From the outbreak of the fighting to the present, Liu Zhaocheng, commander-in-chief of China's African Expeditionary Force, has always watched everything on the front line.

Liu Zhaocheng has been inspecting the troops digging trenches on the front line. He ordered his Afrika Korps to be ready to "launch a surprise attack from any direction."

He was looking forward to an even bigger fight sooner rather than later. The British were apparently gathering forces for a new offensive, but they were facing the difficulty of being poorly fed.

On March 21, Liu Zhaocheng came up with an updated plan, and then he ordered that "the time is ripe for an attack." ".

On the morning of the 22nd, he briefly revealed his plans to his trusted subordinates Zhang Lingfu and Rao Guohua. "The Panzer Corps will deal with the enemy forces that are massed south of Gonsa. Now that we outnumber them, we need to launch a surprise attack on them and annihilate them in one fell swoop! ”

Liu Zhaocheng announced categorically.

But how do you keep that part of the secret that is crucial for a surprise attack? Liu Zhaocheng personally drew up a list of commanders who could participate in this secret; It is forbidden for artillery to shoot back with indiscriminate fire; It was forbidden for all trucks to move towards the enemy during the day, on the contrary, he deliberately allowed the convoy to move westward until dusk, and then turned around and drove towards the enemy under the cover of night; Both tanks and artillery were carefully camouflaged. He hid this secret even from the Chinese High Command.

Liu Zhaocheng made the strictest rules: the orders of the armored corps were published on the notice boards of all inns leading to the front line along Gomba at the moment of the attack. The offensive was launched at 8:30 a.m. on March 21.

At noon on the 21st, Liu Zhaocheng decided to start an offensive.

He ordered Zhang Lingfu to lead his troops to feint to lure the enemy to Gangba, and he himself led his troops to attack Sayom directly from Gangba, looting the equipment and supplies of the British army.

On the evening of the 22nd, Liu Zhaocheng set off from his headquarters. At this time, there was another sandstorm, followed by a heavy rain, and there were still 24 hours of exhausting deserted villages and mountains waiting for Liu Zhaocheng to trek.

Liu Zhaocheng once again shook the world.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, on the road north of Sargom, the marching column of the British Indian division was advancing in a hurry. Liu Zhaocheng commanded several tanks and armored vehicles to cross the mountain peaks in the pouring rain, descend from the sky in the east, and attack the coastal road.

There were deep ditches on both sides of the road, and the Indian division had nowhere to hide, and it was destroyed at once, and the squadron captured hundreds of transport trucks.

Beneath the road, tongues of flames and explosions rose into the sky, reflecting the entire harbor

Sargom's British troops were in a mess and fled in a hurry.

Sargom changed hands. Liu Zhaocheng seized a large amount of loot, including 1,000 trucks.

On that day, Nanjing was plunged into jubilation by the good news from Africa. The radio interrupted other programs to report on Liu Zhaocheng's victory.

The next day, President Wang Hengyue praised Liu Zhaocheng's meritorious deeds without hesitation in his speech, and announced that he would be promoted to a first-class general of the army.

Never before has such a young commander been awarded such a high rank.

The resounding victory brought Liu Zhaocheng's prestige to an unprecedented peak. Inspired by the victory, the soldiers willingly followed him on the battlefield.

His command car with its swaying radio antenna, his familiar figure standing in the car, his abundance of words and characteristic gestures to give orders to his commander, all confirmed that he was capable of striking the enemy exactly where it was needed.

Liu Zhaocheng poured his strength into every soldier.

Everyone called him by his first name, which was a heartfelt admiration. The lads understood their commander-in-chief: he was blunt when he talked to them; Be honest with them; often speak sharply, and at the same time know how to praise and encourage them; Know how to make recommendations and explain complex issues to them in a simple way. Liu Zhaocheng and his subordinates have established loyalty and friendship in the desert, and everyone knows and worships him infinitely! …,

But Liu Zhaocheng was not satisfied. He's starting to make his big plans again.

He will start conquering the whole of Manim again!

Reinforcements are also coming, and reinforcements are slowly arriving.

Rigorous and meticulous training began, and the newly replenished infantry had to learn how to charge enemy positions under the cover of smoke screens and tanks; Officers must learn how to act like tank fire observers and promptly request artillery support from the rear; How to set fake goals. He personally organized a tank repair company to convert a fake tank out of trucks.

The mood of the soldiers was very high, they were not afraid of hard work despite the heat and thirst, and their skin was as tanned as brown animal skins, as if they had been roasted by the hard, gray sand of the desert. Whenever Liu Zhaocheng walked among them, they suddenly radiated.

Liu Zhaocheng constantly perfected his plan of action, and marked the steps of action on the map, and he laid out the instructions to the army commanders and asked them to briefly convey them to the division commanders. The focus of the British army's battle plan was to keep the squadron under its own control and not be able to move freely in the open desert.

But they were completely wrong. The British line easily broke through it and went down the coast into the desert.

The entire line was defended by the British 50th Division and 201st Brigade, the South African 1st and 2nd Divisions, and the Indian 5th Division, and 1 million mines were planted along the line, cutting off all the ideal desert trails from Manim to Manim. The entire defensive line was very well designed, with a few heavily defended fortresses at its core, all of which were well supplied with powerful artillery, infantry, and armored vehicles. At the same time, in the rear of the main line of defense, there was also a strong mobile reserve, about two divisions of armored and motorized units.

The original intention of the British deployment was to take an offensive posture, and it was not prepared to meet Liu Zhaocheng's offensive.

In addition, they had piled up a large amount of supplies on the forward base, so that the British commanders were afraid to move their armored forces casually, otherwise their bases would be exposed. But in Africa, where the endless desert is the domain of motorized troops, mechanized warfare and tank warfare can give full play to their advantages. Non-motorized infantry units are only valuable if they hold their pre-set positions, they can fight to the end, and once their positions are breached, they will only be killed by motorized troops.

At 9 a.m. on 12 April, Liu Zhaocheng convened an operational meeting. He gave a brief account of the current enemy situation, and then introduced his own combat plan; In order to win this victory, to cover up the attempt to flank from the southern flank, first launch a frontal breakthrough from the north, make a feint, force the enemy to send out armored forces, and lure it to one end of the Manim Line; The main force attacked from the desert end of the defensive line at dawn on the second day, and on the third day reached the starting position for the attack on Shabaluk. On the 13th, Liu Zhaocheng gave a brief introduction to the infantry commanders

There is always calm before the storm. Liu Zhaocheng sat in front of the map almost every night and whispered to his subordinates about the situation.

Liu Zhaocheng set the day of the attack on April 16, 1943. A great battle is about to begin. The troops all entered their positions on time. Before the Great War, there was a terrible silence on the battlefield.

At 12 o'clock on the 16th, two Chinese infantry corps launched a fierce attack on the Manim line on time. The British noticed that the tanks of the squadron had been assembled there all afternoon, roaring and roaring to raise a cloud of dust to cover the sunset. The dust was stirred up by the propellers on top of a car with an airplane engine circling around the desert. There was only one tank battalion left on the position near dusk, and the main force of the tank battalion of the squadron had already slipped away at 19 o'clock in the evening and rushed to participate in the scheduled battle on the enemy's flank.

Liu Zhaocheng drove to the front line. At 20:30, Liu Zhaocheng gave an order, more than 1,000 combat vehicles rumbled into action, and the assault force set off south. From time to time, he checked his compass, speedometer, and watch. On his right flank were the Afrika Army and the 26th Light Armored Division, and on the left flank was the 11th Army with 228 tanks. …,

At 3 a.m. on April 17, Liu Zhaocheng arrived at the first line of stopover of the troops, which was a desert outpost 60 kilometers from Shabaruk. This meant that the troops had successfully detoured through the British lines without encountering resistance.

The troops all stopped to rest and replenish their fuel bombs. The African Army carried out the formation, with Zhang Lingfu's 21st Armored Division on the left flank and Rao Guohua's 26th Armored Division on the right flank. Each division again underwent combat formations.

More than an hour later, the squadron continued to rush to the rear of the defensive line. The British resistance was fierce.

For several hours, the squadron did not make any progress. At 11:30 a.m., the 26th Light Panzer Division occupied Asanson. But the situation of the African Army was not so good - it had an encounter with the British 4th Armoured Brigade and the Indian 3rd Motorized Brigade near Bir Hamat.

Division commander Rao Guohua sent an armored battalion to detour back to the right flank to launch a surprise attack on the enemy.

The British tanks hastily withdrew, temporarily giving way to the way forward.

On the 18th, Liu Zhaocheng failed to completely annihilate the British troops behind the Manim Line. That night, Liu Zhaocheng found the lost 1,500 supply vehicles in the south of the battlefield and organized a huge supply convoy. On the 19th, Liu Zhaocheng personally led a supply convoy from behind the Manim Line to the African Army, which finally alleviated their urgent needs. This time the most important point was grasped, and the situation immediately improved, and the British offensive was contained. Liu Zhaocheng placed the headquarters of the armored corps, and the entire corps resumed contact.

In the early morning of the 20th, the divisions advanced to the designated positions. It was at this time that Liu Zhaocheng learned that a large number of British troops were stationed in the Bliss area; The 10th Army had crossed the British minefield and established a bridgehead to the east. At noon, the 10th Army made contact with the assault forces, and the squadron surrounded the British troops in Bliss. In the afternoon, Liu Zhaocheng drove to the 10th Army to discuss the battle plan. Liu Zhao admitted that the British minefield protected the northeast direction of the squadron, and that the British 105th Brigade of the British Army and the 1st Brigade of the French Army at Manim should be annihilated first, and the southern end of the Manim Line should be cleared before continuing the offensive.

Just as the squadron stepped up its action, the British army hesitated and acted slowly, thus missing the opportunity. On the 21st, Liu Zhaocheng organized an attack on Bliss, and the British resistance was extremely stubborn, and the progress of the squadron was slow.

The next day, the battle continued, the Germans sent an air squadron to support, and the squadron infantry rushed forward in waves, and the battle was extremely fierce, and the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Liu Zhaocheng witnessed this spectacular scene with his own eyes. In the afternoon, the squadron broke through the British positions on all fronts and captured 3,000 British troops.

The next step is to attack Manim.

Liu Zhaocheng adjusted the armored forces and made careful arrangements for the next move. From time to time, British artillery fire bombarded his breakthrough in an attempt to stop the supply convoy of the squadron.

On the night of 28 April-the morning of 29 April, the 26th Light Panzer Division and the 1st Infantry Division began to approach Manim and, without any losses, passed through the minefield and blocked the way out to the east of the fortress. But the British and French defenders refused to surrender.

At noon, the 26 Light Armored Division launched simultaneously from the northeast and the Infantry Division from the southeast

The French defenders inside the fortress were extremely stubborn and fought tragically, lasting several days from 29 April to 3 May. It was the first time Liu Zhaocheng had encountered such a fierce battle, and he, an infantry tactician, was also deeply shocked by this.

The French army was very well established, full of trenches, bunkers, machine-gun bunkers and anti-tank gun positions, and was heavily laid with minefield artillery and air bombardment was almost powerless. The squadron consumed huge ammunition and suffered heavy casualties. The squadron sappers used their corpses to open a way for the follow-up troops. At the same time, the Luftwaffe also contributed to the fact that it flew more than 1,600 combat aircraft sorties during the offensive.

Subsequently, the African Army took a break, and Liu Zhaocheng received some new tanks. He regained the initiative and was able to free up his forces again to deal with the Manim Line and organize a counteroffensive. The British suffered heavy losses, losing more than 400 tanks alone. So far, Liu Zhaocheng has become the real master of this war zone. …,

On the evening of May 11, Liu Zhaocheng commanded the 21st and 28th Light Armored Divisions, together with the 3rd and 37th Reconnaissance Battalions, to march north of Manim.

The British Manim Line was directly and seriously threatened. To this end, the British commander Montgomery transferred an armored brigade to it. On the 12th and 13th, Liu Zhaocheng commanded two large-scale tank battles. As a result, the British lost nearly 140 tanks and only about 70 tanks remained.

Early in the morning of the 14th, the British were forced to begin withdrawing the remaining forces from the Manim Line. When night fell, the squadron took control of the road!

In the early morning of the 15th, the 15th Armored Division of the ** squadron left a small number of troops to guard the road, while the main force advanced to the coastline. At this time, a large number of British troops retreating eastward easily took the road and fled. On the evening of the 16th, the squadron captured Adeum. On the night of the 17th, Sidi Rezhfo was captured. Subsequently, the squadron conquered the last fortress leading to Shabaruk - Batrula. Manim's big open.

Liu Zhaocheng sent back a famous telegram to China at this time:

"We have won, the enemy army is crumbling"!

On the 17th, Liu Zhaocheng's encirclement once again tightly encircled Manim. At 15 o'clock in the afternoon, the tanks of the African Army and the 21 Panzer Division moved eastward, completing the total encirclement of the British army.

At 18:30, Liu Zhaocheng personally commanded the 21st Armored Division to return to the north again. In order to seize the time, he took the lead and personally drove at full speed to rush to the coast over the bewildered British artillery and armored vehicles.

It was getting dark. The 21st Panzer Division stormed a minefield that was not marked on the map, and a tank was reduced to a fireball in a terrible explosion. At dawn on the 18th, the 21st Panzer Division was bombed by the British Air Force, but Liu Zhaocheng still urged the troops to continue to advance north as fast as possible. Soon, the troops arrived at the forward airfield, the defenders had fled, and the squadron captured 15 intact planes and a large amount of fuel at once.

It was not until dawn that Liu Zhaocheng ordered to stop advancing. A reconnaissance battalion had arrived. Manim's "pocket" was tightened.

On the afternoon of the 19th, the Afrika Army occupied a new position. The 26th Light Panzer Division struck east, occupying LinkedIn's supply depots and disrupting the British army's view. Everything is in place. Liu Zhaocheng was full of confidence in his victory, but he also felt that everyone was inexplicably nervous while everyone was waiting for him.

The British deployed heavy groups at Manim, including the South African 2nd Division, the Indian 11th Brigade, the 2nd Guards Brigade, the 32nd Tank Brigade, and several artillery regiments. These troops are exhausted and demoralized. The British commanders were slow to act, and the reorganization was not yet complete, not to mention the careful organization of the defense. But that doesn't mean that Manim has become a dangerous nester, it's still a hot piece of taro. The terrain around the fortress was so complex that the sand ridges to the southeast were impassable for armored vehicles; The desert flats to the south were strewn with British bunkers and firing points, connected by tunnels, so that the defenders did not have to expose their targets unless absolutely necessary; Outside the independent stronghold, deep anti-tank trenches and dense barbed wire were built; The perimeter of the fortifications was also covered with numerous minefields.

However, Liu Zhaocheng has already made a plan this time. According to the defensive situation of the British army, he decided that the 21st Army would carry out the feint mission, with the African Army and the 26th Panzer Division as the main attack. Before the general offensive was launched, the entire Luftwaffe in Africa was requested to bomb it. As soon as the infantry broke through the fortified defenses, the Afrika Army advanced all the way to the crossroads leading to the port.

At 3:30 a.m., his subordinates reported that all the attacking troops had occupied the designated positions and everything was ready, and he closed his eyes and was confused for a while. But an hour later, Liu Zhaocheng sat in his command car again in high spirits.

"Today is a crucial day. Offensive! ”

At 5:30 a.m. on May 20, the artillery of the squadron densely distributed on the battlefield roared. …,

But half an hour passed, and the movement of the plane was still not heard. Liu Zhaocheng climbed a small high ground, and after a while, he got the news that the German air force squadron had just set off.

In an instant, hundreds of planes were over the enemy's positions, countless bombs rained down, shattered barbed wire and blown weapons were thrown into the air, and then fell heavily on the heads of the defenders

After the bombardment, there was a dead silence on the defenders' positions. Liu Zhaocheng's infantry began to storm. The company commanders and platoon commanders stood up and blew the whistle of the advance, and they rushed forward in the suffocating dust and smoke, and in a moment the guns rang out again like popping beans.

The sappers also moved quickly, and at 8 o'clock they erected a steel bridge over the anti-tank trench, and the tanks rumbled up.

At this time, Liu Zhaocheng had also arrived at the front line of the 21st Armored Division, and his armored personnel carrier drove all the way to the breakthrough of the minefield, watching tanks and an infantry company pass through the minefield to attack the bunkers behind the defensive line. From time to time, the artillery fire of the defenders fell near him, and the vehicles near the breakthrough were crowded together!

He ordered the road to be quickly cleared, and the tanks rushed up again, and 6 British "Crusader" tanks were hit and caught fire. At 9 o'clock, Liu Zhaocheng was already victorious. He beckoned the reporters accompanying the army to come over and record his wonderful battlefield speech:

"Today, my soldiers are attacking Manim with all their might. Individual soldiers may be killed, but the victory of our nation as a whole is certain. ”

On the morning of the 21st, Liu Zhaocheng drove to the city.

Everywhere there are ruins and broken walls, full of desolation; On both sides of the road were tanks and cars on fire, some hit by shells and some set on fire by the British themselves; The dry rivers of the coast were crowded with countless captives. Some of the soldiers were drunk, but they looked happy, clapping their hands and shouting: "The war is over!" ”

At 9:40 a.m., the commander of the fortress, General Klopp, commander of the 2nd South African Division, presented a surrender to Liu Zhaocheng in Via.

China is boiling. On the afternoon of the 21st, all the Chinese listeners heard their announcer excitedly announce that General Liu Zhaocheng had captured Manim!

By this time, the news documentary had already been replicated. Liu Zhaocheng stood on a small mound, the sky behind him lining his silhouette; After the capture of the port, Liu Zhaocheng sat in his command car; Liu Zhaocheng and Zhang Lingfu entered the city in an armored car. The voice sounded: "Liu Zhaocheng doesn't know what rest is, the battle must continue." ”

Great victory, great general!

Liu Zhaocheng's victory in Africa means that the Chinese have firmly grasped the initiative in the African war. Now, in the dictionary of Liu Zhaocheng and all the Chinese soldiers, there is only one sentence left:

Attack, attack, attack!

Drive all the British and French out of Africa!

There can only be one country for the real winner, and that is China! On this battlefield in Africa, Liu Zhaocheng and his army performed incredible miracles.

Montgomery and his army thoroughly understood the power of the Chinese god of war, and also the power of the invincible squadron.

Now what they have to think about is not how to defeat the squadron, but how to safely withdraw their main force in Africa from this cursed land as soon as possible!

This is everything that happened on the African continent, and the time is 1943!