The decisive battle against the Third Reich

It is not the style of the British army to operate in the dark, because the British army has never been good at fighting at night.

But it is precisely this that better reflects General Auchinleck's way of using troops...Compared with other step-by-step British generals, General Auchinleck prefers surprises, just like when he sent a commando to assassinate Rommel. .

General Auchinleck divided the British army into two parts, the 13th Army and the 30th Army under the Eighth Army.

The backbone of the 13th Army is the British 15th Armored Division, supplemented by the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Indian 4th Division.

This army is equipped with all "Matilda" tanks. Its main task is to attract German troops and firepower on the frontal defense line and prepare for a pincer attack on the German army.

This can also be regarded as General Auchinleck's understanding of the "Matilda". He knew that this kind of tank with high failure rate and slow speed was not suitable for penetration operations at all, so he let it use heavy armor and artillery fire on the frontal defense line. Provide cover for infantry attacks.

The 30th Army is composed of the British 7th Armored Division as its backbone, supplemented by the South African 1st Infantry Division and the Australian 6th Division.

It can be seen from the composition of this force alone that the 30th Army is the main force of the "Crusader" plan.

The British 7th Armored Division, known as the Desert Rats, had previously repelled the Italian army with the strength of one armored division. Although it suffered repeated defeats in subsequent battles with the Germans, it finally had a fighting chance.

The South African 1st Infantry Division was just transferred from South Africa by General Auchinleck. Although the combat effectiveness of this unit is unflattering, its rich experience in desert marching, combat and survival can make up for the British to a certain extent. The military lacks experience in desert operations.

Needless to say, the Australian 6th Infantry Division has shown stronger combat effectiveness than the British army in previous battlefields, causing considerable casualties to the Germans in the defensive battles in cities such as Aghdabia.

It is worth mentioning that... In addition to the 130 "Valentin" tanks with a much smaller failure rate, the British 7th Armored Division also fully equipped with American "Stuart" tanks, and there are 300 of them. So many.

General Auchinleck's idea was simple, which was to use the 30th Army to cross the German defense line from the south and then fight the Germans in a battle between armored forces and armored forces.

The "crossing over" mentioned here is because General Auchinleck did not want the enemy and us to meet at a flanking position like Wavell's "Operation Tomahawk".

Because it is obvious that this is not conducive to the deployment of the British army and prevents the British army from giving full play to its advantages in strength and number of tanks... Just like last time, the two armored regiments of the 7th Armored Division went up in batches to allow the Germans to annihilate them.

General Auchinleck would not make the same mistake again, so he planned to have the 30th Army cross the defense line before the Germans noticed it and spread out its troops in the vast desert on the German side, build a defense line, and prepare for battle.

In this way, any German armored units that come to challenge the battle will be surrounded and annihilated by the British army, which has an absolute advantage in strength and tanks.

General Auchinleck was very successful at this point. His method was to have his troops move day and night and maintain electronic silence... They used canvas and terrain to avoid the reconnaissance of German aircraft during the day, and at night they used slow and careful side maneuvers. Advance while scouting.

For this reason, General Auchinleck even did enough weather intelligence work. He knew that the desert would be windy during this period, and the wind would bring sand and dust, which would become a good camouflage for the 30th Army.

General Auchinleck was right. A few days later, the 30th Army successfully crossed the German defense lines without the Germans noticing at all.

If the battle starts like this, then the British army should not be surprised to win. The reason is that the British army is quite well prepared, especially the equipment is several times more than the German army:

The total number of British tanks is 700, and there are also 200 "Stuart" tanks on their way from India to Egypt.

Although the total number of tanks of the German and Italian armies is quite large, 414, 154 of them are Italian M13 tanks that are of no use, and only 260 are German Panzer III and a small number of Panzer IV tanks. , there are still 50 tanks under maintenance...Tanks need regular maintenance, whether it is combat or daily training.

To make matters worse, most of the German air power was concentrated on bombing the island of Malta. There were only 120 aircraft in North Africa, while the British army had as many as 500.

Not to mention anything else, the British Army's 30th Army, which just crossed the German defense line, has 430 tanks, which is almost twice the number of all tanks that the German Army can mobilize. In addition, the British Army also has air superiority and the South African 1st Division, The 6th Austrian Division carried a large number of anti-tank guns, etc. They were fully capable of defeating any German unit that came to join the battle or stood in front of them.

The problem is that the "crossover" operation of "Operation Crusader" was too successful. The success was beyond the expectations of everyone in the British army, including General Auchinleck himself... The entire 30th Army crossed the German defense line without being discovered by the enemy!

So Auchinleck became a little distraught.

"General!" After the 30th Army was ready, the staff asked Auchinleck: "What should we do? Deliberate exposure to attract the Germans?"

Because the Germans did not know that the 30th Army had crossed the German defense line, they did not react until now.

After thinking about it, General Auchinleck replied: "No, this is a good opportunity for us. I want to give those Germans more surprises!"

This is indeed an opportunity.

But things often have two sides. The other side of opportunity may be crisis or mistake...

Then, in order to give the Germans more surprises, General Auchinleck divided the 30th Army into three parts: the main 7th Armored Brigade led a section of the Australian 6th Infantry Division to conduct a deep attack on the German flank and rear. Interspersed, the purpose is to cut off the retreat of the German and Italian troops and surround them.

The 4th Armored Brigade was divided into two parts as a regiment: one part attacked the Italian troops stationed in Tobruk, and the other part went around to the side of the German Halfa Pass defense line.

General Auchinleck had a good idea. Attacking the Italian troops stationed in Tobruk would prevent them from reinforcing the Halfa Pass defense line, and attacking the side and rear of the Halfa Pass defense line would put the German defense line in a flanking attack by the British. , the result was that the German army quickly collapsed, allowing the frontal attacking British 13th Army to break through the Halfa Pass and press the border with the army.

It is conceivable that if the war situation develops according to General Auchinleck's vision, the German and Italian troops will be surrounded by British troops in Tobruk, and there will be no other way but to jump into the sea to escape.

However, accidents will always happen on the battlefield, especially when the British army is composed of colonial armies from several countries. It is difficult for them to coordinate effectively with each other.