Chapter 593: Egypt

While the Japanese soldiers were staring at the desert, at a loss, on the other side of the world, tens of thousands of people had already grown accustomed to desert life.

Three German soldiers jumped down from their armored car. They were wearing shorts, their knees tanned dark by the sun. They stood with their rifles on their backs in front of a boundary stone carved from a massive rock. On it was written “Egypt” in Egyptian and English.

“Signal the rear units that we have entered Egyptian territory. No British reconnaissance units have been sighted,” an officer said, standing on the roof of the armored car. He had been observing the surrounding scenery with his binoculars for a long time and had found that there was indeed nothing to report.

Recently, the British army in Egypt had adopted a strategy of contracting its defenses. Many of the defensive lines that had originally been deployed on the outskirts of Egypt had been abandoned. Montgomery had concentrated the troops under his command in key areas, hoping to rely on complete fortifications to stop Rommel’s offensive.

But this time, Rommel was in no hurry to charge into Egypt. Instead, he had humbly accepted the suggestion of his deputy, General Friederici, and had begun to play a steady and methodical game. He had built a complete network of water supply stations in the rear and had sent out special forces and elite armored units to hunt down the British sabotage detachments. Although it seemed that he had not achieved any large-scale victories, he had managed his supply lines along the way with impeccable care.

“General, the advance units have already entered Egyptian territory. Our main force is assembling and setting up camp on the Egyptian border,” a staff officer reported, putting down the phone and raising his head to shout at Rommel, who was studying a map. “The armored units are still advancing slowly. According to the plan, they will arrive at the designated position in two hours.”

“Order all troops to slow their advance and expand their search radius,” Rommel ordered, shifting his gaze from the map. “Have the air force sortie, to reconnoiter all suspicious areas. After ensuring that there is no enemy threat on the flanks of our troops, set up a defensive line and wait for the follow-on forces to arrive.”

“General, are we really going to wait for Schörner’s K Army Group to arrive in North Africa before we begin the Egyptian campaign?” the staff officer asked, somewhat puzzled. It was no longer a difficult matter for Rommel to win the war in North Africa now. As long as Rommel brought out the same momentum of a frantic offensive as he had in France, then Cairo could even be taken within 10 days.

“Don’t be in a hurry, Chief of Staff. When necessary, I can order the troops to advance 200 kilometers a day, but to do so now would be meaningless. The enemy is waiting for me to make a mistake. This is their only chance to turn defeat into victory,” Rommel said with a smile. “But as long as I don’t make a mistake, then the North African campaign will inevitably be won by me in the end. What I need to do now is not to take risks to win, but to hold steady and wait for the moment of victory.”

Rommel was not unwilling to attack; it was Akado who had ordered him to delay the offensive. Schörner, who was responsible for supporting Rommel in expanding the North African front, was now on his way. The moment the two army groups joined forces would be the critical moment for Akado to deal a fatal blow in North Africa. Akado hoped to play a time game, so that the United States would not have time to send reinforcements to the Middle East, and Germany could drive straight in and occupy the world’s largest oil-producing base.

However, even Akado himself felt that it was impossible to conceal such a large-scale troop movement from everyone. That was why he had simultaneously opened the curtain on the Balkan campaign, hoping to interfere with the enemy’s intelligence agents in the chaos and to achieve the purpose of confusing them. As for the effect, only heaven itself knew.

“The fuel transport unit has just sent a message. A 30-man British raiding party appeared near Benghazi, but they were spotted by our helicopter sweep team. After a fierce battle, the enemy lost 17 men, and the other 13 were captured,” an officer said, walking in from outside the tent and handing a document to Rommel. “They also sent the interrogation records of the prisoners. There is some intelligence that requires your personal attention, General.”

“What intelligence?” Rommel was taken aback for a moment, then took the report. He found that the problem on it was indeed quite serious. Britain was using some immature special forces in an attempt to build some raiding bases along Rommel’s long supply line. These units would then carry out sabotage and raids against Rommel’s supply lines to paralyze his logistical transport.

“What does the commander of the Italian army responsible for road security in the rear have to say about this?” Rommel asked with a frown. “Send a telegram to General Gariboldi. Have him urge the Italian army in the rear to do their best to clear out these enemy raiding bases.”

“If we let Gariboldi’s Blackshirts turn back to deal with these bases, there might be a chance of victory. To have those second-rate Italian units, who don’t even have their basic supplies, do this kind of thing is no different from sending weapons and ammunition to the other side,” the staff officer said, clearly not confident in the combat effectiveness of the Italian garrison in the rear. “Let’s try the ‘Desert Scorpion’ special forces.”

The Desert Scorpions were an elite special forces unit specializing in desert special operations. They had only 120 members, but this “company” was definitely not an ordinary company, but an “airborne special forces” unit that used helicopters as its means of transportation. They were specialized in dealing with scattered enemy troops behind their own lines and protecting the safety of the main force’s supply lines.

This unit relied on helicopters to maneuver in the desert, so they came and went like the wind. Relying on the rocket pods and 13mm heavy machine guns on the helicopters for fire suppression, they were more than enough to deal with the British raiding parties, which only had light weapons and armored cars. This unit had been formed at Akado’s behest, because in another timeline, the British raiding parties had caused incalculable losses to the Italian logistical supply.

But now the situation had changed. The maturity of the German special forces’ combat theory, and the research and development of special operations weapons, were more than a little advanced compared to the British army. Although these German special forces could not fight one against ten on the main front, in this kind of small-scale conflict, they were like a fish in water.

Unfortunately, although this unit had already been divided into four groups to carry out missions in different areas, it was still unable to protect the entire supply line. There were still a large number of defensive vacuum areas, and there were also sections for which the Italian army was responsible. The combat effectiveness of the Italian units in these sections was uneven. Some could repulse the attacking British squads, while others would collapse at the first touch.

Although the Germans had already moved the transport and supply point from the distant city of Tripoli to the newly repaired and operational port of Brega, the German army’s long supply line still had to pass through the entire Benghazi and Tobruk region. In this way, the German army’s logistical supply was once again stretched to its limit. This time, what the Afrika Korps urgently needed to supplement was not weapons, equipment, and personnel, but ammunition and precious fresh water and fuel.

The meticulous Montgomery had naturally also discovered this weak point of the German army. To delay the German offensive, he had sent out a small number of troops who had undergone intensive desert survival training. They then secretly crossed the German lines from the depths of the desert in armored cars to attack the vulnerable German supply lines.

“Alright! Let the Desert Scorpions run around a bit more. After all, their combat style is relatively resource-efficient, and their combat losses are also relatively small, which makes me very satisfied,” Rommel said with a nod, then added, “Apply to the High Command for more special forces to be sent over.”

“Yes, sir!” the staff officer saluted and turned to go to the telegraph room.

In North Africa, where the vast yellow sand was the main theme, the contest between the two armies was not one of courage or perseverance, but of every ton of fuel and every shell transported from thousands of miles away. To put it more profoundly, the contest between the two sides was one of national comprehensive strength, a final power that integrated a series of links such as production, transport, and distribution.

For the first time, the war so clearly laid bare the advantages in every link, leaving no room for any commander to avoid them, making every commander shake his head and sigh. Cunning command and whimsical strategies could ultimately not bypass the truckloads of supplies from the logistics, could not be separated from the tedious statistical numbers.

The work of deceiving the opponent became exceptionally complex. There were countless supplies and a wide variety of equipment that required a massive rear to support. How many rounds of 7.92mm ammunition, 13mm machine gun ammunition, 20mm cannon shells a unit needed to be supplemented with; how many rounds of 40mm anti-aircraft shells, 75mm anti-tank gun shells, 88mm shells, 105mm, 150mm, and so on, and so on, a wide variety of ammunition needed to be transported. All of this ammunition had to be manufactured, allocated, and produced by the rear ordnance department, passing through at least seven, if not ten, departments. If you also counted clothing, tents, daily necessities, food, fuel, spare parts for equipment, and then the salaries of the troops, and the idle talk and bragging of the personnel on leave—if the enemy knew the data of just one of these hundreds and thousands of links, then there would basically be no secrets left.

Of course, the German K Army Group was slowly moving towards North Africa, and the American spies already knew it. A British spy in the quartermaster’s office had obtained an important piece of intelligence. This intelligence showed that the German army had urgently custom-ordered a batch of North African summer uniforms. And this spy knew that the summer uniforms for Rommel’s L Army Group had been sent to North Africa a month ago.

This loophole was immediately discovered by the American intelligence services. They began to mobilize their spies in Italy, hoping to find some clues. The result proved that the level of the Italian intelligence services, compared to the two German intelligence agencies, was a world of difference. The American intelligence services had obtained everything they wanted to know in Italy: the Italian ships arranged for transport, the organization of the K Army Group, the approximate number of heavy weapons. If not for the fact that this transport department official did not know the details, he would probably have told his hearty “American friend” with whom he was drinking the color of Schörner’s underwear.

Published: 2025-09-09T03:08:19.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-11T13:45:07.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c593-egypt-138474438

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