The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Bazel was right. The battle was indeed not over. The Germans only eliminated one of the British troops.

But the destruction of this force was enough to make Wavell heartbroken.

"What?" When Wavell heard that the "Crusader" tank regiment had been completely wiped out, he couldn't help but asked in shock: "Wild out? How is this possible? How did they do it?!"

"General!" the staff officer replied: "I don't know why, but they saw the weakness of the Crusader tanks' lack of firepower against infantry, and defeated the 1st Tank Regiment with an infantry charge!"

"Damn it!" Wavell cursed, but there was nothing he could do about the outcome.

Wavell originally wanted the "Crusader" tank to cooperate with the "Matilda" tank, because the two tanks can complement each other... The "Crusader" tank is fast and can respond quickly on the battlefield. The Erda tank has thick armor and can be used as a mobile fortress to advance slowly. In addition, there are also ammunition types, firepower, etc. that can also cover each other.

In fact, Wavell equipped the 7th Armored Division, which was responsible for the penetration, with 100 tanks, 50 of which were "Matildas" and the other 50 were "Crusader". Wavell had reason to believe that between these two tanks, And with the advancement of a total of 100 troops... no German army can stop their attack.

But these complementarities are actually complementary on paper. It is only when they are put into practice that problems are discovered:

The "Matilda" tank only has a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, and it keeps breaking down. In this case, if the "Crusader" tank wants to cooperate with it... it means that the "Crusader" will also have to travel at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour. Moving forward at an hourly speed, this completely fails to reflect the "Crusader"'s advantage of being fast.

This was also the wrong direction of the British army's tank development during World War II. They defined one type of tank as an infantry tank and did not require speed, and the other type of tank as a cruise tank that required high speed.

This huge gap in speed determines that they often cannot coordinate effectively on the battlefield.

For example, in this battle, the British 7th Armored Division and the German 5th Light Division were both performing intersecting missions on the right wing... In terms of tank ownership, the 100 tanks of the 7th Armored Division were enough to 50 tanks of the 5th Light Division. Twice that of the tank, and the firepower and protective performance of the "Matilda" tank and the "Crusader" tank are better than the German "Plank III" tank.

In this case, the British army should have been able to defeat or even encircle the German army without any pressure. However, the British army had to split the army into two because of the difference in tank speed. As a result, the Crusader tanks in the lead were completely annihilated. .

"How many tanks do they have left?" Wavell asked after a while.

"There are still about twenty vehicles left!" the staff officer replied.

Wavell nodded, and then ordered: "Let the Second Armored Regiment advance at full speed, and order the air force to cooperate. We must destroy the German left wing troops!"

"Yes!" the staff officer responded and passed on the order.

The current situation between the enemy and us is very simple. When the frontal defense line is inextricably fought, both sides are intersecting from the flanks, and the intersecting troops are also colliding with each other...Then the focus shifts to these intersecting troops.

If the German penetration force wins, it can chase the British army all the way and go around the side of the British frontal defense line to collapse the British defense line.

Similarly, if the British interspersed troops win, they can also circle to the side of the German defense line and surround and defeat it.

At this point, Wavell has full confidence, because the 7th Armored Division still has 50 "Matildas", while the German army only has 20 "Plover 3"s, and the British army still has a share of air power. Advantage... Wavell believed that this battle was still a sure win, but the destruction of the "Crusader" tank made winning this battle not so good.

So soon, Wavell was thinking about how to deal with Churchill and the group of MPs in London because of this issue.

As soon as the British Second Armored Regiment moved, Colonel Olbridge got the news.

"Colonel!" the adjutant handed a telegram to Colonel Olbridge and said: "According to air force reconnaissance information, another British armored regiment is 10 miles away from us. They have about 50 Matildas. 'Tank, the big one will arrive in two hours!"

"What?" Colonel Albridge couldn't help being stunned when he heard this.

In fact, the situation of the German army is worse than the British army imagined. The 5th Light Armored Regiment only has 15 tanks available, and 15 tanks can deal with 50 enemy tanks... and it is also an extremely thickly armored "Matilda" tank!

"The British actually have so many tanks!" Colonel Olbridge couldn't help but frowned. This situation was completely unexpected.

Then Colonel Olbridge figured out that the reason why the British tanks were divided into two batches was because, on the one hand, the "Matilda" was not as fast as the "Crusader", and on the other hand, Wavell hoped to win by surprise... The "Crusader" tank is disguised as a car. If there are tanks following behind, it will not be able to achieve the effect of a surprise attack.

Colonel Olbridge was fooled, but fortunately they turned defeat into victory in the end.

However, now he had to face another British armored regiment...

After thinking about it, Colonel Olbridge ordered: "Let Colonel Sline come here!"

"yes!"

A few minutes later, Colonel Sline's jeep stopped in front of Colonel Olbridge's armored vehicle. Colonel Sline jumped out of the car and walked up to Colonel Olbridge, and the two saluted each other.

Colonel Olbridge shook Colonel Slain's hand and said: "Congratulations, Colonel, you have achieved another almost impossible victory. Your soldiers are brave and your command is perfect!"

"Sir!" Colonel Slain smiled: "Actually, I am the same as you!"

"I don't understand!" said Colonel Olbridge. "What's the same as me?"

"I mean, that's not the result of my command!" Colonel Sline replied.

"You mean..." Colonel Albridge couldn't believe it: "That was a spontaneous action by the soldiers?"

"Yes!" Colonel Slain said: "In fact, it cannot be said to be a spontaneous action, but one unit took the correct approach, and then other units followed suit. Before I could give the order... they rushed Go up!"

After finishing speaking, Colonel Slain cursed: "These bastards!"

But despite the scolding, Colonel Slaine's face was full of pride... No commander would disdain that his soldiers were brave and good at fighting.

"Okay!" Colonel Olbridge nodded: "Anyway, you fought well, but now we have encountered a new problem!"