Iron Cross

Manstein was not the only one who was interested in the 251 rocket model. Guderian, who was far away in Africa, also decisively asked for it after knowing that there was such a good thing. However, he knew that he was not popular, so he was smart and did not force himself to take the lead. He only handed the problem to the commander-in-chief of the southern front, Field Marshal Kesselring. He said it very tactfully but the meaning was very clear. The latter did not disappoint everyone and forcibly snatched a company (16 vehicles) from him. Manstein was so angry that he complained after knowing it, but Kesselring pushed him back with one sentence - what's wrong with snatching a rocket launcher company? This month, in order to support your armored operations, the superiors originally intended to allocate more than 50 No. 4Gs to you.

This statement is of course specious, because although the No. 4Gs of the African Army were taken away, the General Staff still allocated the same number of T-34s, but Kesselring did not think so. He believed that the No. 4Gs were more useful than T-34s. If you don't believe it - let's exchange! This made Manstein bitter. The Afrika Korps could fight with both T-34 and Panzer IV, but the Eastern Front could not be equipped with T-34 on a large scale. He had no choice but to give in. Fortunately, Schmonte promised to give him another Tiger armored battalion in December, so he let it go.

After successfully ending the Battle of El Alamein and retreating to the Tobruk Fortress, the Afrika Korps reached the scale of 3 complete armored divisions (4th, 15th, and 21st), a complete armored brigade (Flying Fortress Armored Brigade), an infantry division (164th Infantry Division) and an Italian paratrooper brigade after a series of reorganizations and supplements. With the addition of some remaining troops and air force forces, the total force was restored to nearly 100,000 again. At the same time, it also had 800 tanks and 5 air force wings with nearly 900 aircraft. Although it was slightly inferior to the British 8th Army on the opposite side, it was still considered strong.

At the critical moment of Operation Torch in early November, in order to effectively deter the British and American troops, Guderian, following Hoffman's orders, launched a diversionary attack on the 8th Army besieging Tobruk. He used two armored divisions to easily penetrate the defense line that Montgomery had worked so hard to deploy, and then expanded in depth. In just one and a half days, he severely damaged a South African division, a Free French division, and the British 10th Armored Division, which had just received a large amount of supplies and restored most of its strength. However, this time Montgomery learned the lessons of the Battle of El Alamein and built a multi-layer defense system. He did not simply withdraw troops from other directions to reinforce, but rushed all the tank reserves in the army to fill the gap, and finally curbed Guderian's assault at the cost of huge losses.

At this time, Montgomery had a total of 14 divisions and 3 brigades, with a total army strength of nearly 300,000. He also had more than 1,500 aircraft in the Desert Air Force. In order to deal with the African Corps, he mobilized nearly 200,000 people and most of the tanks and aircraft to besiege Tobruk. Another 100,000 people served as the army reserve and maintained a supply line from Cairo and Alexandria Port to Tobruk via El Alamein. The British had 30,000 troops in Cairo and Alexandria Port in the rear.

Given that the 8th Army was not fooled this time and the situation in Morocco was very tense, Guderian finally took advantage of the situation and retreated back to Tobruk again by alternating to cover the retreat. It was not that he did not want to fight, but his logistics channel was occupied - this was helpless, because all the naval transport capacity dispatched from the Italian direction was so limited. In order to intimidate Britain and the United States not to land in Morocco, the Fuhrer's reserve troops were quickly transferred to the French colonies in Vichy. They enjoyed priority transportation and security. The supply sequence of the African Corps could only be forced to be delayed, and even the deployment of the two heavy armored battalions that Guderian was most concerned about was forced to be postponed.

According to the Fuhrer's proposal and request, the General Staff drew up a total of 12 heavy armored battalions, with serial numbers starting from 501 and continuing to 512. However, the four heavy armored battalions 501-504 were already organized before Hoffman crossed, so the speed of the army was very fast. According to the original plan, these four battalions would be put into battle before the end of 1942, of which 501 and 502 belonged to Guderian, and 503 and 504 were used by Manstein.

The above arrangement is quite different from the history. Although the 501st Battalion was sent to North Africa in history, the German and Italian troops were driven to Tunisia due to the failure of the Battle of El Alamein, so the 501st Battalion fought against the British and American forces in Tunisia. Now the Torch Operation has not happened, and Germany still controls Tobruk, so the enemy of the 501st Battalion has become the British Eighth Army. In history, the 502nd Battalion was sent to the Eastern Front, but this time it was also sent to North Africa. Due to the delay, although the 501st and 502nd Battalions were put into battle earlier than the 503rd Battalion, it was the 503rd Battalion that actually arrived at the frontline earlier.

Compared with the historical ones, the current heavy armored battalion has undergone significant changes in both quantity and content. The original history was full of 45 tanks, but now it has become full of 54 tanks. Moreover, there is no Porsche Tiger to interrupt this time, nor is there a Panzer III tank to make up the number due to insufficient quantity. They are all standard first batch of new tanks. The Tiger tanks obtained are also different from the historical models. The tonnage is lighter by nearly 10 tons. The triple road wheels have become double. The inclination is slightly increased without changing the thickness of the armor. In general, the failure rate, passing level and reliability are far higher than the historical level. All those who have come into contact with this weapon have fallen in love with it hopelessly. If you have to pick out the shortcomings, it may be that the number of spare ammunition is reduced and the space is not as spacious as in history.

But for the officers and soldiers of the heavy armored battalion who have not come into contact with the original model, this is not important. Anyone who has seen the T-34/76 knows that the air force in the Tiger turret is like upgrading from a compact 60-square-meter dwelling to 100-square-meter. The Germans can even stay in the T-34, so why can't they use the Tiger? 88mm thick tube, 100mm thick armor, the most advanced and reliable sighting equipment, everything indicates that it is a powerful weapon.

Guderian now has 114 Tiger tanks (108 Henschel Tigers in combat, and 6 rescue and repair vehicles modified from Porsche chassis). According to the estimate of the General Staff Quartermaster Department, there should be 30-40 Tiger tanks coming next month to supplement the damage, and then the new heavy armored battalion will be put into battle in 1943.

Despite the limited transport capacity, Marshal Kesselring still did his best to let the 2nd Battalion arrive in North Africa on Ar-232 transport planes first, so that they could adapt to the climate and combat ideas in advance. Their equipment arrived gradually after November 20. Along with the Tiger tanks, a batch of T-34s and the self-propelled rocket launcher company that Guderian had been looking forward to arrived. Although Kesselring's words to Manstein were a bit arrogant, the armored supply from the mainland to North Africa recently did focus on T-34s - Hoth's victory in Voronezh and the upper reaches of the Don River and Manstein's victory in the bend of the river had captured a large number of T-34s, so the T-34 resources in the Czech reconstruction factory were particularly abundant.

Starting from November 8, as the British and American forces in Operation Torch turned to South Africa, Guderian and Montgomery fought again. The two sides fought a three-week tug-of-war around the defense line around Tobruk. Although the position of the defense line did not change much, the African Army generally took a lot of advantages. Guderian was well aware of the principle of "picking the soft persimmon to squeeze", and he always used armored forces to attack the colonies and other British allied forces. Although Montgomery knew this situation, he had no choice because nearly half of his troops were non-native troops. As long as Guderian wanted to fight, he could always find weak links.

In the three-week war of attrition, the African Army lost more than 4,000 people and nearly 100 tanks, and the Eighth Army lost 30,000 people and more than 300 tanks. Neither side was satisfied with the result, but they had to continue to persevere. Guderian was waiting for new reinforcements, while Montgomery was waiting for a large number of reinforcements from the US troops. During Operation Torch, due to the ambush of German submarines, 97 of the 200 Sherman tanks originally given to Britain were lost, which made Montgomery very dissatisfied. Fortunately, after coordination, the wealthy Americans agreed to make up for it. The only good news was that due to the extended time, the Americans had enough time on the ship to replace the Shermans with new tank guns according to General Hewitt's method. They were considered the key to fighting against T-34s in North Africa.

Unfortunately, they didn't know that a more powerful opponent had arrived in North Africa. Guderian got the much-needed resources and equipment earlier than them, not to mention the powerful weapon Tiger. Now the number of tanks of the African Army has increased to 900, of which the 4th and 15th Armored Divisions are equipped with T-34 tanks (the 15th Armored Division was originally equipped with German tanks, but with the successive losses, all tanks were assigned to the 21st Armored Division and replaced with new equipment)

Faced with a relatively favorable opportunity and sufficient strength, and without any worries for the time being, the restless Guderian is re-planning the attack. This attack is no longer a small-scale war of attrition. He is determined to use the firepower advantage of the newly arrived Tiger armored battalion to create a gap in the assault, with the goal of eating up 3-5 divisions of Montgomery.

Now, the commander of the 501st Battalion, which is responsible for the offensive mission, is Major Ruedel, and the commander of the 502nd Battalion, Major Shad-Meckel, is leading the officers and soldiers of the entire battalion to wait for the order to attack. This will be their first appearance with the Tiger tanks on the African continent...