Chapter 118 Opportunity

It is not the British style to launch operations in the dark, because the British army has never been good at fighting at night.

However, it is precisely this that better reflects General Auchinleck's way of using troops... Compared with other British generals who follow the rules, General Auchinleck prefers to take the enemy by surprise, just like he sent a commando to assassinate Rommel.

General Auchinleck divided the British army into two parts, namely the 13th Army and the 30th Army under the Eighth Army.

The backbone of the 13th Army is the British 15th Armored Division, supplemented by the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Indian 4th Division.

This army is equipped with all "Matilda" tanks, and its main task is to attract German troops and firepower on the front line and prepare for the German army.

This can also be regarded as General Auchinleck's understanding of the "Matilda". He knows that this tank with high failure rate and slow speed is not suitable for interspersed operations, so he lets it use heavy armor and artillery to provide cover for the infantry's attack on the front line.

The 30th Army is based on the British 7th Armored Division, supplemented by the South African 1st Infantry Division and the Australian 6th Division.

From the composition of this unit alone, it can be seen that the 30th Army is the main force of the "Crusader" plan.

The British 7th Armored Division is known as the Desert Rats. Before that, it repelled the Italian army with the strength of an armored division. Although it was defeated repeatedly in the subsequent battles with the German army, it finally had a fighting force.

The South African 1st Infantry Division was just transferred from South Africa by General Auchinleck. Although the combat effectiveness of this unit is not satisfactory, it focuses on rich experience in desert marching, combat and survival, which can make up for the lack of desert combat experience of the British Army to a certain extent.

Needless to say, the Australian 6th Infantry Division has shown stronger combat effectiveness than the British Army in previous battlefields, and has caused considerable casualties to the German Army in the defense of cities such as Agdabiya.

It is worth mentioning that…In addition to the 130 Valentine tanks with a much lower failure rate, the British 7th Armored Division was also fully equipped with American Stuart tanks, and there were as many as 300 of them.

General Auchinleck’s idea was very simple, which was to use the 30th Army to cross the German line from the south and then fight a battle between armored units and armored units with the Germans.

The reason for "crossing" here is that General Auchinleck did not want the enemy and our side to meet at the flank position like Wavell's "Operation Tomahawk".

Because it is obvious that this is not conducive to the deployment of British troops, and the British army's advantages in manpower and tank numbers cannot be fully utilized... Just like last time, the two armored regiments of the 7th Armored Division went up in batches to be annihilated by the Germans.

General Auchinleck would not make the same mistake again, so he planned to let the 30th Army cross the line before the Germans noticed it and deploy troops in the vast desert on the German side, build a line of defense and prepare for battle.

In this way, any German armored forces that came to fight would be surrounded and annihilated by the British army, which had an absolute advantage in manpower and tanks.

General Auchinleck was very successful in this regard. His method was to let the troops hide during the day and move at night without signaling... They used canvas and terrain to avoid reconnaissance by German aircraft during the day, and then moved slowly and carefully while reconnaissance at night.

To this end, General Auchinleck even did enough meteorological intelligence work. He knew that the desert would be windy during this period, and the wind would bring sand and dust, which would be a good camouflage for the 30th Army.

General Auchinleck was right. A few days later, the 30th Army successfully crossed the German defense line without the German army noticing at all.

If the battle had started like this, then the British army should have won without surprise, because the British army was quite well prepared, especially the equipment was several times more than that of the German army:

The total number of British tanks was 700, and there were also 200 "Stuart" tanks on the way from India to Egypt.

Although the total number of tanks of the German and Italian armies was not small, at 414, 154 of them were Italian M13s that were useless, and only 260 were German "Type III" and a small number of "Type IV" tanks, of which 50 tanks were under repair... Tanks need regular repairs, whether in combat or in peacetime training.

What's worse is that most of the German air force was concentrated on bombing the Malta Island. There were only 120 aircraft in North Africa, while the British had as many as 500.

Not to mention anything else, the British 30th Army, which had crossed the German defense line, had 430 tanks, which was almost twice the number of all the tanks that the Germans could mobilize. In addition, the British army also had air superiority and a large number of anti-tank guns carried by the South African 1st Division and the Australian 6th Division. They were fully capable of defeating any German troops that came to participate in the battle or stood in front of them.

The problem was that the "Crusader" operation was too successful, and it was beyond the expectations of everyone in the British army, including General Auchinleck himself... The entire 30th Army crossed the German line without being discovered by the enemy!

So Auchinleck was a little distracted.

"General!" After the 30th Army was ready, the staff asked Auchinleck: "What should we do? Deliberately expose and attract the Germans?"

Because the Germans didn't know that the 30th Army had crossed the German line, they didn't react until now.

After thinking about it, General Auchinleck replied: "No, this is a good opportunity for us. I want to give those Germans more surprises!"

This is indeed an opportunity.

But things often have two sides. The other side of opportunity may be crisis or mistake...

Then, in order to give the Germans more surprises, General Auchinleck divided the 30th Army into three parts: the main force, the 7th Armored Brigade, led a part of the 6th Australian Infantry Division to penetrate the German flank in great depth, with the aim of cutting off the retreat of the German and Italian armies and encircling them.

The 4th Armored Brigade was divided into two parts by regiment: one part attacked the Italian troops stationed in Tobruk, and the other part went around the flank of the German Halfagu Pass defense line.

General Auchinleck's idea was very good. Attacking the Italian troops stationed in Tobruk could prevent them from reinforcing the Halfagu Pass defense line, while attacking the flank of the Halfagu Pass defense line could put the German defense line under attack from both sides of the British army. As a result, the German army quickly collapsed, allowing the British 13th Army, which was attacking head-on, to break through the Halfagu Pass and press forward.

It is conceivable that if the war situation developed as General Auchinleck envisioned, the German and Italian armies would be surrounded by the British army in Tobruk, and there would be no other way to escape except jumping into the sea.

But accidents always happen on the battlefield, especially since the British army is a mixed force of colonial armies from several countries, which makes it difficult for them to coordinate effectively.