Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Infinite military base

Volume 2: My Country Five Hundred and Thirty-four. Erwin Rommel (Second update)

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    The reputation of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel of the German Empire reached its peak on the African battlefield.

    When he was in charge of commanding the German troops in Africa, the German troops were facing a very difficult situation.  Even Generals Kluwer and Westphal were now suffering from jaundice.  Rommel was worried: "Soon, I will become the only German military officer who has been fighting here from beginning to end."

    However, Rommel was not intimidated by the difficulties at hand. He first successfully withdrew the main force of the German army, and then successfully defeated the British attack through several beautiful battles.

    Beginning in May, Erwin Rommel fought a decisive battle with the British army in Africa.

    A series of battles caused the British army to suffer terrible losses.

    On May 31, Rommel organized an attack on Uribu. The British army resisted extremely tenaciously and the German army made slow progress.  The next day, the battle continued. Waldau sent an air force squadron for support. Wave after wave of German infantry rushed forward. The battle was extremely fierce, and both sides engaged in desperate hand-to-hand combat.  Rommel witnessed this spectacular scene with his own eyes.  In the afternoon, the German troops broke through the British positions across the board and captured 3,000 British troops.

    The next step is to attack Bir Hakeim.

    Rommel adjusted the armored forces and made careful arrangements for the next move.  British artillery fire blasted his breakthrough from time to time in an attempt to stop the German supply convoy.  From the evening of June 1st to the morning of June 2nd, the 90th Light Armor and a coordinated Italian division began to approach Bir Hakeim. They passed the minefield without suffering any losses and blocked the way out to the east of the fortress.  But the British and French defenders refused to surrender.  At noon, the Italian army attacked the fortress from the northeast and the German army from the southeast.

    The French defenders in the fortress were extremely tenacious and the battle was very tragic. It lasted for 10 days from June 2 to June 11.  This was the first time Rommel encountered such a fierce battle, and he, an expert on infantry tactics, was deeply shocked by it.  The French army's position system was very solid and complete, with trenches, bunkers, machine gun bunkers and anti-tank gun emplacements everywhere, and strict mine arrays laid out. The artillery and air force bombings were simply powerless.  The German army consumed huge amounts of ammunition and suffered heavy casualties.  German engineers used their corpses to open a path for the following troops.  At the same time, the Air Force also played an important role. It dispatched more than 1,300 combat aircraft during the offensive.

    Subsequently, the Afrika Korps rested and Rommel obtained some new tanks.  He regained the initiative, was able to free up his troops to deal with the Gazala defense line, and was able to organize a counterattack.  The British army suffered heavy losses, losing more than 400 tanks alone.  At this point, Rommel became the real master of this war zone.

    On the evening of June 11, Rommel commanded the 15th and 90th Light Armored Divisions, together with the 3rd and 32nd Reconnaissance Battalions, to march north of Bir Hakeim.  The British Gazala Line of Defense was directly and seriously threatened.  To this end, British commander Li Teqi transferred an armored brigade up.  On the 12th and 13th, Rommel commanded two large-scale tank battles.  As a result, the British army lost nearly 140 tanks, leaving only about 70 tanks.

    Early on the morning of the 14th, the British army was forced to begin withdrawing the remaining troops from the Gazala defense line.  As night fell, the Germans took control of the Via Balbia road.  In the early morning of the 15th, the German 15th Armored Division left a small number of troops to guard the road, while the main force advanced towards the coastline.  At this time, a large number of British troops retreating eastward easily escaped.  On the evening of the 16th, the German army captured Adem.  On the evening of the 17th, Sidi Legeve was captured.  Subsequently, the German army captured Battrulla, the last fortress leading to Tobruk.  The gates of Tobruk are open.

    Rommel's telegram said: "We have won, the enemy is collapsing."

    On the 17th, Rommel's encirclement once again tightly surrounded Tobruk.  At 15:00 in the afternoon, the tanks of the Afrika Korps and the Areate Armored Division moved eastward, completing a comprehensive encirclement of the British army.  At 18:30, Rommel personally commanded the 21st Armored Division to detour back to the north again.  In order to seize the time, he took the lead and personally drove at full speed, surpassing the bewildered British artillery and armored vehicles and rushing towards the coast.  It was getting dark.  The 21st Armored Division rushed into a minefield that was not marked on the map, and a tank turned into a ball of fire in a terrible explosion.  At dawn on the 18th, the 21st Armored Division was bombed by the British Air Force, but Rommel still urged the troops to continue advancing north as quickly as possible.  Soon, the troops arrived at the Ganbut forward airport, and all the defenders had fled. The Germans captured 15 intact aircraft and a large amount of fuel in one fell swoop.

    It was not until dawn that Rommel ordered the advance to stop.  By this time, a reconnaissance battalion had arrived in Via Balbia.  Tobruk's bag was tied tightly.  At 8:30 a.m., Rommel proudly telegraphed to the General Staff and Kesselring: "The fortress has been surrounded by our troops." On the afternoon of the 19th, the Afrika Army occupied a new position.  The 90th LightThe armored division assaulted eastward and occupied the British supply depots between Via Balbia and Tobruk, disrupting the British army's line of sight.  Everything seemed to have been arranged.

    Rommel was fully confident of his victory, but he also felt that while everyone was waiting for the victory, they were also inexplicably nervous.

    The British army deployed a heavy force group in Tobruk, including the 2nd South African Division, the 11th Indian Brigade, the 2nd Guards Brigade, the 32nd Tank Brigade and several artillery regiments.  These troops are exhausted from long battles and have low morale.  The British commanders were slow to act, and the reorganization work had not yet been completed, let alone the careful organization of defense matters.  But this does not mean that Tobruk has become a dangerous egg. It is still a hot taro.  The terrain around the fortress is very complex, and the sand ridge in the southeast is impossible for armored vehicles to pass; the desert plains in the south are covered with British bunkers and firepower points, connected by tunnels. Unless absolutely necessary, the defenders do not need to expose their targets; **  Deep anti-tank trenches and dense barbed wire fences were built outside the stronghold; the perimeter of the fortifications was also covered with countless mine arrays.

    But this time Rommel had a plan in mind.  Based on the defensive situation of the British army, he decided that the Italian 21st Army would carry out the feint attack mission, while the African Army and the Italian 20th Army would serve as the main attack.  Before launching the general offensive, all German and Italian air forces in Africa were concentrated for bombing.  Once the infantry broke through the fortress defenses, the Afrika Korps advanced all the way to the crossroads leading to the port and attacked westward to the Via Balbia road.  The Italian 20th Army was responsible for occupying the British defenses and preparing to destroy the South African Division.

    On the 18th, he invited the Air Force Commander General Waldau to the new command post located in the Hatien stronghold to discuss the tactical application of the Air Force, personally delineated the Air Force¡¯s air attack targets, and prescribed land and air coordination signals.  At noon on the 19th, Marshal Kesselring came to Rommel's command post and approved Rommel's offensive plan.  In the afternoon, Rommel personally led the army to pretend to march towards the Egyptian border, and did not stop until it reached nearly 30 kilometers away from Bardia.  At 16:30, Rommel ordered the two armored divisions to withdraw, leaving only the 90th Light Armored Division, and he himself returned to the Hatien command post.

    In the middle of the night, Rommel lay in the command post and wanted to take a nap, but the familiar excitement before the attack prevented him from falling asleep at all.  At 3:30 in the morning, his subordinates reported that all attacking troops had occupied the designated positions and all preparations were completed. He closed his eyes and was confused for a while.  But an hour later, Rommel sat in his command car in high spirits.  "Today is a crucial day. May the goddess of luck accompany me faithfully. I am really tired, otherwise everything would be satisfactory." At this time, he did not forget to share the joy with Lucy.

    At 5:30 in the morning on June 20, the German and Italian artillery densely distributed on the battlefield roared.  But half an hour later, there was still no sound of the plane.  Rommel and Afrika Korps Commander Nainen climbed to a small high ground. After a while, General Nainen got the news that the air force squadron had just set off.  In an instant, hundreds of planes were over the enemy's position, and countless heavy bombs poured down. Broken barbed wire and blown weapons were thrown into the air, and then fell heavily on the heads of the defenders.

    After the bombing, there was a period of dead silence on the garrison position.  Rommel's infantry began to charge.  The company commanders and platoon commanders all stood up, blew the advance whistle, and rushed forward in the suffocating dust and smoke. In a moment, the sound of gunfire rang out like exploding beans.  The engineers also acted quickly. At 5 minutes to 8 o'clock, they set up an impact steel bridge on the anti-tank trench, and the tanks rumbled up.

    By this time, Rommel had also arrived at the front line of the 15th Armored Division. His armored personnel carrier drove to the breach of the minefield and watched tanks and an infantry company pass through the minefield to attack the bunkers behind the defense line.  The defenders' artillery fire fell near him from time to time, and the vehicles near the breakthrough were huddled together.  He ordered Lieutenant Burnsted to clear the passage, and the tanks rushed forward again. Six British "Crusader" tanks were hit and caught fire.  At 9 o'clock, Rommel had victory in hand.  He waved the reporters accompanying the army to come over and record his wonderful battlefield speech: "Today, my soldiers are devoting all their strength to attack Tobruk. Individual soldiers may die in battle, but the victory of our entire nation is certain.  ¡±

    On the morning of the 21st, Rommel drove to the city.  There are ruins and desolation everywhere; tanks and cars on fire are on both sides of the road, some were hit by artillery shells, and some were set on fire by the British army themselves; the dry rivers on the coast are crowded with countless prisoners.  Some of the black soldiers from the South African Brigade were drunk, but they looked happy, clapping their hands and shouting, "The war is over!"

    At 9:40 a.m., General Klopp, commander of the fortress and commander of the 2nd South African Division, submitted a letter of surrender to Rommel on the Via Balbia Highway.  Rommel hurriedly reported to Hitler: "The entire fortress of Tobruk surrendered, and all prisoners were taken."??25,000, including some generals.  "

    The whole of Germany is boiling.  (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report