Chapter 437 North African Campaign (5)
Rommel took the battle map and gestured the distance to Cairo.
Along the way, they eliminated and captured about 10,000 British soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Egyptian soldiers. So there are still about 40,000 British soldiers, hundreds of thousands of Egyptian soldiers and about 50,000 to 60,000 Indian soldiers in Cairo. There may also be colonial reinforcements from Australia, Canada and other countries.
The total force should be about 300,000.
It seems that Admiral Wavell wants to defend Cairo to the death?
"That's a good idea. Don't run away." Rommel put away the map and muttered to himself, and the adjutant next to him said. "General, they are coming."
Looking in the direction of the adjutant's finger, more than a dozen Stukas flew in the distant sky.
"It's just in time. The weather is really a bit hot." Listening to the cheers of the soldiers around him, Rommel smiled.
The adjutant took out a smoke bomb from the car, pulled out the safety and threw it to the open space in the distance. People in the distance also threw smoke bombs one after another.
As the smoke bombs billowed with thick smoke, the Stukas dispersed and began to dive. Although the buzzer was removed, the high-speed diving bombers still made a buzzing sound from friction with the air.
When it was more than 600 meters above the ground, the Stuka dropped the "bomb" mounted on its belly and began to climb slowly.
The "bomb" that fell rapidly ejected a parachute when it was more than 100 meters above the ground, and suddenly stopped in the air, but still hit heavily near the smoke bomb.
"Ice cream, ice cream!" The adjutant hummed and ran over, pried open the shell of the "bomb", and took out a lunch box-sized container from it. There was more than one such container in a "bomb", and the surrounding "covetous" soldiers swarmed up and divided the containers inside.
American soldiers during World War II not only had meat every meal, but also snacks such as biscuits and chocolate were freely available. In their spare time, they also invented a method for fighter planes to make ice cream at high altitudes.
The inventor of this "feat" was Major Rheinburg of the 122nd Squadron of the US Air Force during the Pacific War. When the war with the Japanese army was in full swing, in order to ease the oppressive war atmosphere in the army, Rheinburg decided to do something. After studying the F4U fighter, he found that after the auxiliary fuel tank of this fighter was modified and filled with some ice cream ingredients such as milk and cocoa powder, it could make ice cream at a low temperature of dozens of degrees below zero at high altitude after flying to high altitude.
This discovery made him and the soldiers of the 122nd Squadron very happy, which allowed them to eat some delicious ice cream every day during the brutal war, greatly relieving their physical and mental health. In order to keep it secret, Major Rheinburg specially gave the activity of making ice cream a rather mysterious plan name: "Frozen Operation", and one pilot completed the operation mission every day.
Of course, Major Rheinburg certainly could not let the fighter plane fly for no reason. The reason for his daily dispatch of F4U fighters was to go to some islands where the Japanese army was stationed for reconnaissance and lure the Japanese army to attack the F4U fighters. Of course, for the F4U fighters that can fly at an altitude of 12,000 meters, the Japanese anti-aircraft firepower poses no threat to them at all, so the F4U fighters can safely make ice cream every day.
However, Major Rheinberg's "Frozen Operation" was eventually discovered. After an F4U fighter completed the production of ice cream at high altitude, because the pilot landed too fast, the auxiliary fuel tank containing ice cream fell directly into the nearby US Army camp. The US Army soldiers in the camp found that the 122nd Squadron was doing such a "good thing" and strongly demanded to participate. Then, all nearby US Air Force squadrons learned Rheinberg's method of transforming auxiliary fuel tanks and began to make ice cream. As a result, "Frozen Operation" became popular in the US military, and Major Rheinberg was praised by various US soldiers.
Such enjoyment was an unattainable luxury for the German army, which was short of resources in the original time and space, but now the oil in Libya P City is continuously mined and processed into aviation fuel. For the African Corps, petroleum gasoline is cheaper than fresh water, so just use it freely.
Yannick ordered a Stuka formation to be allocated to make and transport ice cream to ensure the morale of the front-line troops; by the way, it can also train these pilots' bombing skills, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
The adjutant returned to the command vehicle, opened the container, divided the ice cream inside into four portions, and distributed them to Rommel, Italian officers, and Vichy French officers, and took one for himself.
"It's so delicious." The Italian officer couldn't wait to pick up a spoon and scoop a mouthful of ice cream. "Your army really knows how to enjoy."
Rommel rolled his eyes in his heart. Who can enjoy more than you on the battlefield? Using precious fresh water to cook macaroni, if it weren't for the guarantee of fresh water, you would have to bury all your macaroni in the sand.
The Italian army in World War II was a famous foodie.
Is there any way to eat delicious food on the battlefield? Under this belief, when other countries were busy developing new weapons, Italy invented the freeze-drying method of preserving food because it wanted to eat delicious military food...
On the battlefield 10 kilometers away from the supply station, the whole army cooked spaghetti because they were hungry, and then the whole army was easily captured by the enemy...
The fighting would stop at lunch time, and after eating spaghetti, they would hide behind the front line in disappointment...
The packaging of a famous Italian red wine has a slogan like "If you are drunk, you will not be afraid of fighting." Among the supplies seized by the enemy, the amount of red wine is more than the amount of ammunition...
The prisoners captured by Italy can eat a luxurious set meal every day... A British pilot was captured by Italy and thrown into a prisoner concentration camp. That night, he got his own dinner in the prison. It was a complete set of dishes from appetizers to macaroni and meat, and even the fruits and red wine at the end. It was luxurious to the point of being unnatural. "Is this the so-called last supper..."
The next morning, a high-ranking officer appeared in front of him: "We made a small mistake yesterday. We provided you, the officer, with a dinner for ordinary soldiers. This was definitely not intentional abuse of prisoners. Can you forgive the guard who made the mistake for my sake?"…………
The Italians in a prisoner camp escaped from prison. Because they had no pasta to eat, they ran to another prisoner camp with pasta. Later, the previous prisoner camp promised them that they would provide pasta, so they went back...
Although the combat effectiveness of the Italian army at this time has been greatly improved compared to the original time and space, it still has not gotten rid of the attribute of foodies.