armyinform Third Reich Episode 327
Third Reich Episode 327
Ejele is a small city behind the border between Algeria and Libya, but behind this small city is a part of the large Algerian oil field that Berente is trying his best to protect.
Now that both Britain and France have accumulated a large number of troops here, the British want to conquer Ejerai in one fell swoop, and then complete the control of the Algerian oil field area, while the French army wants to defend Ejerai to the death to protect the route to Algeria The lifeline of the oilfield.
In Belante's north, center, and south defense lines, Ejele belongs to the city on the southern defense line.
The southern front happened to be the area where the French army was most severely suppressed.
Here, the two positions in front of Ejelle have been lost, and the newly transferred French Algeria 2rd Division used the original third position to build a huge U-shaped formation around the expansion of Ejelle. position.
As for the British army, after discovering that only the offensive at the southern end was effective, they changed their strategy. From the beginning to capture the northern capital of the French army and reduce the big goal of the French army in Africa, it changed to occupying the French oil fields first and destroying the French army on the southern front. The defender's small goal plan.
On the basis of the original strength on the southern front, General Wavell of the British Army sent the 24st Regiment and the 131th Regiment of the 768th Division of the British Army to the southern front to strengthen the British attack on Ejerai.
Taking advantage of its superior artillery, the British army on the southern front launched a heavy artillery attack on the French U-shaped defensive position.
In the direction of their attack, after most of the French army's fire support points were destroyed with artillery fire, they dispatched the new troops transferred by the 24th Division, the 131st Regiment and the 768th Regiment, and began to attack the city of Ejelle. Advance in depth.
The advance speed of the British army is not slow, and after the baptism of British artillery fire, the French defense here has indeed been greatly weakened.
In the eyes of the commanders of the 3rd Division of the French Army, once this situation continues, it will be quite dangerous.
As a result, the 3rd Division had to begin to gather black defensive forces from other areas and gather in the direction of the British attack.
At the same time, in order to prevent the appearance of French officers and soldiers in the brigade, who were squeezed into a building and were wiped out by the British army, the French army also learned to be smart and began to disperse into many groups to carry out battles in various houses. Defense is not limited to focusing on fighting in seemingly solid buildings.
These French combat groups are usually composed of a squad of white French soldiers and 2 to 3 squads of black Algerian soldiers, and their combat effectiveness is trustworthy.
And because the support troops of the 24th Division of the British Army were temporarily transferred, the amount of shells carried was not much, and there was half an hour of intensive artillery preparation ahead, and their bombardment had to stop after a short while— —Because the shells are running low.
So far, Britain and France have entered a new stage of hand-to-hand combat.
The 24th Division of the British Army has a lot of experience in urban combat. After many battles with the Italian army, the commanders and fighters of the 24th Division of the British Army have a lot of experience in how to effectively eliminate the enemy soldiers defending in street fighting. This also caused considerable trouble to the French army in Ejelle.
Fortunately, the British army's street fighting experience was learned from the Italians, and many places are still not applicable to the French army.
Of course, the British army is also capable of street fighting attacks, and they are also divided into many combat groups to fight.
The infantry combat squads of the British army, assisted by engineers, can often play a very stable level in the battle for houses in urban combat.There were many times when those black French soldiers who did not have much combat experience suddenly found the British combat team appearing behind them before they understood what was going on, or after a loud noise, the British army passed through the building from the next door. The engineers blasted and rushed into the house where the French army was located and fired a burst of fire.
In general, the scattered attacking British battle group, like mercury falling to the ground, gradually infiltrated and encroached on the French Ejelet line of defense.
What the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Division of the French Army did not expect most was that the offensive force transferred by the British army was not only infantry, but a mixed force with anti-tank guns and tanks.
In addition, the anti-tank guns of the British army usually have shields, which are lifted and pushed forward by the artillery squad. Although the moving speed is very slow, the power of this direct-firing artillery can cause the French army a headache. .
Sometimes, the French army obviously used the terrain to gain an advantage in urban battles and suppressed the British army's attack, but after a while, British soldiers hid behind the shields and pushed this kind of direct-firing artillery.
These artillery pieces are aimed and fired, and generally speaking, a single shot can destroy a house.
However, the French army in the building didn't have much to do with this kind of artillery, because those British artillerymen hid behind the shield and were often unable to hit them with guns.
Many French soldiers, even when they saw this kind of direct artillery, immediately fled from the building where the muzzle was aimed at.
What made the French army even more troublesome was the British tanks. This steel monster was amazing in terms of mobility and protection.
If it is said that for the British anti-tank guns, the French officers and soldiers can sometimes kill the British artillery by changing the shooting angle, so that they cannot function.
Then, for the tanks of the British army, the French army of Ejlai basically had nothing to do.
The French soldiers also knew that, on the premise that they had no tanks or anti-tank guns, if they wanted to destroy the British steel monsters, they had to get very close and attack the engines behind them.
But the infantry following the tanks of the British army hardly gave the French army such a chance.
The British combat team was not careless when advancing. They searched and cleared all the buildings along the two sides of the tank's route, and many of them were organized to hide in the buildings on the street. Because of this, the French anti-tank team was wiped out in a house far away from the British tanks.
Fortunately, even if the British army has such an advantage, the 131st and 768th regiments still failed to complete their tasks.
The reason is very simple, that is caused by the shortage of troops.
Although the casualty exchange ratio between the two sides in the battle was acceptable, the numbers of the two British regiments were still slowly declining.Many areas that should have achieved a breakthrough, because the follow-up team of the British army could not keep up, they could only watch helplessly as the French army deployed new troops to block them.
After all, Algeria is a place where France has worked hard for many years. Although the French army here has no advantages in weapons and combat quality, they can continuously replenish their own troops and use black soldiers recruited locally in Algeria to offset part of the casualties , the French army still did a good job on this point.
Text Chapter 5 Another Battalion
As time went by, the losses caused by street fighting became more and more obvious.
Johnson, commander of the 24th Division of the British Army, who was commanding operations on the front line, was even more anxious.
He anxiously reported the battle situation to Wavell, and strongly urged Wavell to continue to send more troops to reinforce them.
But in the face of such a request, Wavell actually felt more difficult than Johnson.
The British did not have any reserves in the North African battlefield. The 974th and 775th regiments of the Australian Army prepared for the second batch of troops were in worse condition than the two British regiments of the 24th Division, and these two regiments still had to use Fortified south of Algeria.
Because intelligence shows that in the south of Algeria, there are still 10,000+ Italian troops who fled to Algeria from the British army. If the Italian army launches a counterattack from the south of Algeria when they are fighting with the French army, the consequences will be disastrous.
The advance of the British 24th Division also slowed down due to the unresponsiveness of the increasingly strong requests for reinforcements from the front.
In the end, Johnson, the commander of the 24th Division, transferred half of the only unused division directly under the guard battalion at this time to provide reinforcements.After that, there were almost no troops around him that could be mobilized.
And if further reinforcements are needed, Johnson has no troops to send.
Even his headquarters is directly under the engineer battalion, and it has long been dispersed among the combat teams in each regiment.
If the first two attacking regiments still cannot complete the task of dividing and eliminating the French army in the city, then their offensive may only be temporarily stopped.
Contrary to expectations, the fighting in Ejlei City is still fierce, and there is no sign of easing up.
At this time, Johnson was a little impressed by the French army who was fighting defensively in the city at this time, and the powerful combat effectiveness of the troops directly under Berente.
Because he did not feel that those border garrisons were capable of fighting in the previous battle to break through the Algerian border defense line. The 131st Regiment and the 768th Regiment did not take too much effort to achieve the breakthrough so far.
It's a pity that the smooth breakthrough of the first two positions has an important relationship with the British army's possession of French domestic support. This made Johnson's judgment biased due to factors outside the battle.
And he also forgot that the French army on the Algerian border has relatively weak firepower, which is due to the impact of their lack of ammunition.
However, the 3rd Division of the French Army in Egelay, because it had been kept by Berente as a reserve team before, had no experience in combat, and its ammunition reserves were quite abundant.And Berante dealt with the traitors in the rear with lightning speed and restored the supply of materials to the southern defense line, so that the 3rd Division finally did not have to worry about the ammunition problem like the previous troops.
Now, due to the large loss of personnel of the 24th Division of the British Army, the impact has begun to show slowly.
The British army, which had just finished the war with the Italian army, had rich combat experience, strong combat effectiveness and morale, and achieved a relatively reasonable casualty exchange ratio in the battle.However, their offensive troops were weak in follow-up and insufficient troops, which made the battle in the city not proceed according to Johnson's idea, but began to become more stalemate.
On the other hand, in the headquarters of the British army, Wavell was also very moved. He was fortunate that he did not pin his hopes of the battle on the fact that the French army in the city would voluntarily retreat, so as to relax his vigilance.
Because he did not regard the French army as an Italian army that was easy to retreat, Wavell also hoped to send two regiments of the 24th Division on the southern front, which is not a bad idea.
Otherwise, perhaps no one can really tell what the current battle situation in Ejerai City will be like.There is even the possibility that the 3rd division transferred by the French army will launch a counterattack!