mentioned earlier, the supplies of Rommel's North African Army were seriously insufficient, especially fuel.

Tank troops rely heavily on fuel for operations. From the outbreak of the battle on the 13th to the 21st, the North African Army was about to run out of fuel. Rommel sent five telegrams a day requesting more fuel support. In the end, it was the tanker that waited. News of being sunk.

When the Eighth Army launched its offensive, the Mediterranean Fleet also stepped up its blockade between mainland Italy and North Africa. Cruisers and destroyers patrolled 24 hours a day to ensure that no ship arrived in North Africa.

Mustache knew Rommel's situation, and urged the fat bald head to ensure the supply of the North African Army no matter what.

The oil supply in Italy has also dropped below the dangerous line. The powerful "Vittorio Veneto" class battleships dare not even leave the door because of lack of fuel. The threat of warships.

Even under extremely difficult circumstances, the fat bald head still sent oil tankers to try to deliver oil to North Africa at night.

The fat bald man is not yet completely disappointed with the mustache. As long as the Russian battlefield does not decide the outcome, the Axis powers will have a chance of victory.

If Rommel failed in North Africa, the Allies could land on the Italian mainland at any time.

Compared with the British and Indian forces, the Royal Navy is still reliable. After all, the British Empire is a pirate-started from the sea.

The tanker was sunk, sounding the death knell for Rommel's North African Army.

Rommel, who was short of fuel, had to reduce the frequency of armored troops.

This is drinking poison to quench thirst. Rommel is best at mobile warfare. Once he stays in place and passively defends, Rommel will be pushed to death by Montgomery sooner or later.

After the 9th Australian Division, the 23th Army finally broke through the German position from the middle on the 30rd, cutting the German defense line from the middle, and could not take care of both the beginning and the end.

On the 25th, the 13th Army also broke through the German position from the south road, and the German army began to retreat, and the campaign developed towards the beginning of Montgomery's original plan.

Unwilling to fail, Rommel organized the 21st Armored Division and the 90th Light Armored Division to launch a counterattack against the 30th Army.

This counterattack failed completely. The 21st Division of Southern Africa, which came to support in time from Egypt, blocked the gap in time, completely smashing Rommel's hope of counterattack.

By the 27th, there were only 200 tanks left under Rommel's hands, and they had to retreat completely.

At this time, the Eighth Army still had about 800 tanks that were not in use.

So it's not that Rommel can't beat Montgomery, but it is determined by the strength of both sides. Rommel has too few resources, and the opponent is not Montgomery alone, but the Allied forces as a whole.

During the retreat, various episodes appeared.

In order to preserve his strength as much as possible, Rommel concentrated all the remaining fuel to supply the German troops, and the Italians were abandoned again.

At this time, Montgomery went all out and sent all his planes to bombard the retreating German army indiscriminately. The German 9th Division, which was fighting the Australian 164th Division, was completely wiped out.

Most of the Italian 10th Army, which was ordered to end, was also wiped out.

After two full years, the North African Campaign finally saw the dawn of victory.

(End of this chapter)