Chapter 119 American Tanks

In fact, before this, German reconnaissance planes had already discovered British tanks driving at night, but Rommel did not take it seriously.

The reason was that Rommel did not know that the British obtained supplies and tanks from the United States and that the United States happened to have a large number of strategic materials in India. He also thought that the British had to go around the Cape of Good Hope from the British mainland to get supplies, so he took it for granted that the British army's supply was more difficult than the German army. The conclusion drawn from this was that the British army could not organize a large-scale counterattack in a short period of time... Especially now that Rommel still had the "No. 3" with a 2-caliber tank gun, this made Rommel underestimate the enemy.

"Those should be enemy reconnaissance vehicles!" Rommel said.

"General!" The staff officer said: "The Air Force is very sure that they found tanks, and there are quite a few of them, because they fired flares and found that the British hurriedly covered up..."

"So... how do you think we should deal with it?" Rommel interrupted the staff officer.

"I think we should send the 21st Armored to the right wing!" The staff officer replied.

"No!" Rommel refused without thinking: "We can't expose our strength too early!"

What Rommel meant by "exposing our strength too early" was the new "Type 3" equipped with a 50MM caliber tank gun.

Although Rommel made a wrong judgment, the result was right.

Because if the 21st Armored Division was sent to the right wing according to the staff's advice, it would run into the British 30th Army head-on, which means that the German army would have to use 150 tanks against the British 430 tanks... Although the German new "Type 3" does have an advantage, even against the American "Stuart", the British army's absolute advantage in the number of tanks, anti-tank guns and air power can still crush the German army.

Until a German listening squad got lost in the dust... The so-called listening squad is a unit that listens to enemy telegraph signals. They often drive a communication vehicle to change positions in the desert to obtain more signals from the enemy's direction.

As a result, they found a group of British tanks passing by, at least dozens of them, followed by a large number of cars and armored vehicles... This scared them a lot, and they hurriedly reported what they saw to Rommel.

Rommel realized the seriousness of the problem at this time, because the location reported by the listening team was already within the German defense line, and so many tanks and vehicles were obviously not just British reconnaissance as he had guessed before.

So...

"Assemble!" When Qin Chuan and others were still sleeping in the tent, a hurried whistle came from outside.

The soldiers did not hesitate, and crawled out of the marching blanket and skillfully sorted out their equipment... Although it was dark at this time, and no one turned on the flashlight or made a fire, the soldiers still quickly completed the preparations and ran out of the tent to line up.

This is the performance of a well-trained army. All their things are placed in the right place before going to bed, such as backpacks on the right hand side, rifles on the left hand side, boots next to the right foot... This allows them to prepare everything with their eyes closed without looking at it, and nothing is missing.

Things seemed urgent. Just as the soldiers lined up, cars drove in front of the team. The headlights were covered by the wind and sand and became less dazzling. In the light, you can see the dust particles flying like fog.

"Get in the car!" With Kuhn's order, the soldiers lined up and climbed into the car one by one.

When the car started, Werner yawned and asked Kuhn: "Lieutenant, are the British looking for trouble?"

"It seems that we didn't beat them enough last time!" Yakop said.

"The British have crossed our defense line!" Kuhn said: "They took advantage of the wind..."

As he said that, Kuhn raised his head towards the wind and sand outside the car: "With the cover of the night, they successfully avoided our reconnaissance!"

"This is not good news!" said the baker.

"So what?" Werner replied disdainfully: "Our tanks have been replaced with 50MM caliber artillery, and we have anti-tank guns... We will give them a good show!"

"Don't be too optimistic, Werner!" Kuhn replied: "Our people found that they have a lot of tanks, and there are American tanks among them!"

"American tanks?" The soldiers were stunned when they heard this.

After a long while, Werner cursed: "Damn Americans!"

Qin Chuan knew what Werner meant by this sentence... At this time, the United States had not yet joined the war, and it should have stood in the middle and not helped anyone, but they "rented" a large number of weapons and equipment to Germany's enemies. What's the difference between this and joining the war?

But Germany was helpless in this situation. Did it protest to the United States? Or threaten the United States that if it did this again, it would beat the United States together?

Germany already had too many enemies.

Then there was a silence in the carriage. Compared with the bad news that the British army had crossed the German defense line, the knowledge that the British had used American tanks made the German soldiers more depressed. This depression was not only because of the American tanks themselves, but also because the soldiers were keenly aware that it might not be long before the United States joined the war. Some soldiers even worried whether the German army could win the final victory if they continued to fight like this.

The car drove forward in a dull manner. Some soldiers even fell asleep in the shaking carriage... Of course, those who could sleep were all veterans. The new recruits held their rifles nervously, always worried that danger would suddenly come.

Originally, Qin Chuan thought that the recruits' worries were unnecessary, because the 21st Armored Division was still far away from the position where the British right wing penetrated, and the cars could not move forward at full speed in the wind, sand and darkness, and it would take at least several hours before they could meet the enemy. meet.

But unexpectedly, Qin Chuan guessed wrong this time.

Just when Qin Chuan, like the other veterans, was drowsy and trying to catch up on some sleep, the sound of artillery suddenly came from ahead.

No one knew what happened, and Kuhn also looked confused.

"Maybe there was a misfire!" Kuhn said, "Or there was an accident!"

But it was soon discovered that this was not the case, because the sound of cannons rang out one after another, and the sound of cannons was also mixed with fierce gunshots, which was obviously an exchange of fire with the leading troops and the enemy.

Then a shell exploded near the car with a whistling sound from far away. Kuhn was more sure that he had encountered an enemy, so he hurriedly shouted: "Get out of the car and get ready for battle!"

The soldiers jumped out of the car as quickly as possible. The driver turned off the lights immediately in order not to become the enemy's target. Then everything was pitch black. Everyone could only judge the enemy's strength from the sound of gunfire and the light from the shells. Generous location.