The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The 21st Armored Division arrived at a position 20 kilometers west of the Alamein line on the evening of the next day and then stopped.

Going further will enter the range of the enemy's artillery, which means the battle begins, but the German soldiers need to rest... They have not rested for two days and two nights in a row, and before that the soldiers were almost marching In a war, they need time to recover a little combat effectiveness instead of just crashing into the enemy's muzzles and muzzles.

General Strike took advantage of this time to call Qin Chuan to the command vehicle.

"Look at this!" General Strike spread out the map in front of Qin Chuan, Colonel Stern and other officers, and said, "Although we have arrived at Alamein, the situation is not optimistic. According to the intelligence we have detected... The British 13th Army is stationed in the northern section of the Alamein line of defense, and its main force is the Indian 4th Division. The 30th Army is stationed in the southern section of the defense line, and its main force is the Australian 6th Infantry Division."

"At least their forces are relatively dispersed!" Colonel Slain said: "They have a 55-kilometer-long defense line, and they don't dare to reinforce easily!"

"Yes!" said General Strike, "but there is no good news other than that!"

"We should launch an attack immediately!" Colonel Olbridge said: "The enemy's defense line is not strong enough. As long as the air force can suppress the enemy's artillery and protect air security, our tanks can break through the enemy's defense line!"

"That's the problem, Colonel!" General Strike pointed at the map and said, "We can't get enough air cover!"

"Isn't the 27th Fighter Wing already fully stationed in Africa?" Colonel Slain asked.

"Yes!" General Strike replied: "The problem is that our attack speed is so fast that the air force is far behind us!"

Colonel Albridge and others couldn't help but laugh proudly, although they didn't quite understand what General Strike meant.

Then General Strike explained: "The 27th Fighter Wing is located in Tobruk. They have about 70 fighters and 50 bombers. If they can get the full cover of these fighters and bombers, it will not be difficult to break through the enemy's defense line. impossible……"

At this point, Strike pointed to the map and continued: "But the problem is, Tobruk is about 600 kilometers away from us, and our fighter jets only have a range of 700 kilometers!"

The officers couldn't help but say "oh".

Although the BF109 has various advantages, its range has always been its shortcoming, which directly affected the effectiveness of Germany's bombing of the British mainland... Because of the insufficient range, the BF109 escorting the bombers could only turn back halfway, and the British fighter planes took this It was time to massacre German bombers without fighter escort.

Just like now, it is 600 kilometers from Tobruk to the Alamein defense line, but the BF109 has a range of 700 kilometers, which means that the fighter jets can fly to Alamein to fight, but they cannot fly back.

"So!" Strike continued: "General Rommel needed to build a temporary airport in Matruh. Matruh is only 200 kilometers away from us. This could originally meet our needs... Fighters and bombers can fly in Matruh Lu landed to replenish fuel, and then flew to El Alamein to provide us with cover. The problem is that the temporary airport in Matruh can only accommodate up to thirty aircraft, and we don’t have enough fuel!”

This should be said to be the fault of the Italians...the Italians are responsible for the logistics.

If the Italians try their best, there's nothing wrong with that.

But what the Italians care more about is the pain of their skin... To put it simply, they will only become nervous when the enemy hits their doorstep. If they know that the enemy is far away from the Alamein line of defense, then they will be careless.

You must know that Tobruk is only 400 kilometers away from Matrouh, and there is a road connecting it... When the British army occupied Tobruk, they built the road between the two places.

In addition, the German Air Force stationed in Tobruk can protect the safety of transportation lines. It is not a big problem for cars to drive 200 kilometers day and night. A large amount of fuel supplies can be transported to Tobruk in two days.

But even with constant urging from Rommel's personal organization, the Italian transport team still moved forward while resting on the road, covering only one hundred kilometers in a day and night.

Rommel once took his plane to check the situation, only to find that the Italian soldiers below had parked their cars on the beach, lit a bonfire, grilled food, sang and danced, which only made Rommel half angry.

Later, Rommel learned that there was actually a reason why the Italian army behaved like this...

The British are conservative and traditional in some aspects, but very shrewd in others.

The British used a divisive tactic at this critical moment: they spread the word through underground organizations that Cairo had a lot of wealth. If the Germans were allowed to break through the Alamein line first and then occupy Cairo, then the wealth would all belong to Germany. The Italians get nothing.

Most of this is true. For example, Cairo, the capital of Egypt, does have a lot of wealth. It is even called the City of Gold because of its developed gold jewelry trade.

In addition, the Germans were indeed ahead of the Italian army, and they were running non-stop... It really looked like they were rushing to grab gold.

So the Italian soldiers believed it, and even General Garibald was affected. He hoped that the German army would let the Italian army follow the attack... This way, Italy could share the glory of marching into Cairo.

Then there was this ridiculous scene. No matter how much Rommel urged, the Italians just kept trying. Even oil tankers that could clearly go to Matruh to unload their cargo had to go to Tobruk.

"So, how many fighter planes can we get for cover?" Colonel Olbridge asked with a frown.

"A maximum of sixty at a time!" General Strike replied: "And the fuel is only enough for them to dispatch three times at the moment!"

Albridge shook his head helplessly. You must know that the British have more than 500 fighters and bombers, while the Germans only have a meager 60... only one-ninth, and they can only be dispatched three times.

On the contrary, the British army's airport is in Alexandria. Alexandria is only 75 kilometers away from the Alamein defense line. Its fighter planes can easily and quickly go back and forth between Alexandria and Alamein to replenish fuel and ammunition... Under the ebb and flow of one another, its combat effectiveness will not be the same. It’s just a matter of nine times more.

"So!" Colonel Slain said: "We can only attack at night!"

"Yes!" General Strike nodded: "In fact... General Rommel has already formulated a battle plan!"