Iron Cross

Attacking southwards was the most familiar attack rhythm for the African Army. In the past three weeks, they had repeatedly staged the drama of suddenly breaking out from the defense line and attacking the British positions. However, this time the action plan was slightly changed. Guderian did not take the most common road, but chose to go straight through the desert gap between Kambut and Adem. This desert was flat and hard, and all kinds of tracked and half-tracked vehicles could move freely. It was simply a natural armored battlefield. In the daytime, I dared not take this road, because it was very dangerous to march on the open ground, and there was no way to avoid air strikes. But now, under the cover of night, the army quickly advanced forward. The whole team was magnificent and spectacular. All kinds of tanks, armored vehicles, half-track vehicles, artillery and trucks were in a column, raising a large amount of dust, and marching from north to south.

The whole team was divided into two wings according to Guderian's instructions. The left wing was the 4th Armored Division, the right wing was the 15th Armored Division, and the Tiger Panzer Battalion directly under the command of the African Army Command marched in the middle between the two. They received intensive and rapid repairs from the maintenance team before departure, and did not set off until after 10 o'clock. Even so, there were still 7 or 8 tanks that could not be repaired in time and had to stay behind. In order to prevent them from breaking down halfway, the maintenance team sent a large number of elite soldiers to follow them. Bayerlein joked with the two battalion commanders that the Tigers would need to be equipped with "nannies" in the future. Everyone was amused. However, the armored grenadiers who accompanied the tanks in combat had a good impression of this powerful tank. When they saw these rumbling behemoths accompanying the attack, they felt confident.

In addition to the heavy armored battalion having independent and priority road access rights, the other two divisions organized a thorough marching sequence according to combat needs, which perfectly demonstrated Bayerlein's staff skills: the tanks were followed by armored grenadiers, engineers and artillery, and on their left and right sides were infantry and anti-tank troops riding trucks. In the middle of the two divisions were thousands of logistics supply trucks organized into echelons - without these trucks as a guarantee, any victory of the combat troops would be unimaginable, so they were placed under the strictest protection. Each division was lined up in a neat queue as required, and the direction of travel, the distance between the workshops, and the driving speed were painstakingly calculated to avoid disconnection or congestion of the road. The dark lights made from gasoline tanks indicated the marching route, which was as neat as a convoy undergoing inspection.

The Germans' good discipline and obedience maintained the maximum quietness during the march. Except for the sound of the engine, everything else was quiet, without any noise. Guderian himself actually wanted to lead a tank unit to the front, but Melinzin, Bayerlein and Westphal all expressed firm opposition. As a concession, he took a capable command center to stay in Adem to control the war in the south, while Westphal was responsible for the intermediary liaison in the east and south.

The two commanders of the African Army had many similarities in character. At the beginning, Rommel rode the captured British ACV armored command vehicle nicknamed "Mammoth" every day to patrol the battle situation, command the construction of various projects and roads, send reconnaissance troops to retrieve the artillery abandoned by the Italians in the desert for his own use, and rush to the front in combat. After Rommel left office, this armored command vehicle was left to Guderian. Although the latter also liked to command in person, he preferred to stay in the tank. This armored command vehicle allowed Bayerlein to transform it into a small and fast mobile command center.

However, Guderian's conditions and capital were much better than Rommel's. Not to mention that he looked down on the rags left by the Italians in the desert, he was also very casual about the captured British artillery. However, the 17-pounder gun newly put into use by the British aroused his curiosity. According to the prisoners, this anti-tank gun with a caliber of 76.2mm and a weight of up to 3 tons was said to be hastily put into use by the British in order to restrain the German T-34 or other new tanks. Even the appropriate gun mount was not selected. In the end, the 25-pound gun mount was used. The total number was only 100. It had the same caliber as the Soviet-made 76.2mm anti-tank gun but had better armor-piercing ability (still far behind the German army's own 88mm anti-aircraft gun). After the test, it was found to be true. Guderian sent it to the 21st Armored Division, which was fighting fiercely in the east, so that the British could taste the power of the new artillery they developed.

As for the captured tanks, he had no interest in anything other than Sherman. He had the captured tanks transported by the ships carrying supplies, along with the prisoners and wounded, loaded back to Italy for Field Marshal Kesselring to deal with. The Field Marshal was a good communicator, and he could always use the captured supplies, equipment and prisoners to exchange for all kinds of good things for the African Army. The Italian leader, who had made a joke, became much more low-key, and the reporters never got the chance to get the gold watch again.

At 3 a.m., the vanguard had reached the periphery of the British front. The desert was quiet under the bright moonlight, which was unbelievable. Now the two armies were in a fierce exchange of fire. The armored reconnaissance troops could clearly observe the flares rising from time to time on the opposite British position. It seemed that they were heavily guarded and the defense was quite good, but it made people feel that they were perfunctory. The troops quietly deployed according to the combat sequence while providing the final supply to the tank and armored vehicle troops.

On the battle maps of the battalion commanders, the offensive targets were clearly defined. The first thing was to divide and surround the British troops near the wells. Water is the source of life, and the water in the desert is even more abundant than usual. The vitality of the entire Cyrenaica region lies in these wells - a small oasis can be formed around each well, and there are also residential gathering points. For the convenience of supply, the British usually deploy defenses around the wells and oases. Now they have become the top priority targets.

At 5:25 in the morning, the sky in the east was white, the vision began to clear, and the weather began to clear up as the weather forecast revealed. Five minutes later, three green flares rose into the sky, and the African Army's attack on the southern line kicked off in fierce artillery fire.

The British sentry on duty sounded the alarm as soon as he found the signal flare, but it was too late. The overwhelming firepower rushed over, tearing the British defense lines, fortifications, and equipment into pieces. Following the dense artillery fire was the armored forces that the Germans relied on to become famous, and the Tiger took the lead and rushed ahead of all the troops, rolling towards the British positions with a "rumbling" momentum.

Once upon a time, due to the German army's repeated attacks to the south, Montgomery arranged the most troops in that direction. In addition to the existing 8th Armored Division (without infantry brigade), 44th Infantry Division, 151st Infantry Brigade, and 2nd Free French Brigade, the 10th Armored Division and 201st Guards Brigade were originally arranged. Because the 7th Armored Division collapsed in an attack yesterday, in order to prevent the Western Front from being shaken, Montgomery was forced to withdraw the last two troops to reinforce, so the battlefield situation and the enemy-to-enemy power comparison became more optimistic than Guderian expected. He originally thought that Montgomery would only withdraw one brigade from the south at most, but he did not expect that the Eighth Army was frightened by the sharp attack power of the African Army that quickly devoured the 7th Armored Division, and withdrawn one brigade after another. The power comparison has now reversed: the total strength of the British army is only 1.7 times that of the German army, and the number of tanks is only slightly more than half of the German army.

In the fierce attack of the German army, the British lost the first two lines of defense in less than 40 minutes. The tanks that dared to take the initiative to fight were also bombed into a pile of rotten iron by the Tiger tanks. At this time, the T-34 and Type 4 tanks behind the two heavy armored battalions did not even have a chance to exchange fire.

"Sir..." De-Lagan hurriedly woke up Montgomery, who had been busy all night and fell asleep at 4 o'clock in the morning, "The main force of the German army launched a fierce attack in the south, and we have lost two lines of defense in a row."

"What?" Montgomery was shocked, "Didn't they report that the Germans were still confronting our troops in front of the 7th Armored Division's defense line? The French and Poles also reported that there were many Germans in the frontal battle. Where did so many main forces come from?"

At 6:23, the second worse and more detailed news came: the commander of the southern division, Ramsden, commander of the 1st Army on the mission, reported to Montgomery that the Germans had deployed "super tanks", the 8th Armored Division's armored forces were completely destroyed, and most of the 151st Infantry Brigade was surrounded. The telegram specifically emphasized that "...this type of tank is definitely not a T-34, it has fierce firepower and solid defense, and none of our tanks can match it. The number is expected to be 200 (actually only more than 90), and the German tanks deployed in the attack are expected to be more than 800 (the actual total number is less than 450, and only more than 300 are directly involved in the front-line attack). It is initially estimated that the German army 70,000 to 80,000 main offensive troops will be deployed..."

The description of the Tiger in this telegram is almost identical to what Major General Langton said yesterday. Both of them have agreed and urgently reported to London to find out the intelligence. However, the description of the enemy's strength in the telegram made Montgomery furious. He roared: "50,000 to 60,000 in the west, 70,000 to 80,000 here, and 30,000 to 40,000 fighting us in the east. How many troops do the Germans have? Why do they sound like they have more than us? And they can't even say that there are more than 800 tanks- —It is still a question whether the Germans have so many tanks in Africa! "

De Lagan only smiled bitterly: Since the war in North Africa, the Eighth Army has been worried about false reporting and exaggeration of the German combat effectiveness: At the beginning, the Germans did not have an advantage in manpower and equipment. At that time, they were afraid of Rommel personally, and Auchinleck even used such a despicable trick as assassination; after the German army increased its manpower, replaced the Italians with local troops, and invested in T-34 and new Type 4, they were afraid of the German tank equipment and combat effectiveness of the troops.

At this point in the war, not to mention Montgomery, even De Lagan was completely confused. How strong are the Germans? Where is their main force?