Iron Cross

When Guderian led the African Army to open fire on the left and right sides of Tel Akakir, the Italian troops who had retreated a step ahead had all crossed the Matruh Port and were desperately escaping towards Tobruk. Guderian also forwarded the victory information to them. Although they were also happy about it, they still had no intention of stopping because they had received warnings from the Air Force more than once that the British behind them The troops have caught up, getting closer and closer, and there are still a lot of troops. More than 300 tanks and armored vehicles have been detected in the air. Although the German Eighth Air Force was doing its best to compete with the British Desert Air Force and maintain an air umbrella for the Italians, the British ground forces were advancing very quickly. At this point, the Italians do not blame Guderian. The opponent has attracted enough British troops and fought well enough. If they should blame it, they blame Guderian for having too many British troops.

The retreat of the Italian troops was carried out in panic from the beginning. Although the formation on the first day of retreat was chaotic, at least it could be roughly divided into five forces. But starting from the second day, these troops were completely in disarray. Everyone ran around as they pleased without knowing which group was which. By the third day, in addition to knowing that there were people and soldiers below, the planes in the sky also knew that there were people and soldiers below. , except for the Italian soldiers, nothing else could be understood. Don't say that you can't tell the difference between the British planes and the German planes. You just need to know that the ones running underneath are Italians. Of course, the Italians are justified in this. Large-scale dispersion is conducive to air defense. Didn't you see that even if the British bombs are thrown accurately, they can only blow up one car at most?

Starting from the west of Tell Akakir, on both sides of the coastal road, you can see tanks, armored vehicles or trucks abandoned by the Italians from time to time, together with artillery that lacks towing capacity. These all have problems while driving. , Equipment that was ruthlessly abandoned. In fact, as long as they are willing to stop for repairs, most of the vehicles can be restored to normal in a day or even half a day. However, the Italian army who is eager to escape obviously does not have that much time, and everyone will regard staying as a daunting journey. The disabled vehicles were abandoned by desperate soldiers, who then boarded trucks to join the infantry. Now the Italians feel that it was wise for Guderian to let them give up some of their supplies in advance. If they had not done so, there would simply not be enough vehicles to load soldiers. Rather than having to throw away the supplies, it would have been better to leave them with the Germans from the beginning. As a result, these abandoned vehicles became the most eye-catching scenery on both sides of the coastal road. The British armored divisions behind looked at these equipment and knew where the Italians had fled. Stimulated by the constant discovery of equipment abandoned by the enemy, the British The pursuit power will be more sufficient.

However, Italians have extremely rich experience in escaping. Although they panic and choose a route when escaping, the most basic brains and judgments from top to bottom, whether officers or soldiers, are still there. They know that they cannot leave the coastal road and run around, otherwise they will die of thirst in the desert. No. In addition, although the overall situation seems to be panic, the Italians are still stable and united with each other. Everyone is eager to escape in the same mood. They give each other full "understanding and respect". No one tries to fight for the way or rob the means of transportation. Killing each other. Everyone follows a principle, whoever has the ability runs first, and whoever runs out counts. Of course, officers with cars did not dare to abandon their troops and escape privately, otherwise even if they reached the Tobruk leader and the Germans, they would not be able to spare him.

Although the entire Italian army lost its neat and orderly formation, the direction and destination of all the officers and soldiers' "turning in" were highly consistent. The whole process was like the great migration of wildebeest on the East African prairie - completely relying on talent and Instinct, who will organize the team and design the route for the wildebeest? The Italian generals were not worried about this. They firmly believed that although the escape was chaotic, as long as the number of people was counted at the destination, the troops would be fully restored - I don't know where they came from such confidence.

There is nothing that Italians hate most now than British planes. These annoying flies appear overhead from time to time, either dropping bombs or strafing at low altitudes. There are even British planes that take advantage of the opportunity to dive and scare the ground after the bullets are empty. The troops tried their best to slow down the opponent's escape speed. This endless mad dog spirit made the Italians simply intolerable. Otherwise, they would have welcomed and encouraged the equipment and ammunition on the roadside. In the same way, the Italians expressed sincere gratitude to the German planes that appeared in the sky. Several division commanders unanimously concluded: "If there were no German planes to cover us, the troops would have been bombed by the British long ago."

Therefore, whenever a plane of the Eighth Air Force shoots down an enemy plane, the Italians on the ground will cheer loudly and even try their best to rescue the parachuting German pilots they encounter when they are eager to escape. All Italians Knowing these pilots gives them a protective umbrella. Not only did they provide rescue services within their capabilities, they also freed up valuable vehicles to help these skydiving pilots return to the airport as soon as possible. Several generals even donated their cars without hesitation, so that they could return to the team and fly to the sky again to teach the British a lesson. Man - at this moment, the feelings of comrades-in-arms between the two sides further deepened. Garland repeatedly told his men that once they were shot down in battle, they should quickly parachute and seek help from the Italians, and then leave as soon as possible. The faster the better, otherwise they would easily be captured by the British who were chasing them.

On the other hand, the British pilots who were shot down, especially the bomber pilots, were not so lucky. The half-dead pilots who could only struggle in the cabin were often shot to death by the angry Italian infantry. Those pilots who escaped their lives by parachuting and were caught were tied with their hands and hung on the top of the car. They were usually used as human shields by the soldiers to warn the British planes that were constantly attacking from the air. Under such fierce sunshine in North Africa, it would not take long for these pilots to fall into a coma or even die due to dehydration. A more brutal move was to catch the pilot and drag him behind the car with a rope and let him run. Once he could not run, he would be dragged to death behind, and the Italian soldiers in the car would applaud loudly. Only when they arrived at the next rest stop would someone be so disgusted that they would throw the bodies of these poor British pilots who were dragged to a bloody mess on the roadside at will. Although the officers wanted to show their chivalry, the management of the troops during the retreat was chaotic, and they could not stop these desperate soldiers from venting, otherwise they would definitely be shot.

All Italian officers were powerless to do anything about this practice that was clearly contrary to the Geneva Convention. They could only turn a blind eye. In a short time, the bodies were either carried away and eaten by flying vultures or buried on the spot by the yellow sand. But this brutal act obviously did not scare the British. Their attacks became more fierce, as if they were desperate to delay the Italians' escape. Later, even British pilots probably knew about the Italians' behavior. After several planes were hit, the pilots did not choose to parachute, but directly chose to crash into the Italian convoy on the ground. If there were no trucks, it would be good to crash into a tank or even an armored vehicle.

The German fighter pilots who flew low also witnessed the miserable situation of their British counterparts on the ground. Now they deeply understood why General Garland told them not to try to deal with the British ground forces. Once they were shot down or forced to parachute, they would probably suffer such a terrible fate.

In such a battle, the "African Star" Marseille was like a fish in water and succeeded repeatedly. He was arrogant and still disdained to attack British bombers. He usually killed some of the fighters escorting the bombers first, and left the remaining clumsy bombers to the wingmen and other pilots. Whenever the yellow No. 14 plane appeared, the ground troops would cheer as if they saw a savior, and the enemy's air formation would always be in chaos. There was even one time when two "Hurricane" fighters turned in a panic to avoid Marseille swooping down from the sky, and ended up colliding with each other. With a "boom", the debris was scattered all over the ground, giving Marseille two victories for nothing. After two days of fighting, his personal victories have climbed to 178, getting closer and closer to the 200 mark he mentioned, and it seems that it will be completed before the end of the month.

Behind the Italians, the British 1st and 7th Armored Divisions under the unified command of Major General Horrocks were also gritting their teeth and chasing desperately. They had received battle reports from the rear, knew the tragic situation of the 10th Armored Division, and understood Montgomery's determination. They only hated that they were not fast enough.