Iron Cross

Night finally fell, but the African Army's offensive had just begun. After eating up the resistance of the British 1st Armored Division, they immediately rushed towards the position of the 7th Armored Division. Due to the desperate actions of Horrocks and others, the Rank Commando was unable to get in. Fortunately, the Air Force seized the last ten minutes of sunshine in the afternoon and took advantage of the opportunity when British aircraft were busy chasing the Italians to attack the 7th Armored Division position. Carrying out a fierce attack greatly weakened the opponent's ability to resist.

In the dark night, illumination bombs were continuously launched into the sky, illuminating the earth as if it were daytime. The infantry positions of the 7th Armored Division, known as the "Desert Rats", were filled with fierce gunfire and firelight. Although their overall response was better than that of the 1st Armored Division, they were not damaged by the Rank Commandos. But now that Guderian's large force has arrived and the 1st Division's position has been broken through, with its flanks completely exposed, a 7th Division that lacks armor strength cannot withstand the turns of nearly 300 tanks of the African Army. Shocking.

After repeated attacks, the 15th and 21st Armored Divisions dug through the front at the cost of more than 30 tanks. The armored grenadiers swarmed forward and continued to expand and tear the gap. By late at night, the Afrika Korps as a whole had cut through the two armored divisions. The division was beaten to pieces, but it also paid a heavy price, which was greater than the cumulative losses in the several battles at Tele Akakir. As the Air Force reconnaissance showed, the positions of these two divisions were basically infantry and artillery, with not much armor. This objectively facilitated the African Army to break through the enemy's encirclement and interception, and fight its way out of the Eighth Army's nearly 200,000 troops. A bloody road.

Guderian seemed very calm after breaking through the siege. After walking forward for more than 2 hours, he gathered up the troops who seemed to be somewhat disjointed due to offensive operations. On the other hand, he deployed positions and built defenses, preparing to join forces after dawn. The tanks withdrawn by the British fought against each other. However, this time the British were obviously smarter. Although they were eager to return to the division to gather their own infantry and artillery units, they did not choose to march directly into the head-on attack mode. Instead, they used part of their forces to conduct a frontal attack, and the other However, the main forces on the front broke away from the coastal road system and carried out flanking detours. In order to hide their eyes, they also stuffed a large number of captured Italians into the frontal attack ranks, pretending to be the main force in terms of numbers and making the Germans shrink back during the battle - using hordes Rocks said, since the Germans can pretend to be us and send spy convoys, don't blame us for eye for eye and tooth for tooth. Use whatever method works.

This extremely rogue approach was reviled by everyone in the African Army. Even British prisoners such as Brigadier General Brown and Captain Richardson in the prisoner camp could not stand it. They said that the two armored divisions had lost their gentlemanly demeanor. The way of barbarians. Guderian turned a blind eye to this. On the one hand, he made corresponding deployment adjustments in response to the enemy's attempts. On the other hand, he asked his men not to shrink back when facing the Italians, and to fight as they should. If they did not do this, the British would In the future, they will definitely use the more than 200,000 Italian prisoners to make a fuss, and I'm afraid they won't be able to fight any war. However, this completely changed the frontal deployment. The two sides once again had a melee, and each ended hastily after losing some troops. The African Army was eager to return to Tobruk, and the British 1st and 7th Armored Divisions were eager to gather their forces and were defeated. The dispersed African infantry and artillery troops rescued many captured Italians - these poor fellows were first beaten up by the British, and then thrown out by the British to be used as meat pads to escape the German attack. Very unlucky.

On September 21, 1942, Hoffmann and the Supreme Command in Berlin finally received Guderian's complete battle report:... After heavy losses with the enemy, our African Army broke away from the Alamein line and returned to Tobruk to continue fighting. .

Everyone thought that the head of state would be furious. Unexpectedly, Hoffmann had a smile on his face and did not take it seriously at all. Instead, he expressed satisfaction: "Very good. General Guderian has laid a solid foundation for our next phase of operations." What he was thinking in his heart was: "I finally avoided the defeat of the Battle of Alamein and began to reverse the inertia of history!"

Zeitzler and Keitel were surprised by the head of state's magnanimity. They couldn't react for a moment, and finally said: "However, the British will attack Tobruk soon. Although they have suffered heavy losses, their strength is still against us." Although there was an absolute advantage, the strategic situation in North Africa still did not improve, and Prime Minister Mussolini even lost his temper because of the heavy casualties of the Italian army. "

"Don't worry about the Italians for now. I believe Guderian can defend Tobruk and send the troops assigned to him quickly. Without the constraints of the Italians, it will be easier for us to take advantage of it." Hoffman said with a smile, " Without giving the British any sweetness, how could they confidently and boldly push their troops forward..."

During this nearly month-long battle, Guderian led the African Army to skillfully deal with Montgomery's Eighth Army with inferior strength. He continued to use strategies to weaken and attack the enemy. A total of nearly 50,000 British troops were killed, wounded, and captured. people, a total of more than 700 British tanks, more than 500 armored vehicles, and nearly 1,000 artillery pieces of various types were destroyed, while their own losses were only nearly 3,000 people, more than 50 tanks, more than 30 armored vehicles, and less than 100 artillery pieces. In the air battlefield, because the African Army mainly fought with fighter jets, and the overall quality of the pilots was higher than that of the enemy, the overall victory was won with a score of about 112:400.

The most unlucky ones were the Italians. A total of 4 of their infantry divisions surrendered in their organic form. 2 armored divisions and 1 mechanized infantry division were severely damaged during the escape. More than 55,000 people were killed, injured, and captured. In total, more than 55,000 people were killed, injured, and captured. In the end, less than 30 of the 250 tanks remained. Except for the Italian paratrooper brigade that followed the 164th Infantry Division of the African Army and was the first to withdraw to Tobruk, the rest of the Italian troops lost their organization. Thousands of personnel ended up benefiting from The British's behavior of dumping the burden saved the Germans.

When the results of the battle were announced to the world, the British and Germans each insisted on claiming that they were the victors of the Battle of El Alamein. What the British showed at the press conference were Italian prisoners and the main military demarcation line currently beneficial to Britain; the Germans showed photos of British prisoners headed by Brigadier General Brown and a large number of captured British equipment at their press conference, and It was claimed that this was achieved with only a quarter of the British army's strength.

Privately, British Prime Minister Churchill was extremely dissatisfied with the results of the Eighth Army. He believed that they were led by Guderian and overall fought like a ball of ****. However, Lieutenant General Montgomery, the commander of the Eighth Army, was determined not to do so. Accepting this accusation, he retorted angrily: "We drove the enemy from El Alamein to Tobruk. Their casualties were greater than ours (including the Italians), and their main weapons losses were equal to ours (obviously an exaggeration). Results). If we look at the proportion, we only lost one-third to one-fourth of our weapons and equipment, while the enemy lost more than 60%. If this is not a victory, I don’t know what is a victory—— Does withdrawing troops from Dunkirk unharmed count as victory?"

General Alexander also supported Montgomery. He made a special speech at the internal shutdown analysis meeting held in Cairo: "The Eighth Army has completed its main strategic mission. What is our mission?" He emphasized, "It is to defend Egypt and prevent it. The enemy coveted the Middle East. Now we have repelled the enemy, obtained a stable front, curbed the enemy's offensive momentum and driven them back to Tobruk. As for the prisoners and the results, we have successfully achieved our goal. I do not deny the fact that most of them are Italians or Italian equipment, but there are also many Indians, French, South Africans, and Greeks among the troops we lost. Is it unreasonable to think that we should separate them for separate accounting? Moreover, Guderian was constantly supplemented in combat. Although he still had fewer technical weapons than we did, our original advantage over him was weakened. More importantly, his weapons had technical advantages - such as those T- 34 tanks, we don’t have a good way to deal with it..."

Montgomery did not make too many excuses at the meeting, only saying: "If anyone feels that he is more qualified to serve as the commander of the Eighth Army, I can give up, but I will never accept the accusation that we lost the war - this is unfair to me, and it is unfair to me. It is unfair to the tens of thousands of soldiers who were injured and sacrificed in this battle, and it is even more unfair to the 200,000 brothers of the Eighth Army. War is not just about looking at maps, listening to reports, and using your brain in an office in London. It means fighting with all your heart and the last burst of strength. I am not the only one who has experienced the power of Rommel or Guderian.”

In this battle, Montgomery won the love of his subordinates. An excited staff officer stated: "We have worked hard to finally get back to Tobruk. If any ****-raised officer in London dares to pick peaches, I will Just use the Sten submachine gun to beat him to a pulp!"

Churchill wanted to replace Montgomery, but General Alexander on the front line did not agree, and his cabinet colleagues in London did not agree. In the end, he had no choice but to give an indifferent conclusion: the merits and demerits should be balanced, no reward or punishment, and the eighth The army group followed up with supplies and allowed them to capture the Tobruk Fortress as soon as possible.

Two days later, Montgomery made a request: In order to capture Tobruk, the Eighth Army should be supplemented with 5 armored divisions and 1,000 tanks (required performance comparable to T-34), 5 infantry divisions, and 1,000 aircraft. Better to have local troops.

"Hell..." Churchill jumped in the office and roared, "With so many troops and equipment, a pig can lead the Eighth Army to defeat Guderian."

"Really?" Montgomery, who was far away in North Africa, responded with a smile and revealed the Prime Minister's old background without mercy: You were so confident before the Battle of the Dardanelles. At that time, you had far more troops than the Turks. and equipment advantage, who won? I think you only win by bragging!

The second volume is finished.