For Chen Mo, he had indeed suppressed his own strength enough to achieve a "fair" duel with Rommel as much as possible.
But in Rommel's view, this battle was simply unwinnable.
Because the equipment gap between the two armies is really too big.
Just taking tanks as an example, Rommel's twelve divisions were equipped with more than 500 tanks, which was not less than the number of tanks of the Egyptian armored divisions, and was even much more.
However, tanks produced in Italy and early models produced in Germany cannot even penetrate the armor of Egyptian tanks, let alone fight head-on with Egyptian tanks.
Only the Panzer IV and the latest model Panzer V can pose a certain threat to the Egyptian tanks. Among them, the Panzer IV can only cause damage to the sides of the Egyptian tanks, and the frontal armor is only the 75mm main body of the Panzer V.
Only a cannon can chew it.
After all, the equipment provided by Chen Mo to the Egyptian armored division has dual defenses of sloped armor and composite armor. The 75mm main gun of the Panzer V tank can usually only penetrate the frontal armor of the Egyptian tank when it is lucky. If it is not, it can penetrate the frontal armor of the Egyptian tank.
A good shell will be bounced away directly.
If Italy hadn't been so badly beaten by Egyptian tanks when it invaded Ethiopia, the German military strongly demanded a new tank that could fight against Egyptian tanks, forcing several military factories to join forces to come up with a new design. I'm afraid
Now the situation Rommel faced would be even worse.
It's just that the new tank lacks composite armor technology. Although it also adopts a sloped armor design to greatly improve the tank's defensive capabilities, even the Panzer V tank, which is specially designed to deal with Egyptian tanks, cannot be one-to-one with Egyptian tanks.
Usually the German army needs at least two Panzer V tanks, or one Panzer V tank and two Panzer IV tanks to fight against one Egyptian tank, and during the battle, the German tanks are often damaged or destroyed, resulting in an extremely high exchange ratio.
Ugly.
As for other types of tanks, they were all lost at the beginning of the battle.
This was undoubtedly very bad news for Rommel.
In desert operations, mobility is the most important guarantee of victory.
If mobility is lost, it will be quite fatal for troops fighting in the desert.
Not to mention what a terrible situation it is for soldiers to march in the desert on their own feet. Just because they lose mobility and cannot mobilize troops in time, the possible delay of fighter planes is enough to determine the outcome of a war.
But if that's all, Rommel can still handle it.
The gap in equipment did make the battle situation unfavorable, but after several tests, Rommel could see that the commander on the opposite side was a complete novice.
Not only did he have little experience in commanding operations, but he also made several mistakes that he shouldn't have made.
If such a person was under his command, he would not let him command any troops under any circumstances.
At least they have to be put into the army for a few years to gain experience, and after they have accumulated enough experience, they will be given the responsibility to command a small army to gain experience.
However, it was such a guy who was very poor at Rommel's tactics that made him tired of dealing with it. He even had no good way to prevent the opponent from winning and gaining the honor of defeating him.
Because although the opponent's tactical level is quite poor, it is precisely because of this that the tactics adopted by the opponent are also quite simple, with only one move - a whole-army assault.
This is the simplest tactic and the easiest order to give on the battlefield, because you only need to shout and the troops can rush forward. As for the subsequent command micro-management? It does not exist, that can only be played by a master tactician. operation.
This is the most brainless tactic, and it is also the easiest and hardest to crack.
It's easy because you only need to block the enemy's attack, and the tactic will be broken naturally.
It is said to be the most difficult because when the enemy's strength is far greater than yours, it is undoubtedly the most difficult to block the enemy's attack.
This not only tests the troops' tactical literacy, but also tests the soldiers' fighting will.
Not every soldier can maintain a tenacious will to fight in the face of powerful enemies and arduous battles with no hope in sight.
Although the German army is one of the strongest forces in this era, and it also possesses a very tenacious fighting will, Rommel could only watch the areas he deployed on the map being broken, and the Egyptian army was crushing his own side with an unstoppable force. come over.
Upright and impeccable.
If the opponent was not a complete novice, very immature in command, and often failed to make timely adjustments to the troops, resulting in missing many valuable fighter opportunities, I am afraid that the current situation of the German army would be even worse.
But this also gave Rommel an opportunity, because the opponent was a novice, so some tactics that lured the enemy deeper would not be so easy to see through.
Although this method of luring the enemy deep may become a breakthrough for the enemy, or the pocket formation may be directly breached, Rommel, who had no other choice, decided to give it a try.
After all, if it is just such a rigid defense, failure will only be a matter of time.
So Rommel took out the four German divisions in his hands and placed them behind the defense line, and filled the eight Italian divisions on the front, and then deliberately placed the division with the worst combat ability among the Egyptian troops. 's front.
Obviously, Rommel planned to sacrifice this Italian division to make the commander on the opposite side feel that he had broken through the line of defense. Then, after breaking through the Italian division's line of defense, he plunged into a trap composed of four German divisions.
As long as he could knock off the spearhead of the Egyptian attack, Rommel felt that the battle could still be fought.
Rommel's order was quickly implemented.
If it were a worse general, executing such an order to change defenses might become an opportunity for the enemy to attack, but for Rommel, this was not a problem.
Especially since he was facing a novice commander, he was confident enough that there would be no problems with this level of troop defense changes.
The four German divisions were soon replaced by Italian divisions to resist the Egyptian attack. After a short rest, the withdrawn German divisions set up a pocket formation behind the frontal defense line.
The combat capabilities and fighting will of the Italian divisions are obviously not comparable to those of the German divisions. Although the Italians who have lost their homeland are still strong in fighting will, the quality of their own troops is not good. Even if they are commanded by a famous general like Rommel, they can only be regarded as good. It's just a useful front line filler.
Slightly faster than Rommel expected, the two Italian divisions on the frontal defense line were defeated, and the defense line was broken through as planned.
