The Third Reich in Desperation

Body 683 Rommel VS Montgomery

As Italian Prime Minister Rossi personally supervised the arrival of a batch of strategic materials urgently shipped to North Africa, Rommel immediately issued an order to start a new operation.

Although the Italians' reckless attack lost a lot of valuable supplies, in contrast, the French victory in Tobruk also captured a lot of spoils for the Allied forces-including ammunition, food, and all other military supplies.

In a sense, Germany's pig teammate, Italy, continued to donate supplies to the British army, but another French teammate of Germany successfully snatched the British army's supplies from the British.As one trades and the other grows, Rommel is pleasantly surprised to find that he still has a lot of inventory in his hand, which is completely enough for him to play a round.

Therefore, Rommel ordered to keep the African materials newly transported by the Italians as a strategic reserve, and then transfer all the original reserves for the next attack on Egypt.

According to the African intelligence network established by Italy in the early years, Rommel probably also learned a lot about the British camp.

Of course, the intelligence network provided by Italy is nothing more than the use of low-level insiders planted in Egypt and other British African colonies to transmit some non-core intelligence information, which is no better than Reinhardt's omniscient God's perspective golden finger.

However, for the current Rommel, this level of intelligence collection is enough!

First of all, he learned that the current strength of the Eighth Army of the British Army has been extremely weak. Its core is only a regiment-sized Australian infantry, plus 3 Egyptian native divisions equipped with Italian weapons.

As for the reserve team of the British Eighth Army, it was just that the front line had just experienced the failure of "Operation Tomahawk". Less than [-] troops retreated, and only a few dozen tanks fled back.

The reason why Montgomery arranged these troops as a reserve team was not because of anything else. It was just because these tanks with broken troops and lack of fuel could not form combat effectiveness at all. .So, anyway, you have to wait for a while to recover your combat power, so it's better to simply put them in the rear as a reserve team, and then go to the front line after the combat power recovers a little.

In short, Rommel concluded that the Allied Forces under his command are very dominant at this stage. What he wants to do now is to launch a blitz attack as soon as possible. After the British respond, they will mobilize fresh troops from the Middle East to support the confluence of the Eighth Army in Africa. Before that, the African Commonwealth forces in Montgomery's hands were completely destroyed.

Rommel has repeatedly confirmed the accuracy of the intelligence in hand.

He didn't simply believe everything immediately after getting information from the Italians.As an old fox who is good at using deception and other methods in combat, Rommel is also very guarded against the British deceiving himself in turn.

In addition, the link in charge of the Italians often had problems, so Rommel still carefully calculated the accuracy of each piece of information.

First of all, regarding the strength of the British Eighth Army stationed in Egypt, Rommel has confirmed this point many times with the simplest but least conceivable method.

Rommel, the "Desert Fox" full of various novel ideas, ordered after breaking Wavell's Tomahawk operation to take all the captured British officers of major and above to different rooms for torture and spying. They got news about the size of the British troops stationed in the rear.

This method was very successful. After all, while Rommel defeated Wavell's army, he captured a full 72 colonel-level officers in the Commonwealth forces, and even captured 2 other major generals.

According to common sense, an officer at the colonel level should have a clear understanding of the size of the garrison after all.Coincidentally, because of the argument between Montgomery and Wavell before sending troops, the wonderful inside story of that combat meeting was almost spread within the British Eighth Army.

"Admiral Wavell had a serious disagreement with the newly appointed Lieutenant General Montgomery", "Lieutenant General Montgomery was snubbed and sent to command 3 Egyptian native divisions with low combat effectiveness and 3 Australian infantry battalions that were useless for Operation Tomahawk .”

The spread of such news virtually revealed the size of the rear garrison commanded by Montgomery.

And among the 74 Commonwealth officers that Rommel tortured, there were always some people who were not strict.As long as the information given by multiple officers among the scattered interrogators is consistent, then the size of the British army's rear garrison can basically be determined.

As for the number of broken British soldiers and tanks who fled back to serve as the reserve team, it is easy to calculate in the same way.You only need to ask the captured Commonwealth officers, the size of each unit participating in Operation Tomahawk, and the number of tanks, and then subtract the number of captured personnel and tanks on the battlefield, and subtract the number of heads killed and the number of tanks destroyed. Approximately calculated to get a data.

Using this data to compare and match with the information provided by the Italians, we can basically determine the situation on the side of the British Eighth Army.

In addition to the intelligence news he wanted to know, Rommel also heard some information about Montgomery himself that he learned from British prisoners.

Listening to those who have lost the battle, Montgomery has a face like an eagle, and his high-pitched voice with a strong English nasal voice does not sound very friendly. The argument can be seen.

Of course, the current Wavell has been completely suppressed by Montgomery, and was reassigned by Montgomery to become the "Supreme Commander of Kotwo" on the Egyptian border called Kotwo stronghold, commanding all 2 Egyptian infantry companies there.

In addition, a British colonel who was close to Wavell before but was now captured by Rommel also revealed that Montgomery was similar to Rommel in many ways.Both like sports, neither smoke nor drink hard alcohol, and focus on maintaining good health.

Perhaps it was the sentence that Berente said when describing Montgomery: "They said, he is your nemesis." Rommel deliberately paid attention to it, or maybe because Montgomery was the supreme commander of the African enemy army, his ability was worthy of attention.In short, Rommel asked the colonel for more details about Montgomery afterwards.

Coincidentally, the colonel happened to be a well-informed person.From his mouth, Rommel found that Montgomery was somewhat similar to himself.

For example, the two of them are both withdrawn in character, have their own arrogance in tactical command, and are like unruly horses when taking orders from others, but both are clear-headed and The kind of commander who has an original opinion.

Rommel once refused Reinhardt's guidance and forcibly used two battalions to attack Tobruk Fortress.And when Montgomery first came to Africa to take office, he had a stalemate with Wavell, and had serious differences and was squeezed out to be in charge of staying behind.

Also, just as Rommel always wore the famous perspex goggle hat, the colonel confessed that Montgomery also liked to wear a weird Australian bush hat with the team crest to show his uniqueness different.

The more he listened, the more Rommel felt that he had met an interesting opponent this time!

Body 684 Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is located at the lowest point of the plain between the Kolau Mountains and the Huaianai Mountains on the south coast of Oahu Island. It is adjacent to the only deep-water port of Honolulu. It is the base and shipbuilding base of the US Navy and the North One of the largest and best safe berthing ports in the Pacific Islands, ordinary civilian ships are not allowed to enter here unless there is special permission from the US Department of the Navy.

However, this is only theoretical.

If the fleet belonging to the United States is willing to pay some tolls, it may be possible to allow a temporary stop at Pearl Harbor.

Standing on the beach, looking at the boundless sea, calm and gentle, the seagulls hovering on the sea surface, making bursts of calls, and the cool sea breeze blowing slowly, making people extremely comfortable.With the beautiful beach and the afterglow of the sunset, the island of Hawaii is like the bright pearls scattered in the Pacific Ocean by the United States.There are rolling waves in front of the beach and lush pine forests in the back.Ryan and his comrades listened to the sound of the waves, leisurely smoked the cigarettes given to them by the sergeant major, and enjoyed their vacation.

During the time of the world war, their leisure was unbelievable, as if they were not here to guard the territory, but came to the beautiful Hawaii for vacation.There is a scene of peace in the port, and Ryan and the others are on holiday as usual on weekends, and war seems so out of reach.

With Ryan were two of his best buddies, a burly guy named Damon and the other with deep blue eyes named Stephen.Ryan lay comfortably on the beach, Damon washed his eyes facing the sea, and Stephen whistled and played with the birds.

"I said, let's go to the east beach to play later. I heard someone in the team say that there is a snow-white sand beach. I have never seen a white beach when I grow up." Damon turned his head after blowing out a few smoke rings said excitedly.

As a recruit who had just been transferred to Pearl Harbor this week, Damon was very curious about everything here.

Stephen, who had reported to Pearl Harbor a few days earlier, nodded imperceptibly when he heard the words, agreeing with Damon's words.

Seeing that Ryan didn't respond, Damon kicked Ryan who was pretending to be asleep: "Hey, aren't you going?"

Ryan, who was kicked, opened his eyes reluctantly and said, "No, I'm going back to stand guard tonight."

"Damn!" Damon sneered at this indifferently: "Stand guard, why stand guard? We are not at war with any country, why are you so rigid."

"Let's go, let's talk after we've had enough fun. I promise you that it's okay to go later, and we'll be back soon. What are you afraid of? Right, Stephen?" Damon winked at Stephen , winked and said.

Seeing this, Stephen immediately responded with understanding: "That's right, that's right, there's no big problem. You see, the war broke out for so long before we came here, so nothing happened?"

"Hurry up, I'm going crazy with boredom all day long, are you going or not!" Damon yelled impatiently.

Ryan knew that he had to go. To be honest, he also felt that the daily mechanical military life was really boring. Everything was so peaceful, maybe there was nothing like water.

Standing guard and paddling water is no longer a taboo in Pearl Harbor.As long as you come back after running out and spending a lot of time, you will pass a cigarette to each of the two majors who are in charge of checking the post, and nothing will happen.

That's right, standing on guard and fleeing from guard is only worth the price of two cigarettes here in Pearl Harbor!

This may sound unbelievable, but this is the unique calmness and unhurriedness of American soldiers who are out of war.

As one of the most important naval and air force bases of the United States in the Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor has a water area of ​​32 square kilometers and an average water depth of about 14 meters. It can park up to 500 ships, and can also provide maintenance, Maintenance and other services.For the American soldiers here, the favorite place is a small island in Pearl Harbor.

On this small island called Ford Island, there is the Ford Island Naval Air Station.The largest grocery store in Pearl Harbor is located at this Naval Air Station.Soldiers can not only buy their favorite Coke in the grocery store, but also fresh oysters.

Pearl Harbor is rich in oysters, and the grocery store here buys delicious and tender oysters from local materials.Due to the convenience of picking up the goods and the large supply, oysters are sold very cheaply, and ordinary soldiers can easily afford them.

It is ironic that Pearl Harbor, the strategic stronghold of the United States to dominate the Pacific region, has become a place for garrison soldiers to enjoy the beautiful scenery and enjoy seafood delicacies.

Regarding the loose military discipline of the Pearl Harbor troops, it has actually been reported many times.But it is worth pondering that when US President Roosevelt heard about this for the first time, he has been using inexplicable cover for the Pearl Harbor garrison, and suppressed this incident many times.

Except for the removal of more than 100 officers from the Pearl Harbor garrison who demanded rectification of military discipline by Roosevelt in the name of promotion, the U.S. military basically did not intervene in the increasingly corrupt military discipline around Pearl Harbor.