Chapter 657: A Hail of Bullets

The same hail of bullets, the same fearless charge, was happening in another corner of the globe. This was the endless desert of North Africa, the main battlefield for the German-Italian Afrika Korps’ offensive on the flank of Alexandria.

Bullets flew like rain across the flat position, striking the thick armor of a German tank, like real raindrops pattering on a neighbor’s roof. The German tank moved forward slowly, its wide tracks kicking up sand as it gradually closed in on the enemy’s direction.

Suddenly, the steel behemoth stopped. In front of a trench, it slowly rotated its massive turret. The long gun barrel, along with the turret’s swing, pointed inch by inch towards its target, looking majestic and imposing. A few seconds after the rotation stopped, the tank fired its shell.

The massive muzzle blast kicked up the dust around the tank. The arid environment and the desert dust had left a large amount of sand on the vehicle. With this devastating shot, the dust and sand were all shaken loose, forming a cloud of smoke. But the shell had already flown accurately to its target, crossing a kilometer in an instant.

And this shell, fired from the 75mm cannon of a Panther tank, had actually pierced through an emplacement built of sandbags and penetrated an American-made M3 Lee tank, used by the British army, that was hidden behind it. The tank then burst into flames, emitting thick black smoke.

The nearby British soldiers began to retreat. The Panther’s hull machine gun began to let out its unique sound of ripping linen. Bullets swept towards the British soldiers who had been firing fiercely just a moment ago, easily tearing through them.

After the initial bloody battles, although the German army had lost some troops and ammunition reserves, it had indeed annihilated some of the main British forces entrenched in North Africa. For example, a New Zealander division had been severely mauled and had to be withdrawn from the front line to rest and refit.

After these tough peripheral defense units had been worn down, the British had no choice but to supplement the flanks of their positions with less effective Indian and Middle Eastern mercenary divisions. These units were acceptable when fighting with the wind at their backs, but their performance in a battle against the odds was certainly not as reliable as that of the regular British army.

So Montgomery began to move the few armored units he had into his pre-set positions, reinforcing these already weak Indian divisions in the hope that they could hold the line.

However, when Rommel committed a new armored regiment to cut into the southern defense line of Alexandria, the battlefield situation became clear. The British forces on the flank began to collapse, and Alexandria was now besieged by the Germans on two sides. Only the eastern side was still under British control.

“Encircle on both flanks! Consolidate the position after taking the trench! Set up observation posts on both sides! Signal battalion HQ! Tell them we have taken control of the enemy’s first line of defense!” a German company commander shouted after jumping into a trench. To his side, two machine gunners were setting up a new machine gun position, one with a belt of ammunition slung around his neck. Not far away, two grenadiers were firing fiercely with their G43 rifles. At their feet lay the body of a British soldier, already covered in a thin layer of sand.

“Hey! If we attack the high ground to the left, how many men can you spare to cover us?” The commander’s hatch of the Panther tank that had just fired was suddenly pushed open. The commander inside, with binoculars slung around his neck, poked his head out. He shouted to the infantry company commander in the trench, completely ignoring the crackle of enemy bullets hitting his tank.

“If you attack the high ground to the left, I can spare two squads of soldiers to follow you! I can also cover your rear from here, but you’d better withdraw after you take it. I’m worried the British will counter-attack here,” the company commander said, glancing at the high ground in the distance and then shouting back to the tank commander.

The tank commander nodded, then ducked back inside the tank and closed the hatch. The tank’s gearbox then shifted, the sound growing louder, and with this somewhat noisy sound, the tank began to drive towards the distant high ground.

“Kollhoff! Take two squads of soldiers and follow the tank to attack north! Cover the tank’s flanks and rear! After you take the high ground, find a way to hold it!” The company commander, holding his helmet, ran crouched through a dozen meters of trench. He then found his subordinate and assigned him his mission.

Just as their attack preparations were completed, two Stuka bombers dived down from high altitude. These two planes were part of the air force supporting this German offensive. For today’s attack, the Germans had prepared 110 Stukas and 50 Do-217 bombers. These planes had been taking turns visiting the British positions and had already destroyed many strong fortifications.

One Stuka dropped the huge bomb slung under its belly at low altitude near the target. With a whistle, this Stuka, under the cover of the other, pulled up sharply and returned to the sky.

The other covering Stuka bomber, meanwhile, left two strafing runs on the enemy position with the two 20mm cannons on its wings. In just a split second, the British position on this high ground was thrown into chaos by the two Stukas. The British soldiers stationed here then watched in horror as a German Panther tank slowly drove up the high ground.

“Don’t shoot! We surrender!” an Indian soldier shouted, raising his rifle. Then a second, and a third Indian soldier also raised their hands. This high ground was captured by the Germans with almost no real fighting.

The battle was still going on. The British did not hand over the remaining positions. In some sections, the British held out until the very last moment. They fought until their ammunition was spent and were only driven out of their trenches by the charging German soldiers. The smoke of gunpowder rose on the horizon, and the ferocity of the battle left both sides exhausted.

“We’re only 19 kilometers from Alexandria. If we just push forward a few more kilometers, the German cannons can shell that port. At that time, the British Mediterranean Fleet will have to really get lost!” In the command tent of the Italian army, General Gariboldi was clearly very satisfied with the current progress of the battle. The Germans seemed to have little interest in North Africa. They only asked for a piece of desert as a future weapon testing ground and demanded joint control of the Suez Canal.

Mussolini had agreed to these conditions very readily. As the leader of Italy, he knew that without German help, the Italians would be lucky to hold on to Tunis, let alone a place as important as the Suez Canal. So the two sides had signed a memorandum of understanding, deciding to jointly manage the Suez Canal, and the term was actually permanent. As for the attitude and demands of Egypt, the actual owner of the Suez Canal, they seemed to have been forgotten by everyone.

However, General Gariboldi’s staff officer clearly had no such illusions. He was more concerned about his own army’s fragile logistics and high casualty figures. “My general, Cairo and Suez are still very far away for us. Based on the current rate of shell consumption and troop casualties, by the time we reach the walls of Cairo, we will probably only have one company left.”

While the Italian troops were lamenting their heavy casualties and consumption, Montgomery, on his side, was already at his wit’s end. His reserves were stretched thin, and the few remaining troops were mostly the remaining Indian units, whose combat effectiveness could not be compared to the original British Expeditionary Force or the New Zealander troops.

The Japanese army was running rampant in Southeast Asia, and the threat to the Indian border was increasing. There were not many troops that could be drawn from Mountbatten. Montgomery was now in a state of internal and external trouble, with no reinforcements. In other words, in the current battlefield situation in North Africa, the Americans were already the main force. The British had shed their last drop of blood outside Alexandria.

After hesitating for a long time, Montgomery finally picked up the phone. With a voice that he could feel trembling, he said to the operator at General Patton’s command post, “General Patton, the British 9th Army Group in North Africa is finished. Now we can only rely on your counter-attack to finally decide the fate of all of North Africa and the Suez Canal!”

The voice that came from the other end of the line was Patton’s, but the content was not what Montgomery had hoped to hear. “General Montgomery, I regret to inform you that the American supply convoy has been intercepted by the Germans. The diplomats of both sides are now bickering over this matter. The key is that the sunken ships contained many of the new M4 tanks intended to stabilize the North African front. This forces me to postpone the counter-attack.”

He paused and then said earnestly, “Give me three days. In three days, I will commit my counter-attack forces and attack the troops outside Alexandria! Believe me, this time I will definitely launch the attack on time!”

Montgomery sighed. He had also heard about the American transport ships being attacked by German submarines and cruisers. Although this place, the Middle East, did not lack gasoline, the shortage of equipment and ammunition was a problem that had to be solved. It was too far for the United States to transport military equipment to North Africa, so if it was interfered with by the Germans, the consequences would be very serious.

“Alright! George, I hope the Americans will defend their interests in North Africa and the Middle East, and that you can launch the counter-attack on time!” Montgomery said after a long silence.

Published: 2025-09-15T05:57:17.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-02-10T19:21:01.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c657-hail-of-138920612

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com