Five Hundred and Seventy-Five Gunfire

In order to capture Tobruk, Rommel used a very clumsy old method, which was to use large-caliber artillery to attack the solid fortress defense system. However, in North Africa, due to transportation and technical problems, it is difficult for both sides to use cannons with a caliber of more than 300 mm, and there are not even many artillery with a caliber of more than 200 mm.

It is obviously unrealistic to secretly transport large-caliber artillery to a barren place like Africa, so Rommel naturally thought of the Italian naval fleet with a large number of large-caliber artillery. So a report on the use of the navy to support the army's operations was sent to Africa and Berlin, and a plan called "Large Lightning" in the Supreme Command was freshly released.

This plan is to mobilize three old Italian battleships to conduct an artillery support operation on the Tobruk area. But when the Italians got the artillery support plan, Mussolini immediately ordered the navy to gather all the forces it could find. The entire Italian Navy is holding back a bad breath, so this time they plan to prove themselves.

So in addition to the battleships that suffered heavy losses in the South Atlantic, Italy found all kinds of combat ships they could find. Some old-fashioned battleships that were originally unavailable were more than enough for land support, so the Italian Navy matched the old and new and came up with a super luxurious lineup of 4 battleships.

As for why a French battleship appeared here, it was entirely because of another accident. Originally, Charles de Gaulle's French government-in-exile did not want to stay under the umbrella of others, but several overseas colonies were turned upside down by the attacks of the Axis powers, so Charles de Gaulle took a fancy to the North African region where France was relatively powerful, and intervened in the French Somalia region without hesitation. contention.

At this time, the United Kingdom actually supported the French government-in-exile to increase its power in Africa, so it adopted a tacit attitude towards the interference of the French government-in-exile in French Somalia. His own navy joined the Italian fleet to retaliate against the British and the de Gaulle government supported by the British.

This time, the Vichy government of France had a painful experience, so it sent the battleship Kuber. Although this old battleship is not suitable for high-intensity naval battles, it has five twin-mounted artillery structures on the side. Support is simply a terrible killer.

Such a huge fleet has not yet been fully formed, because the flagship of the French fleet, the Richelieu, is on the way with the newly repaired Dunkirk. If you count these two battleships, the axis There are as many as seven battleships assembled by the National Group in the waters near Tobruk, and there will be more than 50 large-caliber artillery pieces at that time. The test of the entire Tobruk defense line will be unprecedented.

The Italian and French navies participating in the war off the coast of Tobruk were different from the last time they helped Germany land in the UK. At that time, the navies of the two sides had no experience in cooperation, and both were under pressure from the German army, so they had no choice but to send troops to deal with the errand. Therefore, the naval artillery support of the German landing in the UK was very messy.

So this time is different from last time,

The Italian navy is eager to prove its presence in the Mediterranean, and is desperately preparing to show its strength. The French Navy came here for revenge, and it was even more attentive than before. Therefore, the performance of the two sides in Tobruk was much better than that in the British waters. Dozens of cannons fired violently, blasting the British positions upside down.

The Italians have the design drawings of Tobruk, which, although very sloppy and unprofessional, are still a very important reference document. Some firepower points and trenches can be reinforced and transformed, but some important defensive facilities cannot be removed. For example, areas such as ammunition depots and large barracks are definitely important targets worth bombing even if they do not have the original design functions.

According to the memory of the Italians and the reconnaissance photos of the German Air Force reconnaissance plane, Rommel confirmed most of the military facilities and some hidden important targets. This time, with the support of the navy's giant artillery, he calmly cleared the known enemy gathering areas bit by bit.

"Cavour! Your shell missed the target. Correct it 17 meters to the south! Yes! Correct it to the south!" A German gunnery sergeant with his face attached to the scissor mirror was guiding the Italian battleship. The artillery was shooting corrections. With the help of these observation posts, the Italians found that their artillery could actually be described as accurate.

After a long wait, finally, the next round of fire from the battleship Cavour hit the position of the British defenders. A machine gun bunker that looked very strong was hit by a large-caliber shell, and the entire top was blown off. After getting up, the surrounding reinforced concrete fortifications were completely destroyed due to the huge shaking, and there were many corpses of British soldiers lying around.

"Beautiful! Cavour! You hit the target! The opponent was completely destroyed! Now, readjust the artillery angle, coordinates, 53, 77! Fire!..." One after another, the British positions were visited by large-caliber artillery, The whole morning passed quickly, and the British found that the German army did not storm the defense lines in any area, but most of these defense lines had been destroyed by artillery and turned into a pile of ruins.

In another time and space, several elements that defeated Rommel, the desert fox, have now turned into the desert fox's winning cards. This has to be said to be a very interesting thing. The British Mediterranean Fleet was transferred due to the defeat of the homeland, which led to the control of the entire Mediterranean Sea by the Italian Navy, which made Montgomery lose the favorable condition of naval artillery support; at the same time, the loss of Malta allowed Rommel to obtain more materials than the British army in North Africa. .

In his previous life, Rommel, who was short of supplies, had to give up many of the fruits of victory due to logistical pressure. Now the German Afrika Korps, which is relatively more abundant in supplies, showed its sharp fangs to the British.

Rommel was able to launch a series of dazzling offensive operations when the supplies were insufficient, so don't doubt Rommel's determination to attack when the strength in his hand is greatly increased. As soon as the number of his tanks exceeded the threshold of 1,000, he did not hesitate to give Generals Frederick and Garibaldi the order to re-encircle Tobruk and start attacking.

Of course, there is another important reason for him to launch an attack immediately: the head of state has instructed the Supreme Command to send a newly formed K-group army to the front line in North Africa to ensure the decisive victory of the Axis powers in North Africa before the end of 1940 . The goals of this victory included advancing troops into Egypt, occupying Cairo, and controlling the Suez Canal, extending the Axis hand to the Middle East.

It's no wonder that Akado is so anxious to win a German colony in North Africa. In fact, the main reason is that Akado must fulfill part of his promise to the entire Jewish consortium. After all, the Jews also wanted a result, and they didn't support Akado's wanton squandering of their funds for no reason.

After analyzing with Augustus and others, Akado decisively decided to set aside an area in the Middle East and hand it over to the future "Israel".

This is also one of Akado's plans to disrupt the Middle East. It is absolutely impossible for the world's most important oil producing area to be controlled by a country in the future. Therefore, the more chaotic the situation here, the better. The more chaotic, the more harmful it is to the Germans. In the future, it will be beneficial to install one's own forces in the Middle East.

Coupled with the consideration of the German high-level decision to give the United States a warning, so this time Accador instructed Rommel to attack Tobruk, which can be said to be to a certain extent the right time and place and the next powerful offensive supported by all parties .

"Boom!" Another shell fell on the position of the British defenders. This time the shell hit an important ammunition storage warehouse built underground. Although more than half of the ammunition inside had been emptied by the British, the rest The place was used as a storage warehouse for sundries, but this shell blew up the entire warehouse, which still made the British feel distressed. There are 40,000 soldiers' clothing, 3,000 steel helmets, and many soldiers' tent quilts. Anyone who changes them will feel distressed for a while.

"Hello? I'm the front-line command, yes! The German offensive is still going on. The opponent's naval artillery is too powerful. We have already lost the first-line defensive position, and the opponent is infiltrating into our second-line defensive position." In the front-line command , a division commander in British India was reporting the situation on the battlefield to the core Tobruk General Headquarters.

Because in the previous German attack, a high ground was lost near here, so the German observation post could unscrupulously observe the deployment of the British army's position and guide its own artillery strikes.

"There is no better solution. The most deadly thing now is the German artillery observation post. Stand firm. When the opponent's planes cannot take off and bomb at night, let's organize a counterattack and take back the high ground." In the headquarters, the commander of Tobruk The officer had just received an order from Montgomery to stand guard for 13 days. Without any extra troops, he had no choice but to hope to counterattack such routine things at night.

The division commander of the British Indian Army also knows that in this state, there is really no good way to deal with the Germans: if they attack now, with the help of superior artillery fire and tanks, the German army can obviously easily repel the British troops , This is also the result that the German army most hopes to see-the opponent comes out to counterattack the superior armored forces of the German army.

"We have to wait until night." Sighing, the commander of the British Indian Division said helplessly.