bookrandom Chapter 263: Battle Prelude
Chapter 263: Battle Prelude
After a day and night of thrilling and desperate fighting, the situation in Diwaniyah finally stabilized. However, the Chinese, American and British armies suffered extremely heavy losses in this brutal battle.
The British VIII Corps now has fewer than 8 troops, demoralized and exhausted. The US 1nd Airborne Division has just over 82 men remaining, while the 4000th Corps, the 47th Corps, and its subordinate units combined have fewer than 6 men. These brave soldiers have endured countless life-or-death trials.
Faced with such a dire situation, Kuang Zhengqi was forced to make new deployments. He reorganized the British 8th Army's 7000-strong infantry into a brigade, tasked with defending the eastern suburbs of Diwaniyah. The US 82nd Division was reduced to a regiment, and the Second Army's Engineer Regiment was assigned to it, tasked with defending the western suburbs. Kuang Zhengqi also organized the remnants of the 2th, 13th, and 17th Brigades into a reinforced regiment to secure Diwaniyah and prepare for urban fighting.
In addition, Kuang Zhengqi combined the remaining armored forces of the British 8th Army with the remnants of the 11th and 37th Tank Divisions and placed them under the personal command of Pu Zhengsong. This tank assault force would be deployed at a critical moment to delay the fierce attack of the German tank group.
At the same time, Kuang Zhengqi once again cruelly transferred the 47th Army and the army group's direct team to the front. They will use the criss-crossing positions to fight a desperate battle with the German army.
Wedemeyer was well aware that the Chinese troops, urgently deployed from Egypt to Iraq, had been engaged in combat for over ten days. Their strength had been drastically reduced from 15 to fewer than 10, with a third of them killed or wounded in battles they had no interest in. Yet, it was these Chinese soldiers, fighting tooth and nail, who had prevented the situation from collapsing completely.
Meanwhile, US-UK coalition airlift forces had arrived in Kuwait and were beginning their defense mission. Seaborne troops and heavy equipment were also about to arrive at Kuwait Port, offering hope for a reversal of the war. At this critical juncture, the Chinese needed a final stand. If they could hold Diwaniyah, the war in Iraq would be fundamentally reversed.
In order to boost morale, Wedemeyer personally rushed to Diwaniye. He decided to guard this place together with Kuang Zhengqi and the various troops in Diwaniye, and vowed to stop the German attack to the death.
In Kut, eastern Iraq, Mountbatten also rushed to the front line, personally commanding the remnants of the 33rd Army and the British reinforcements. They also faced tremendous pressure, but they had to hold the Kut line for at least three days to buy precious time for the US-UK coalition forces.
In Samawah, Zhang Lingpu's 114th Army finally arrived here faster than part of the German army and blocked the western gate into Basra. Despite the heavy bombardment of the German 3rd Army's heavy artillery and heavy tanks, Zhang Lingpu and the 114th Army held their positions tightly and did not give the German army any chance.
Perhaps due to his dissatisfaction with the wars in North Africa and Iraq, the head of the Third Reich issued a telegram to recall Rommel to his homeland and appointed General Hans von Salmuth to command the operations in the Middle East. The 1st and 3rd Tank Armies were merged into the 1st Tank Army again, and Hoepner was promoted to General and became the commander of the 1st Army.
At the same time, the German army restructured its Middle Eastern operations, adopting a strategy of shrinking its defense of Egypt while concentrating its offensive on Iraq and Kuwait. General Hans von Salmuth personally commanded the 25th Army, which included the elite 9th Tank Corps, 34th Panzer Corps, 52nd Motorized Infantry Corps, and the 11th SS Corps. With lightning speed, it broke through Diwaniyah and captured the heart of Iraq from the center. General Hoepner's 1st Army was tasked with swiftly breaking through the strategic Samawah and advancing southward. Finally, it would link up with the 26th Army at Sughshuk and launch a powerful assault on Basra.
After capturing Kut, the German 42nd Army and the Turkish Army seized all of eastern Iraq, opening a line of communication with Iran. The German High Command realized that it could no longer rapidly capture all of Iraq and Kuwait as planned, and was forced to plan a decisive battle with the arriving US and British forces in Basra and Kuwait. The winner would determine the fate of the Middle East.
On the Egyptian front, the German army eventually withdrew to the wealthy areas around Cairo. Italy's last elite 11th Army and the German 19th Army were responsible for defense, with a total strength of 15. They were mainly responsible for controlling the Cairo area and the Suez Canal to ensure the stability of the western front of the Middle East battlefield.
The 19th Army consisted of the 26th Armored Corps, the 4th Armored Corps, and the 15th Motorized Corps. The 4th Armored Corps was composed of the supplemented 5th and 8th Tank Divisions and the 21st Armored Division, while the 15th Motorized Corps consisted of the 15th Armored Division and other motorized units of the former North Africa Corps. While the Italian Navy, utilizing the main forces of the US and British navies to cover the US 5th Army, the British 8th Army, and the 3rd Army's reinforcements to Iraq, re-opened the Mediterranean route, providing maritime transport support for Germany, Italy, North Africa, and the Middle East. This enabled the German forces in Egypt, especially those remaining in the former North Africa Corps, to receive a large amount of weapons and personnel.
On the Fayoum front, Wang YW's 7th Army was facing off against its old rival, the German 5th Armored Army, which was mainly composed of the 4th Tank Division. The two sides fought for several days, but Wang YW's 7th Army was never able to break through the German defense line.
The Italian Navy supported and bombarded the port of Alexandria, forcing the US troops that had occupied it to withdraw. The 252th Motorized Corps and the Italian 15th Corps, reinforced by the 11nd Tank Division, confronted the US 2nd Army in the desert area along Hammam and Qataji Fort.
Turkey's troops have already put all their efforts to the south, stationed in Palestine, Jordan and Syria, with a total of 7 armies with more than 30 troops. Italy's troops in Africa and the Middle East have dropped to less than 10, with the main force being its most elite 11th Army. Türkiye's joining has given Italy the final shot in the arm.
The Allied Forces in Africa and the Middle East have actually made the Middle East their main battlefield. Both sides have planned to set the battlefield for the decisive battle in the Basra area in southern Iraq, including the 2nd Army of Kuang Zhengqi and the 8th and 33rd Armies of the British Army. The purpose of defending and resisting step by step is to buy time for the main forces, the 5th Army of the US Army, the 8th Army of the British Army, and the 3rd Army, and provide you with the opportunity for the decisive battle in Basra and Kuwait.
At this time, there were no major battles in the two major battlefields, including the Far East Pacific Theater and the Soviet Theater. For a time, the Middle East Iraq War became the focus of the entire world...