Chapter 422 North African Campaign 2

At this time, the commander-in-chief of the British Military Command in the Middle East was Archibald Percy Valle Wavell, who was considered one of the most talented generals in Britain. The original time and space is famous for defeating 300,000 Italian troops in Africa with 50,000 troops and capturing 130,000 enemies. But later he was defeated by Rommel due to Churchill's successive wrong commands.

Churchill's military ability does not need to be evaluated by future generations. The Allies' view of Churchill at that time was that they could not even let him get close to the battlefield, let alone micro-manage the battlefield.

The home battle with absolute sea control and several times the manpower and material resources was defeated by the Afrika Korps back to Egypt. During the period, they lost more than ten small battles. From Wavell to Montgomery, they barely fought the Battle of El Alamein with four times the amount of US-aided tanks; Malaya's 100,000-pound battle Army + "Oriental Gibraltar" was annihilated by 30,000 Japanese troops from Yamashita Tomoe in three months; Burma saved the expeditionary force from total annihilation by pulling back the expeditionary force; the deployment of the Z fleet was even more magical; in 1943, Italy surrendered under the same conditions of absolute sea control with the U.S. military It took until 1945 to assist in climbing to the Po River Basin; the Battle of Dieppe was used by the Germans as a model for anti-landing warfare; the Market Garden Airborne... Every battle in which Churchill intervened was without exception a disastrous defeat or a disastrous victory.

This time, Churchill immediately ordered the British Middle East Command in Egypt to find and destroy the German oil fields.

Admiral Wavell called in Arthur Longmore, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East, to discuss the matter. "What do you think?"

"It's simply an impossible task." Arthur Langmore shook his head with a sad look on his face. They had discovered that the German army was stationed in Libya long ago, and sent reconnaissance planes to detect the movements of the German army. The reconnaissance planes that could be sent out were quickly shot down once they crossed the border. The news sent back before being shot down stated that they encountered German BF109. So far, no reconnaissance aircraft has been able to fly to the hinterland of Libya to explore the situation.

Sending ground reconnaissance troops had the same result. Several groups were sent, but once they crossed the border, they would disappear without a trace. Therefore, they do not know what the situation is like with the German troops in Libya.

It was only today that they learned that the German army was digging for oil in Libya.

"Let's not talk about the specific location of the oil field. Even if we find it, the number of our bombers is quite insufficient. It will take multiple rounds of non-stop bombing to completely blow up their oil base. But it is obvious that our escort fighters are completely It is no match for the German BF109.”

The main force of fighter jets they have here are Hurricane fighter jets, and they don't even have any advanced Spitfires. There are even many "Gamecock" fighters, "Gladiator" fighters and other bi-wing fighters.

The "Fighting Chicken" fighter jet entered service in 1925. It has a maximum flight speed of 250 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 587 kilometers. Its weapons only have two 7mm Vickers machine guns on the nose; it is simply extremely weak and should have been eliminated long ago. .

The "Gladiator" fighter is a bit better. It was put into service in 1937 and uses a fully enclosed bubble canopy, which is quite rare among biplane fighters. Its engine power is 4 kilowatts, its maximum speed is 407 kilometers per hour, and it is equipped with four 7mm machine guns. It is the model with the largest combat weight and strong firepower among the British fighter jets of the same era.

But it is simply a fantasy to rely on these fighter jets to break through the German air power. Once they encounter the German BF109, they will only be massacred. I am afraid that the entire army will be annihilated in one trip.

The so-called bombers are also old-fashioned. For example, Hawker "Buck", Vickers 131 "Warrior" and other single-engine bi-wing light bombers.

However, there are also more advanced bombers, namely Fairey's "fighter" bombers.

This aircraft is a single-engine, two-seat monoplane, which is a big improvement over previous bombers. It adopts a cantilevered low single wing and inverted T-shaped tail layout. The wings, fuselage and tail are all stress-skinned, but the rudder and elevator are still cloth-skinned. The wing is a double-spar structure with flaps installed on the trailing edge. The rear wing is of light alloy structure. The rear tricycle landing gear and the hydraulic retractable main landing gear are retracted backwards into the landing gear bay with fairing, but when fully retracted, there is still a part of the wheel exposed, and the tail wheel is fixed.

As a bomber, the Combat's bomb bays were placed inside the wings. There are two bomb bays in each wing. There is a hydraulic lifting rack in the bomb bay. When loading bombs on the ground, the pylon can be extended out of the bomb bay and retracted after the bomb is loaded. However, the pylon does not need to be stored in the bomb bay after the bomb is mounted. At this time, the bomb is equivalent to hanging under the wing, so the aircraft can also perform dive bombing.

"Your Majesty General, don't forget about the last raid on the German artillery base. So many hurricanes and Spitfires almost wiped out the entire army. I think the defense strength of the German oil fields will never be lower than that of that artillery base. . If our plane flies over, there won’t even be enough space between the other party’s teeth.”

Admiral Wavell sighed. "But if the oil fields are not destroyed, there will be a steady flow of oil sent to the European continent."

Arthur Longmore shrugged helplessly. "Unless you give us more planes." This is just talk. They can't even stop the British mainland from being bombed. How can there be any extra planes allocated to them.

At this time, the phone on Admiral Wavell's desk rang. After picking up the phone and listening to a few words, Admiral Wavell's expression changed and he exclaimed. "What?!"

His sudden reaction startled Arthur Longmore and he asked hurriedly. "What happened, General?"

Admiral Wavell's face was very ugly. "The Germans attacked."

When Admiral Wavell received the news, the British airfield near the border had been visited by Mosquito bombers. There was no radar here, and it was difficult to provide enough warning time for the enemy bomber's air raids relying solely on ground-based human air defense observation.

Before the fighters at the airport had time to take off to meet the enemy, the Mosquito bombers dropped tons of bombs. The airports were bombed beyond recognition, and most of the few British fighters were destroyed on the ground.

A few fighters that managed to avoid the bombing were easily shot down by the BF109Fs waiting in the sky. Soon, the air supremacy of several cities near the border had completely fallen into the hands of the Germans.

The Stuka and Il-2 attack aircraft that followed closely began to bomb important targets in the town.

The bombing lasted a whole day, and most of Egypt was bombed. In the evening, the German ground forces were approaching the border.

In the original time and space, Italy attacked Egypt, and the British army retreated to the pre-built positions near Mersa Matruh before they could gain a foothold.

Now, the German elite armored forces are attacking, and the British army is even more defeated. The defense line near the border was instantly shattered by the precise bombing of Stuka and Il-2. Several Matilda tanks rushed up without caring about their lives, but were easily blown up by the Jackal tanks.