Chapter 580: Let Them Have a Headache

Patton was in a hurry, his forces stretching all the way from Egypt. The winding, kilometers-long road was thick with dust, filled with American M3 half-tracks and trucks, and dense columns of American and British soldiers marching on either side.

Since the United States had declared war on Japan, domestic wartime controls had instantly raised America’s production capacity to a new level. In just one month, the United States had launched numerous destroyers and cruisers, and including the aircraft carriers on the docks, almost a whole new Pacific Fleet had been produced. The only difference was that this time, the core was not the complex-to-produce battleships, but the simple and easy-to-produce open-hangar aircraft carriers.

Of course, the army’s equipment was even more numerous, to the point of making one’s scalp tingle. The United States had sent a large number of half-track armored vehicles and tanks to the Middle East to protect the increasingly vulnerable oil-producing regions. At the same time, it had stepped up oil extraction in Mexico and at home to meet the needs of its expanded production capacity.

In just one month, the United States had put 200 new fighter planes and 30 bombers into service, and had produced over 200 M4 Sherman tanks, half of which were deployed to the Middle East. Patton had been reinforced with at least 30 M4 tanks and 300 M3 tanks from inventory. The number of tanks he had was not much less than Rommel’s. This was his capital for seeking a battle, and also his greatest reliance.

The entire Eighth Army now had 890 tanks, including about 90 M4 Shermans, over 400 M3 Lee tanks with 75mm cannons, and the rest were mostly M3 Stuarts and a small number of Matildas. These tank units were the largest concentration of armored forces the Allies had assembled. Even the American forces fighting a bitter battle against the Japanese in the Philippines did not have such a large number of tanks.

However, compared to the number of tanks Rommel now had, the armored strength in Patton’s hands seemed a bit shabby. Rommel now had over 70 Tiger tanks, nearly 700 Panther tanks, and close to 250 Panzer III tanks and other miscellaneous junk to make up the numbers.

Unlike the last time Rommel and Patton had fought a tank battle, because the Panzer III chassis was being used for the StuG III assault gun, the German General Armaments Office had ordered the production of the Panzer III to be halted, and to instead focus all efforts on producing the superior Panther tank and the StuG III. So the number of Panzer IIIs under Rommel’s command had not been replenished but had actually dropped significantly. However, the number of Panther tanks in his hands, as the mainstay of the German panzer forces, was now astonishingly large.

So this time, Rommel was confident of fighting an even larger-scale tank battle and completely encircling and annihilating Patton’s armored forces on the outskirts of Tobruk. Once he won this armored battle, not only would Tobruk easily fall into the hands of the German-Italian allied forces, but even Egypt would be within his grasp.

On the one hand, the German army was waiting at its leisure for Patton to appear. On the other, Patton was rushing reinforcements over a thousand li and was exhausted. Rommel had accurately calculated the attrition of Patton’s armored forces on the march. He had used the German army’s mature maintenance and repair standards to estimate the number of tanks Patton had and had easily deduced that the number of tanks Patton could use for battle on the outskirts of Tobruk would not exceed 500. This number was considerably less than the force the German army could use to counter-attack.

Because maintenance and repair were very convenient, and they had not conducted a long-distance raid, the condition of the armored forces under Rommel’s command was very good. At the start of the battle, Rommel could deploy over 800 tanks, which gave the German army an advantage over Patton in both quality and quantity.

The reason Patton was in such a hurry to get here, and was so eager to fight Rommel’s superior army with his inferior forces, was that he had two reliances. One was that America’s production capacity was steadily increasing, and he was confident that he could use two or even more tanks to trade for one of Rommel’s. The number of supplies he would receive would definitely exceed Rommel’s. The other reliance was the British garrison in Tobruk. Once the battle began, the British troops in Tobruk would certainly take the opportunity to sally out. At that point, with the ensuing chaos, Rommel would inevitably suffer losses.

He was here to serve these troops up for Rommel to eat, like a hot KFC family bucket. It was just that this grand meal was a bit tough. If you wanted to eat it, you might break a few teeth.

In fact, on the road through the vast yellow sand, Patton, sitting in his command car, was also repeatedly calculating Rommel’s strength. The news he received made him feel very uneasy. At the very least, he was increasingly feeling that charging ahead was not a very good idea.

The armored forces under Rommel’s command had not appeared on a large scale in the attack on Tobruk. On the contrary, the main force attacking there was traditional infantry in coordination with the navy’s giant cannons. This made Patton dare not to rashly charge over and engage in a decisive battle. It was clear that Rommel was waiting for him to ram his head against the frontal armor of the Tiger and Panther tanks until he was bloodied and bruised.

Moreover, the loss of air and sea superiority had put Patton, this brave and fierce general, in the predicament of being a lone pillar unable to support the sky. The loss of sea control meant that Patton’s supplies had to be transported by a detour through southern Africa. To ensure the absolute safety of this transport line, Britain and the United States had tacitly approved of de Gaulle’s move into Somalia.

After all, it was a big detour. Because of this big detour, about a third of Patton’s fuel was always on the road, and about a third of his equipment was also always on the road. To get to Patton’s hands, it had to go around the Cape of Good Hope, around the whole of Africa, through Somalia, and then, with trepidation, through the Suez.

The loss of air superiority was enough to make one suffer. In good weather, they did not dare to assemble or attack. They had to wait for rain, for sandstorms, for all kinds of bad weather that was unfavorable for combat. Although the German air force in North Africa was far from being as ferocious as it had been in Europe, it was still a formidable force that made one’s blood run cold.

Patton really wanted to be optimistic and estimate just how many troops he would have left after he had struggled his way to Tobruk, but the report he now held in his hand clearly did not allow him to continue to be optimistic. The failure rate of the American M3 tank was itself higher than that of the German Panther. After a rough estimate, he found that after a thousand-li leap, if he could find 400 tanks to launch an attack, it would be a great fortune.

If you also factored in the interference of the German air force, it would be very good if the American tank force had 300 left. Of course, this was an estimate. It was very likely that the situation would be that after a long journey, the United States would only be left with 200 or even fewer pieces of equipment.

To attack at least twice their number of German Panther tanks with less than 300 obsolete M3 Lee and M4 tanks? What kind of joke was that? If this order were to be passed down to the American grassroots on the front line, then there would be no need to fight this battle at all. It was very likely that the Eighth Army would mutiny tomorrow.

“Send a telegram to General Montgomery. Tell him that our plan has to change. To just blindly charge in like this, we’ll probably be eaten up by Rommel,” Patton said to his staff officer, holding an unlit cigar and frowning.

His staff officer was clearly even less optimistic about this campaign than he was, so he just spoke the truth. “General, if we drive all the way over there, half our equipment will be left on the road. Once the German army gains an advantage on the battlefield and pursues us, all this equipment left on the road will be lost to the Germans…”

Patton said nothing, so the staff officer went to send the telegram. Montgomery’s reply was not slow. It was clear that the other side had also considered the situation on the battlefield. After all, the decisive battle in North Africa was of great importance. If a problem were to arise, the consequences would be equally unimaginable.

“I understand. But if we don’t go, then the impact of losing Tobruk will be enough to surpass the annihilation of the entire Eighth Army. If Britain were to lose India, and Australia were to be threatened by the Japanese, then it is very likely that they would withdraw from the war…” Holding the telegram, Patton fell silent once again.

He did not understand politics. To talk politics with him was less direct than talking about military affairs. In his eyes, to send an army group to be eaten by the opponent was a very incomprehensible thing. If it was necessary to set a bait, then one must also kill more of the enemy to be considered to have won.

But now, his allies were dragging him down in his military operations. This made him a little angry, but because he had a superior holding him back, he could not show it for the time being. The leader of the Free French government, de Gaulle, under the pretext of protecting the shipping lanes, had made a move on the Vichy French colony of Somalia. As a result, the French battleships off the coast of Tobruk had thrown the North African front into a passive situation. The British, to protect their own colony of Egypt and the Suez Canal, were also trying by all means to make the United States and Germany fight to the death.

Patton was a little confused. He did not understand why the Vichy French troops in Somalia had never interfered with any of the Allied transport operations, yet de Gaulle had to make a move on that godforsaken place at a time like this. He also did not understand why Montgomery would rather lose Tobruk and destroy the Eighth Army than have him, Patton, lead his troops to their deaths. Was not war for the sake of victory?

The plan to send reinforcements was indeed proposed by Patton himself. But at that time, he also did not know that Rommel would hold back his armored forces for six days without moving an inch, waiting for him to come to his door to fight. At least in Patton’s script, he should now be stopping his advance, gathering his forces, and thinking of another way to rescue Tobruk.

These 50,000 American soldiers and 40,000 British troops could not be sacrificed at his hands. This was the thought that was now filling Patton’s mind. He finally looked up, looked at the tanks that were advancing one after another outside the car window, kicking up dust, and made his decision.

“Order the troops to halt their advance, to gather the stragglers, to repair the tanks and vehicles, and to await further instructions,” Patton said to his staff officer. “Send a reply to Montgomery. Tell him that we don’t want to go and die, and to let him think of another way. At the same time, send a telegram back to the country with our current situation. Let the big shots have a headache.”

Published: 2025-09-07T03:35:09.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-06T19:25:08.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c580-let-138319904

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