The Chinese Army successfully drove the Americans away from Asia, while Germany and Italy also opened up the battlefield in Africa.
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 he encountered a powerful counterattack by the British.
Suddenly, 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 been sitting on the sidelines until now, 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 it was time to send troops to North Africa.
In mid-February 1941, the first batch of German reinforcements arrived in Tripoli. This detachment was not very large. In fact, it only consisted of one general and two staff officers.
But that general's nickname was 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 could continue to wait, it would be possible to obtain more resources to do more things. Moreover, before launching the attack,
First, you must wait for orders from your superiors before you can act.
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 described as "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.
They received a hero's welcome there. The people of Cyrenaica expressed a heartfelt joy for 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 superiority.
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 reached Bardi, only a few miles away from the Egyptian border at Halfaye Pass and Zalloum. Some surviving British troops tried their best to cross these two
Pass the mountain pass and return to the place where they started their attack 4 months ago.
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 territory lost by the Italian army. Under this circumstance, he quickly began to discuss with his staff about seizing Egypt and the Suez Canal. However, 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. The remaining Italian units had mediocre combat effectiveness and would fall apart once they faced strong pressure from their opponents.
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However, Rommel organized them together with the German troops and carried out combat missions in some key areas, so that they would perform quite well! In order to consolidate and expand his achievements, Rommel must first obtain sufficient reinforcements and reinforcements.
For supplies, he had to rely on Italian merchant ships to provide support.
However, he faced a very thorny 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 British Royal Navy cruisers
The destroyer squadron set out from Etienne, and the submarine force set out from the island of Malta, which just blocked the Mediterranean route from Italy to North Africa. 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.
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On April 10, 1941, Rommel's troops arrived at the stronghold of Tobruk and hastily organized an attack, but were repulsed by the stationed Australian troops. Rommel's rapid offensive in North Africa caused the German General Staff to
Concerned, General Friedrich Paulus was sent to investigate.
Not only was Paulus unmoved by Rommel's achievements, on the contrary, his report said that Rommel was "willful" and "disobedient".
At the same time, Paulus was very worried that the "minutical" fighting on the North African battlefield would greatly consume Germany's strength and thus affect the German offensive in other battlefields.
With the series of attacks launched by the British army, the debate over the objectives of the German army in North Africa came to an end for the time being.
In May 1941, General Wavell launched "Operation Blewett", which was later defeated. In June, the British army launched another offensive. This operation was codenamed "Tomahawk" and was reinforced by nearly 300 new tanks from Britain.
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The British attempted to destroy Rommel's armored forces through tank warfare.
However, the Germans used their towed anti-tank artillery superbly, shooting from a well-sealed position, causing great damage to the British tanks. In the end, the German armored forces broke out from the flanks and ended cleanly.
At that time, the 37mm caliber artillery equipped by the German Army could not penetrate the British infantry tanks such as "Matilda" and "Valentine", so the 88mm caliber anti-aircraft gun of the Luftwaffe was cleverly used for anti-tank.
Combat.
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 was really unflattering. In view of this situation, senior 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. He was asked to restart the offensive as soon as possible to rescue those who were still trapped.
Tobruk was 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 what they wanted, because the war to invade the Soviet Union had already begun. Faced with many difficulties,
In the face of adversity, Rommel could only bite the bullet and continue to persevere, commanding his troops that had been renamed "African Armored Group" to fight. Tobruk was very critical: if this port could be captured, Rommel's supplies would be able to
It was directly transported to the land behind the position, instead of starting from the port of Benghazi and driving hundreds of kilometers along the top coast before landing. Through the hard work of code breakers, the British gained insight into Rommel's plans for Tobruk.
An attempt was made to strike first before Rommel launched his attack.
This was a sign that an offensive was imminent. However, Rommel ignored this sign, and he also ignored the first reports that the British troops were launching a large-scale offensive.
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 to find and destroy 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 started a fierce fight with the British in the areas surrounding Sidi Rezaq.
, the battle continued 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!
However, they lack accurate grasp of the opponent'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, because of his incompetent 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.
In the end, the German army gave up the siege of Tobruk and began to retreat! (To be continued