Romanian Eagle

The weather in Tripoli at the end of December was still hot. Although it was on the Mediterranean Sea, it still made General Antonescu very uncomfortable.

That's right, Antonescu only met the Monsieur Mussolini from Rome, two days after he arrived in Tripoli. When meeting the leader in Rome, Antonescu had a fresh memory. As if summoning his subordinates, the Italian leader questioned Antonescu in a manner that seemed to place his North African legions under Roman jurisdiction.

It's just that Antonescu doesn't like that. He directly pointed out that the Romanian army is here to help Italy repel the British and French troops that invaded Libya, so a battle plan will be formulated according to the actual situation on the battlefield. It is neither soft nor hard to push back the hand that Mussolini held out.

At present, the North African Corps formed by Romania is in transit. The troops that have been transported to Tripoli are only one of the 2nd Armored Division, one of the 29th Division, and one of the 48th Motorized Infantry Division. There are more than 10,000 people, more than 200 artillery pieces, 25 self-propelled artillery pieces, 97 tanks, and 49 various anti-aircraft guns.

Although there were not many troops, it greatly boosted the morale of the defenders in Tripoli, at least letting the defenders in Tripoli know that they had reinforcements.

Of course, the reinforcements are not only the North African Army led by Antonescu, but Italy's own reinforcements have also landed a lot, but their reinforcements are more in Benghazi and Tobruk. Especially in Tobruk, the reinforcements of the Italian army have reached more than 60,000 people in 8 divisions.

In fact, when Antonescu's North African Army was deployed to Tripoli, Italy also had its own selfishness. Although the previous attack on Egypt suffered a fiasco, it still did not dispel Italy's ambitions for Egypt. After all, the Suez Canal is so tempting that no one wants to take control of this traffic artery.

Of course, Italy will not be too obvious. The troops were also transported in Tripoli, and the Ram Armored Division, one of the only two Italian armored divisions, was also transported to Tripoli. As for the other Panzer Division, the Trento Division was transferred to Tobruk.

In fact, compared to the Ram division, Antonescu hoped that the Trento division would support him. Because of the huge gap between the two divisions, the Ram Division was equipped with Italian tanks, while the Trento Division was equipped with Romanian tanks.

Let's see what tanks are there in Italy?

The first to appear is Italy's first tank, the Fiat-3000. This tank is an imitation of the Renault-17, but the performance difference is not too big.

The second is the famous armored Alto CV33 ultra-light tank. The length, width and height of this armored Alto are only 3.2/1.4/1.28 meters, and the total combat weight is 3.2 tons. It is really a little loli in the tank.

There is currently the strongest medium tank M11/39 in Italian hands,

The tank has a total length of 4.72 meters, a height of 2.23 meters and a weight of 11.0 tons. To say more, its M11 represents a total weight of 11 tons. And this tank is still mounted with rivets. Its armor is front upper: 30, lower part: 14, side: 14, car top: 8, car bottom: 8, turret front: 30, turret side: 30.

In addition, the layout is somewhat like the M3 Li tank. The 37mm tank gun it is equipped with is arranged on the left side of the car body. (If you are interested, you can go and see, this tank is very confusing)

How can Antonescu be at ease with such a new tank. Fortunately, I heard that Italy is improving its own medium tanks. They got the Romanian R10 light tank and found it to be much better than their own tank after testing it. (Italy: Can anyone tell me why this R10 light tank is 6.9 tons heavier than my medium tank?)

However, the new prototype has not yet been developed, so Italy's own tank is still the M11/39.

Although Antonescu disliked Italian tanks, he still had to admit that Italy chose to cooperate with its commander this time. Lieutenant General Giovanni Messe was in charge of the Italian army in the Allied Forces of Roi, and in Antonescu's view, this lieutenant general was one of the few officers in the Italian army who could use tanks to fight.

At present, Italy has also transported two divisions to Tripoli. In addition to the Ram armored division, there is also the Brescia Infantry Division, and may be worried about the safety of Tripoli. Basically, the entire two divisions were transported to Tripoli. The division has been incorporated into the Italian Army North Africa Corps. In the future, the North African coalition force formed by the two armies will be as high as 240,000.

In the face of the continuous influx of reinforcements from Tripoli, General Catroux, the French commander, is now somewhat shaken in his confidence in capturing Tripoli, because the French army is still 15 kilometers away from Tripoli. Although the most important city in Libya can already be seen, it is difficult to move further.

General Catroux has sent a message to Paris, hoping to get more reinforcements. He feels that he is only one step away from Tripoli, and as long as there are reinforcements, he can take the city by himself.

So early in the morning the attack of the French army began, facing the sound of the French shelling, the defenders ate breakfast, and then the day's fighting began again.

Antonescu got off the plane in a dusty manner, and he just took the plane to inspect the battlefield. This can be described as quite risky. As long as it is discovered by the French fighter plane, the RY58 transport plane he is riding in will never be able to escape. Although four RF20 fighters escorted it, as long as it is known that a Romanian lieutenant general is sitting among them, the danger is too high.

Hi, Messer, why are you here?

Antonescu, who just got off the plane, saw Messer at the airport as if waiting for him. He greeted a little embarrassedly.

Lieutenant General Anthony, you went to the battlefield to inspect again?

As soon as he saw Antonescu's figure, Lieutenant General Messi felt a little angry. He thought he was daring, but he didn't expect this one to be more daring and dare to inspect the battlefield. It didn't matter that he died, but the morale of the army was not at all wonderful.

Seeing the resentful Lieutenant General Messer, Antonescu couldn't help but touch his nose when he thought of his promise not to take a plane for field inspections until yesterday.

Lieutenant General Messi, don't be happy with a straight face. Think about it from another angle, am I back?

...

Listen to me, when I was inspecting, I found a loophole in the French army.

What, you found a loophole in the French army?

Now that Messer couldn't hold on anymore, he asked directly, with the words Hurry up written on his face.

Yes, I have found several loopholes in the French army. If we make good use of it, we can not only relieve the disadvantage of the current war situation, but also keep most of the French army here.

Speaking of this, Antonescu also showed a sharp desire in his eyes, which was his desire for military exploits.