Chapter 85: Changes (Part 2)
The international situation in 1941 was completely different from that in any other time and space, and the biggest change occurred in North Africa.
As the British army captured the important town of Badiya and the fortress of Tobruk, the Benghazi oil mining area was facing the crisis of changing hands.
Under such circumstances, Mussolini had to go to Germany in a humble manner and beg Hitler for help.
In order to ensure the operation of the German war machine and also to strike Britain on the second front, Hitler agreed to immediately send an African Army to reinforce North Africa. This was the German African Army.
The German Africa Army Group was composed of the 5th Light Panzer Corps and the Africa Corps, which consisted of four infantry divisions and the 5th and 15th Light Panzer Divisions. General of Infantry Hermann Hoth was the army group commander, Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel was the commander of the 5th Light Panzer Corps, and General Karl Adolf Hollit was the commander of the Africa Corps.
Nominally, the German Army Group Africa was under the command of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Governor-General of Italian Libya, and General Italo Garibaldi, Commander of the Italian North African Expeditionary Force.
But according to the order of General Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the German Supreme Command, "the German army should not engage in meaningless battles (for Germany)", in fact the German army can act on its own.
Moreover, with the arrival of the main forces of the German African Army, the demoralized Italian army was instead held hostage by the smaller German army and had to play the role of a vassal.
At the end of February 1941, Rommel arrived in Tripoli with the vanguard of the 5th Light Armored Division. Regardless of his own weak strength and the fact that the British army was far stronger than his own, he led 25 Panzer III tanks as the vanguard and led the demoralized Italian First Army to Agheila, 300 km southwest of Benghazi.
Rommel repeatedly stated to his subordinates that "we are here to defend the lifeline of Germany and Italy." He took advantage of the opportunity that the British army was divided into the Greek battlefield and North Africa's attention was drawn to the Benghazi oil field. Then on March 17, he decisively attacked from Agheila. As a result, he drove the British army (which was trying to control the oil and gas fields) from the city of Benghazi back to Tobruk.
In this battle, the German and Italian troops suffered less than 1,500 casualties, but annihilated and captured nearly 10,000 British troops, seized 5 British aircraft, more than 40 tanks, nearly 200 armored vehicles and other military vehicles, and more than 160 artillery pieces of various types. They not only recaptured most of the Cyrangani and Benghazi oil mining areas, but also laid a solid foundation for changes in the North African battlefield.
On March 31, the main force of the Italian Navy was deployed in full force to cover the convoy transporting the main force of the German army into the port of Benghazi.
At this time, Britain's land, sea and air forces in the Mediterranean were being firmly attracted to the western Mediterranean by the German army's upcoming Greek campaign (Operation Marita). They were out of reach and could only watch as a steady stream of German troops entered North Africa.
On April 4, the German Army Group Africa entered Benghazi.
The next day, Rommel was ordered to command the main force of the newly arrived 5th Light Armored Division and part of the 164th Infantry Division. Under the cover of the German Air Force's 26th Pursuit Wing's 3rd Squadron, 27th Fighter Wing's 1st Squadron, 26th Fighter Wing's 7th Squadron, 2nd Dive Bomber Wing's 2nd Squadron and the Italian Air Force, he drove the Italian First Army and other units towards Tobruk.
On April 7, the German and Italian troops surrounded Mekelly, a key point outside Tobruk. The British front-line commanders, Lieutenant General Nimes and Lieutenant General O'Connor, were captured at the same time, and the British front-line command fell into chaos.
The Mekelly defenders had no choice but to break out, but were easily stopped by the Germans. In order to save the lives of his men, the highest commander of the British army stationed in Mekelly, Brigadier General Gambier Parry, commander of the British 2nd Armored Division, and 2,000 remnants of the British army were captured. A large amount of supplies, especially refined gasoline that was in short supply for the German army fell into Rommel's hands.
As a result, the door to Tobruk was opened, and the British army was forced to abandon all Italian Libya except Tobruk and withdraw its main force to the Libyan-Egyptian border.
After capturing Mekelj, the German and Italian armies surrounded Tobruk, but the defenders refused to surrender. At this time, Mussolini, who was content with his small fortune, ordered the German and Italian armies to make capturing Tobruk their first goal.
However, both General Hoth and Rommel were experienced tank commanders. Hoth was the earliest armored division commander of the German Army, just like Guderian. Rommel had performed even better in the Battle of France when commanding the 7th Armored Division. The two decided to use slow-moving infantry to encircle and attack Tobruk. The 5th Light Armored Corps, commanded by Rommel, headed straight for Alexandria.
Not to mention how General Karl Adolf Holliday commanded the arduous siege of Tobruk, but Rommel's attack frightened the British supreme commander, Admiral Wavell, who believed that the German and Italian armies would not be able to advance eastward without conquering Tobruk.
However, at this time, the forces in his hands were in the process of retreating, so he could only watch the German army conquer the Halfaya Mountains, which served as the gateway to Liège, and the border town of Sollum. The rapid advance of the German army in North Africa and Greece not only dealt a severe blow to the vitality of Britain and its allies, but also made the insatiable Japanese see the weakness of the former British Empire.
The so-called Southward Faction within the Japanese army strongly shouted "Don't miss the bus" and advocated dividing Britain's colonies east and west together with Germany and Italy in order to completely cut off China's external transportation lines and force China as a whole or part of it to surrender to Japan.
Since some people in the Japanese military and financial circles advocated advancing south, they could not help but worry that once the main force of the Japanese army moved south, its lifeline in Manchuria and Mongolia would be threatened by the Soviet Union. So on April 11 of that year, Japan formally signed the so-called "Japan-Soviet Neutrality Treaty" with the Soviet Union in Moscow. The treaty stipulated that Japan and the Soviet Union would not invade each other's territory, and when a contracting party was invaded by a third country, the other party would remain neutral.
The two sides also declared that they would respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchukuo and the Mongolian People's Republic respectively.
The Soviet Union also ended its military aid to China at Japan's request.
The malicious Soviet Union once again betrayed the Chinese military and civilians, while Japan took this opportunity to eliminate the threat from the north.
Although the domestic northward advance faction was still planning the Guan special exercise and was ready to tear up the Japan-Soviet Treaty at any time, it was still unable to stop Japan from moving further and further on the road to the south. At this time, the only country that could stop the Japanese army's blind action was the United States.
Speaking of the United States, the conflict between the United States and Japan suddenly escalated after the signing of the German-Italian-Japanese Steel Alliance.
After the Japanese army entered the northern part of French Indochina and took the first step towards the south, the United States imposed a steel embargo on Japan on September 26, 1940, prohibiting the export of steel and scrap iron that could be used for military purposes to Japan.
In October of that year, US President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull agreed to implement a restrained containment policy toward Japan in order to safeguard "all rights and principles" of the United States and temporarily avoid open conflict with Japan.
However, the US plan soon failed. In October 1940, Japan began negotiations with the Dutch East Indies authorities, attempting to take advantage of the Netherlands' defeat in Europe to force the Dutch East Indies to provide Japan with the necessary strategic materials such as oil and rubber.
The Dutch Indonesian authorities, who were outpowered, were forced to make concessions, but Japan further demanded that the Dutch Indonesian authorities designate some resource-rich areas as Japan's sphere of influence or directly hand them over to Japan. This touched the bottom line of the Dutch Indonesian authorities, so the Dutch Indonesian authorities, with the support of Britain and the United States, flatly refused, and even the previously reached agreement was declared invalid.
Japan, which failed to steal the chicken and ended up losing the rice, was extremely angry and believed that the "British and American devils" were deliberately curbing the development of the "Great Japanese Empire."
Although the popular sentiment in Japan encouraged war between Japan and the United States, there were still sober people in the Japanese high-level leadership. So starting from the end of March 1941, Japan's new ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura, began negotiations with US Secretary of State Hull in Washington in an attempt to ease relations between the two countries and avoid war between the two countries.
Before the Nomura-Hull negotiations, there had been private contacts between civilians committed to friendship between Japan and the United States, and two Japanese people and two American priests drafted the "Japan-US Reconciliation Plan". The plan proposed that Japan withdraw its troops from China, while the United States recognized the puppet state of Manchukuo, the Chiang-Wang regime merged and absorbed the Northwest regime, held National Congress elections to establish a legitimate Chinese central government, and the United States assisted Japan in obtaining resources, etc.
Hull agreed to use the Plan as the basis for negotiations between Japan and the United States, and proposed four principles to Japan: "guaranteeing territorial integrity and respecting sovereignty; non-interference in internal affairs; equal opportunities; maintaining the status quo in the Pacific."
Since the fundamental interests between Japan and the United States were difficult to reconcile, the negotiations were difficult from the start.
Under this international situation, the Chinese Expeditionary Army, which had lifted the siege of Zaoyang on April 11, officially ordered the end of the Zhengxian-Nanyang Campaign on April 18. Starting from April 19, various Japanese troops withdrew to their original defenses one after another.
Taking into account the heavy losses of various units, the Chinese side did not take the opportunity to launch a counterattack. As a result, the Zhengxian-Nanyang Campaign, which lasted for nearly two months, ended.
In this battle, the Japanese army had nearly 250,000 troops participating in the battle, including six divisions, four temporary mixed brigades and three regiment-level detachments. They deployed 317 fighter planes of various types, 115 tanks and armored vehicles, and more than 700 artillery pieces with a caliber of 75mm and above. In addition, they sent more than 20,000 reinforcements and more than 40,000 puppet troops to assist in the battle.
The Chinese side had nearly 45 divisions and brigades participating in the war from three war zones, with a total force of more than 700,000, 162 fighter jets of various types, and more than 500 artillery pieces of 75mm or above.
According to post-war statistics, the Japanese side claimed that it suffered 23,000 casualties and 19,000 puppet troops, in addition to the loss of 51 fighter planes, 42 tanks and armored vehicles, and more than 50 artillery pieces.
The Japanese army claimed that it had killed, wounded or captured about 70,000 Chinese people, shot down 80 Chinese fighter planes, destroyed and seized 117 Chinese artillery pieces with a caliber of 75mm or above, and was the winner of this battle.
After the war, China concluded that it had killed or captured 32,700 Japanese troops and 26,000 puppet troops, shot down 137 enemy planes, destroyed 99 Japanese tanks and armored vehicles, and destroyed and captured more than 240 Japanese artillery pieces with a caliber of 75mm and above.
As for the Chinese side, there were 51,000 casualties, including 17,700 killed, 11,800 seriously injured and unable to return to the battlefield, and the rest 21,500 lightly injured. In addition, China also lost 59 fighter planes and 64 artillery pieces of various types. For this reason, China also claimed to have won the final victory.
