Kesselring's target, of course, was the British. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The first is that the British army is relatively easier to fight.

It is true that the British army is more experienced in combat and has more veterans, and the battlefield discipline is much better than that of the American army. But the Germans felt that the British were better to deal with.

On the one hand, this is because the British army is more conservative and its weapons and equipment are more backward.

The former made it easy for the Germans to know what the British army would do next and what kind of tactics to attack, just like Rommel, who had fought with the British army for several years, said of the British army: "The British are conservative, and their command authorities almost reject the theory of mechanized warfare...... They were also unconcerned about training in mechanized warfare, and they were completely unconcerned about the speed and elasticity of movement, and the close contact between commanders and troops.

The latter allowed the Germans to maintain a certain superiority in equipment.

On the other hand, it is because the US military always plays its cards out of common sense and has much better weapons and equipment than the British army, especially the somewhat perverted logistics supply...... This is very important, although the US military is inferior to the British army in terms of military discipline and training, but as soon as it enters the battlefield, it uses planes and artillery shells to pile forward, so it doesn't matter what kind of military illusion and quality the German army has, let's talk about dying a bunch of people first.

In the words of the image, this is "punching the master to death".

Of course, what is more important is that the direction of the British attack is the port of Messina, which is the only way for the German and Italian armies to retreat at present, so the German army will never let the British army get their wish, and it can even be said that they will not hesitate to fight to the death.

However, Kesselring would not easily reveal his strategy of shifting the front, so half an hour after the cessation of the offensive on Palermo, Kesselring again ordered an artillery bombardment of Palermo.

Of course, this change could not escape the eyes of Zhang Jiao, because it was obvious that the German offensive had changed from the previous coordination of the naval, land, and air forces to the current only sea and air bombing, and the intensity of the bombing had been significantly reduced...... Zhang Chi thought that this must be the German army's desire to save ammunition for future battles with the British army.

Kukyi also felt this change, after all, he commanded the Zoaf Corps to fight on the front line, and the change in pressure on the battlefield was obvious.

"What happened?" Kukyi asked: "Are the Germans tired?" ”

"No!" Zhang Chi said: "The Germans are going to give up Palermo!" ”

"The Germans abandoned Palermo?" Cook was puzzled for a while, and then quickly said "oh", this must be the "wind and grass" that Zhang Chi said before.

But Ku Keyi still didn't understand, he stayed with Zhang Chi all the time, and didn't see Zhang Chi do anything...... But it can make such a big change in the German army.

At this time, if Zhang Chi was a qualified ally of the British and American armies, he should have conveyed the situation of the German army and his own prediction to the British and American commands.

But Zhang Chi naturally ignored this point: anyway, the Germans were still firing artillery, so the battle continued, and Zhang Chi pretended not to know anything.

As a result, the British and American armies thought that two elite German divisions were attacking Palermo.

But in fact, on this very night, the two German divisions had secretly withdrawn from the battlefield and turned to the flank of the British Eighth Army.

The British did not notice this at all, and they continued to advance towards Messina as planned...... This was Montgomery's style of command, he liked to arrange everything before the battle, and then wishfully thought that the tide of battle would develop the way he had arranged it, so that when the soldiers fought valiantly on the front, he thought he could sleep peacefully in the rear.

But things have changed.

Montgomery's original plan was that two German divisions would be held back by the American army in the west and unable to escape, and the British army would face some unarmed Italian troops in the east, so it was assumed that they could take the port of Messina and achieve Montgomery's first reputation.

But who would have thought that the Germans would invest two divisions in the east, relying on the terrain to build a "Catania" defense line in a short period of time......

So it became a situation in which the British army faced two German divisions, and the American army faced two German divisions.

Even so, Montgomery believed that the British would be victorious, because the British had an absolute superiority in numbers: about 200,000 troops against 30,000 Germans, and although there were some Italian mobile divisions, they were only an embellishment.

So Montgomery didn't even change the battle plan...... This was a bit strange to later critics, because sometimes the enemy had to respond to even the slightest movement, and the Germans had unplanned two divisions to build a strong defensive line, while the British were still attacking with the original plan!!

The critics concluded: "This can only be explained in one sentence, that is, the British were so conservative in strategy that they could not think of any other unconventional method of attack!" ”

Montgomery naturally had his own ideas, believing that the two German divisions had just landed in Sicily and would not be able to build strong fortifications in a short time, so they might not have much impact on the British offensive.

But it turned out that Montgomery was wrong, although the two German divisions did not have a lot of time as Montgomery thought, and at the same time there were no building materials, and they could only dig stones on the spot to build bunkers, but the problem was that the terrain around Mount Etna was very complicated, and the Germans used the method of dispersing their forces and garrisoning them layer by layer...... This is somewhat similar to the "drum defense" used by Liao Yaoxiang in Myanmar to build three lines of defense and roll backwards one by one.

This German defense firmly controlled the coastal road from Catania to the port of Messina, while the British attacked despite air and sea supremacy...... At this time, the naval and air forces of the German and Italian armies no longer dared to fight head-on with the Allied navy and air force, and they could still be arrogant for a while in the direction of Palermo, but they could avoid the main forces of the British and American forces.

However, even this did not help, the naval and air bombardment did not play much role against the enemy, who were scattered in the complex terrain, and the battle always seemed to have destroyed the German defenses after a round of heavy bombardment, but when the British army advanced forward, the German army crawled out of the craters and gunpowder smoke to block the British army with heavy fire.

So Montgomery was at a loss, and could only watch the British army fight for positions with the Germans inch by inch, and every step forward of the British army had to cost the lives of British soldiers.

And this is not worse, what is worse is that the two elite German divisions have quietly swooped towards the British from the flank like a hungry wolf...... It's just that Montgomery and the British army don't know.