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- The Chinese Army successfully drove the Americans away from Asia, while Germany and Italy also opened up the African battlefield.
Strictly speaking, the North African War officially began on December 9, 1940. In order to expand the territory of the Italian Empire in North Africa, Benito Mussolini sent troops from Libya to attack Egypt, but was met with a powerful counterattack by the British.
For a time, the Italian army in North Africa faced the danger of being completely annihilated, and its colonies in North Africa would also be lost. Hitler, who had until now stood aside, had to intervene to save his Italian allies from destruction.
Italy¡¯s defeat in North Africa directly threatened the security of Hitler¡¯s ¡°Fortress Europe¡±. Under this circumstance, Hitler believed that the time had come to send troops to North Africa.
In mid-February 1941, the first batch of German reinforcements arrived in Tripoli. This detachment is not very large. In fact, it only consists of one general and two staff officers.
"But that general's nickname is Erwin Rommel.
As the division commander of the famous German armored force "Ghost Division" during the Battle of Famu, Erwin. Rommel was a very resolute and decisive commander.
Initially, the main reason why the German High Command sent him to North Africa was to stabilize the battlefield situation and strengthen the Italian army's defense lines.
At that time, he only had the 5th Light Armored Division in his hands, and his strength was very limited. According to normal procedures, if he can continue to wait, he may obtain more resources to do more things. Moreover, before launching an attack, he must first wait for orders from his superiors before acting.
But Rommel was determined not to wait any longer. Within just a few days, he formulated a large-scale counterattack plan, which began a two-year battle between the German and Italian armies and the British and Commonwealth armies. Tug of war. The battlefield for the fierce competition between the two sides will be the Libyan desert, a place that has been vividly likened to "the tactician's paradise" and "the quartermaster's nightmare".
On March 24, despite the warnings and reminders of his superior commanders, Rommel commanded the 5th Light Armored Division to launch an attack from Tripoli to Ajdabiya and established a headquarters here on April 3.
Immediately afterwards, he put aside all the conventional war dogma and boldly divided the already very weak offensive force into three groups: the First Lutheran Army of Italy advanced eastward; the Second Lutheran Army was composed of the main force of the 5th Armored Division. , advancing towards Mejri; Rommel himself accompanied the armored cars and light vehicles of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion as they advanced north towards Suluk. When he heard that the British were evacuating Benghazi, Rommel ordered the troops to advance directly towards the port. There they received a hero's welcome. The people of Cyrenaica expressed a heartfelt joy at the arrival of the German Afrika Korps.
At this time, under Rommel's powerful command, the Germans, who had gained freedom of movement in the vast desert, continued to advance eastward. They gained a huge advantage in the number of soldiers, especially in morale.
The defeated British were forced to retreat, and were constantly bombarded by the Axis air force along the way. The latter had completely seized air supremacy.
By April 7, Rommel had captured Derna and isolated Mejri.
In addition, his reconnaissance troops have advanced eastward to the southern Tobruk area.
On the morning of April 8, Mejiri fell into the hands of the Germans. The German armored forces pursued the victory. The British troops completely collapsed, leaving behind a large number of tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, and the bodies of dead soldiers.
By April 9, Rommel¡¯s reconnaissance force had arrived at Bardi, only a few miles away from the Halfaiya Pass and Zalloum on the Egyptian border. Some of the surviving British troops struggled to cross the two mountain passes and return to the place where they had launched the attack four months earlier.
However, more British troops did not have such a good opportunity to escape, and they were surrounded by German troops.
Rommel's attack recovered all the lost territory of the Italian army. Under these circumstances he soon began discussing with his staff the capture of Egypt and the Suez Canal. But he had to consider Italy's reaction.
Under the command of Rommel, two Italian divisions, the Allete Armored Division and the Trieste Motorized Division, performed particularly well in combat. The remaining Italian troops had mediocre combat effectiveness and would fall apart once faced with strong pressure from their opponents.
However, Rommel organized them together with the German troops to perform combat missions in some key areas, so that they would also perform quite well! In order to consolidate and expand his achievements, Rommel first had to obtain sufficient reinforcements and supplies. He had to rely on Italian merchant ships to provide support.
However, he faced a very difficult problem.?: The British Royal Navy launched fierce and ruthless attacks on the Axis fleets from time to time, and the lines of communication on the Mediterranean had actually fallen into British hands. At that time, the cruisers and destroyer squadrons of the Royal Navy set out from Egypt and the submarine force set out from the island of Malta, which happened to block the throat of the Mediterranean route to North Africa via Italy. There was only one merchant ship left in the Italian merchant fleet, and the rest of the ships were buried on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
On April 10, 1941, Rommel's troops arrived at the Fortress of Tobruk and hastily organized an attack, but were repelled by the stationed Australian troops. Rommel's rapid offensive in North Africa attracted the attention of the German General Staff, who sent General Friedrich Paulus to investigate.
Not only was Paulus not moved by Rommel's performance, on the contrary, his report said that Rommel was "willful" and "disobedient".
At the same time, Paulus was very worried that the "minutical" battles on the North African battlefield would greatly consume Germany's strength, thus affecting the German offensive in other battlefields.
With the series of attacks launched by the British army, the debate about the German military's operational objectives in North Africa has temporarily come to an end.
In May 1941, General Wavell launched "Operation Blewett" and was later defeated. In June, the British army launched another offensive. This operation was code-named "Tomahawk" and was reinforced by nearly 300 new tanks from Britain.
The British tried to destroy Rommel's armored forces through tank warfare.
However, the Germans used their towed anti-tank artillery superbly, firing from well-enclosed positions, causing great damage to British tanks. Finally, the German armored forces broke out from the flanks, ending the battle cleanly. At that time, the 37mm caliber artillery equipped by the German Army was unable to penetrate infantry tanks such as the British "Matilda" and "Valentine", so the Luftwaffe's 88mm caliber anti-aircraft guns were cleverly used for anti-tank operations.
Ironically, the British also had a similar weapon at the time, a 93mm rapid anti-aircraft gun, but due to a lack of imagination and effective coordination between troops, they were ultimately unable to use it as freely as the Germans.
In the three-day Battle of Saloum, the German Afrika Korps demonstrated very superb command art and excellent staff capabilities.
On the contrary, the performance of the British is really unflattering. In view of this situation, high-level officials in London removed Wavell from his post and appointed General Auchinleck as the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, asking him to restart the offensive as soon as possible to rescue Tobruk, which was still surrounded by the Axis forces. At that time, both warring parties were sending additional troops to the North African battlefield. In comparison, the Germans were obviously unable to do so because the war to invade the Soviet Union had already begun. Faced with many difficulties, Rommel, who was in adversity, could only bite the bullet and continue to persevere, commanding his troops, which had been renamed "African Armored Group", to fight on. Tobruk is very critical: if this port can be captured, Rommel's supplies can be transported directly to the land behind the position, without having to set out from the port of Benghazi and travel hundreds of kilometers along the top coast before landing. . Through the hard work of codebreakers, the British understood Rommel's intentions for Tobruk and struck before Rommel launched his attack.
This is a sign that the attack is approaching. Rommel ignored this sign, however, and he also ignored the first reports of a major British attack.
In order to lift the German siege of Tobruk, the British 8th Army launched an offensive under the command of General Cunningham. The powerful British tank troops galloped across the desert, searching for and destroying German armored units.
On November 9, British tanks arrived at Sidi Rezaq Airport. Rommel was unwilling to give up his planned attack on Tobruk, so he fought fiercely with the British in the area around Sidi Raizaq. The fighting lasted until the 23rd.
Here, there is no real difference between the front line and the rear. The headquarters troops and supply convoys of both sides have been raided by the other side's tanks, and both sides have paid an extremely heavy price!
But they lack accurate grasp of the other party¡¯s losses. In such a battle, psychological advantage is a very important force.
On November 24, Rommel did not just focus on repelling the British attack. Instead, he commanded the troops to break into the rear of the British army, aiming directly at Egypt and the border.
This was an extremely bold move, but it failed to succeed and instead caused the German commander to lose contact with his headquarters for several days.
As for the British army, General Cunningham was dismissed by the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, General Auchinleck, due to his poor command of operations. Auchinleck sent his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ritchie, to serve as the commander of the 8th Army.
Rommel's assault failed to achieve the expected success, but was regarded by his staff as premature.
Finally, the German army gave up the siege of Tobruk and began to retreat! (To be continued
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Finally, the German army gave up the siege of Tobruk and began to retreat! (To be continued
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