Bab 345: Chapter 422 North African Campaign (2)
At this time, the commander-in-chief of the British Middle East Command was Archibald Percival Wavell, one of Britain's most talented generals. In the original timeline, he was famous for defeating an Italian force of 300,000 with only 50,000 troops, capturing 130,000 enemies. However, he was later defeated by Rommel due to Churchill's consecutive misdirections.
Churchill's military capabilities need not be judged by posterity; the Allied forces' opinion of him at the time was that he shouldn't even be allowed near the battlefield, let alone micromanage it.
Despite having absolute naval supremacy and multiple times the manpower and resources, the British home ground was pushed back to Egypt by the Afrika Korps. During this time, they lost more than ten battles, large and small, from Wavell to Montgomery, who barely managed to fight out the Battle of El Alamein with four times the tanks thanks to American aid; 100,000 British troops in Malaya and the "Gibraltar of the East" were annihilated by 30,000 Japanese troops under Yamashita Tomoyuki in three months; in Burma, they barely avoided annihilation by using the Expeditionary Force as a shield; the deployment of the Z fleet was a stroke of genius; Italy surrendered in '43, and with absolute naval supremacy and American assistance, it took until '45 to reach the Po River basin; the Dieppe Raid was used by the German army as a model for anti-landing battles; Operation Market Garden and every battle Churchill interfered with was either a disastrous defeat or a costly victory.
This time, Churchill immediately ordered the British Middle East Command in Egypt to find and destroy the German oil fields.
General Wavell brought in Arthur Longmore, the commander of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East, to discuss the matter. "What do you think?"
"It's an impossible task," Arthur Longmore said with a worried shake of his head. They had discovered the German army's presence in Libya and sent reconnaissance planes to scout their movements. But once the reconnaissance planes crossed the border, they were quickly shot down. The last message before being shot down reported encountering German Bf 109s. To this day, not a single reconnaissance plane has been able to fly into the heart of Libya to investigate.
The same was true for ground scouts; several groups were sent out, but once they crossed the border, they disappeared without a trace. Therefore, they also did not know the exact situation of the German army in Libya.
They only found out today that the German army was drilling for oil in Libya.
"Let's not even talk about the specific location of the oil fields; even if we found them, we don't have enough bombers. We would need to bomb repeatedly and many times to completely destroy their oil bases. But obviously, our escort fighters are no match for the German Bf 109s."
Their main fighters here are the Hurricane fighters, and they don't have a single advanced Spitfire. There are even many "Gloster Gladiator" and "Bristol Bulldog" biplane fighters.
The "Bristol Bulldog" fighter was commissioned in 1925, with a maximum flight speed of 250 kilometers per hour, a maximum range of 587 kilometers, and only two 7.7 mm caliber Vickers machine guns mounted on the nose; it's so weak that it should have been retired long ago.
The "Gloster Gladiator" fighter is a bit better, commissioned in 1937, with a fully enclosed bubble canopy, which is quite rare among biplane fighters. Its engine power is 617.4 kilowatts, with a maximum speed of 407 kilometers per hour, equipped with four 7.7 mm machine guns, making it one of the heaviest and most powerful models among contemporary British fighters.
But to rely on these fighters to break through the German air power is simply a pipe dream; if they encounter the German Bf 109s, they will only be slaughtered, likely resulting in a complete loss in one go.
And the so-called bombers are also outdated. For example, the Hawker "Hart" and Vickers 131 "Valiant" are single-engine biplane light bombers.
There are more advanced bombers, such as the Fairey "Battle" bomber.
This aircraft is a single-engine, two-seater monoplane, which is a significant improvement over previous bombers. It features a cantilever low-wing, inverted T-tail layout. The wings, fuselage, and tail are all covered with stressed skin, but the rudder and elevators are still fabric-covered. The wing is a twin-beam structure with flaps installed on the trailing edge. The tail is made of light alloy. It has a tricycle landing gear, with hydraulic retractable main landing gear that retracts backward into a streamlined gear bay, but when fully retracted, the wheels are still partially exposed, and the tail wheel is fixed.
As a bomber, the "Battle's" bomb bay is located inside the wings. Each wing has two bomb bays. The bomb bays are equipped with hydraulic lifting racks. When loading bombs on the ground, the racks can extend out of the bomb bays and retract after the bombs are loaded. However, the racks can also remain extended after the bombs are loaded, in which case the bombs are effectively hung under the wings, allowing the aircraft to perform dive bombing.
"Your Excellency, don't forget the last raid on the German artillery base. So many Hurricanes and Spitfires were almost completely lost. I think the defense of the German oil fields will definitely not be less than that artillery base. Our few planes flying over there probably won't even be enough to fill their gaps."
General Wavell sighed. "But if we don't destroy the oil fields, there will be a continuous supply of oil to the European continent."
Arthur Longmore shrugged helplessly. "Unless they give us more planes." That was just talk; they couldn't even stop the bombing of Britain itself, let alone have spare planes to send to them.
At that moment, the phone on General Wavell's desk rang. After listening for a few moments, General Wavell's face changed, and he exclaimed, "What?!"
His sudden reaction startled Arthur Longmore, who quickly asked, "What's happened, General?"
General Wavell's face was very grim. "The Germans have attacked."
When General Wavell received the message, the British airfields near the border had already been visited by Mosquito bombers. There was no radar here, and relying solely on ground-based anti-aircraft observation, it was difficult to provide enough warning time for enemy air raids.
The airfield's fighters had not yet taken off to meet the enemy when the Mosquito bomber group dropped tons of bombs. One after another, the airfields were bombed beyond recognition, and most of the already scarce British aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
A few fighters that managed to avoid the bombing and take off were easily shot down by Bf 109Fs lying in wait high in the sky. In no time, the air superiority over several cities near the border had completely fallen into the hands of the German army.
Following this, Stukas and Il-2 attack aircraft began bombing important targets in the towns.
The bombing lasted an entire day, and much of Egypt was bombed. By evening, the German ground forces had already approached the border.
In the original timeline, when Italy attacked Egypt, the British army retreated to a pre-constructed position near Matruh before they could stand firm.
But now, with the elite German armored forces attacking, the British army was in complete disarray. The defensive lines near the border were shattered in an instant under the precise bombing of the Stukas and Il-2s. A few Matilda tanks that charged recklessly were easily blown up by the German "Jackal" tanks.
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