The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Eisenhower took the photo and looked at it, then shook his head and said, "I don't see anything wrong!"

“Look carefully at the lower left corner of it!” Montgomery prompted.

"Oh!" Then Eisenhower understood: "It burned through the wooden planks and exposed half of the tires. This is a fake tank!"

"Yes, a fake tank!" Montgomery showed off the photo Eisenhower brought: "So..."

There is no need to say anything else. The Germans often play such fake tricks. Rommel played it once in Tripoli, and Qinchuan played it once in Sidi Omar and Matruh.

"But why did they do that?" Eisenhower asked.

"The purpose of the Germans is obvious!" Montgomery replied: "They are buying time so that we will mistakenly think that their main force is in Enna and launch an attack on it, so the Germans will have time to retreat from the Strait of Messina."

Eisenhower couldn't help but nodded in agreement, and at the same time felt a little embarrassed that he had been fooled by the Germans.

"Stupid Germans!" Montgomery said: "They thought I would be fooled! Their behavior just exposed their trump card...The German armored division is undoubtedly in Messina!"

It makes sense for Montgomery to think so, because if the Germans wanted to escape from Sicily, there was only one way through the Strait of Messina:

The port of Syracuse has been occupied by the British army, and the port of Palermo has been blocked by Allied air power. There is only one port left, Messina, which is close to Italy and has a large throughput (Messina port has a throughput of 4,000 to 5,000 tons, several times that of the Port of Syracuse), there is no problem in withdrawing an armored division in a short time.

Therefore, Montgomery immediately ordered the British Eighth Army to speed up the attack and must capture the Port of Messina before the German armored divisions escaped, or at least leave half of the German armored divisions on Sicily.

Therefore, the British Eighth Army continued to advance towards the port of Messina even at night.

What Montgomery didn't expect was that the German army's intention was not to retreat at all, but to attack.

Among them, only Patton was sensitive enough to realize that things would not be that simple, but he could not convince Eisenhower and Montgomery. If he said a few more words... they would even think that Patton was excusing the incompetence of the 1st Infantry Division.

"Go to hell!" Patton cursed while holding a cigarette: "This idiot Montgomery will kill us!"

"General!" the staff officer asked Patton: "Do you think the main force of the Germans is in Enna?"

"Of course!" Patton replied: "I know those bastards in the 1st Infantry Division. They may often disobey orders, but they are just a bunch of hooligans, understand? Although I dare not say that they can defeat the Germans who are like killing machines. , but they can definitely crush the 3rd Infantry Division. Now... the 3rd Infantry Division is progressing smoothly, but the 1st Infantry Division is struggling. What do you think this means, not to mention that the pilots still found tanks there? ! Panzer IV!”

"But they said the tank was fake and a decoy!"

"Of course Montgomery would say that!" Patton responded angrily: "He only thinks about how to let the British and himself take advantage! And he is also a 'military genius' in the eyes of the British. He will never Admit that you are a fool!"

"Then what should we do?" the staff officer asked.

Patton gritted his teeth and said, "I'm going to chew down this Enna Heights and go over to see if it's a fake German tank!"

So, that night, Patton organized landing craft overnight to transport fuel and ammunition, and stayed up late to unload ten tanks in the direction of the port at the risk of being bombed, and all of them were "Sherman" tanks.

Patton thought to himself that even if the Germans had an armored division, these sixty "Sherman" tanks would be enough to hold off the Germans for a while.

Rommel on the other side called Qin Chuan: "Good advice, Captain, we seem to have deceived the enemy!"

"What does it seem to mean, general?" Qin Chuan asked doubtfully.

"Because I'm not sure!" Rommel replied: "The enemy's reaction was very strange. The British accelerated their attack in the direction of Messina, which shows that they have been fooled. But the Americans... they pulled up the tank and A line of defense was built in front of us.”

"This is not surprising, general!" Qin Chuan said: "This shows that the British believe it, but the Americans do not!"

Qin Chuan knew that General Patton must have played a role in this.

Patton is similar to Rommel in some aspects. He is a general who will be on the front line personally. He will even board a tank to clear the way for the entire army. As a result, the tank overturned on the side of the road. General Patton was hit with a bruised nose and face but did not care. , still waving his arms and holding a cigar at an angle, using vulgar swear words to order the soldiers to move forward.

This does not mean that a general must be on the front line in person, but if a general is completely separated from the battlefield, he will lose some of his ability to perceive the battlefield. For example, Barton can sense the danger from Enna, although he doesn't know what the danger is.

"No matter what!" Rommel said: "Although it is a little troublesome, the plan remains unchanged!"

However, this was not a small trouble, because at dawn the next day, the German army discovered that the Americans had occupied the opposite high ground and formed a confrontation with Enna Heights, while tanks blocked the road at the foot of the mountain.

Although Patton was careless, he was unambiguous in fighting the war. He occupied the high ground and blocked the road with tanks to prevent the German counterattack. On this basis, it would be much safer for him to consider launching an attack on the Enna Highlands.

So starting from the next morning, the US military launched a fierce attack on the Enna Highlands.

This time the 1st Infantry Division was different from before. They had sufficient artillery support, and there were twenty "Sherman" tanks specially assigned to them for coordinated attacks, as well as US bombers.

Then there was a barrage of bombings in darkness. The artillery shells exploded over the high ground for fifty minutes. The bombers also dropped bombs one after another on the reverse slopes that were difficult to reach by artillery fire. In a short time, the entire Enna Highlands were bombed. It became a bare mountain of mud.

Then, under the cover of tank and mortar fire, U.S. soldiers rushed like ants toward the Onna Heights.

"Go forward, boys!" Major General Allen stood behind the tank and waved: "Go and seize this damn high ground from me. Enna is ours!"

Major General Allen and all U.S. soldiers believed that under such intense bombing by the U.S. military, it was impossible for there to be any survivors in Enna Heights.