Take Taobao to fight against Japan

At this time, the Allied pilots were naturally not polite. They pressed the nose of the plane to start the dive bombing mode, and aimed at the fleet on the sea to drop bombs.

The Italian transport fleet, which was suddenly attacked, naturally would not sit still. In addition to continuing to travel at full speed, the anti-aircraft weapons on each ship were fully fired, and anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns fired a series of dazzling bullets.

Facing the dense anti-aircraft firepower, the Allied pilots were not afraid, and continued to dive down rapidly. When they reached the best projection angle, they suddenly pressed the throwing switch.

Immediately afterwards, heavy aerial bombs slammed into the Italian transport fleet with fierce roars.

Boom boom boom, after a while, clusters of flames shot up into the sky on the hulls of the ships and the sea, and the earth-shattering explosions were even more deafening!

Five Italian transport ships exploded violently one after another, igniting raging flames, especially the tanker full of fuel burning soaring into the sky, like a fire in winter, dispelling the darkness, shining Brighten up a huge area.

Taking advantage of his illness to kill him, after a successful blow, the Allied pilots were not polite. Instead, they all dived and bombed back and forth continuously, until they dropped all the bombs they carried on the enemy ships.

Although the lethality of aerial bombs on ships is not as simple and crude as torpedoes, and they can even penetrate the soul in one shot, but there is a good saying that if you talk about toxicity regardless of dose, you are playing hooligans.

After the number of aerial bombs increases, they can still cause devastating damage to ships, and it is completely possible to directly sink these small-tonnage transport ships.

After an almost crazy saturation bombing, the five Italian transport ships suffered a fatal blow without any suspense, and turned into burning fireships.

"Haha, well done! Return immediately!"

"Ooh, Ness!"

"Successfully call it a day!"

After the bomb was still lighted, the Allied pilots circled in the air, admiring their masterpiece, and then turned the nose of the plane and returned to the flight with satisfaction.

Chapter 1441 The Desperate Desert Fox

On the morning of May 5, the Axis Allied Forces Command.

"What? The oil tanker and the supply ship were all sunk? And it was the bomber group dispatched from Malta Island?"

When receiving the telegram, Rommel actually stared at the telegram for half an hour, and his face became more ugly than ever.

In the end, Rommel's adjutants even worried that their commander could not bear the pressure and pulled out his pistol to kill himself.

Sure enough, as the old saying goes, "Fortunate times never come together, misfortunes never come singly." Ever since Yang Fan led the Chinese Expeditionary Force to the North African battlefield, the Axis troops have not had a good life.

From the beginning of the overall dominance, the whole of Egypt could be conquered with just one kick, and then gradually lost the control of the sea and the air. The Axis powers can be said to have bad news one after another, and the situation is getting worse day by day. .

In the face of Yang Fan's extremely insignificant defense and the strategy and tactics of using hard power to fight consumption, Rao Rommel is resourceful and can be called a master tactician. In the past few months, he has really been tortured without any temper.

Now something more heart-wrenching has happened. Malta Island has quietly built an airport again, and Malta's air force has become active again.

Once the heart of the Mediterranean starts beating, the Axis African Army's maritime supply line may be completely cut off.

Meneki, who was standing aside, frowned and said, "Now we're in big trouble, we're running out of oil and food, especially the oil is only enough for four days.

If we can't get the fuel supply as soon as possible, and don't need the Allies to attack, we will have to collapse first.All aircraft tank armored vehicles will be turned into toys. "

At present, the North African Axis army still has millions of troops and a huge armor group, and the daily consumption of food and drink is an astronomical figure.

The food is better. After all, Libya is in the hands of Italy, which can solve some problems to some extent.

But the shortage of fuel is a very fatal problem.

In fact, Libya has extremely rich reserves of oil and gas resources, among which oil reserves are about 430 billion barrels, the largest in Africa; proven natural gas reserves are 1.54 trillion cubic meters, ranking fourth in Africa.

Moreover, Libya's oil reserves are shallow and the quality is particularly good.

If Libya's oil field resources can be discovered earlier, I am afraid that the Second World War or another version.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

At this moment, Rommel couldn't help coughing violently, and his face became very pale.

"Your Excellency, are you all right?"

Seeing that Rommel was coughing so badly, Menecki quickly picked up a glass of water and handed it to Rommel.

"I'm fine! Cough cough cough,..."

Rommel wanted to be strong, but his throat was so itchy that he couldn't control his cough at all, even after drinking several mouthfuls of water.

The long-term military life in the desert made Rommel physically and mentally exhausted for a long time. Now he has suffered from various diseases such as hypotension, dysentery and gastrointestinal diseases, so that he is bedridden most of the time.

For this situation, the German military doctor has repeatedly recommended that Rommel return to China for treatment.

In fact, not only Rommel was plagued by illness, but many German and Italian officers and soldiers of the Axis army were like this, and many senior German generals died of illness one after another, or had to return home for recuperation.

Conversely, the situation of the Allied Forces is much better, not only because the medicines and supplies are very powerful, but more importantly, there is a "secret magic weapon".

And this "secret magic weapon" is that the Allied Army has a very strict sanitation system, which strictly stipulates that when going to the toilet, it is necessary to dig a deep pit, and even specially made a "toilet" with a cloth cover.

In this way, flies will not be attracted by the exposure of feces to the air, and more flies will be bred in large numbers, which will turn the entire military camp into a paradise for flies.

In addition, the food of the German and Italian troops is very simple, basically eating canned food, the meat is not lacking in nutrition, but basically it is difficult to eat vegetables.

Everyone on the earth knows that if you don’t eat vegetables for a long time, you will lack certain nutrients, such as vitamin C, carotene, cellulose, and iron, which are not conducive to the normal development of the human body, and can also lead to various diseases such as anemia or peripheral neuropathy, such as Bleeding gums, decreased resistance, etc.

In addition, the blood transfusion conditions of the German and Italian troops were very primitive and crude. There could only be someone drawing blood while someone was receiving blood transfusion. Unlike the Allied Army, which had special blood transfusion kits, it could quickly and timely carry out blood transfusion rescue for the wounded.

Bleeding is the most common injury on the battlefield. The simple and inefficient blood transfusion conditions of the Axis army not only caused many wounded soldiers to die due to excessive blood loss, but the physical condition of those soldiers who donated blood became even worse.

Therefore, combining various factors, both the health and morale of the Axis army have been greatly affected, and they have long been worse than before.

But in this extremely difficult situation, the island of Malta showed its ferocious fangs and started to make troubles.

The supply line, which was already very difficult, has suffered the final fatal blow and is very likely to be completely cut off. This is undoubtedly news that makes Rommel deeply desperate!

"You go out first, let me have a good time!"

After thinking for a long time, he couldn't figure it out, but became more and more upset. Rommel could only push back the crowd to calm himself down.

After everyone left the tent, Rommel immediately took out a pen and paper and began to write a letter to his wife:

"Dearest Lucy, I am beginning to feel hopeless, and I am very tired by day, and at night I lie with my eyes open, and the weight on my shoulders keeps me awake.

What if something goes wrong here.Thoughts like this torment me day and night, and I can't think of any solution if it comes true.

The only solution currently in front of us is to greatly enhance the air force of the African Legion and regain air supremacy, but it is clear that the head of state's goal at the moment is Volgograd, the Soviet Union, and he will not agree to this request! ..."

Rommel loved his wife deeply, and he liked to write letters to share with his wife, whether it was the joy of success or the pain of failure.

What is different from a few months ago is that there is no joy to share in the recent letters home, but only endless troubles and anxieties, even despair!

"Good job! Now I want to see how Rommel makes a comeback!"

After receiving the relevant information, Yang Fan burst into laughter. After so many months of painstaking efforts, he was finally able to use two prongs to completely strangle the supply line of the African Legion.

"However, this is not enough, we still need to burn up the fire!"

After pondering for a moment, Yang Fan pointed to the southern attacking troops on the sand table, and said: "Send a telegram to General Patton, asking them to continue to strengthen their offensive on the Trial Ridge, and make a gesture of outflanking and breaking through in depth.

I want the Axis Armored Forces to move as far south as possible to consume as much fuel as possible! "

Chapter 1442 Thompson's Sentry

After sunrise, the Allied air force began to launch a large-scale bombardment of the southern defense line of the Axis army, and then the artillery unit also joined in. Hundreds of cannons continued to shell the Axis positions for more than two hours.

After the bombing ended, the U.S. Sixth Army and the British 6th Army began to attack the German 13th Armored Army and the Italian Rio Armored Division stationed on the Tria Ridge defense line.

After a bloody battle, the U.S. Sixth Army and the British 6th Army successfully advanced to the Tria Ridge, but the Axis soldiers were also protected by trenches dug in advance.

The Axis armies resisted tenaciously depending on the heights, and the artillery of the German and Italian armies played a huge role. The Allied forces were unable to attack for a long time, and the battle entered a stalemate.

Despite repeated fire support from Allied air forces, the battle continued until 4:[-] p.m. with little progress.

In the evening, the armored forces of the Axis army set out from the Tria Ridge to attack the Allied armored forces. The first tank battle in the Battle of Matruh began.

The two sides invested a total of more than 1100 tanks. At night, half of the tanks were destroyed, and the two sides were still in a stalemate.

Fighting continued until early the next morning, when the German 15th Panzer Corps and the Italian Litterio Armored Division launched a series of attacks.

The Afrika Korps tried their best to find the enemy's weak point, but found nothing.

After dawn, the Allied Air Forces swarmed in again, and the huge bomber fleet dropped 210 tons of explosives back and forth, blowing up the Axis army positions again.

After the bombing, the U.S. 6th Army and the British 13th Army, under the coordinated operations of more than a dozen ground attack aircraft, once again launched a fierce attack on the Tria Ridge.

At the same time, the British 30th Army and the 6th Armored Division in the center were fighting fiercely with the German armored forces.

This was the first time that tanks and infantry fought together in the Battle of Matruh to resist the attack of German armored forces.

The northern direction of the main attack was not idle, and a new round of "Light Foot" operation was launched. This time, it took the engineering troops two full days to open up enough safe passages in the minefield.

The 1st Chinese Army and the 15th Army of the U.S. Army were near the minefield and made a gesture of advancing forward. The purpose was to give Rommel the illusion that the North Road was a feint.

At the same time, the rear airstrips, oil pipelines, water pipes, and material supply points have extended to the front of the three-way battlefield, which has greatly improved the Allied forces' continuous combat capabilities.

On the morning of May 5th, after two days and two nights of bloody battles between the U.S. Sixth Army and the British 9th Army, they finally captured the Tria Ridge with great casualties.

The Trial Ridge was conquered, and the southern flank of the Axis army was exposed to the Allied soldiers' peak. Rommel finally couldn't sit still and made up his mind to take it back. He immediately ordered all the tanks around the Trial Ridge to all Move around the battlefield.

Air and ground forces began to enter the field as the German 21st Panzer Division and the Italian Armored Division Allierte advanced from the south along the Rahman Trail.

In the end, this proved to be a wrong decision.

The heroic and tenacious Allied forces have always held their positions and repelled the attacks of the Axis forces one after another.

Tanks fought frantically across the dusty desert, and mortar and howitzer shells roared all day long.

This fierce battle lasted for two full days. The Allied forces held their positions and blocked the crazy counterattack of the Axis forces.

After the war, a British officer wrote in his memoirs entitled Matruh:

"The hot desert was shaking. Soldiers hid in trenches, rivers of sweat streaming from their dusty faces.

There was a foul stench in the air.Swarms of flies hovered like dark clouds over the corpses and dunghills, tormenting the wounded.

The battlefield is littered with burning tanks and personnel carriers, as well as damaged guns and vehicles.When the high explosives in the gun exploded, the smoke and dust were scattered in all directions.

However, in the end we still won and achieved a heroic and great victory! "

In the end, Rommel's troops were unable to retreat due to lack of fuel. They could only stay in an open field and let the Allied aircraft handle them.

When Rommel focused all his attention on the southern battlefield, the main attack direction in the north suddenly broke out, launching a full-scale attack on the Axis positions.

The first target captured by the 1st Army of the Chinese Expedition was the German "Thompson's sentry post", which was called "Point 31" by the Allied forces.

This is a hill with an altitude of 31 meters. On this hill, the German army stationed a whole division of defensive troops.

This place was identified by Yang Fan as a key attack target very early on. After the engineering troops completed the task of clearing the minefields, the Huaxia Expeditionary Army was ordered to launch an attack.

The same three-axes tactic, first the bomber fleet and the rocket launcher unit carried out inhumane high-intensity bombing, unleashed more than 200 tons of bombs in one breath, and forcibly leveled the entire mountain by as much as two meters.

Immediately afterwards, the armored forces advanced towards the hill under the cover of their own artillery fire.

At this time, the ground attack aircraft also came to support and launched a three-dimensional land and air combat against the German army.

After an extremely fierce battle, the Huaxia Expeditionary Force was able to occupy the hill until sunset, and also captured 360 prisoners.

But the battle for the hill did not end there, and the fighting continued for the next few days as the Germans sought to recapture the hill, which was crucial to their line of defense.

Rommel successively ordered six retaliatory attacks on the "Thompson's Sentry" that had been occupied by the Allied forces. Each battle was extremely fierce, and there were often hand-to-hand combats.

But even so, the Axis powers failed to take back this crucial hill from the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and instead consumed a lot of troops and fuel.

The battle in the center was also advancing simultaneously, and on the night of May 5, the British army launched an offensive.First of all, artillery preparations and air force bombing were carried out, and then the infantry attacked the enemy's forward positions.

在主攻方向，第30军右翼澳大利亚第9师和英国第51师、中路新西兰师和南非第1师，左翼印度第4师。

It went well at first, and the infantry, after breaking through the enemy's front, quickly opened the way for the follow-up armored troops in the minefield.

But when the British armored forces were about to open a gap in the enemy's defense line, they were intensively shelled by the Germans.

德国88毫米炮击中了一辆又一辆的英军坦克，第9装甲旅有75%的人员伤亡，并且在128辆坦克中有102辆被击毁。

But in the end, relying on hard power and a desperate fight, the British 9th Brigade finally opened a gap in the enemy's defense line, so the follow-up armored units could start fighting the enemy.

Chapter 1442 Ten Thousand Horses Galloping

On the evening of May 5, the former enemy command post of the Huaxia Expeditionary Force.

Lu Shengfeng, Commander of the 1st Group Army, Sun Fumin, Commander of the 2nd Group Army, and others are gathering together at this moment, conducting the final deduction and discussion before the battle.

The Battle of Matruh has lasted for a full 10 days, but the battle has just begun to enter the most tense and bloody stage, conquering the last core defense line of the Axis powers: the Tel-Acha Highlands, and the Shidiba-Arakh Ridge Wire.

Standing on the sand table, Lu Shengfeng said confidently: "We are still one step away, as long as we can win the Tyre-Acha Heights in one go.

Then the Axis troops in the coastal area will not have any dangerous terrain to rely on, and they will be forced to fight us in the open area! "