Chapter 197 General Grant Style

Nothing changed on the first day, and nothing happened on the second day either.

On the third day, Major General Gro, the commander of the 15th Armored Division of Germany, ordered to slow down the march and contacted the aerial reconnaissance planes to conduct intensive reconnaissance.

The reason was simple. The calmness on the first and second days was too abnormal. Not only did the British army not send out the "Stuart" to harass, but they did not even encounter a reconnaissance unit.

What's more, the 15th Armored Division had advanced more than 200 kilometers for two consecutive days, while the Italian 132nd Armored Division was far behind by 50 kilometers because of its insufficient speed... This was the result of Rommel's repeated urging.

Major General Gro thought that they should be doubly careful now, because the British would not let them drive straight to Port Said, which was the last port left for the British.

But soon, Major General Gro received a telegram from the signalman.

The telegram was sent by Rommel, and it said: "I am right above you, why slow down?"

"General!" Major General Gro replied: "This is abnormal. The British have air superiority. They could have bombed us with fighter planes when we were marching, or harassed us with "Stuart", but they did nothing. It's like they want us to approach Port Said..."

"We have discussed it!" Rommel said: "The British are taking the time to rest. Their troops just fled back to Port Said two days ago!"

What Rommel said made sense. All the units of the British Eighth Army were severely beaten by the Germans: the 7th Armored Division, the 15th Armored Division, the 6th Infantry Division of Australia, the 2nd Infantry Division of New Zealand, the 4th Infantry Division of India, etc., not to mention the 1st Division of South Africa and the African Army... The Germans were too lazy to discuss these units.

Therefore, the British army needed to reintegrate these almost scattered units to form a force that could resist the German attack.

But Major General Gro still thought something was wrong, because it had nothing to do with the British Air Force. Although the German army strengthened its air power and achieved some victories in the air, it never gained air superiority.

"Speed ​​up the march!" Rommel ordered: "So that we can rush to Port Said in the evening and launch an attack!"

"Yes, General!" Major General Gro responded helplessly and ordered the troops to speed up.

Rommel was like this. He would never consider how tired the soldiers were, nor how many uncertain factors there were in the middle. He only considered one thing... disrupting all the enemy's deployments at the fastest speed.

At this time, a burst of machine gun sound came from the sky. Major General Gro looked up and saw that there were several more Hurricane fighters in the sky. They were driving away German reconnaissance planes.

This may be a normal phenomenon, because the German army had already approached Port Said within a hundred kilometers at this time, and the British army would certainly not let the German reconnaissance planes conduct reconnaissance unscrupulously.

But Major General Gro felt that this was unusual... This was an indescribable feeling. If there was any explanation, it was the sixth sense.

Rommel was not at the front line, but he could be said to be at the front line. He was just observing from the air, and he saw an empty space in front of him. So he naturally thought there was no danger.

But this time the British army successfully deceived Rommel.

The British army used the same method as the German army...covering with khaki canvas, it was difficult to find anything wrong from the air.

Then, a rumbling sound of artillery suddenly sounded on the ground, and a team of scouts was bombarded when crossing a hill.

Rommel looked down from the air with a telescope, and then said to the driver: "Notify the ground troops that there is a team of enemy anti-tank guns hidden in front, destroy them!"

"Yes, General!"

Rommel took it for granted that those were anti-tank guns, and there was only a small team... Facts proved that his judgment was wrong.

Major General Gro used a few minutes to deploy the front team into a battle formation. The infantry jumped off the car and followed the tank, and then slowly advanced to the hills in front.

But when the "Type 3" tank emerged, they suddenly realized that what stood in front of them was not an anti-tank gun, nor a few tanks, but a long row of tanks that could hardly be seen at the end, tanks they had never seen before.

"Damn it!" The tank commander shouted into the walkie-talkie: "They are tanks, new tanks! Back off..."

But it was too late to back off at this time. With a few "booms" of gunfire, the "Type 3" tanks at the front were blown into a ball of fire.

"What's going on?" Rommel looked down in surprise, and then he realized the seriousness of the problem... The British tanks had removed their camouflage and started their engines. In an instant, the entire desert was boiling, with exhaust gas and dust raised by the tanks when they started.

"God!" Rommel looked at the monster-like group of tanks below and said in surprise: "The sergeant is right. The British have obtained new tanks and put them into actual combat!"

These tanks are indeed new tanks.

The Americans called it the M3 medium tank, and the British thought that the name with only a number was easy to confuse, so they named it the "General Grant" tank.

The British approach was in line with the needs of the battlefield, while the Americans had no experience in the war, so most of the names they gave to tanks were very similar and difficult to distinguish, such as M2 light, M2 medium, M3 light, M3 medium, etc.

This name is undoubtedly asking for trouble on the battlefield. If the signalman only shouted "M2" or "M3", or the sound of artillery fire covered "light" or "medium", the receiver would not know which tank was referred to.

If it were someone else, they would most likely order a retreat in this situation.

But Rommel was not someone else. He hesitated for only a few seconds, and then said to the driver: "Tell them that there are about 80 new enemy tanks ahead, destroy them!"

The driver opened his mouth in surprise, but still passed the order on.

Rommel was right. In a tank-to-tank duel, unless it was a tank like the "Stuart" that was much faster than the "No. 3", there was no point in running away, because that would expose the weak rear armor to the enemy's guns.

Rather than doing that, it would be better to fight the enemy head-on.

Even if you know nothing about the performance of the enemy's new tanks, even if the number is far less than the enemy, even if you still have fear of the enemy's new equipment in your heart... but at least you can kill a few tanks and die for a good cause.

Major General Gro also knew this, so he shouted into the walkie-talkie: "Enemy armored forces ahead, prepare for battle!"

"Prepare for battle!"

...

The order was passed down one by one.

It was time to verify the quality of the German army.