Chapter 501: Attack

As it turned out, Patton and Montgomery were not the only ones thinking of an offensive. Germany’s Rommel was also planning an attack. However, his plan was forbidden by the German High Command before he could even put it into action.

General Friederici was now in the conference room, briefing Rommel on his battle preparations over the last few days. Near this supply station, he had arranged the 7th Infantry Corps in three echelons. He had placed the 27th Division and some Italian units on the front line, the elite 7th Infantry Division and 17th Infantry Division on the second line, and some scattered assault guns and Italian tank units on the third line, ready to reinforce any point attacked by the enemy.

Although this arrangement was very sound, the German Afrika Korps had only deployed a single corps along the long defensive line, which was clearly not enough. So, a question arises: where did Rommel’s reinforced 7th Panzer Corps go?

This was no longer the small force of only the 7th Panzer Division from half a month ago, but a massive armored force with three panzer divisions. Including some tank destroyers and Panzer III tanks, Rommel now had over 700 tanks under his command, which was not a small number.

Excluding breakdowns and maintenance, Rommel could commit at least 500 tanks to the battlefield at once. For a theater like North Africa, this number of tanks was quite considerable.

It should be known that the armored forces under Patton and Montgomery, who were preparing to attack, numbered only 910 tanks in total. Of course, these tanks could not all be thrown into battle at once. The force that Patton could use for an attack was, at most, no more than 500 tanks.

So, the most evenly matched battle since the start of the war was about to begin. And what Rommel was confirming at this very moment was precisely the amount of supplies he could use for this campaign.

“We have about 75 fighters available. Securing local air superiority is no problem at all. The British have lost 7 planes in the last few days and have rarely sent out patrol formations to provoke us,” the air force representative reported on the situation in the sky, once again assuring Rommel that they could win air superiority over the battlefield.

Rommel felt he could believe this. The German Air Force had rarely lost air superiority since the start of the war. Even during the Battle of Britain, when they were desperately interfered with by the Royal Air Force, they had not lost their advantage over the operational area. The skies of North Africa had always been controlled by the German and Italian air forces. The Italian Air Force’s Me-109C fighters were responsible for routine patrol missions, while the German Air Force’s Fw-190Ds were responsible for shooting down any intruding British aircraft.

However, to be honest, apart from a few groups of Stuka bombers, the suppressive power of the German-Italian air force on the ground battle was not high. The Italian bombers, even under the cover of the German Air Force, only dared to drop bombs from high altitude, and the word “accuracy” could only be a beautiful wish. So Rommel did not expect the air force in North Africa to be able to rout the Anglo-American forces from the air, as their counterparts in Europe could.

The real showdown would still depend on the ground battle. Thinking of this, Rommel tossed aside the telegram forbidding him from launching an attack on the Anglo-American forces and listened with a sneer as the Italian allied officers elaborated on the coordination of artillery support. In fact, there was nothing much to arrange. The attitude of the senior German generals towards the Italian troops had always been very simple and crude: you fight your war, and I’ll fight mine.

“General Rommel, you have mobilized the entire 7th Panzer Corps. Are you really planning to disregard the orders of your country’s High Command and forcibly organize an offensive?” the Italian General Garibaldi asked, sitting beside Rommel. “Are you planning to defy the Führer’s orders again?”

“General Garibaldi, just yesterday, the High Command changed the communication codes and sent a telegram with the new code,” General Friederici said, handing a document to his Italian ally.

General Garibaldi took the document, read the contents carefully, and then returned it to Friederici with a wry smile. The message was a telegram from Akado, written in his own tone, and the content was not long: Rommel, I know that interfering with a frontline commander’s authority is a very dangerous thing, and that the order forbidding your attack due to incomplete logistical supply has likely been deciphered by the enemy. How to handle the situation is up to your own discretion. Akado Rudolph.

This telegram could be said to have rescinded the High Command’s directive ordering Rommel not to attack. In fact, this was not the Führer Akado being “fickle,” but rather his ability to “correct his mistakes.”

Akado had established the High Command for two reasons. The first was the need for joint operations between the various branches of the military. The second was to lawfully and reasonably seize control of the army in his own hands. Neither of these reasons included personally commanding the troops. Because from the very beginning, Akado had set a bottom line for himself, which was to interfere as little as possible with the command of his troops.

He knew all too well what kind of disasters Hitler’s meddling, pretending to know what he didn’t, had brought upon the German army. It was precisely because of his stubbornness and arbitrary decision-making that the German army had been routed in 1943. And it was precisely because he had been let off the leash and had interfered in military affairs that many battles that could have been fought better had been lost in a complete rout.

And later, because the orders issued by the High Command became more and more baffling, and because Hitler’s mistakes became more and more unbearable, the senior German generals began to deceive Hitler and modify his operational plans, which led to even more disastrous consequences. The subordinates deceived their superiors, and the superiors, misjudging the situation, made wrong decisions. As a result, the subordinates had no choice but to fight even more hopeless battles. In such a vicious cycle, how could they not be defeated?

For example, a situation arose in the later stages of the war. Hitler ordered the expansion of the German army, but there were no more weapons, equipment, or personnel. So the generals had to deceive Hitler by saying that these non-existent troops had indeed been formed and had already entered the battle. Hitler would then use these non-existent armies to launch counter-attacks, which would naturally have no result, and the frontline troops, receiving no support, would collapse even faster. The collapsed troops did not dare to report this to Hitler, so these units continued to exist on paper and were used by Hitler the next time to support other German forces.

Akado had no desire to commit suicide in a bunker like Churchill, nor did he want his body to be doused with gasoline and set on fire like Hitler’s. He still had three beautiful women waiting for him, and he still had a lot of money waiting to be spent.

And Rommel, with Akado’s go-ahead, naturally decided to fight the kind of offensive battle he was best at, according to his own ideas. He did not want to wait in a trench for the enemy to come knocking. This was not the way he dreamed of fighting, nor did it conform to his personal art of war.

Attack! Only the attack is the best defense! Only by beating the enemy into a thousand-li rout can one’s own defensive line be as solid as a mountain! This was Rommel’s creed, the creed of Germany’s best offensive general. If he had even one liter of gasoline, he would use it on the path of attack. This was his style, and this was in line with the classic phrase from his book, Infantry Attacks: “Attack, attack, and attack again!”

“Fight the kind of battle you are familiar with. General Garibaldi and I will hold the line here to the last moment,” Friederici said with a smile. “I remember you once mentioned in your book, Infantry Attacks: ‘The stronger the firepower, the deeper the fortifications, the fewer the casualties.’ So we have been preparing for a long time this time.”

The Italian commander, General Garibaldi, also added, “I know that in front of the German army, the combat capability of the Italian army is indeed not very good. But this time, the troops we have deployed at the front are the most elite of the Italian forces. I have no confidence in an attack, but I am very confident in a defense.”

As he boasted about his own troops, he pointed to the map and described the defensive layout of the Italian units. He had placed cannons at many key defensive points, laid mines between the positions, and in some more important areas, he had even welded steel plates into covers to create bunkers.

And this time, Mussolini had reinforced Garibaldi with a division of Blackshirts. This unit was somewhat similar to the German SS, a volunteer army of young men with firm beliefs and unwavering loyalty. Their combat effectiveness could be considered the strongest in the Italian army. Rommel also knew that what Garibaldi said was indeed true. The Italian 1st North African Corps that was now accompanying the German offensive was very strong, and at the very least, there should not be any major problems with their defense.

However, there was still a problem that troubled Rommel, who was preparing for the offensive: his logistical supply had indeed run into problems. An Italian oil tanker carrying fuel had been sunk in the Mediterranean by a British submarine. This meant that the 2,000 tons of gasoline and 1,000 tons of aviation fuel that should have been delivered to Rommel had sunk to the bottom of the sea. This was the most important reason why the High Command had forbidden Rommel from launching an offensive.

The lack of fuel was the biggest problem facing the German army. If not for the capture of a British fuel depot, which had sustained Rommel for so long, he might have been chased all the way back to Tunisia by Patton long ago. However, after several days of entanglement and the pre-stockpiling of spare fuel, Rommel found that the resources he had on hand were only enough for a short offensive. Although the amount of fuel had increased, the number of fuel-guzzling pieces of equipment he had had also increased. After all, tanks, planes, assault guns, and armored cars were all gas guzzlers.

But Rommel was still full of confidence. He firmly believed that his troops could, in this one counter-attack, get close to Tobruk and take this important defensive node.

Published: 2025-08-31T02:04:24.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-02T17:05:47.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c501-attack-137749413

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