Chapter 423 Desert Tiger 8

"1,000 meters away, on the left... Do you see those white houses? That's Knightsbridge." Lieutenant Ribbentrop was lying behind a white rock, pointing to a village in front of him and said to Lieutenant Colonel Schunard of the 3rd Battalion of the Great German Brigade.

The 17th Company of the Great German Brigade advanced to Knightsbridge, a key point behind the main British defense line, an hour ago. And 10 minutes ago, the 3rd Battalion of the brigade came again in trucks and half-track vehicles, and with them came 6 Type 3 assault guns of the 16th Assault Gun Company and 4 Type 4 tanks of the 5th Tank Regiment.

Lieutenant Colonel Schunard of the 3rd Battalion of the Great German Brigade received an order to capture Knightsbridge before dark.

"That's Knightsbridge? I thought there would be a river and a bridge. Lieutenant, you're not mistaken, are you?" Lieutenant Colonel Schunard half-crouched beside Lieutenant Ribbentrop, holding a telescope in his hand.

"That's right," Lieutenant Ribbentrop answered confidently, "It's there... There is indeed no river or bridge there, but it is the Knightsbridge, with at least 1,500 Indians guarding there, and several Matilda tanks."

"Matilda tanks?" Lieutenant Colonel Schunard asked, "Are you sure it's this type of tank?"

"Sure," Lieutenant Ribbentrop said, "There are at least two, and they just rushed out and damaged my two half-track vehicles."

The two damaged half-track vehicles were "lying" on the sand not far ahead, but they didn't look very bad and should be repairable. And several German soldiers were digging bunkers with infantry shovels.

"So what about their fortifications?" Lieutenant Colonel Schunard asked again.

"Very solid!" Lieutenant Ribbentrop said, "Those white houses were carefully reinforced by the Italians, and they were actually a fortress."

The fortifications and the number of defenders were pried out from the prisoners, and later proved to be true.

"Italians?" Lieutenant Colonel Schuhner smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Why do I feel like they are doing us a disservice?"

In fact, they were doing us a disservice. The fortifications of Tobruk Fortress were also carefully built by the Italians, and the Italians also piled up a large amount of supplies and ammunition there, all of which fell into the hands of the British intact - if it weren't for these things, the British 8th Army would never have been able to deploy defenses in Tobruk.

After shaking his head, Lieutenant Colonel Schuhner said to himself: "It seems that we need a few more 'Wasp' self-propelled artillery."

Then he said to Lieutenant Ribbentrop and Lieutenant Schwarzenegger: "You can just stay here, and you don't have to participate in the attack... My people will take Knightsbridge."

...

With a "thump", little Hessman fell on his butt on the hard ground - he fell from an altitude of 3,000... Fortunately, he had a parachute, otherwise he would have died!

This was the second time his plane was shot down, and it was an old "Swordfish" plane that shot him down. While he was chasing the plane and shooting happily with his machine gun (the ammunition of the 20mm cannon was exhausted), the engine of his Fokker Zero was damaged by the enemy's rear-seat machine gun, so he had to reluctantly fly to the vicinity of the Matruh Airport and parachute, because the airport was occupied by German paratroopers a few hours ago.

The German 7th Airborne Division's raid on the Matruh Airport was like poking a hornet's nest. British planes swarmed over the Matruh Airport like hornets. There were all kinds of aircraft, including Spitfire, Hurricane, P39, Wellington, Gross Gladiator, F2A, Blenheim, and even Swordfish and Albacore, two torpedo attack aircraft, flying with bombs.

However, for Hessman Jr. and his comrades, this was simply the British sending their heads. From morning to now, Hessman Jr. has flown three sorties and shot down a total of 4 enemy planes, and the results have increased to 13. Just when he was about to reap the 14th victory, he was shot down by someone without paying attention.

"Don't move, raise your hands!"

Several German paratroopers holding rifles ran towards little Hessmann and shouted in English for him to surrender.

"I'm German!" Little Hessmann raised his hands and shouted, "I'm Lieutenant Rudolf von Heinsberg-Hessmann! The squadron leader of the 2nd Squadron of the 9th Carrier Aircraft Group."

Several German paratroopers also recognized that little Hessmann was wearing a German Air Force flight suit.

A paratrooper sergeant put away his rifle and asked, "Lieutenant, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said little Hessmann, "but I need to return to the airport in Benghazi immediately."

The 9th Carrier Aircraft Group is now stationed in Benghazi, where backup aircraft are stored. After returning to Benghazi, little Hessmann can fly another Fokker Zero to attack again.

"Lieutenant, a Junkers transport plane is unloading."

After the 7th Airborne Division occupied the airport (the British had few defenders at the airport, so it was quickly occupied by the German paratroopers, but the port of Messe Matrouh was still under the control of the British garrison), a transport plane immediately took off from the Benghazi airport, delivering weapons, ammunition, various supplies and reinforcements.

Starting at 1 pm, a Junkers plane landed at Matrouh Airport almost every 10 minutes, and at the same time, a Junkers plane that was almost empty (sometimes carrying a few wounded and shot down pilots) took off and left.

"Okay, take me there!" Little Hessmann quickly put away his parachute, then limped and followed the German paratroopers to a plane that was unloading. When they approached that day, they found that the bombs being unloaded from the Junkers plane were all 500 kg of aviation armor-piercing bombs!

He guessed that these bombs must be prepared to be hung on the Ju87 Stuka dive bomber! This Matruh Airport is only 260 kilometers away from Alexandria, which is completely within the combat radius of the Stuka dive bomber-these bombers that scream when diving are not comparable to Ju88 and Fokker 99. It is a real dive bomber, and it has a large bomb load. It can carry 1 500 kg and 2 250 kg aviation armor-piercing bombs (or 1 1000 kg bomb).

Once several squadrons of Ju87 and Fw-190 are deployed to Matruh Airport, the end of the Mediterranean Fleet will come!

…

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom certainly knew the notoriety of the Ju87 "Stuka". This was the aircraft they feared the most, no doubt about it! Compared with it, the Ju88 was only the second most threatening.

So after hearing that the Matruh Airport, only 260 kilometers away from Alexandria, was occupied by German paratroopers, Admiral Cunningham immediately rushed to Wavell's headquarters.

"The fleet must leave!" Admiral Cunningham frowned and said, "At least 4 battleships and 2 aircraft carriers must leave, tonight!"

These days he has been looking for an opportunity to fight a night battle with the Italian fleet, but the Italians are very cunning. They only bombarded Tobruk with naval guns during the day and disappeared without a trace at night. After a few days, Cunningham finally understood that the "German God of War" Hessman would not give him the opportunity to fight a fleet decisive battle.

Hessman wanted to control the sea with air and use powerful shore-based aviation to deal with the British Mediterranean Fleet. The purpose of the German airborne capture of Matruh Airport, in addition to cutting off the traffic between Tobruk and Alamein, is to find an airport for their most terrifying Ju87 Stuka dive bombers to attack Alexandria. So the Mediterranean Fleet must run away.

"Tonight?" Admiral Wavell's face was livid, because he knew that once the fleet left, it meant that Britain had lost the battle of the Mediterranean!

Without the fleet, the entire Mediterranean Sea control will belong to Germany and Italy, and they can land anywhere! And the British troops stationed in Greece, Crete and Cyprus will immediately become isolated.

The most terrible thing is that Turkey will soon turn to Germany! Once the Mediterranean Fleet leaves, the Turks will have no choice. The country's foreign trade is mainly carried out through sea transportation in the Mediterranean and land transportation in the Balkan Peninsula. If the Mediterranean is controlled by Germany and Italy, then Turkey's foreign exchange routes will basically be controlled by Germany, unless they are willing to surrender to the Soviet Union... But this is impossible!

Therefore, Turkey can only surrender to Germany, with no choice!

"Admiral, I think you know what it means to withdraw the fleet?" Wavell was silent for a long time before speaking with difficulty. "The 7th Armored Division and the 4th Indian Division are now on the move. They will counterattack the Matruh Airport in 24 hours..."

In fact, only a small part of the 7th Armored Division and the 4th Indian Division are now on the move. They are the troops stationed in El Alamein. However, it is 200 kilometers from El Alamein to the Matruh Airport. Even mechanized troops have to walk for most of the day - and that's without aircraft bombing! So Wavell himself had no idea whether the British army would counterattack the Matruh Airport in 24 hours.

"I know." Cunningham said, "But if we don't withdraw, we will most likely lose the fleet... It will be lost within 24 hours! Four battleships and two aircraft carriers are important forces to defend the homeland. We can't take risks with them."

"I understand." Wavell nodded, "Then let's make a joint proposal to London... Only London can make such a major decision!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a staff officer rushed in anxiously, saluted Wavell, and then reported loudly: "Admiral, urgent report from the 8th Army, Knightsbridge has just been captured by the Germans!"

"Damn it!" Admiral Wavell looked back at Cunningham, "Tobruk is also in big trouble... We are in big trouble now! The entire British Empire is in big trouble!"