Chapter 695: Sand and Blood
A shell landed squarely on the sand-bagged position. Several soldiers, before the sand kicked up by the shell had even settled, grabbed their rifles and ran, crouched low, from a trench on one side to another. They had been holding this position for a full month. To them, these crater-filled positions were their home.
Taking his eyes from the battery commander’s scope, Rommel took off the peaked cap from his head, shook off the dust twice, and put it back on. He turned and shook his head at his adjutant. He clearly had no fondness for this time-consuming and exhausting type of attack, but for the moment, there was no better way.
Alexandria, under heavy German siege, had held out for more than a month. This coastal port city originally had a large stockpile of supplies, and the hundred thousand or so British soldiers inside, though not the main force, were stubbornly holding their combat posts under Montgomery’s urging.
“We are still not good at dealing with such heavily fortified cities. The soldiers’ casualties remain high, and the consumption of ammunition is also greater than in a war of movement,” Rommel said with some emotion, looking at the map of the entire war zone.
German troops had never been well-suited to this kind of battle, which relied on piling up human lives. They preferred wide-open battles of encirclement and annihilation, the kind of fighting where they could rapidly advance, cut through the enemy’s positions, and then capture tens of thousands of prisoners. As for repeatedly fighting over ruins in an environment full of buildings that was unsuitable for tank warfare, although the German army had experienced it many times, they still could not effectively adapt to this kind of combat.
“The British are very accurate marksmen. They are resisting step by step, relying on their outer positions and the ruins. Although their losses are heavy, they still do not flinch. This morning, we lost three lieutenants in battle. I had to promote some non-commissioned officers to replace the lost officers,” a division commander in charge of the attack reported helplessly. His unit had suffered considerable losses in the offensive, but Rommel still had no intention of replacing them.
Rommel, or rather, his superiors, the generals of the Army General Staff and the Imperial High Command, wanted a complete and immediately usable port of Alexandria. Therefore, Rommel could not use heavy artillery and bombers to repeatedly bombard this last British position. He could only use his precious infantry to wear down the British forces inside the port, bit by bit, from the periphery.
From the mouths of prisoners of war, they learned that an old opponent of the Afrika Korps, the commander of the 9th Army Group, who could also be said to be the supreme commander of the British forces in North Africa, Montgomery, was now inside Alexandria. For Rommel, this was not just a duel of victory and defeat, but also the end of a fateful rivalry.
Not far away, an Italian tank that had been destroyed by a British anti-tank gun was burning fiercely. And not far from this tank, several Italian army cannons were firing violently. These artillerymen were attacking a concealed bunker and a group of shelters. With that as the core support, the British army had constructed a circular defensive work in the vicinity, which had made the attacking Italian army pay a heavy price.
A deafening salvo made Rommel frown involuntarily. His command post was too close to that artillery position, and the noise made him feel a little uncomfortable. But this was war. Positions would not be arranged according to the need for comfort.
Walking back into his office, he slapped the dust off his body with his gloves, and the small tent was immediately filled with dust. After everything had settled, Rommel took off his military coat and tossed it onto a chair to the side.
General Friederici had just returned from the direction of Cairo. The vanguards of the Italian and German forces had already reached the outskirts of Cairo. Unsurprisingly, the 30,000 British and Americans in the city, along with 50,000 local Egyptian troops, had refused to surrender and had already constructed sturdy fortifications. Another quagmire of war was awaiting the Germans, which was not a happy thought.
Although the dusty Friederici was impeccably dressed, he looked a bit disheveled. After all, he had been rushing about in the desert with his troops for a full month. To be able to maintain such a decent appearance was already a testament to a German soldier’s obsessive pursuit of military bearing. He spoke in a hoarse, low voice, “My General, the outskirts of Cairo are laid with minefields and bunker complexes. My troops made a probing attack once, and the enemy’s resistance was very determined.”
The High Command had also anticipated this. After all, the Germans’ entry into Egypt had broken the original rules of this region and shaken the foundations of many vested interests. Therefore, encountering strong resistance was inevitable. It could only be suppressed by force; there was no other, better way.
“Notify Air Force Lieutenant General Dürrlöw to send bombers to attack all targets except for the port area! We don’t have time to waste here with a bunch of dead men!” After carefully listening to General Friederici’s introduction to the Cairo situation, Rommel thought for a moment and then said, “After all, our General Patton has already retreated to the vicinity of the Suez Canal. If we let him fortify his defenses there, it won’t do our future attacks any good.”
In fact, the Allied forces in the Middle East were already strong on the outside but weak on the inside, with not much strength left. But just at this moment, Turkey, which had always considered itself the number two in the Axis, launched a small-scale probing attack on the Middle Eastern regions controlled by the United States and Britain.
About 10 Turkish divisions attacked south, but they were beaten back near the border by local armed forces. By the time an American light armored division arrived, half of these Turks had been taken prisoner, handing the beleaguered American forces in the Middle East a timely “great victory in the north.”
This not only allowed the United States and Britain to see the weak nature of the Turkish threat to the north, but also strengthened their resolve to continue resisting the Germans. And so, the siege of Alexandria and the battle near Cairo had inevitably entered a rhythm of attrition. The predicament of the Germans’ insufficient reserves in North Africa was also infinitely magnified.
“It’s time to show these locals our strength. Since we can’t do it without bloodshed, let’s just do it ruthlessly, and establish our authority for our future rule!” Friederici nodded in agreement. He was in favor of leveraging their firepower advantage. After all, a firepower suppression that reduced their own losses was definitely more in line with Germany’s current situation in North Africa than expending their limited manpower.
Inside the city of Alexandria, there were open-air field hospitals and refugee shelters everywhere. Because the Germans rarely shelled the facilities in the city, as the battle continued and the losses mounted, more and more wounded soldiers and refugees could only pile their belongings on the streets, turning the streets and alleys of Alexandria into a lively, market-like place.
Montgomery, with his aide, was visiting the wounded in an open-air hospital. In the morning, a frontline division commander had been wounded by shrapnel and sent here for an amputation. This open-air hospital was filled with blood and the groans of soldiers. From time to time, people died here, and from time to time, people became disabled, missing a part of themselves.
“If, if it’s possible, most of the soldiers need a rest. We should abandon some of our positions and withdraw into the city. By comparison, the Germans are less skilled at street fighting,” the British major general, who had lost a hand, said weakly to Montgomery. More than himself, he was concerned about the soldiers who had fought and bled with him. As an old British aristocrat, this very gentlemanly middle-aged man had a very traditional British demeanor.
Montgomery did not hide the current situation. In these few days, he seemed to have aged twenty years. “To be honest, we are now only fighting for our beliefs. You, me, and everyone else knows the outcome. We are just struggling on our deathbeds. Compared to the Italians and the Germans, we are short of both troops and ammunition. This is the best result I can command.”
The eyes of the division commander, who had remained very calm even after losing a hand, looked a little dim. He was willing to die for his country in any corner of the world, but he was really unwilling to accept the reality that his country had already collapsed and perished. As a commander here, he knew better than anyone what the loss of North Africa meant for Britain.
“I can no longer be relied upon. I have done everything I can,” Montgomery said with a wry smile, then continued to talk to himself. “The only thing we can count on now is General Mountbatten’s forces in India. If he can preserve those elite troops and return to the British mainland when needed, things might still have a chance to turn around.”
Everyone knew this was just self-deception. The forces under Mountbatten were already stretched thin. The Japanese expansion in Southeast Asia had shattered the British colonial system there. India and Burma were now the front lines. As for how many British soldiers there could be preserved, one could only pray about the scale of the Japanese offensive, not count on General Mountbatten’s command and deployment capabilities.
The Britain of today was like an old master with profound skills who had been caught off guard by the random punches of a young boxer, Germany. Before he could even unleash his profound skills, he was left with only a breath of air to hold on. As for fighting back, that was probably no longer possible.
The wounded British division commander sighed and glanced at the road beside the hospital bed. The yellow sand was everywhere, mixed with dark red, dried blood, so dry it was despairing.
Published: 2025-09-19T07:00:50.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-02-26T18:22:07.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c695-sand-139242009
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