The squadron successfully drove the Americans out of Asia, while Germany and Italy simultaneously opened up the African theater. //

Strictly speaking, the war in North Africa officially began on December 9, 1940. Benito. Mussolini, in order to expand the territory of the Italian Empire in North Africa, sent troops from Libya to attack Egypt, but was met with a powerful counterattack from the British.

All of a sudden, Italy's military forces in North Africa were in danger of being wiped out, and its colonies in North Africa were completely lost. Hitler, who had been watching from the sidelines, had to intervene to save his Italian allies from extinction.

Italy's defeat in North Africa directly threatened the security of Hitler's "fortress of Europe". Under these circumstances, Hitler believed that the time had come to send troops to North Africa.

In mid-February 1941, the first detachments of German reinforcements arrived in Tripoli. The size of this detachment was not very large, in fact, it consisted of only one general and two staff officers.

However, the general's name was Erwin. Rommel.

As the commander of the famous German armored unit "Ghost Division" during the French campaign, Erwin . Rommel was a very resolute and decisive commander.

Initially, the German High Command sent him to North Africa mainly to stabilize the situation on the battlefield and strengthen the defensive lines of the Italian army.

At that time, he had only the 5th Light Armored Division at his disposal, and his strength was very limited. According to normal procedures, if he can keep waiting, it is possible to get more resources to do more. Moreover, before launching an offensive, it is first necessary to wait for an order from a higher command to act.

But Rommel was determined not to wait any longer. Within a few days, he had developed a plan for a large-scale counteroffensive, and thus began a two-year tug-of-war between the German and Italian armies on the one hand, and the British and Commonwealth armies on the other. The fierce battle between the two sides will be the Libyan desert, a place that has been vividly likened to "a tactician's paradise" and "a quartermaster's nightmare".

On 24 March, despite the admonitions and reminders of his superiors, Rommel commanded the 5th Light Panzer Division to launch an offensive from Tripoli against Ajdabia, where he established its headquarters on 3 April.

Immediately afterwards, he discarded all the conventional war dogmas and boldly divided the already weak attacking forces into three routes: the first Lude-Italian army advanced eastward; The 2nd Road German Army, consisting of the main forces of the 5th Panzer Division, advanced towards Megiri; Rommel himself advanced north towards Suluk with the armoured vehicles and light vehicles of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, and when he heard the news that the British were evacuating Benghazi, Rommel ordered his troops to advance directly to the port, where they were greeted heroically. The people of Cyrenaica were delighted by the arrival of the German Afrika Korps.

At this time, the Germans, who had gained freedom of movement in the vast desert under the strong command of Rommel, continued to advance eastward, and they won a great advantage in the number of soldiers, especially in morale.

The British were forced to retreat, and along the way they were bombarded indiscriminately by the Axis air forces, which had completely seized air supremacy.

By 7 April, Rommel had captured Delna and isolated Megiri.

In addition, his reconnaissance unit has advanced eastward to the southern area of Tubrug.

On the morning of April 8, Megiri fell into the hands of the Germans. The German armoured units pursued the victory, and the British troops completely collapsed, leaving behind a large number of tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, and the bodies of dead officers and soldiers.

By 9 April, Rommel's reconnaissance force had arrived in Baierdi, just a few miles from the Halefayah Pass and Selum on the Egyptian border. Some of the surviving British units made every effort to cross the two passes and return to the place where they had begun their offensive four months earlier. …,

However, many more British troops did not have such a good chance to escape, and they were surrounded by German regiments.

Rommel's sortie regained all the lost territory of the Italians. Under these circumstances, he soon began to discuss with his staff officers the seizure of Egypt and the Suez Canal. However, he had to take into account the reaction of Italy.

Under the command of Rommel, there were two Italian divisions, the Arlette Panzer Division and the Trieste Motorized Division were particularly well fought. The rest of the Italian units were mediocre in combat effectiveness and would fall apart in the event of strong pressure from their opponents.

However, Rommel put them together with the German troops to carry out combat missions in some key areas, so that they would also have quite a good performance!

Rommel first had to be well reinforced and resupplied in order to consolidate and expand his gains, and he had to rely on the Italian merchant fleet to support him.

However, he was faced with a very difficult problem: from time to time the British Royal Navy launched fierce and ruthless attacks on the Axis fleets, and the lines of communication in the Mediterranean had actually fallen into British hands. At that time, the British Royal Navy's squadron of cruisers and destroyers was departing from Egypt, and the submarine force was leaving Malta just enough to choke the Italian Mediterranean route to North Africa. Only one merchant ship remained in the Italian merchant fleet, and the rest of the ships were all buried at the bottom of the Mediterranean.

On 10 April 1941, Rommel's troops arrived at the fortress of Tubrug and hastily organized an attack, but were repulsed by the Australian troops stationed there. Rommel's rapid offensive in North Africa attracted the attention of the German General Staff, so it sent Friedrich Brown. General Paulus went to investigate.

Instead of being moved by Rommel's achievements, Paulus reported that Rommel was "self-serving" and "disobedient."

At the same time, Paulus was very worried that the "minutiae" of fighting in North Africa would greatly deplete Germany's strength, thus affecting the German offensive in other theaters.

With a series of British attacks, the debate over the objectives of the German army in North Africa came to an end for the time being.

In May 1941, General Wavell launched Operation Brivett, which was defeated. In June, the British launched another offensive, this time codenamed Tomahawk, reinforced by nearly 300 new tanks from the British.

The British tried to destroy Rommel's armored forces by tank battles.

However, the Germans used their towed anti-tank guns with great skill, firing from well-closed positions, inflicting great damage on the British tanks.

In the end, the German armored units fought their way out from the flanks and ended the battle cleanly. At that time, the German Army's 37-mm guns could not penetrate the British infantry tanks such as "Matilda" and "Valentine", so the Luftwaffe's 88-mm anti-aircraft guns were cleverly used in anti-tank warfare.

Ironically, the British had a similar weapon at the time, the 93 mm rapid-fire gun, but due to a lack of imagination and effective coordination between their troops, they were ultimately unable to use it as freely as the Germans.

During the three-day Battle of Selum, the German Afrika Korps demonstrated great command skills and excellent staff skills.

On the contrary, the performance of the British is really not flattering. In view of this situation, the top brass in London removed Wavell from his post and appointed General Auchinleck as commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, asking him to relaunch the offensive as soon as possible and relieve Tubrug, who was still surrounded by the Axis **.

At that time, both warring sides were sending additional troops to the North African theater, and the Germans were clearly unable to cope with it, because the war of invasion of the Soviet Union had already begun. In the face of many difficulties, Rommel had no choice but to persevere, commanding his troops, which had been renamed the "African Panzer Group", to fight. …,

Tubrug was crucial: if the port could be captured, Rommel's supplies would be delivered directly to land behind the position, rather than having to travel hundreds of kilometers along the coastline from the port of Benghazi and then go ashore.

Through the hard work of the codebreakers, the British were able to gain insight into Rommel's intentions against Tubrug and preempt Rommel's attack.

On 17 November, Rommel's signalman reported that "all British radio went into silence".

This is a sign that the offensive is looming. However, Rommel ignored this sign, and he also ignored the first reports of a major British offensive.

In order to relieve the German siege of Tubrug, the British 8th Army launched an offensive under the command of General Cunningham. British tank forces roamed the desert in search of and destroy German armored units.

On 19 November, British tanks arrived at Sidi Raizag airfield. Rommel was unwilling to abandon the planned attack on Tubrug, so he engaged in fierce fighting with the British in the area around Sidi Raizig, and the battle lasted until the 23rd.

Here, there is no real difference between the front and the rear, and the command units and supply convoys of both sides have been raided by each other's tanks, and each side has paid an extremely heavy price!

However, there is a lack of accurate grasp of the losses of the other party. In such a battle, psychological superiority is a very important force.

On 24 November, Rommel did not stop at repelling the British attack, but instead directed his troops to break through to the British rear, aiming directly at the Egyptian border.

This was an extremely bold move, but it did not succeed and instead caused the German commander to lose contact with his command for several days.

On the British side, General Cunningham was dismissed by General Auchinleck, commander-in-chief of British forces in the Middle East, due to poor command of operations, and Auchinleck sent his own chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ritchie, as commander of the 8th Army.

Rommel's assault failed to achieve the expected success, but was dismissed by his staff as premature.

Eventually, the Germans abandoned the siege of Tubrug and began to retreat!