The decisive battle against the Third Reich

And Wavell also knew one thing: the British army's supply line was relatively longer, while the German and Italian army's supply lines were short.

Therefore, in the foreseeable future, the number of British tanks will remain at around 250, while the number of German and Italian tanks will continue to increase as time goes by.

Therefore, Wavell believed that the sooner he launched a counterattack, the better it would be for him.

In fact, there was another factor in Wavell's eagerness to launch a counterattack, and that was that Churchill and the generals in London were already very dissatisfied with Wavell's failure in North Africa.

Wavell knew in his heart that if he delayed any longer, he would be transferred by his impatient bosses, which meant that he would never have a chance to make a comeback.

Thinking of this, Wavell couldn't help but touch his left eye...it was lost while fighting the Germans in World War I, so he hated the Germans.

Under these objective factors, Wavell quickly gathered the returning British troops and distributed the tanks.

Wavell was a little lucky that his troops escaped in time... What they lost was just tanks. If they lost people, that is, the soldiers driving tanks, then they don't know how long it will take to regain their combat effectiveness.

Now, it is only necessary to assign new tanks to these tank troops, and then do some adaptive training, and then they can go to the battlefield again soon.

Wavell named his battle plan "Operation Tomahawk", which means attacking the enemy like a sharp battle ax. The goal is to capture Tobruk... Only by capturing Tobruk can the British army in Egypt feel a little safer. , otherwise we have to wait for the enemy to continuously increase troops, accumulate supplies and launch attacks through the port in front of us.

Then, only fifteen days before the British army's defeat in Tobruk, the British army couldn't wait to launch a counterattack.

When the heavy bombing reached Tobruk, everyone was surprised, including Rommel himself. Because everyone thought that after being severely punished, the British army would either retreat to Egypt to recuperate for a while or build a line of defense honestly. Unexpectedly, they now launched a counterattack against the German army!

Rommel was ecstatic when he heard the sound of the gunfire, which made him realize that his fighter plane had not been lost... What he was most worried about was that the British would build a line of defense and then turn the battle into a trench like World War I. war, but the British obviously did not do so. They were still thinking about attacking. Actually, they were still thinking about attacking? !

"General!" Major General Strike said: "I think the British counterattack is not as simple as it seems on the surface. They know our strength very well, and they also know what reinforcements we have received!"

Major General Strike's worries are of course justified. Italian transport ships have always been under the watchful eye of the British army on the island of Malta. What's more, there are British spies in Tobruk, and the British may even control the German army. Detailed numbers of tanks and troops.

Under such circumstances, and with the British army newly defeated by the German army, the British launched a counterattack, which must have something to rely on.

"General Strike is worried too much!" Major General Prittwitz retorted: "It has only been fifteen days since the last time the British army was defeated by us. If the British had anything to rely on, they should have done so fifteen days ago. It’s useful, isn’t it?”

Major General Pritwitz is the commander of the German 15th Armored Division, and he just arrived in Tobruk with the troops a few days ago.

"So...General Pritwitz!" Major General Strike asked: "Why do you think the British launched this counterattack without any certainty of victory?"

"There is no guarantee of victory in any battle. The performance of the First Infantry Regiment in the last battle has proved this!"

Major General Prittwitz intentionally used "First Infantry Regiment" instead of "Fifth Light Division" in his words.

After a pause, Major General Prittwitz pointed to the map and continued: "I think the British are eager to counterattack because we occupied Tobruk. They know that we can use this port to obtain a large amount of supplies and prepare for the attack on Egypt. Prepare. Moreover, it is foreseeable that this time will not be long, because we will soon accumulate enough strength to launch an attack, which will not allow the British to build a line of defense..."

Rommel nodded and agreed: "They are using offense instead of defense, or it can be said that they are buying time to build a defense line. In addition, if they can capture Tobruk, they can disrupt our position and crush our attack. plan!"

"Yes!" Major General Prittwitz said: "So we have to give them a head-on blow, defeat them as quickly as possible and then quickly penetrate towards Egypt. This way we can not only seize the initiative to surround the British attacking troops , and can completely destroy the British army’s defense and catch them off guard!”

Rommel nodded appreciatively. Major General Prittwitz's plan of using fast to fight slow was in line with Rommel's character, because Rommel himself was also a man who focused on attacking regardless of the dangers in the rear.

What made Rommel confident was that at this time, the German army no longer had to be beaten by enemy fighter planes as before. The German army already had an aviation group stationed in Benghazi and was ready to provide air assistance to the German troops on the front line.

So the order was given to the 5th Light Division.

The military camp quickly became busy, with rapid whistles and crisp and powerful orders. The soldiers were gathered in front of the open space and lined up. Cars stopped one by one in front of the team like train carriages connected together, and orders were given. The soldiers boarded the vehicles in squad and platoon units.

The reason why we say squad and platoon as units here is because the German army now uses the British Army's "Matador" car.

For the British army, this car was just the vehicle to carry a platoon of soldiers and supplies. However, the structure of the German army is different from that of the British army. As mentioned before, a German platoon has four infantry squads and a mortar squad (equipped with 50MM mortars). The total number of people at full strength is exactly 50.

50 people riding in a "Matador" car seems crowded, but because most of the First Infantry Regiment is not full, the space of the "Matador" has a lot of redundancy for 30 people, so most of them can fit , only a few squads with more reinforcements need to take other buses.

It can also be seen that weapons and equipment should actually be matched with the organization of the army. A platoon can either be loaded with one car, or it can be divided into several cars. Otherwise, various inconveniences will inevitably occur during marching operations, such as space. The waste or the confusion of soldiers not being able to find their own structures in emergency response.