Along the way, Hitler demanded that Rommel hold out, and the same was true until Rommel retreated to Tunisia. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, Hitler no longer expected his "pincer attack" to win, and he saw a terrible consequence: if North Africa was lost, Italy would lose its barrier, and Italy was a peninsular country, and the whole of Italy was like a fishhook sticking into the Mediterranean.

In other words, if it loses the battlefield in North Africa and does not have air and sea supremacy, then Italy will not have any capital, and the Italian army will not have the will to confront the Allies, so it is predictable that Italy will withdraw from the Axis or surrender immediately.

And if Italy was on the side of the anti-fascist alliance, then the southern part of Germany was exposed to the guns of the Allied forces, and this was a terrible chain reaction.

So Hitler could only order over and over again: "Tunisia must be held, at any cost!" ”

In fact, Hitler did the same, and together with Mussolini, he organized batch after batch of transport ships, either by night or during the day, risking air cover to send supplies to Tunisia, and despite the fact that these transports had a higher than 50 percent chance of being sunk in the sea every time they went, Hitler recklessly sent them.

This also allowed Tunisia to finally store a batch of fuel, and Rommel's heart that had been planning to attack was ready to move again.

In fact, Rommel himself could have left Tunisia at this time.

This was partly because Rommel refused to obey Hitler's orders along the way, which made Hitler somewhat annoyed.

On the other hand, Rommel fell ill under intense pressure.

Another point is that at this time, Hitler did not have many outstanding generals available, and Hitler did not want Rommel, an emerging general, to fight to the end in North Africa, so he wanted to transfer Rommel back to Berlin to recuperate.

But what Hitler did not expect was that Rommel once again refused to obey this order.

Rommel was a haughty man, or rather a man of great vanity, who always lived in admiration and flattery from others, so he did not want to be pursued by the Allies for thousands of kilometers and then "escaped" back to Berlin in disgrace.

As he said to Thomas, "I don't want people to think that I can't handle this situation and that's why I left this mess!" ”

Of course, Rommel would not have said this to the soldiers, what he said to the soldiers: "I will not leave you alone at this critical moment, I will be with you until the end!" ”

Rommel was always able to mobilize the enthusiasm of his soldiers at the right time, which allowed the African army to quickly recover its morale after a short break in Tunisia.

On the other hand, the British army ...... They had been cautiously pursuing them because the road was too smooth, and even Montgomery was doubting that Rommel would retreat further or even take a transport ship back to Italy in the dark.

However, at this moment, the German 10th Panzer Division and the 21st Panzer Division suddenly launched a counteroffensive along the coastline, while the 15th Panzer Division and the 164th Panzer Division penetrated from the southern front, so that the Allied troops still advancing in the center suddenly fell into the encirclement of the German four Panzer Divisions.

Montgomery couldn't help but be shocked, and hurriedly asked the British Panzer Division and anti-tank troops to the flanks to block the attacking German Panzer Division, so the two armies fought inextricably on the Eastern Front.

The news soon reached Algiers, and Darlan immediately convened a meeting, at which he excitedly said: "Generals, our opportunity has come, Rommel and the Commonwealth army are fighting in the east, and now is the time for us to attack the Grand Port of the Game!" ”

"General!" At this point, Giraud made a different opinion: "Why don't we wait?" I mean, let the Germans and the British fight longer! ”

General Giraud's words were quickly echoed by the French generals, who thought it best to wait for the defeat of both the German and British armies before they attacked.

Only a handful of people objected, and General Juan was one of them, arguing that if that were to be done, the French would be taking advantage of the situation, which would not help French influence in the international arena.

General Zhu An was right, because Zhang Chi knew that there would be no lose-lose situation in this battle at all.

Rommel's plan was very good, the four Panzer Divisions were interspersed from the left and right flanks to flank the Commonwealth Army in the center, and under normal circumstances, the Commonwealth Army would not be able to withstand the impact of the German Panzer Division at all.

Then the next battle situation can be imagined, the British Commonwealth army will be embarrassed by Rommel's return rifle, and even Rommel's armored division will counterattack into Libya.

No matter how big the result is, it is unlikely that the Germans will have limited fuel unless Rommel can capture the British fuel all the way.

But......

The command of the Afrika Korps was not in the hands of Rommel alone.

In fact, the commander-in-chief of the African Army at this time was von Von. Arniem, while Rommel was a general who was to be transferred back to Berlin by Hitler.

To make matters worse, Anim and Rommel were incompatible: after Anim was a nobleman, he looked down on Rommel, who was born in a family of secondary school principals, and Rommel had an instinctive aversion to aristocratic generals, believing that those nobles were nothing more than appearances, and that all they could do on the battlefield was to achieve more than they could lose.

In this way, the operational staff officers of the two sides did not communicate with each other for a long time, and secretly competed with each other, so that in Tunisia it evolved into a personnel relationship with unclear command.

This personnel relationship soon led to a disaster.

While Rommel ordered four panzer divisions to penetrate the Commonwealth flanks, Arnim thought that launching a counteroffensive with so many troops in the event of a lack of supplies would be tantamount to self-defeat.

As Arnim said to his staff: "What is Rommel doing?" Is he going to use up all the fuel and ammunition we have accumulated for a month in one day? If he does this, what are we going to do to hold the Marais Line?! ”

So Arnim didn't inform Rommel at all, and directly transferred the 10th Panzer Division...... The 10th Panzer Division was brought by the Anim from Italy to reinforce Tunisia and, of course, would obey the Anim's orders.

This left only the 21st Panzer Division on the Northern Front, which in turn suffered heavy losses in previous battles with only two dozen tanks in hand.

"Attack, gentlemen!" Zhang Chi suggested: "Give the Germans a fatal blow, if it is too late, the victory in this battle will have nothing to do with France!" ”