Chapter 967: Scorched Earth

In General Mountbatten’s office, a group of staff officers bustled about. After the oil defense line had been ignited, the American forces were rapidly retreating to the third line of defense. All the forward airfields had been rigged with explosives, and where there were no explosives, oil had been laid. In short, the message was clear—leave nothing for the Germans.

In the rear oil-producing regions, large numbers of American and British soldiers were stationed. This was a plan specifically designed to counter the Germans’ tactics from previous campaigns. Mountbatten had studied the reports, records, and analyses of the German-Soviet and North African fronts. He believed the main reason for the Allied defeat was that the Germans frequently used innovative tactics to induce their opponents to make wrong judgments.

For example, the Germans liked to use new technological weapons like helicopters for rapid troop deployment and for sweeping occupied territories. For example, the German paratroopers were elusive and would often appear out of nowhere in the most fatal places. For example, the Germans had an elite special forces unit that always used underhanded tactics to launch surprise attacks.

To sum it up, it was simple: the Germans had extended a linear battlefield, blurring the lines between the front and the rear, creating a new method of air-land integrated, deep-penetration assault.

Only after reaching this conclusion did the high-ranking commanders of the United States and Britain realize just how terrifying the Germans were. In just twenty short years, they had, while breaking the restrictions of Versailles, completed a transformation and understanding of future warfare.

Although there was not yet a generational gap in weapons and equipment between the two sides, in terms of command style and the understanding of the capabilities of their own and the enemy’s forces, the German generals were indeed a generation ahead of Britain, the United States, and other countries. This generational gap in command awareness had created the myth of the German army’s invincibility on the battlefield.

After analyzing the German army’s methods of operation, Mountbatten had drawn up a brand-new defensive plan. He no longer concentrated his forces on the Suez Canal defense line. After all, to do so would give the German army too many loopholes to exploit.

In fact, the Allies no longer held much hope for the defense of the Middle East. The initial plan of Roosevelt and other high-ranking American officials was to prevent Akado from using the Middle Eastern oil fields to further strengthen the Third Reich’s war potential. So the Allied understanding of the Middle East defensive battle was actually very simple: it was not so much about defending as it was about destroying.

And so, Mountbatten was determined to prevent the German special forces from launching a surprise attack to seize the oil field facilities, and also to prevent the German paratroopers from suddenly airdropping and occupying the oil field regions. For this goal, he had scattered his troops throughout the entire Middle East, rather than concentrating them near the defense line. This had effectively prevented the Germans from using their new tactics to launch a surprise attack on the oil fields, but it had also made his forces too dispersed to be able to withstand a German frontal attack at all.

Fortunately, Mountbatten had never had any illusions about being able to hold the Suez Canal defense line. What he had to do was to buy time, to give him a chance to turn the entire Middle East into a sea of fire. The burning oil could not only slow down the German army’s pursuit, but could also consume the oil resources, destroy the oil-producing equipment and factories, making it completely impossible for Germany to use the Middle Eastern oil to expand its production capacity in the short term after occupying the region.

What’s more, after the oil burned, it was not just environmental pollution and equipment damage. There would also be a lot of toxic gases lingering in the burning area. In this way, if Germany wanted to use the Middle Eastern oil, it would have to wait at least two years. And in two years, given to Britain and the United States, how the world situation would change, that was hard to say.

From the current situation, it was only a matter of time before the Allied forces, composed of the United States, Iceland Britain, the Soviet Union, and China, defeated Japan. With two years, the United States, having defeated Japan, would have more warships, and it would not be impossible to defeat the German fleet in the Atlantic. So the United States needed these two years, and by a fortunate coincidence, Iceland Britain, which was clinging to America’s thigh, also needed them.

“Report! The entire second defense line has now been ignited. The parts that were not accidentally ignited, we have already completed the ignition ourselves. 40,000 tons of crude oil will definitely be able to hold the Germans back for a long time,” a staff officer reported with a triumphant air. To be able to stop the German advance was a very proud thing. The generals in the Allied sequence who could do this were all highly regarded famous generals. For Mountbatten’s first battle after arriving in the Middle East to be able to give the Desert Fox a setback, this had already exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Mountbatten was not carried away by the advantage he had already gained. To be able to become the top man in the Asian theater of the British Empire, his mind was mature and steady enough. He looked at the map in front of him, his finger pressed on the red line that represented the flames, and did not speak for a long time.

He was calculating Rommel’s countermeasures. After all, a fire started by burning oil was not so easy to extinguish. If Rommel were to attempt a rapid pursuit, then he would only be able to break out of the sea of fire from a few pre-set positions.

He had already laid mines in those places, which was also an important reason for the chaotic and slow retreat of the American and British forces. In addition, with the blocking action of the British commandos and the American rear guard, the German army should not be able to gain any advantage.

Thinking of this, he withdrew his finger and then turned around and ordered his aide, “Have all the air defense units on alert. The oil field defenders are also to immediately enter a state of combat readiness. As soon as there is any sign of movement, there is no need to ask for permission from headquarters. The demolition plan can be executed directly.”

After giving his orders, Mountbatten finally felt a little bit of relief. The fact that the Germans were not strategically bombing the Middle Eastern oil fields meant they were considering the possibility of capturing them. Mountbatten had drawn up a tit-for-tat defensive plan for the oil fields, so for him, this time Rommel would not be able to gain any advantage, no matter what.

In the distance, directly opposite Mountbatten’s headquarters, on the banks of the Suez Canal, next to Rommel’s command vehicle, the atmosphere in the German command post was a bit heavy. The Desert Fox, Rommel’s planned forced crossing of the Suez Canal had been successfully completed, but no one was happy.

The sudden “oil-burning” war of the nouveau riche Americans had made the German army, which was stretched thin in terms of oil resources, realize the cruelty of the battle. The originally drawn-up operational plan now seemed to be basically unusable.

Rommel looked at General Friederici, the fierce infantry general who had just returned from the front, and asked the question that interested him most. “Is there a problem with the strength of the American defense line…?”

General Friederici, holding his steel helmet, brushed back the golden hair on his forehead and pointed at the map. “Marshal. According to my experience in fighting the Americans, the American forces on the front line have about four to seven divisions. Their firepower configuration is also not much. This is not a preparation for a desperate defense. This is a tactic to delay our offensive.”

Rommel nodded. Friederici was the most capable general under his command in fighting a hard battle, and also the commander of the 7th Corps, the most elite infantry corps of the Afrika Korps. In this situation, his analysis was often the most direct and the most correct.

Since the American and British forces had not concentrated that many of their main force units on the main front, then where these units were was self-evident. It seemed the opponent already knew very well what the German army really wanted and had also already prepared to destroy it.

To risk using special forces and paratroopers to launch a surprise attack on those oil fields and factories at a time like this was clearly to send them to their deaths. Even if the German paratroopers and special forces had a clear numerical advantage, they could not waste their elite in such a hopeless manner. The enemy was waiting for the Germans to walk into their own trap in the vicinity of these original targets. To send men to their deaths again would be to be a complete and utter fool.

Combining some of the ground photos provided by the German reconnaissance planes, Rommel gave a bitter smile and then looked at his beloved general and, a little further away, Marshal Garibaldi. “The original plan was to use special forces and paratroopers, in coordination with the armored forces, to be able to capture about a tenth of the oil fields. Now it seems that this plan of ours was too optimistic…”

Then this supreme commander of Germany in Africa, one of the three Field Marshals of the Army, Rommel, finally made up his mind. “Since you won’t let me take what I deserve, then you don’t get to take what’s yours either!”

He muttered this sentence and then immediately turned to Garibaldi and the air force liaison officer, pointed to some of the markings on the map, and gave his operational order. “Immediately sortie all air force units, and at all costs, destroy all the oil field facilities in these places! Including the oil fields and the oil processing plants, the pipelines, and the storage areas! All of them! Destroy them all!”

“Hiss…” Garibaldi took a sharp breath. The boldness with which Rommel had changed his operational plan terrified him. Even knowing that the opponent was prepared, to give up so many resources just like that also required a great deal of daring. “All air force units? Even our crappy ones?”

“Yes! As many as we have, send as many as we can! Compare with the aerial photos taken by the reconnaissance planes. All suspicious targets, destroy them all!” Rommel said firmly, without the slightest hesitation. “Since they don’t want it, and they don’t want us to have it, then let’s just burn it all!”

Perhaps if this had been three months ago, Rommel would have had to hesitate for a while and would not have dared to make this decision so easily. But now the oil fields in Libya had already begun to produce oil. The Afrika Korps, if not as wealthy as the Middle East, had many fewer worries. So Rommel had immediately begun his counter-attack, using his air superiority to neutralize the enemy’s delaying tactics.

About an hour after Rommel had changed his operational plan, the German DO-217 bombers once again appeared over the battlefield in a sky-blotting swarm. But this time, these planes did not drop their bombs on the heads of the American troops at the front. Their engines roaring, they flew past at high altitude and, in a vast and mighty formation, headed for their targets.

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