How was Africa liberated?

The battle was won. That afternoon, the senior officers of the African legion began to discuss countermeasures in despair. Although the troops of the battle-hardened 15 armored division and the 90th light armored division are still fighting as usual, their commanders have lost all hope. On April 7, the front suddenly collapsed, and Messer ordered the troops to retreat to the west.

On April 10, the 8th Army occupied sfax. Bedell Smith, General Eisenhower's chief of staff, discussed with Montgomery in Tripoli in February how to make the 8th Army and 1 Army join forces in northern Gabes as soon as possible. Montgomery said that he would arrive at sfax before April 15. Smith said that if he could really do this, General Eisenhower would meet any request he made. Montgomery said he would be able to do this, hoping to get an "air fortress" plane for his personal use. Smith agreed to the request.

After entering sfax, Montgomery sent a telegram to Eisenhower saying, "He entered sfax at 8: 30 this morning. Please send an' air fortress'. " After Eisenhower discovered the situation, in order to improve relations, he gave Montgomery an "air fortress" with an American aircrew. On April 16, the plane arrived, and Montgomery became a completely mobile general. For this matter, the Imperial Chief of Staff later severely reprimanded Montgomery, saying that he should not take Bedell Smith's joke seriously, because Eisenhower flew into a rage after learning the news.

When the Eighth Army advanced to the foot of the mountain in Tunisia, it had no military significance and could only be used as a containment force to contain von Anim's troops in Angfei Darvail as much as possible. Leonfida, a small village about 5 miles inland from the sea, is protected by the surrounding anti-tank trenches and the pass to the sea, but all these are just the outpost of the fortress. The fortress itself consists of a row of steep hills, which stand in the north, among which Jiaxi Mountain, which is 1000 feet high, stands in the west of the village, while MuDacker Mountain is behind Jiaxi Mountain in the north. In addition, there are Brida Mountain, Mangubu Mountain and Taibaigai Mountain which extend to the northeast. The defensive position established by the enemy on this terrain has two characteristics: first, the enemy can see everything happening on the plain below the mountain; Second, the enemy's gun positions under the peak line have excellent natural barriers, which can't be hit by the artillery of the Eighth Army. Therefore, any attack on Anfeida will inevitably pay a great price and can only capture a very small territory. It is impossible to break through the defense line, unless we pay a heavy price in personnel and ammunition, and make Ang Fei Da Ville as notorious as the Somme River or Parsendale.

In order to stall the enemy, Montgomery must constantly put pressure on the enemy, making the enemy mistakenly think that the Eighth Army will be the main force of the attack. A battalion of the New Zealand Division launched an attack from the enemy's March and "suddenly attacked" the western hills, but it failed immediately. Then several exploratory attacks were made, and nothing was found. Finally, Montgomery launched a large-scale pre-arranged attack from the middle of the night of April 19 to the dawn of the 20th. The plan of this attack requires the Indian 4th Division to capture the Western Hills, the New Zealand Division to capture Tecrunai and its surrounding areas, the 50th Division to carry out the containment task on the right wing, and the 7th Armored Division to take charge of the left wing to meet the French 1 9 army. India's 4th Division put four of the available six battalions into battle, sacrificing 500-600 people, but only took a palm-sized piece of land on Jiaxi Mountain. Although the New Zealand Division occupied Turkrunai on the afternoon of April 2 1, there were about 500 casualties. Montgomery had to stop attacking and change his deployment.

From April 23rd to 26th, Montgomery participated in the formulation of the operational plan of "emil Hesky" (code name for attacking Sicily) (he was appointed as the commander of a task force of this operation in February). Before he left, he said to Horace, "Now I want you to make a plan to invade Tunisia by launching a powerful attack along the coast." But the lesson of blood made Montgomery realize that the cracked hillside can swallow up the attacker's manpower, but it makes the defender actually indestructible. So, he finally gave up the attack plan.

On April 26th, Montgomery returned to Anfeida and was bedridden with a bad cold and tonsillitis. In view of 1 group army's unsuccessful initial breakthrough campaign against Tunisia, Montgomery was anxious to discuss with Alexander how to quickly end the Tunisia war and plan the Sicilian campaign instead, so he invited Alexander to see him. Alexander came to the 8th Army Command on April 30th. Montgomery said to him, "Kloc-0/and the Eighth Army must be reorganized in order to attack Tunisia with the greatest strength in the most suitable area." Montgomery suggested that horrocks lead the Indian 4th Division, 7th Armored Division, 20 1 Guards Infantry Brigade and several artillery units to the front of 1 Army, where he took over the 9th Army and was responsible for the breakthrough in Tunisia. Alexander expressed complete agreement. So Montgomery and Alexander summoned horrocks together and instructed, "You must get to Tunisia and end this war in North Africa."

Horrocks led his troops 1 Army, and on May 6th, he led his troops to launch a powerful lightning attack from the north of Majaz Babu, and rushed into Tunisia along the Megill Valley. On May 12, the organized resistance of the enemy ended and about 248,000 enemy troops were captured.

On May 13, Marshal Messer, commander-in-chief of the Italian army in charge of the whole command after Rommel, surrendered to the 8th Army. At this point, the African wars were all over, and the German and Italian armies ended in fiasco.

The contribution of the Eighth Army to the final victory in North Africa is enormous. It drove Rommel and his troops out of Egypt, cyrenaica and Tripoli, and then cooperated with 1 army to destroy them in Tunisia. The distance from Alaman to Tunisia is about 2,000 Li, but the Eighth Army won Tripoli in three months and Tunisia in six months, making great achievements.

1In July, 943, Montgomery led the Eighth Army to land in Sicily and successfully joined forces with the US military.

On the eve of 1944, Montgomery was recalled by the war department, and paget took over the command of 12 army group, preparing to open up a "second battlefield" across the English Channel. The Eighth Army was commanded by General Oliver Rees. Montgomery was responsible for directing the ground operations at the beginning of the expedition to Europe and directing the operations in Britain.

After returning home, Montgomery made comprehensive and detailed preparations for the overall plan of Normandy landing. By May 1944, he had inspected various British troops, met almost all the officers and men who would take part in the Normandy landing operation, and made a speech to them, which made the whole participating troops full of confidence. Meanwhile, Montgomery also visited factories producing military equipment all over Britain and delivered a speech to the workers, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the masses and won their wide support.

After comprehensive research, analysis and full preparation, the allied forces began to launch the Normandy campaign on June 6 1944. First of all, they bombed the weak beachhead position of the German army with powerful air power, and the army quickly landed on the beachhead in northeast Normandy.

Under Montgomery's careful planning, the British Second Army made a threatening gesture of the left wing rushing inland to contain the enemy's main support, especially the armored division; At the same time, American troops 1 attacked from the right, then turned south and then turned east to the Seine around Paris. Its purpose is to form a powerful ship and revolve around Falles to cut off all enemy forces on both sides of the Seine.

On the first day of the attack, the attack received tactical wonders. By June of 10, all the beachhead occupied areas will be connected into one piece, 60 miles wide and 8~ 12 miles deep. However, due to the tenacious resistance of the enemy and the bad weather, the allied reinforcements could not arrive and the attack was frustrated.

As the main task, the American army suffered heavy casualties, followed by the British army, which caused the dissatisfaction of the United States, especially the Allied Commander Eisenhower, with Montgomery. At the end of July, Montgomery ordered the Second Army to regroup and transfer its main force from the leftmost to the rightmost. Cut off several key areas where the enemy tried to rebuild his position when he retreated.

On August 19, the Allies wiped out the remnants of the enemy trapped in the "encirclement position" east of the Motan, and the Normandy campaign finally achieved a comprehensive and decisive victory.