In North Africa, in Egypt, at the port of Said, on the outskirts of the defensive positions, British soldiers were in the midst of a hail of bullets, dodging the shells dropped by the Italian artillery. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

A shell exploded near the trench, kicking up sand and soil that nearly buried the defenders in the trench. The British soldiers struggled out of the sand and continued to fire at the German tanks not far away.

The determination of the British army to hold Port Said was still very great. General Auchinleck organized his troops to deploy a defensive line along the Suez Canal, and held the military port of Said across the bank.

Relying on transport ships blocked in the Mediterranean, the British Army was able to support the defenders in the port of Said across the canal, and the battle lasted for more than a day, but Rommel's troops still failed to achieve satisfactory results.

"Your Excellency, General! We've lost more than 300 of us! If we continue to fight like this, we will lose at least 500 men before it gets dark. The commander of the 90 Infantry Division watched his infantry being repulsed again and again, and said to Rommel.

Rommel removed his eyes from the artillery mirror, turned his head sideways to look at his division commander, and replied: "No war is immortal, and losses are inevitable." ”

But then his words relieved the commander of the 90th Infantry Division: "Let your troops withdraw and give it to the Italians to try." ”

Rommel gave priority to attacking with his own descendant German troops, in fact, he was also appeasing the Italians, and he wanted to balance the relations within the coalition forces, so he thought more about it.

"The Suez Canal is unusable now, but the other party is really annoying to replenish supplies across the canal." Rommel turned his back and walked to the chair in his headquarters, sat down, and said.

He picked up the glass of water in front of him, took a sip of water and continued: "The instructions given to me by the Führer are to cross the Suez Canal and advance the battle line to Jerusalem as soon as possible. ”

Lieutenant General Alfred, the chief of staff, who had been standing beside him without speaking, was stunned for a moment, then looked at Rommel and said: "Isn't the Führer afraid, will this annoy the Soviets?" ”

"Even if I push the front to Jerusalem, there is still a long way to go from Iraq and Iran, and even farther from Baku in the Soviet Union...... The Führer felt that this did not touch the bottom line of the USSR. Rommel closed his eyes and recalled what he had been like when he saw the Führer's message.

As the commander of the Afrika Korps, Rommel was also taken aback by the Führer's order. The reason for his delay in attacking Port Said was the fear of triggering a huge military conflict on the distant Eastern Front.

Therefore, Rommel has been watching and recuperating, resting his troops for three days, and has not pressed all the fronts to attack the remnants of General Auchinleck's defeated generals.

However, when he was not ready to attack the Suez Canal, the Führer suddenly sent him a telegram in the name of the Supreme High Command, ordering him not to hesitate to seize the Suez Canal as soon as possible.

This matter became much more interesting, Rommel was certainly not a person who was afraid of things, he dared to lead his troops to counterattack without an order, and now that he had an order, he naturally had more reason to attack.

So, he immediately marched with his troops to the west bank of the Suez Canal, and then began to lay siege to the important port of Port Said.

What is even more interesting is that his offensive really caused tension in the Soviet Union, and the eastern front border is now fully tense, and a big war seems inevitable and imminent.

"Is the Führer sure that the Russians will not attack? Are you kidding? Lieutenant General Alfred muttered in frustration and closed his mouth without speaking.

Let him be a small lieutenant to evaluate the Führer's decision, he will never dare. But to get him to applaud such a hasty national decision, he really doesn't have such a thick skin.

To be honest, if Li Le hadn't known that the Soviet Union was not ready for war at all, he wouldn't have dared to make such a bold gamble.

So from outsiders, Li Le's gambling this time is simply a big gamble carried away by victory, a reckless madness!

"I think the Führer has a point." Rommel tried his best to make excuses for his offense, this is not how wise he is, he sees the deep meaning of Li Le's choice, he is just putting gold on his offensive face.

"Boom!" While he was speaking, the attack of the Italian infantry began, and the artillery began to roar, which at once brought the atmosphere to its climax.

On the defensive positions of the British troops, explosions began to sound one after another, and black smoke rose everywhere. The battle became fierce again, only this time the two sides became Italians and British.

On the Suez Canal, a steamer laden with soldiers and ammunition is heading for Port Said, ferrying the wounded back and forth and transporting supplies and ammunition to Port Said.

At this moment, two Stuka dive bombers rushed down in the sky, their wings tearing open the air currents and making a terrible roar.

"Uh......h Woo......" The terrible sound seemed to be the summoning of death in hell, and it frightened the British soldiers on the deck of the ship.

"Suddenly! Dodo! Before the anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the strait and the improvised anti-aircraft machine guns on the ships could fire, the cannons on the wings of the German Stuka dive bombers began to roar.

Two rows of tracer bullets rushed to the steamer on the river, leaving two rows of dense bullet holes on the deck of the British steamer.

The bullet shattered the wood on the deck, hit some of the British soldiers on the deck who could not dodge, and spread from one side of the ship to the other, leaving a displacement column in the sea far from the other side.

"Woohoo! Bumper! "British anti-aircraft weapons also began to rattle, forming a dense network of fire on both sides. The anti-aircraft guns hoped to jam the bombs dropped by the Stuka dive bombers and allow their ships to reach the opposite shore safely.

German planes rolled and circled in the sky like agile birds, shaking off the barrage of barrage that was chasing them.

The planes quickly found a new angle of attack, and then once again aimed their noses at a target on the river in the distance.

The battle was so intense that there was no chance to breathe, and while holding their breath, the German planes swooped down again, pouring ammunition onto the deck of the ship.

Parts of the deck were shattered and exploded by cannon shells, and wood and steel parts flew everywhere, taking the lives of nearby British soldiers.

Soon, a Stuka dropped a bomb that exploded on the side of the battleship, tilting the entire ship with the rising column of water.

Although it didn't hit the ship, it still made everyone on board suffer. Many people were overturned into the river, and the side of the ship was twisted and deformed by the explosion too close, and began to enter the water.

"Oh my God! The Karnak was hit! The Karnak was hit! A British officer, who had been watching the friendly steamer from the shore, shouted loudly in despair with a telescope in his hand.

His shouts were drowned out by the firing of an anti-aircraft gun from a distant defensive position, and the battle was still raging, with both sides desperately trying to prevent the other from achieving their goals.

"For God's sake, there were 150 soldiers and lots of ammunition on that ship...... They don't know how to swim. Looking at the swaying ship in the distance, the British officer muttered a prayer with words on his lips.

But before his prayer was finished, the second bomb, dropped by Stuka dive bombers, hit the hapless steamer Karnak.

A huge explosion suddenly rose on the surface of the river, and the sound of fire was deafening. After all, the Germans sank the steamer that was rushing to carry supplies and achieved their goal.

"Boom!" As the ship caught fire and exploded, the boiler and ammunition inside finally could not withstand the scorching flames, and an even more tragic explosion occurred.

The sheer force blew the ship's superstructure in two, and some of it flew straight into the sky.

At the same time as the ship exploded, a German Stuka dive bomber was also hit by artillery fire from the ground, and smoke billowed up.

The plane shook in the sky for a moment, and then it fell from the sky with a long black smoke tail.

No one was seen parachuting, and the plane crashed headlong into the river at an approximately vertical angle, where it was torn apart by the drag.

The inverted seagull-shaped wings were shattered by the seawater, and it flew high all at once, and the entire fuselage was broken due to the drag, and it didn't take long for it to disappear into the sea.

The culprit who sank the ship was a few minutes faster than the ship sank. The battlefield is so cruel, that is, so dramatic.

Another German Stuka dive bomber, which had dropped bombs earlier, did not stop when it saw its companion's plane crash, but quickly turned around and broke away from the dense British anti-aircraft fire net that was like a fishing net.

For both sides of the war, this fierce battle on the river was only a trivial episode, and it did not stop the fighting, nor did it make the battle more brutal.

In fact, the truly brutal fighting is still breaking out on the ground, and the outer defense line of the British army is being eaten away little by little, and for every inch of land lost, they will exchange many of their own lives for the lives of many Italians......

On October 22, German troops began a systematic siege of Port Said, and the battle for the Suez Canal officially began, and Rommel's offensive brought the Soviet Union and Germany to the brink of war.

And at this time, another famous person in history, on a submarine, arrived at the front line in Africa.

This person was General Montgomery, who had just been appointed by Churchill to succeed Auchinleck as commander of the newly formed 8th Army.