Chapter 21 Bluffing

After the British escaped from Agdabia, the Germans received an order to rest.

The German officers and soldiers were a little surprised by this, because the British were already in disarray at this time, and it was a good time to chase them. Why did they stop and let the British escape from the Germans' sight? !

More importantly, this was not Rommel's usual style.

This is indeed not Rommel's style. This is a joint order from the heads of Germany and Italy, namely Hitler and Mussolini. They were both frightened by Rommel's bold move... The British were deceived by Rommel's bluff and thought that Rommel had landed with a large number of German troops, tanks and armored vehicles, but Hitler and Mussolini knew very well that Rommel had only one division of German troops with less than 20,000 people. Although the Italian army had 80,000 people, they were all remnants of the British army who were chased back from Egypt. They could only serve as a foil at most, that is, the German army charged in front and the Italian army followed behind to take over the towns occupied by the German army.

What particularly worried Hitler was that Rommel had less than 100 tanks, and some of these 100 tanks had been lost on the front line, and some had just arrived in Tripoli.

The Italian army had more than 400 tanks, but most of them were old M13 and M15 tanks with poor performance. These tanks were almost targets in front of British tanks and anti-tank guns.

On the other hand, the British army had more than 150,000 people, 1,114 tanks, 1,000 artillery pieces and 1,500 aircraft...

Hitler knew very well that Rommel was taking a risky advance. As long as the British knew Rommel's strengths and concentrated their forces to turn around and strike back, Rommel would definitely lose.

And this defeat would probably make the German and Italian armies completely lose their foothold in North Africa.

Therefore, Hitler strictly ordered Rommel's troops to stop. If the British army wanted to retreat, they could let them retreat. The German army took this opportunity to build fortifications and accumulate strength. After more than a month, the 15th Armored Division would arrive as scheduled, and it would not be too late to advance in the direction of the British army at that time.

But Rommel had always ignored Hitler's orders... Rommel had served as the captain of the Fuhrer's headquarters beside Hitler, so he knew Hitler's character very well. He knew that what Hitler wanted was victory, and as long as he could win on the battlefield, even if it went against his will, he would eventually get honor and rewards.

Rommel was unwilling to give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which was like being in front of a table of delicious food but only being able to smell it but not touch it.

So Rommel commanded the troops all the way forward.

Until Rommel's boss, General Garibaldi, appeared in Rommel's command... In fact, Garibaldi was only Rommel's nominal boss. Hitler was willing to give the command to the Italians, just considering that the Italians might be more familiar with the desert battlefield and also needed to use Italian troops and logistical supplies. Rommel, who was arrogant and invincible on the battlefield, did not take Garibaldi, who had been defeated repeatedly, seriously.

"We must stop the attack!" Garibaldi almost roared at Rommel: "You have no idea how dangerous our situation is. Our army is very tired, our supplies are very short, our preparations are not sufficient, and our ammunition is only enough for two days!"

"The British are not as fragile as they appear. They may have designed a trap waiting for us! Can't you see it? They want us to attack and use this method to stretch our logistics supply line, and then launch a counterattack when the time is right! We were defeated before!"

...

Rommel quietly watched the Italian admiral roaring in front of him, his fat face flushed with anger like a balloon about to explode.

"Did you hear what I said?" Seeing that Rommel didn't care, Garibaldi asked dissatisfiedly.

"Of course, General Garibaldi!" Rommel replied, "I'm listening!"

"Then follow my orders!" Garibaldi stared at Rommel. He was very dissatisfied with this arrogant German general who did not obey his orders. If he had not saved himself and the Italian army in a crisis, he believed that he would have proposed to replace this guy who did not understand military discipline.

"I have stopped the attack!" Rommel replied, "My troops are in Agdabia, and they are not pursuing us anymore!"

"But..." Garibaldi was speechless after hearing this.

God, Agdabia is hundreds of kilometers away from the first "stop attack" order issued by Garibaldi.

After thinking for a while, Garibaldi slowed down his tone and said to Rommel: "General, I hope you can face this problem. The logistics problem determines that we can't move forward. It will overwhelm our troops. Now, we should garrison in Agdabia. Do you agree?"

Rommel did not answer Garibaldi. He just took a sip of coffee, and his head was still thinking about how to attack. He stopped in Agdabia not because of any order, not because of Mussolini or Garibaldi... He could ignore Hitler's orders, so why would he care about what others said? !

The reason why Rommel stopped the attack was just because of the problem of logistics supply. Without ammunition and supplies, the German army could not fight... and logistics supply required Garibaldi's cooperation. After all, the Italian army was a grain transport team.

So... how can we convince this old-fashioned, timid and short-sighted Italian general in front of us?

At this time, a signalman came in and handed Rommel a telegram, saying: "General, an order from the Berlin Supreme Command!"

Rommel took the telegram and looked at it, then grinned.

"General Garibaldi!" Rommel raised the telegram in his hand and said proudly: "Berlin gives me complete freedom of action!"

"What?" Garibaldi was stunned when he heard it, then sighed and said: "Okay, General! But I have to declare that if my army loses, I will not be responsible for it!"

"Of course!" Rommel nodded: "I will say that it was all my own will!"

Garibaldi did not expect that Berlin's order was just the opposite. Hitler made severe criticisms of Rommel in the telegram and insisted that Rommel stop advancing and cooperate with the Italian army to build a line of defense.

Rommel cleverly deceived Garibaldi and got tens of thousands of Italian troops to cooperate with his offensive plan...even though the Italian troops' cooperation was not willing.