"It's 1,000 meters away, do you see those white houses on the left, and that's Knightsbridge."
Lying behind a white rock, Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop pointed to a village ahead and said to Lieutenant Colonel Schunard of the 3rd Battalion of the Greater German Brigade.
The 17th Company of the Greater German Brigade had advanced one hour earlier to Knightsbridge, a key point behind the main British line.
And 10 minutes earlier, the 3rd Battalion of the brigade had arrived in trucks and half-tracks, along with 6 No. 3 assault guns from the 16th Assault Gun Company and 4 No. 4 tanks from the 5th Tank Regiment.
And Lieutenant Colonel Schunard, of the 3rd Battalion of the Großdeutsche Brigade, received an order to capture Knightsbridge before dark.
"That's Knightsbridge, I thought there would be a river and a bridge.
You can't make a mistake about it, second lieutenant," Lieutenant Colonel Schunard half-crouched beside Lieutenant Ribbentrop, also holding a telescope in his hand.
"It can't be wrong," replied Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop in the affirmative, "that there is no river or bridge there, but it is the Knightsbridge, where at least 1,500 Indians are guarded, and a few Matilda tanks. ” "Matilda tank," Lieutenant Colonel Schunard asked, "Are you sure it's this type of tank?"
"Sure," said Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop, "there are at least two, and they just now rushed out and damaged two of my half-tracks." ” The two damaged half-tracks were "lying" on the sand not far ahead, but they didn't look very badly damaged and should be repaired.
And several German soldiers were digging bunkers in them with infantry shovels.
"And how are their fortifications?"
asked Lieutenant Colonel Schunard.
"Very strong," said Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop, "the white houses, which had been carefully fortified by the Italians, were in fact fortresses. ” Both the fortifications and the number of defenders were prying out of the mouths of the captives, and both turned out to be true.
"Italian," Lieutenant Colonel Schunard shook his head with a wry smile, "I don't think they're doing us a favor."
In fact, it was a bad thing, the fortifications of the fortress of Tubruk were also carefully built by the Italians, and the Italians also piled up a large number of supplies and ammunition there, all of which fell into the hands of the British, without these things, the British 8th Army would not have been able to defend Tubruk at all.
After shaking his head, Lieutenant Colonel Schunard said to himself, "It seems that a few more Wasp self-propelled guns will be needed." ” Then he said to Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop and Lieutenant Schwarzenegger: "You can stay here, you don't have to take part in the attack, my men will take the Knightsbridge." ” With a "poof", little Hersman fell on the hard ground, he fell from a height of 3000, fortunately there was a parachute, otherwise he would have died This is the second time his plane has been shot down, and it was an old Swordfish plane that took him down.
When the cannon ran out of ammunition, his Fokker Zero's engine was damaged by the opponent's rear-seat machine gun, so he had to barely fly to the vicinity of the Matru airfield, which had been occupied by the German airborne troops a few hours earlier.
And the raid of the German 7th Airborne Division on the Matroux airfield was like a hornet's nest, and the British planes swooped over the Matroux airfield in waves like hornets, and there were all kinds of aircraft, such as "Spitfire", "Hurricane", 39, "Wellington", "Gross "Fighter", F2A, "Blenheim", and even two torpedo attack planes, "Swordfish" and "Big Mackerel", also flew with bombs.
But for Hersman Jr. and his comrades, it was like the British giving them their heads.
From this morning to now, Hersman Jr. has made three sorties, shot down a total of four enemy planes, and the results have increased to 13.
And just when he was about to reap the 14th result, he didn't pay attention to let the family shoot it down.
"Don't move, raise your hands" Several German airborne soldiers with rifles ran at Little Hersmann and shouted in English for him to surrender.
"I'm German," Hesmann Jr. shouted as he raised his hand, "I'm the squadron leader of the 9th Squadron of the 2nd Carrier-based Aircraft Group of Second Lieutenant Rudolf von Heinsberg Hersmann. ” Several German airborne troops also recognized that Hersmann Jr. was wearing a Luftwaffe flight suit.
A sergeant of the Airborne Forces put away his rifle and asked, "Ensign, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Hersman Jr. said, "but I need to get back to the airport in Benghazi right away." ” Now the 9th Carrier-based Aircraft Group is stationed in Benghazi, where reserve aircraft are stored.
When Hersman Jr. returns to Benghazi, he will be able to fly another Fokker Zero to strike again.
"Second Lieutenant, there's a Junkers unloading plane."
After the 7th Airborne Division occupied the airfield, the British army did not have many defenders at the airfield, so it was quickly occupied by the German airborne troops, but the port of Mesematroux was still under the control of the British garrison, and immediately transport planes took off from Benghazi airfield, bringing weapons, ammunition, various supplies and reinforcements.
Beginning at 1 p.m., almost every 10 minutes, a Junkers plane landed at Matruh airfield, while a Juncker plane took off almost empty, sometimes carrying several wounded and downed pilots.
"Okay, take me there," Hesmann Jr. put away his parachute with a three-five split, and then limped with the German airborne troops and walked towards a plane that was unloading.
As the day approached, it was discovered that all that was being unloaded from the Junkers plane were 500 kilograms of aviation armor-piercing shells He guessed that the bombs must have been prepared to be hung on the JU87 Stuka dive bombers, and this Matru airfield was only 260 kilometers from Alexandria, which was completely within the combat radius of the Stuka dive bombers, and the bombers that screamed when they dived were not comparable to the JU88 and Fokker 99.
It was a real dive bomber, and it had a large bomb load, which could carry 1 500 kg and 2 250 kg aviation armor-piercing shells or 1 1000 kg bomb.
As soon as several squadrons of JU87 and FW190 were deployed to the Matroux airfield, then the end of the Mediterranean Fleet had come The notoriety of the JU87 "Stuka", of course, is known to the British Royal Navy, which is the aircraft they fear the most, and there is no one compared to it, the JU88 can only be regarded as the second threat.
So having heard that the Matrou airfield, located only 260 km from Alexandria, was occupied by the German Airborne Forces, Admiral Cunningham immediately rushed to Wavell's command.
"The fleet must leave," Admiral Cunningham said with a frown, "at least 4 battleships and 2 aircraft carriers must go, and they will leave tonight" For the past few days he had been looking for an opportunity to engage in a night battle with the Italian fleet, but the Italians were very cunning, they only bombarded Tubruk with naval guns during the day, and at night they disappeared without a trace.
After a few days, Cunningham finally understood that the "German god of war" Hersmann would not give himself a chance to conduct a decisive battle in the fleet.
Hersman wanted to dominate the sea with air and use powerful shore-based aviation to deal with the British Mediterranean fleet.
The purpose of the Germans in seizing the Matroux airfield, in addition to cutting off the communication between Tubruk and El Alamein, was to find an airfield for their most feared JU87 Stuka dive bombers to attack Alexandria.
So the Mediterranean fleet must slip away.
"Tonight" Admiral Wavell turned pale, for he knew that once the fleet left, it would mean that Britain had lost the battle for the Mediterranean Without the fleet, the entire Mediterranean would be dominated by Germany and Italy, and they could land anywhere, while the British armies on the islands of Greece, Crete, and Cyprus would immediately be left alone.
And the most terrible thing was that Turkey would soon fall to the German Mediterranean fleet, and the Turks would have no choice, and the foreign trade of this country was carried out mainly by sea in the Mediterranean and land transport in the Balkans.
If the Mediterranean is controlled by Germany and Italy, then Turkey's foreign relations are basically controlled by Germany, unless they are willing to defect to the Soviet Union, which is impossible Therefore, Turkey had no choice but to turn to Germany "Admiral, I think you know what it means to withdraw from the fleet," Wavell was silent for a long time before he spoke with difficulty.
"Now the troops of the 7th Panzer Division and the 4th Indian Division are urgently dispatched, and in 24 hours they will counterattack the Matru airfield" In fact, only a small part of the 7th Panzer Division and the 4th Indian Division were urgently dispatched, and it was the troops stationed at El Alamein.
But there is a distance of 200 kilometers from El Alamein to Matroux Airport, and even mechanized troops have to walk for most of the day, still under the premise of no aircraft bombing, so whether there will be a British army counterattack on Matroux Airport in 24 hours, Wavell himself does not know the bottom.
"Yes."
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"But not withdrawing means that there is a high probability of losing the fleet, losing four battleships and two aircraft carriers in 24 hours, and they are an important force to defend our homeland, and we cannot risk them," Cunningham said. ” "I see."
Wavell nodded, "Then let's make a joint proposal to London, such a big decision can only be made by London."
As soon as his words fell, a staff officer rushed in in a hurry, saluted Waveville, and then reported loudly: "General, urgent report from the 8th Army, Knightsbridge has just been captured by the Germans" "Damn," Admiral Wavell glanced back at Cunningham, "There's big trouble there too, there's big trouble there now, we're in big trouble right now, and the entire British Empire is in big trouble." t1706231537: