The decisive battle against the Third Reich

But the British soldier ignored that there was a gap between the stones under the tank's tracks.

This gap is not conspicuous, and most people will not pay attention to this gap. However, Qin Chuan clearly saw the reloading action of the British mortarman on the other side of the gap in his six-fold scope, so one bullet left him forever. fell to the ground.

"Bang!" Qin Chuan fired another bullet.

It was a British sniper, and Qin Chuan believed that he was aiming at him... When he discovered this, Qin Chuan couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.

This British sniper was hiding behind a dry tree trunk. He was covered with an earthy yellow camouflage net, so he blended in with the trunk.

Qin Chuan had not noticed his existence until a bright light aroused his alert... It was the light reflected from the sniper scope when the sun shined on it, which meant that he had become the prey of the enemy's sniper.

So Qin Chuan didn't even think about it, he immediately raised the gun, adjusted its direction and pulled the trigger towards the bright light. He didn't even aim because he didn't have time to aim.

Qin Chuan did not see the target fall because a shell exploded nearby, and the smoke and mud raised by the explosion blocked Qin Chuan's sight.

But Qin Chuan knew that he had hit the target, otherwise he would be a dead man at this moment... The duel between snipers is often determined by one thought, or half a finger's distance, and who loses and who wins, and The losing side will never have a chance to come back.

The Germans quickly gained the upper hand in the battle.

This is not only because the German army caught the British army by surprise, but also because the German army occupied a favorable position... The German army was in a date palm forest, with tanks in front of it as shields and date palm trees for hiding, but the British army was in On the empty highway, their cars and tanks stood almost like targets in front of the German army.

If there was anything the British troops could hide in, it would be the stones set up along the roadside to serve as barriers.

But this is by no means a good bunker. It can indeed block bullets, but it cannot block artillery shells... The tank gun fired a shell with a "boom" and exploded on the stone guardrail. The guardrail immediately shattered like flour and then melted. Thousands of little "shrapnel" were fired at the British troops. The British troops hiding behind were either killed by artillery shells or by these "shrapnel".

In fact, if they were killed, they were lucky, but some people were not killed... After the war, Qin Chuan saw a British soldier covered in blood lying on the ground and groaning in pain. If he looked carefully, he had It was densely covered with gravels, even on his face, but perhaps because he was far away from the guardrail, these gravels were only on the surface and did not hurt his vitals.

This may be said to be lucky or unfortunate.

He is lucky because he can survive under such circumstances.

To say that he is unfortunate is because he has to endure all the pain and torture and taste the pain and fear of death carefully and bit by bit before he dies...

"Help me!" the British soldier said with difficulty, his eyes full of begging.

Qin Chuan shook his head feebly. Even if the medical soldiers were willing to treat him, they would be unable to do anything to the British soldier's injury.

The last glimmer of hope in the eyes of the British soldier quietly passed away. Then he reached out and grabbed the trousers of Qin Chuan who was about to leave, and said, "Kill me!"

Qin Chuan was stunned for a moment, then raised his gun and pointed it at the British soldier...he hesitated for a moment and then pulled the trigger with a bang.

The British soldier tilted his head, loosened his grip on Qin Chuan, and fell limply to the ground.

Qin Chuan didn't know what to think about this matter.

If there is mercy on the battlefield, this shot might be it!

The Germans lost a total of fifty-one tanks in this battle, of which thirty-two tanks were destroyed by British bombers and fighter jets, and the other nineteen tanks were blown up while attacking the Corniche.

From this aspect, the performance of the British army was actually good, and they were able to cause considerable losses to the German army under such circumstances.

But this is also because the British army has an advantage in air power.

The casualties of the British army were huge. On the coastal road, the stretch of several kilometers was littered with the wreckage of British tanks, armored vehicles, and cars. There were hundreds of them at random.

Despite this, this battle failed to completely wipe out the British 15th Armored Division. Almost half of their tanks and troops fled back to Matruh when the situation was bad.

However, the Germans got what they wanted, which was to surround the British 15th Armored Division and the New Zealand 2nd Division in Matruh.

"Celebrate our victory!" In the Mengma command car, General Strike raised his glass and said to the officers and Qin Chuan: "Africa will soon belong to us!"

Qin Chuan understood what General Strike meant.

Although the results of this battle in Matruh were not ideal compared with previous battles, the 21st Armored Division lost more than fifty tanks and achieved the result of destroying more than one hundred enemy tanks... This was compared with the previous battle loss of one to twenty. The difference is too big.

but……

Victory in this battle was of strategic significance.

First of all, Matruh has abundant fresh water resources and food. Occupying it means that the German army at least no longer has to worry about water, which is absolutely gratifying in the desert.

Secondly, the tanks of the British 15th Armored Division are the last batch of tanks that the Germans are afraid of...at least the Germans think so. In fact, not all of the British 15th Armored Division is in Matruh, it has an armored regiment. He took eighty "Valentin" tanks to reinforce the Gabushali defense line and then pursued the 21st Armored Division.

Of course, they failed to catch up, so they were transferred back to El Alamein by General Auchinleck.

Therefore, the British army's strength in El Alamein is not weak to be honest. The British army has nearly 300 "Stuarts" (including the remaining tanks of the 7th Armored Division), 80 "Valentines" and more than 30 A "Matilda".

This number is still much greater than the number of German tanks.

It's just that the German army didn't know this at this time... In terms of intelligence, the German army and the British army were completely out of proportion. The British army could monitor and decipher almost all of the German army's telegrams, including even the telegrams of Rommel and Hitler, but the German army could only Overhear a few words or ask something from the prisoner's mouth.

But in fact, the information obtained from interrogating the prisoners was very limited, because the situation of the British army at this time can not be described as "chaotic"... Tanks were constantly being transported from the direction of India, and they were put into the battlefield as soon as they arrived.

So how many tanks were destroyed, how many tanks were put into use, how many tanks were lost in the desert, or how many tanks broke down, etc. These are all bad debts. Sometimes even senior British military officers do not know , not to mention British soldiers.