Bismarck

"no problem!"

"Well, let's do it!"

"Radar report! British night bombers are coming! 50 kilometers away!"

"Wheel formation! Be careful to evade! Inform the army to suspend the artillery bombardment!"

"Target No. 31 is blocked, requesting fire support!"

"The bombers are coming...damage control team!"

…On the chaotic battlefield, the German and British troops gritted their teeth and fought and advanced day and night in the shivering refugee areas, house by house…

Following a bloody road paved with corpses, the German army, under Bismarck's command, pushed through the street corner, then pushed through the wide apron of Alexandria Airport, and rushed into the solid terminal with the support of tanks and the cover of the canals around the airport... Finally, in the early morning of September 11, the German army finally rushed into the intersection of the road and railway leading to the village of Dawar on the south lakeside of Alexandria before the British reinforcements arrived, a small town at a three-way intersection...

The only supply line for the 25,000 British troops in Alexandria is now the coastal road along the Mediterranean Sea, which passes through Aboukir Bay and leads to the small town of Rashid, and is completely exposed to German artillery fire!

On both sides of the town of Sanchakou, on one side is the shore of Lake Mareotis, where German torpedo boats and assault boats are supported by machine guns and mortars, and on the other side are paddy fields and swamps formed by the alluvial deposits of the Nile Delta...

Chapter 503: The Fox Has No Support

South of Alexandria Port, at the intersection of highway and railway on the shore of Lake Mareotis, in the small village of Izbat Shahinah, 164 remnants of the th Infantry Division, which had suffered more than % casualties, were still pinned here!

Even here, we are attacked from both sides...

In front of him was the direction of Dawwal Village. There were a large number of elite troops, including the Indian 4th Division, the British 44th Division, the British 50th Division, and the British Guards Armored Division, which had rushed to the city of Damanhur from the Middle East and Suez. And in his rear, more than 20,000 troops from the British 51st Division, the South African 1st Division, and the New Zealand 2nd Division, who were unwilling to be surrounded, also began a desperate attack towards this side like crazy!

In addition, the Middle East-North Africa Theater Air Force, which had recovered its fleet size to more than 600 aircraft after receiving reinforcements, began to bomb the German positions in turns, regardless of cost and casualties!

There is even support from the remaining railway artillery...

At this time, the battleships Veneto and Littorio had run out of ammunition...

Yes, you heard it right, it was indeed lit.

Although the Duke of Abruzzi cruiser, which was sweeping the sea and disarming submarines nearby and equipped with Hamster brand sonar, was called back to command the bombardment, the cruiser's firepower, both in range and power, was incomparable to that of the battleship...

If there weren't two German field airfields behind the battlefield, the British railway guns would not have dared to act so recklessly, and there would have been big trouble!

Moreover, the accuracy of railway guns is much higher than that of naval guns!

After all, relying on accuracy and range to bully others is not only shameless, but also unsolvable...

"Nine hundred shells, how come they were used up so quickly..."

A depressed Persian cat was lying on the fire control director, pounding the table in frustration.

There is no artillery to fire at, what should we do?

"Hey, Ms. Bismarck, your command of the bombardment has reached the level of art... If we were to attack those targets, we might not be able to fire all the 9,000 shells..."

The Italian fire control officers and soldiers around were all sweating and their eyes were black...

but…

"Bismarck, Zeppelin is back, Admiral Iachino is returning to Italy with Veneto and Littorio, we should leave!"

Lütjens, who had just said goodbye to Admiral Iakino and officially took over the command of naval operations in the eastern Mediterranean, saw his Persian cat in this state when he came back!

With a snort, the Persian cat ran back obediently.

Of course, I did not forget to bring the artillery division parameter diagram of the previous artillery attack, the radio code book, and the previous communication record book.

All of them need to be checked and reviewed...

---

Relying on fierce firepower, absolute superiority in manpower, and the withdrawal of Italian battleships in the Mediterranean, the three British divisions in the city, unwilling to be surrounded, just took a breath and began a desperate attack on the German troops on the south shore of the lake!

The distance from the ditch to the lakeside was 90 meters at the farthest and less than one kilometer at the closest! Under the desperate attack of the British, the Germans, who were already weaker than their opponents, began to lose strength! After paying the price of 164 people and dozens of light armored vehicles, the British army finally rushed across the ditch, repelled the th Light Division, cut off the connection between the th Infantry Division and the main force in the rear, and recaptured a large area near the airport near Lake Mareotis!

Now, the 164th Division, which had advanced deep into the enemy's territory alone, was surrounded!

The only logistical support came from Lake Mareotis, where reinforcements and supplies were occasionally delivered by speedboats under the cover of torpedo boats armed with torpedoes.

Not to mention, the only remaining main transportation line in the city - the coastal highway railway through Abu Qir to Rashid City - was under direct threat from the Axis fleet. In order to support the British in the city, torpedo boats were also transported from the railway. Even more powerful motor gunboats (MGBs) that could fight head-on with German torpedo boats also covered the assault boats and transported supplies to the besieged British troops in the city.

The torpedo boats of both sides fought fiercely on the small lake from time to time... The only thing to be thankful for was that the lake was not large, so the high-speed British torpedo boats and motor gunboats could not perform well. Under the premise that both sides were fighting at low speed, the single-unit firepower, survivability, and seaworthiness of the German torpedo boats had certain advantages over the British torpedo boats. The MGB motor gunboats that could compete with the German torpedo boats in terms of firepower were not equipped in large numbers in the Middle East...

Although Germany's Fifth Torpedo Boat Squadron in the Mediterranean had been fully deployed... the British could still continuously transport more torpedo boats as reinforcements from ports in the Middle East by ship and train...

Moreover, now, on land, the British reinforcements have also arrived!

Encouraged by this great news, the British officers and soldiers in the city, although they had suffered heavy losses in the previous fierce attack, even the most important ammunition was destroyed by five bases in just two days - equivalent to the rated ration of "battle portion" for one month or an offensive battle under normal circumstances!

The most important thing is that the German army now no longer has terrifying monsters like battleships to support the German army with artillery fire!

Even if she was a Persian cat from the future and became interested in battleships, she had heard a saying that in the Gulf War "fifty years later", the US Navy believed that the firepower delivery of an Iowa-class battleship was similar to that of three future US Navy super aircraft carriers - well, of course, within the range of artillery fire.

Iowa of that era, after a thorough improvement in the 1980s, used muzzle velocity radar as the basis for fire control. It had long since gotten rid of the nickname of "Iowa that can be beaten ten to zero by the Vanguard in exercises" during World War II and even after the war. The accuracy of its artillery fire reached a terrifying dispersion range of 32 yards (250 meters) at a distance of 230 kilometers, and the half-hit rate, which better indicated the accuracy of its artillery fire, even reached the level of 150 yards (140 meters).

Even now, she couldn't achieve this accuracy when firing conventional shells with her own body! Although she could do it with her modified guided shells, the resistance of the guided shells was too great, and they had no power or range...

But that is at least 380mm! The small 152mm water pipes on today's light cruisers are even less powerful and have less range.

Their own 380 shells, even guided shells, have 64 kg of high explosives! And the power of Italy's 381 shells can be described as crazy!

With one blast, a pit several meters large was created for buildings like those in the shantytowns, and the area within dozens of meters was forcibly cleared. There was basically no suspense!

But...what about the 152mm guns of the Italian cruisers?

Although it has an initial velocity of up to 940 meters per second, a range of 25000 meters, excellent ballistic performance, and even the ability to fire into the air with excellent ballistics, the amount of explosives in the shells... is really pitifully small!

It is already a shame that a 44kg high-explosive bomb has only 2.3kg of explosives, and a 50kg armor-piercing bomb has only one kilogram of explosives.

Just one kilogram! Not a gram more!

Even the 81mm mortar, which is despised by regular artillery as an infantry weapon, weighs 0.6 kilograms!

This thing...are you sure it's not a solid armor-piercing bullet, just for fun? !

No wonder Rommel couldn't win even with the firepower support of three or four cruisers...

Bismarck, who had returned to the Zeppelin, sat in front of the radio and listened to Rommel's depressed complaints, while silently complaining in his heart...

Chapter 504: Fighting to the Death with Alexander

On the North African battlefield, Li Teqi's troops have an absolute advantage!

After receiving supplies, Li Teqi had as many as 100,000 troops! More than 600 aircraft! More than 800 tanks and armored vehicles! And all kinds of artillery - even if you don't count mortars and anti-aircraft guns, there are thousands!

Even though the African Corps received some reinforcements recently, it still has only about 20,000 people in total due to the brutal war of attrition!

The only problem was that Litchi could not abandon the 20,000 British troops in Alexandria and had to concentrate his forces on the "Eastern Route" east of Alexandria to break the siege. However, the terrain here was a swamp on one side and a lake on the other, so he could not deploy his main force...

Even so, under such internal and external attacks, the 164th Division suffered heavy casualties!

They were almost wiped out several times and then replenished several times, but were once again hit by British artillery fire, leaving corpses all over the ground and blood flowing like a river.

The British troops in the city could still get some supplies...

Meanwhile, across Lake Mareotis, on the other side of the battlefield.

In the area near the North African desert, the British Guards Armored Division, which was far stronger than its normal configuration, with the cooperation of the Free French 1st Armored Division, the British 1st Armored Division and the British 7th Armored Division after rest, gathered more than 400 tanks along the "Western Road" of the two main roads from Cairo to Alexandria on the edge of the desert, between the desert and the Gobi hills, and pounced on the German flank positions!

On the flank, from the Qattara Depression to the edge of the Alexander Swamp, although it is a high ground with many small hills as barriers, the troops here are only two Italian infantry divisions - and they are "potential motorized divisions" that have almost no vehicles to call back and forth to adjust the deployment and can only hold on to the death in fixed positions!

This kind of completely immobile force is a sitting duck for the mechanized armored divisions to bully as they please. If it weren't for the highlands everywhere and the natural barriers of the Qattara Depression and the arc-shaped mountains in the west, as well as the Sahara Desert, which make it impossible to bypass...

If any point is breached, the African Legion will be finished...

The Italians were short of trucks, so the Afrika Korps could only rely on the 15th and 21st Armored Divisions, which had just received a little reinforcement from the North African desert coastal highway, and the Italian Areete Blackshirt Armored Divisions. They had to muster up their remaining courage and bite the bullet to push forward. As a mobile reserve, they followed the British main attack direction on the vast front and worked hard.

For a time, on the entire North African front, even the German army commanded by Rommel could be suppressed by people like Litsch who relied on their absolute superiority in military strength.

The fox was also feeling bitter. After all, the gap in numbers and equipment could not be made up. When the absolute advantage in quantity was formed, quality did not seem to be such an important thing.

The only thing that made Li Teqi a little worried was that the British troops in the city were consuming supplies and losing troops at a rate much faster than the number that could be supported via the coastal roads and lake routes...

The British had another problem to solve, which was that they were separated into two routes, the east and the west, by the Nile Delta. Therefore, the German army had an advantage in the interior, so they could always rely on moving troops back and forth to "block" their assault...

And Litchi himself knew, it was self-awareness, that he was not actually a famous general. His predecessor Auchinleck's ability to mobilize troops was an art, and Rommel on the opposite side was also a tactical master, but what about himself...

It seems like there is still a big gap, so the pressure is very high.

There is no problem for him to command a division in accordance with the rules, but it is a bit difficult for him to strategize the overall situation and transfer troops here and there, so he has been fighting very conservatively.

Moreover, the Prime Minister was in charge, and there was the lesson of Auchinleck. They had to protect the 20,000 British troops in Alexandria while breaking through the German defenses. There was also a nearly 20-kilometer-wide muddy field in between, and German planes in the sky... There were a lot of things to do.

In particular, although the two Italian battleships withdrew from the battlefield, the mobilization of large forces was simply annoying!

All he could do was to deploy his troops rigidly and then launch an offensive step by step...

I just hope that there will always be a place where I can make a breakthrough - preferably the village of Izbat Shahinakh!

As long as this place is opened, the siege of Alexandria Port can be completely relieved! And relying on the sturdy city to mobilize troops, the Germans can be driven out of the western port, and the Germans who only rely on the temporary docks in the Alamein-Alexandria Bay to maintain their supplies will be completely cut off from food!

However, if the three divisions and 20,000 men besieged in the city cannot hold out...

If the British troops in the city could not hold out, Rommel would be able to occupy Alexandria! Then, relying on the defense of Alexandria and the Alexandria Airport on Lake Mareotis, the African Corps, which received stable port supplies from the West Port and the East Port, and the support of the Deba Airport, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, and the Axis fleet at sea, would be invincible! !

At this point, both sides are fighting to see whose logistics are cut off first...

Once the logistics are cut off, there will be no way to recover.

Li Teach prayed worriedly to the spirit of God in heaven to bless himself and the destiny of the British Empire.

In fact, based on what he had recently observed on the battlefield, the German army, famous for its tactical proficiency, was not slow at all in responding!

In particular, the tactical attainments of General Erwin Rommel, the commander of the African Corps, made him an absolute master!

Although Rommel became famous for his armored tactics in North Africa, even five years ago when Rommel just became famous, he was an out-and-out infantry general!

The book "Infantry Attack" was not only approved by the Emperor as a tactical textbook, but even the British themselves used it as a tactical textbook reference book.

Not to mention, the German army's tactical training foundation is extremely solid.

The main tactical idea of ​​the German Army's Stormtroopers tactics since World War I was to combine the various arms into one. Moreover, in order to ensure the success rate of infantry assaults in a brutal war of hard fortifications and artillery fire, the German Army has always attached great importance to the coordination of ground bombing by infantry, engineering troops, artillery and air force to achieve extremely high combat efficiency!

In order to counter the British sea of ​​fire tactics, Rommel, who was determined, simply took a desperate gamble and adopted a close-range strategy, trying to bring his front line closer to the British army, so that the British heavy firepower would be afraid to attack with all their strength...

"Attack! Attack! The terrain here is complicated, so we must attack even more! Open up the depth of the defense! Move positions more often! Hold on to them! Make sure they don't dare to attack with all their strength!"

"No matter how small the caliber of the weapon or how few the weapons are in number, always support the infantry attack with firepower."

“Be proactive and resolute!”

"Tell everyone, you must coordinate firepower and dig good fortifications! The stronger the firepower and the deeper the fortifications, the fewer casualties!"

---

Just five days seemed as long as fifty years on the brutal battlefield!

The city had been completely blown into a maze of ruins by the artillery fire from both sides! In this maze of flesh and blood, the assault distance between the two sides could only be measured in meters...

Street fighting has become a behemoth that devours the strength of both sides. In the ruins everywhere, it is easier for snipers to hide, so many people have been killed by cold guns for no apparent reason.

The new soldiers who were hard-earned to be recruited amidst the enemy's bombing and shelling barely survived more than 24 hours on average in the fierce battle! Just like in the famous meat grinder battle, soldiers were just consumables with numbers, and they were quickly replaced when they died, and this was true for both sides.

It is almost comparable to the later Battle of Stalingrad, if there was any.

Every inch of land is stained with blood, and countless people fall on every meter of road ahead.

Countless soldiers died here every day, and Egyptian residents were also killed and wounded...

Fortunately, more Egyptian refugees were finally transferred out of here due to either conscience or resistance from both sides. Although most of them were left with only a blanket or even nothing, at least they could still survive...

Behind Rommel's insistence, Lütjens commanded the Axis Combined Fleet in the Mediterranean, and also used naval guns, carrier-based aircraft and dispatched torpedo boats to help the African Corps! Not to mention that under the overall dispatch of Marshal Kesselring, not only the supply convoys that had been dragged on the North African coastal highway had arrived at the western port of Alexandria in twos and threes, but the German Air Force was also trying its best to airlift reinforcements from the European continent, as well as additional fighters...

Compared to the British army, which used troops in a rigid manner and relied purely on its strong military strength, the African Corps could obtain supplies even though it had little supply...

Just like that, before anyone knew it, five days had mercilessly slipped away through the gaps between Li Teqi's ten fingers, who were trying to save time as much as possible!

Under the cover of Lütjens's fleet, a large Axis supply fleet was getting closer and closer to Alexandria...

This is the picture I forgot to upload

Oh gosh, I always forget to upload pictures, it makes me angry!

Open a chapter and upload pictures...