In the past few months, after a long tug-of-war between the Soviet and German armies, they have conquered a large area of ​​land in the North Caucasus and occupied the oil-producing areas of Maikop and Grozny.

However, the German army was not satisfied with this. After a little rest, they headed south to attack the Caucasus Mountains, trying to break through the southern mountains, meet with the Turkish troops on the Soviet-Turkish border, and further headed south to attack the oil fields of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which has a larger oil production.

The vast Caucasus region is divided into the northern North Caucasus and the Southern Caucasus in the north. The majestic Caucasus mountains are known as the backbone of Europe and are a natural obstacle to mechanized forces.

In the North Caucasus, the oil produced by Maikop and Grozny accounts for 15% of the entire Soviet Union.

In the South Caucasus, the oil fields in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, are larger, supplying almost 70% of the Soviet Union's oil. Baku's annual oil production can reach 24 million tons, almost three times the demand of Germany in the year before the war.

In addition, Georgia also has the best manganese ore in the world, supplying more than half of the manganese in the Soviet Union. As for food and other materials, it is also extremely sufficient, and it can be said to be a huge treasure house.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Axis army from breaking through the Caucasus mountains, the swaying Türkiye completely turned to the Axis alliance, thus triggering a series of chain reactions.

Yang Fan had to give up more than 200,000 troops and let Alexander's 18th Army Group go to the Caucasus region to support the Soviet Caucasus Front and block the German army north of the Caucasus Mountains.

In this way, the Allied forces in the North African theater were reduced to less than 700,000, which was much weaker than the strong German and Italian coalition forces.

As the saying goes, a clever woman is hard to cook without rice. She does not have enough capital to fight head-on with the African Legion. Yang Fan can only adopt extreme despicable defense, first fight a war of attrition with Rommel, and at the same time, she waits for an opportunity to overturn the Italian naval fleet and cut off the other side's supply line.

Fortunately, although the division of troops in the Caucasus region made the North African Allied Army very passive, it played a big role. It was because Alexander's 18th Army Group arrived in time that it suppressed the ready-to-go Turkish army and stabilized the Caucasus Mountains defense line.

The arrival of the 18th Army Group declares that Germany will no longer have the opportunity to threaten the Southern Caucasus this winter. The arrival of winter has made the German army's less adequate fuel consume faster, which is simply worse.

"Don't worry, believe us soldiers, they will stick to the end, and victory will definitely belong to us and the justice side."

After retracting his thoughts, Yang Fan smiled and comforted him, and then said: "It is indeed difficult for the Allied forces to endure now, but the same Axis troops are also difficult. As long as we can grit our teeth and persevere for a few more hours, there will definitely be a turning point!"

When Stilwell heard this, he seemed to have grasped a point and asked quickly: "Do you have any good ideas?"

Although everything was clearly placed on the sand table and all the corresponding strategies that could be implemented were deduced by the staff officers for a long time, there was no feasible solution so far.

After all, such a limited tough battle is to fight for hard power. You are not stupid, and the enemy is not stupid. What you can think of, the enemy can also think of, and it is difficult to catch flaws and weaknesses and kill them with one blow!

“…”

As Stilwell finished speaking, Okinlek, Patton and others also turned their attention to Yang Fan, hoping that he could come up with some good ideas and change the current extremely unfavorable situation as soon as possible.

"I do have some ideas, but the time is not yet ripe, so we still need to endure it."

Launching a night attack is not a new thing, nor is it an unexpected trick. Yang Fan has no need to keep it in a silence and throw out his previous idea.

"This is the basic idea. As long as the Italian Navy dares to spend the night in the waters near Tobrook Port tonight, I will definitely wake them up tonight."

After discussing this idea with everyone, Yang Fan said murderously again: "Of course, in order to relieve the pressure on the front line troops, we still have to invest a lot of money and not let them attack so smoothly and comfortably!"

...

17 kilometers west of the Martru's port, a hilly position of the 1st Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

Here is the defensive position of the 9th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Expeditionary Force.

At this moment, on the plains in front of the 9th Regiment's position and on the gentle slopes hundreds of meters long at the front of the position, piles of burning and burning steel wrecks could be seen everywhere, and countless enemy corpses scattered in the soil were scattered.

The blood flowing wildly has almost turned the dry mud on the slope into a muddy wetland. This is really a river of blood.

The air was filled with the strong smell of gunpowder and blood, filled with gunfire explosions that made people's eardrums. At this moment, the fierce battle of life and death is still going on.

The officers and soldiers of the 9th Regiment no longer knew how many enemy soldiers they destroyed the enemy tanks and armored vehicles, and how many times they killed were killed.

They only know that I am invincible, and as long as the enemy is still attacking, they must fight to the end.

The mine formation consists of thousands of anti-tank mines and infantry mines, which has long been consumed by the enemy's crazy bombing and ground attacks.

There are more than 40 88mm anti-aircraft guns, and now there are only 5 of them left that can still be used.

There were not many turrets and bunker groups made of reinforced concrete under the crazy bombing, and the entire defense system had been extremely damaged.

Even the two trenches in the front changed hands several times, and they lost again and again. The soldiers fought several close-killing hand-to-hand combat with the enemy troops rushing into the trenches, driving the enemy out of the position again and again.

Under the crazy attacks of the fierce and powerful enemies, the officers and soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force had long been insensitive and turned into killing machines, repeating mechanized shooting and firing actions.

Even if there were planes on their heads, heavy artillery in the distance, and firepower from tanks and armored vehicles nearby, they were fearless and left no room for imagination for the enemy from beginning to end.

"The Chinese Expeditionary Force is really a hard bone that cannot be broken or smashed!"

A German colonel commander stood on the slope in the distance, holding a telescope and staring at the fierce battlefield several kilometers away, with his forehead twisting into the character "chuan".

The German ground troops responsible for the main attack were indeed strong enough. Since dawn, they have been attacking continuously for more than eight hours. No less than 5,000 people have been killed one after another, and the number of tanks and armored vehicles has been damaged by more than 350.
Chapter completed!