Chapter 167: Estrangement

The 21st Armored Division arrived at a position 20 kilometers west of the Alamein Line in the evening of the next day, and then stopped.

If they went any further, they would be within the range of the enemy's artillery, which meant the beginning of the battle, and the German soldiers needed to rest... They had not rested for two consecutive days and nights, and before that, the soldiers had almost been marching and fighting. They needed time to recover some combat effectiveness instead of just crashing into the enemy's guns and cannons.

General Strike took this time to call Qin Chuan to the command vehicle.

"Look at this!" General Stryk spread out the map in front of Qin Chuan, Colonel Stein and other officers, and said: "Although we have arrived at El Alamein, the situation is not optimistic. According to the intelligence we have reconnaissance... The British 13th Army is stationed in the northern section of the El Alamein line of defense, and its main force is the Indian 4th Division. The 30th Army is stationed in the southern section of the line of defense, and its main force is the Australian 6th Infantry Division."

"At least their forces are relatively scattered!" Colonel Slaine said: "They have a 55-kilometer-long line of defense, and they dare not easily reinforce!"

"Yes!" General Stryk said: "But there is no good news other than this!"

"We should launch an attack immediately!" Colonel Olbridge said: "The enemy's line of defense is not stable enough. As long as the Air Force can suppress the enemy's artillery and protect air safety, our tanks can break through the enemy's line of defense!"

"That's the problem, Colonel!" General Stryk pointed to the map and said: "We can't get enough air cover!"

"Hasn't the 27th Fighter Wing already been fully stationed in Africa?" Colonel Slaine asked.

"Yes!" General Stryk replied, "The problem is that our attack speed is too fast, so that the air force is far behind us!"

Colonel Olbrich and others couldn't help but laugh proudly, although they didn't quite understand what General Stryk meant.

Then General Stryk explained, "The 27th Fighter Wing is located in Tobruk, and they have about 70 fighters and 50 bombers. If you can get full cover from these fighters and bombers, it is not impossible to break through the enemy's defense line..."

At this point, Stryk pointed to the map and continued, "But the problem is that Tobruk is about 600 kilometers away from us, and our fighters only have a range of 700 kilometers!"

The officers couldn't help but say "Oh".

Although BF109 has various advantages, its range has always been its shortcoming, which directly affected the effect of Germany's bombing of the British mainland... Because of the insufficient range, the BF109 escorting the bombers had to turn back halfway, and the British fighters took this opportunity to massacre the German bombers without fighter escort.

Just like now, Tobruk is 600 kilometers away from the Alamein Line, while the range of BF109 is 700 kilometers, which means that the fighter can fly to Alamein to fight but cannot fly back.

"So!" Strike continued, "General Rommel needs to build a temporary airport in Matruh. Matruh is only 200 kilometers away from us, which can meet our needs... Fighters and bombers can land in Matruh to refuel, and then fly over Alamein to provide us with cover. The problem is that the temporary airport in Matruh can only accommodate 30 aircraft at most, and we don’t have enough fuel!"

This should be said to be the fault of the Italians... Logistics is the responsibility of the Italians.

If the Italians tried their best, there is nothing wrong with it.

But the Italians care more about the pain... Simply put, they will be nervous when the enemy hits their doorstep. If they know that the enemy is far away from the Alamein Line, they will be careless.

You should know that Tobruk is only 400 kilometers away from Matruh, and there is a road connecting them... When the British army occupied Tobruk, they built a road between the two places.

In addition, the German Air Force stationed in Tobruk can protect the safety of the transportation line. It is not a big problem for cars to drive 200 kilometers a day and night. A large amount of fuel can be transported to Tobruk in two days.

But even if Rommel personally organized and urged them constantly, the Italian transport team still rested on the road while moving forward, and only traveled 100 kilometers a day and night.

Once Rommel took his plane to check the situation, but found that the Italian soldiers below parked their cars on the beach, lit a bonfire, grilled food, sang and danced, which made Rommel very angry.

Later, Rommel realized that there was a reason why the Italian army behaved like this...

The British are conservative and traditional in some aspects, but very shrewd in some aspects.

At this critical moment, the British used a divisive tactic: they spread rumors through underground organizations that there was a lot of wealth in Cairo. If the Germans were allowed to break through the El Alamein Line and then occupy Cairo, then all the wealth would belong to the Germans, and the Italians would get nothing.

Most of this was true. For example, as the capital of Egypt, Cairo did have a lot of wealth. It was even called the City of Gold because of its developed gold jewelry trade.

In addition, the Germans did walk ahead of the Italian army, and they were running all the way without stopping... It really looked like they were in a hurry to grab gold.

So the Italian soldiers believed it, and even Admiral Garibaldi was affected. He hoped that the Germans would let the Italian army follow up and attack together... In this way, Italy could share the glory of marching into Cairo.

Then there was this ridiculous scene. No matter how Rommel urged them, the Italians were just wasting time. Even the tankers that could have been unloaded at Matruh chose to go to Tobruk.

"So, how many fighters can we get to cover us!" Colonel Olbrich asked with a frown.

"At most 60 at a time!" General Stryker replied: "And the fuel is only enough for them to go out three times!"

Olbrich shook his head helplessly. You know, the British have at least 500 fighters and bombers, while the Germans have only 60... only one-ninth, and they can only go out three times.

On the contrary, the British airport is in Alexandria, which is only 75 kilometers away from the Alamein defense line. Its fighters can easily and quickly travel back and forth between Alexandria and Alamein to replenish fuel and ammunition... With this increase and decrease, its combat effectiveness is not just a matter of nine times.

"So!" Colonel Slain said, "We can only launch the attack at night!"

"Yes!" General Strike nodded, "In fact... General Rommel has already made a battle plan!"