The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The benefits of making your own Molotov cocktail are obvious.

First of all, its raw materials are easy to obtain, such as gasoline, glass bottles and rags... cars are easy to obtain. Most of the tanks in this era have gasoline engines, which is what the British army is most in need of. There are indeed few glass bottles in the desert. Libyans and Egyptians generally use clay pots as containers, but the British army enjoys it. There are bars for officers in cities or ports, so wine bottles are not difficult to find; needless to say, rags are not suitable for military uniforms. Just pull off a piece of cloth.

The effect of the Molotov cocktail made in this way is no worse than the so-called No. 76 Molotov cocktail of the British Army, and there is no danger of transportation and storage... This can also be seen to what extent the British military industry was out of touch with reality at this time.

But the preparations of the New Zealand 2nd Division did not come in handy. The 21st Armored Division just fired a false shot in front of them, then turned a corner and went straight to the rear of Matruh.

Of course General Strike would do this. His target was never the enemy's infantry. The focus of desert warfare was tanks, tanks, tanks...

This is also the strength of mechanized troops. They can always use their high-speed mobility to mobilize the enemy and spin them around.

On the other side, the New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division could only look at the "tanks" and sigh. It had nothing to do with this turn of the German armored divisions... The infantry divisions could not keep up with the armored divisions and would never be able to block their way, and if so If done, Matruh's flank would be exposed to the enemy again, and the enemy armored division could turn around and break through from the flank.

So Major General Albert, the commander of the New Zealand 2nd Division, could only report to Auchinleck: "General, they have sent the message, and the target should be the Esplanade!"

The Corniche is a road that runs along the Mediterranean coast built by the British when they colonized Egypt. Its purpose was to enhance the transportation links between coastal towns and ports... Small-scale or prosperous towns in North Africa are either close to the sea or It is easy to understand that it is close to the river, because only places close to the sea and rivers can have fresh water, and people with fresh water can gather and survive.

Matruh is a port city by the sea, and olives and other crops are abundant nearby, so of course a road must be built to facilitate transportation.

After hearing Albert's report, General Auchinleck hurriedly ordered: "Order the armored division to stay where it is!"

After a pause, he yelled at the staff officer: "What about the interception by the Air Force? The Germans are all in front of us, but our planes haven't even seen a shadow!"

"Two minutes, General!" the staff officer replied, "They're on their way!"

The 21st Armored Division soon received an air defense alert.

"There is a group of aircraft flying in your direction!" General Strike received a report from the Air Force Command: "There are about seventy aircraft of various types!"

"Stop them!" said General Strike.

"We can't do it!" the Air Force Command responded: "Our aircraft are covering the attack of the frontal troops..."

"Then shut your mouth!" General Strike said and hung up the phone.

If the Air Force is powerless, then there is not much difference between knowing and not knowing, because the result is the same...all have to withstand bombing from the air.

"Enemy air strikes, speed up!" General Strike ordered.

This is the only thing the convoy can do in the face of enemy aerial bombardment.

Everyone knew what they were about to face, so the atmosphere suddenly became tense, especially the recruits. They held the rifles tightly in their hands, their knuckles turned white, and big beads of sweat oozed from their foreheads, running down their faces. The pale face flows down...

"Relax!" Yacop comforted them: "Our driver is very experienced. He has driven this car to escape countless enemy bombings, and this time will be no exception!"

This is obviously another beautiful lie... The driver was randomly assigned. Jacop did not know him at all, and of course it was impossible to know how many bombings he had experienced.

After a pause, Yacop added: "You are not allowed to jump out of the car unless you receive an order. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

…

This order is necessary, because as a car, it obviously has a larger target. Jumping out of the car may avoid the risk of being killed... to be precise, it reduces the chance of death, because even if the British pilot discovers As an infantryman, they would not waste bullets and bombs on a small soldier in front of so many cars and tanks.

but……

This is almost equivalent to deserting, because he can no longer keep up with the fast-moving convoy and participate in the battle.

"Get ready!" Kuhn said.

Only then did Qin Chuan notice a faint "rumbling" sound in the sky. It was not obvious among the sounds of gunfire and had to be listened carefully to detect.

The tense atmosphere in the carriage escalated to a higher level. Even Qin Chuan and other veterans couldn't help but look upward.

A few seconds later, the whistling sound of an aircraft diving was heard in the sky... It was a "Mosquito" aircraft. They always used dive bombing to improve the accuracy of bombing.

Of course, this does not mean that they are "dive bombers". "Dive bombers" refer to bombers that dive at a target at an angle of 45 degrees to 90 degrees at high speed and drop bombs, such as the German Stuka.

The "Mosquito" aircraft cannot dive at such a large angle, and it does not have a device that emits a howling sound (nicknamed "Jerigo") installed on the nose of the aircraft in order to increase the intimidation power like the "Stuka". Horn", later models were canceled in order to increase the speed).

But the sound of the "mosquito" swooping down is still enough to make everyone tremble, because they don't know whether they have been selected as an attack target by these aerial "monsters".

Then there was only a "boom" sound, and a "No. 3" tank driving behind was blown into a ball of flames. At the same time, there was a projection of an airplane passing in front of everyone, just like in a fairy tale. The fire-breathing dragon made everyone shiver.

Soon, explosions started to sound one after another, mixed with the whistling sound of bombs falling from the sky and the "squeaking" sound of machine guns firing.

Tanks are obviously the first choice for British fighter planes, but cars are often "disastered" because they are too fragile:

When a bomb came down, it missed the tank but made a big hole in the ground. The car behind it that couldn't avoid it rushed up and immediately flipped over.

A round of bullets came down, but failed to penetrate the tank armor but penetrated the driver's cab of the car on one side. The high-speed car immediately lost its direction and collided with the tank coming up from behind...