Chapter 117 Crusade

Rommel was right. The British army was not numerous to begin with. They only gained an advantage in this local area in a short time because they disguised themselves as German soldiers and mixed into the guards.

Now that the German reinforcements arrived, the British army raised their hands and surrendered after a period of weak resistance.

After interrogating the prisoners, we learned that this British commando was sent from Malta Island. The total number of people was 120. They took two submarines to the waters near Tobruk Port and landed on the beach by rubber boats when it was dark.

The funny thing is that the Italian soldiers who were singing and dancing on the beach even found them at the first time, but they saw that the commandos were wearing German uniforms and did not doubt them at all. They even pointed out the location of Rommel’s temporary headquarters for the commandos.

"A wonderful battle, Sergeant!" Rommel shook Qin Chuan's hand and said, "I have always wanted to see your shooting skills. Today I finally got my wish. In addition, you have a great talent for command and adaptability!"

"Thank you, General!" Qin Chuan replied, "This is not what I want, because if it weren't for these, I would have been killed on the battlefield!"

Rommel nodded, and then said apologetically, "I should have expressed my gratitude to you, my lifesaver, but now..."

Rommel looked at the mess around him and spread his hands.

Although the British commandos' sneak attack failed to achieve the purpose of assassinating Rommel, it destroyed a lot of intelligence and documents. Rommel should spend some time to sort them out.

"No, General!" Qin Chuan expressed his understanding: "These are what I should do. I think I should say goodbye!"

Rommel patted Qin Chuan on the shoulder and said, "Well done, go back with your rifle and honor, and of course the chicken!"

Qin Chuan really went back with a chicken.

What surprised Qin Chuan even more was yet to come. When Qin Chuan jumped out of the car and walked back to the camp, the German soldiers came up to him enthusiastically:

"Good guy!" said the baker, "I did something big again!"

"What?" Qin Chuan was surprised because he thought Rommel would treat this as a military secret.

"We all know it!" Alfredo explained, "You thwarted the British plan to assassinate General Rommel in Tobruk!"

"Oh!" Qin Chuan responded casually, thinking that Rommel should use this victory to boost morale.

"How many enemies did you kill?" Werner asked.

"Five... or more!" Qin Chuan said, "I'm not sure, because I threw a few grenades in the dark, you know, I don't know how many people were killed!"

"The important thing is not how many people were killed, but to control the situation!" General Strike appeared next to him at some point, and the soldiers quickly stopped talking and saluted.

General Strike walked up to Qin Chuan and said, "Sergeant, I have heard about your performance in Tobruk, well done!"

"Thank you, General!" After a pause, Qin Chuan picked up the chicken in the cage at his feet and held it in his hands and brought it to General Strike: "General, General Rommel asked me to bring it to you as compensation!"

General Strike didn't even look at the chicken. He replied coldly: "Sergeant Frick, General Rommel suggested that I promote you. Now you are already a sergeant. But you must understand that this is not a reward for you to use the sniper's lurking skills to be a thief!"

"I understand, General!" Qin Chuan replied.

General Strike glanced at the German soldiers and said, "And you, if there is such a thief next time, it will not be as simple as standing in the corner!"

"Yes, General!" The soldiers answered in unison.

General Strike didn't say much, and turned around and left with the guards.

"General!" Qin Chuan shouted from behind: "Your chicken!"

"It's yours!" General Strike replied without looking back: "I don't want you to steal it again!"

The soldiers were stunned for a moment, and then they all laughed at the same time.

The soldiers did not cook the chicken like they did last night, because they thought that everyone in the company paid the price for stealing the chicken, and most of them were even innocent, so the soldiers were embarrassed to enjoy the chicken alone.

So Qin Chuan gave the chicken to Bazel, hoping that it would be used as compensation for the innocent punishment of other soldiers in the company.

But Bazel replied: "Forget it, Sergeant... maybe you should be called Sergeant. There are 175 people in our company. Is this chicken enough for everyone to eat?"

(Note: A standard German company has 201 people)

So the chicken didn't know what to do with it in the end, and finally Werner came up with a solution...Give it to the logistics officer to raise, and then the eggs laid every day were handed over to General Strike by the logistics officer.

Perhaps because this was a good opportunity to flatter General Strike, the logistics officer agreed without thinking too much.

When this matter was over, the soldiers surrounded Qin Chuan and asked him to tell the details of the battle in Tobruk... Qin Chuan knew that the soldiers were not interested in the battle itself. The battles they had participated in were much larger in scale and thrilling than this sneak attack.

The reason they were so interested was that the British army's target of attack was the commander of the African Corps... Rommel.

Qin Chuan certainly would not hide anything. Qin Chuan even knew that Rommel wanted to use this to boost morale, so he exaggerated the battle, and the soldiers were shocked.

However, what Qin Chuan and even Rommel did not expect was that this sneak attack was actually part of the "Crusade" plan formulated by Auchinleck.

General Auchinleck was just trying it out. If it failed, it would not cause much loss to the British army. It was just a commando of more than 100 people.

But if it succeeded, it would make the German and Italian armies leaderless and demoralized, and then his "Crusade" plan, that is, the British counterattack, would be unstoppable.

The news of the failure of the sneak attack plan soon reached General Auchinleck. He looked at the telegram and ordered the staff: "Pass the order down, everything will proceed according to plan!"

"Yes!" The staff responded and sent a telegram with only the three words "Crusade" to each unit.

So in the dark, the British tanks and troops were divided into several parts and quietly moved towards the German army.

The German army knew nothing about the upcoming war. They thought that the British would need at least some time to recover and were unable to launch an attack, even Rommel was no exception.