The decisive battle against the Third Reich

There are a lot of things to do today, so there are only two chapters. I will continue with five chapters tomorrow!

The 21st Armored Division is on the road day and night.

At this time, they dare not stop to rest, because every soldier knows that every minute they rest, the enemy will be prepared for one more minute, and once the enemy's defense and firepower are strong to a certain extent, it is not something that an armored division or even the African Corps can break through.

In fact, the German soldiers behind the car compartment are better, they can at least sleep on the guardrail in the compartment.

The car driver is more tired when marching, but the first and second drivers can take turns to drive, and their combat pressure is not as great as that of the soldiers who directly participate in the war.

The most miserable are the tank drivers. They have to drive tanks when marching. The tank cabin is always full of the stench of fuel, gun oil and sweat. When the hatch is lowered, the heat inside is almost suffocating. Coupled with the heat of the engine and the scorching sun, the temperature in the cabin reaches an unbearable level.

Qin Chuan saw several tanks parked on the roadside during the march... They were not destroyed by the enemy, nor were the tanks broken down, but the drivers fainted due to the pressure and fatigue.

"Why don't they let the drivers take turns to drive?" Werner asked.

"There are not enough tank drivers!" Kuhn replied: "We lost more than 50 tanks in Matruh, and in addition, we also captured a batch of American tanks..."

There is no need to say more about the rest. Most of the extra drivers were arranged to drive "Stuart".

"Air defense alarm!" Kuhn, who was holding a walkie-talkie, turned around and shouted.

This means that the enemy planes are bombing again.

However, unlike the tension when they were bombed before, the soldiers at this time looked indifferent, as if what Kuhn said was an insignificant thing.

It is indeed different now.

First of all, it is a problem of the soldiers' mentality: after being bombed many times, the soldiers have become accustomed to it. Some soldiers still sleep against the guardrails, because even if they wake up, they can't change anything.

More importantly, the warnings are different.

Kuhn said "air defense alarm" instead of "air defense concealment".

The "air defense alarm" only tells the soldiers to be prepared for bombing and not to hide.

This does not mean that the 21st Armored Division is not afraid of enemy bombing, but because it is daytime now, enemy planes will come every half an hour or so to bomb... If they hide every time they are bombed, then the 21st Armored Division will not have to march, and it will be easier to stay where they are and hide.

But because the 21st Armored Division must rush to the Alamein defense line and launch an attack as soon as possible, it cannot stop, even if it is bombed by the enemy.

This will cause a problem. The tanks of the 21st Armored Division may be bombed before they reach Alamein.

This is not aimless, because the German tanks have lost 21 in the bombing, and another 15 cars have become a pile of scrap metal.

Rommel certainly would not be stupid enough to do useless work, so he mobilized all German fighters to provide cover for the 21st Armored Division.

The German Air Force's cover mode is to use reconnaissance aircraft to conduct reconnaissance outside the 21st Armored Division. Once the enemy is observed, the aircraft patrolling nearby will be notified to rush to intercept. At the same time, the aircraft in Matruh and Tobruk will take off urgently to participate in the battle... Matruh is only more than 100 kilometers away from the 21st Armored Division. For aircraft with a speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour, this distance only takes ten minutes.

Therefore, the "air defense alarm" almost means the beginning of an air battle.

Werner looked up and saw that the canvas on the roof had been cut open by shrapnel at some point. A section of the canvas at the gap was still floating in the wind and casting flickering light and shadow in the car.

Werner stood up and held the railing, pulled out the bayonet from his waist and stabbed it upwards, then cut the canvas back and forth like a saw, and soon the canvas was cut off and flew away with the wind.

"This is much better!" Werner said.

"What are you doing?" Yakop was a little dissatisfied with Werner's behavior: "Do you want to see bombs falling from the sky? Or enemy fighter planes diving down?"

Yakop glanced at the recruits sitting in the middle. His meaning was obvious. This would affect the mentality of the recruits.

"Invisible dangers are the most worrying, aren't they?" Werner raised his head to the recruits: "If you don't want to, I can block it with a raincoat!"

"No, this is good!" The recruits agreed with Werner's approach.

"Yes, I do feel better!" Another recruit replied.

So Yakop stopped talking.

In fact, not only the recruits, but even Qin Chuan felt that this was better... It was like finding an outlet for the fear that was locked in his heart.

Admittedly, it would be more terrifying when seeing a plane diving down or a bomb falling overhead, but when you don't see these, you will feel relaxed... At least there is a moment of security.

Then, with a "whoosh", a fighter plane flashed through the gap, which made the soldiers' hearts rise to their throats.

Werner carefully stuck his head out and looked at the gap, saying: "It's a British plane. They have arrived, but they didn't bomb us!"

"Why?" A recruit asked: "Did they mistake us for British troops?"

This is not a recruit's nonsense.

Eighty percent of the cars used by the German army were "Matador" military trucks seized from the United Kingdom. In addition, there were also "Mengma" command vehicles, "Stuart" tanks and various types of armored vehicles. From a distance, they really look like the British Army.

On the march, some British skirmishers mistook the 21st Armored Division for their own troops and came to join them happily, waving their hands and shouting: "Hey, we are here, help!"

When they got closer, they were shocked to find that the black muzzle of a German gun was pointed at them.

In addition, Qin Chuan and others also saw several convoys that were horribly bombed by the British Air Force... These convoys were British troops escaping from Matruh, but because the Germans also used "Matador" military trucks, the British pilots I took it for granted that they were the Germans marching towards El Alamein. Without saying a word, they swooped down and bombarded them indiscriminately.

However, Qin Chuan thought that this might not be the reason this time. After all, this was a large convoy and there were dozens of "No. 3" tanks in front.

"It's because of this..." The baker quickly gave the answer, and he raised his head towards the back of the car.

Following the baker's gaze, he saw several groups of fighter planes in a neat formation in the sky, with black iron crosses clearly printed on their wings.