Iron Cross

At dawn, Montgomery, who had just fallen asleep after working hard all night, was woken up by his adjutant. Seeing the anxious look on his face, he suddenly became alert and asked: "The Germans are attacking?"

"Yes, sir..." The adjutant seemed to have something to say, but he still told the situation completely, "The 1st South African Division and the 2nd Free French Brigade reported separately that their troops encountered the main force of the German army coming from behind at dawn. They were caught off guard and defeated, and suffered heavy losses."

"What?" Montgomery opened his mouth in surprise, and any remaining trace of sleepiness was suddenly driven away. "Where was their original position? How did the Germans get behind them?"

De Lagan also hurriedly came with a group of staff officers. After comparing the map, Montgomery was convinced after looking at it for a long time that what these troops reported was the true situation.

"If the South Africans and the French are right, most of the people who attacked us last night were only small troops used by the Germans to contain them, while his main force moved to the right wing all night long (Guderian and Montgomery attacked relative to each other, and one left wing was equivalent to The right wing of the other side has moved, and with our troops advancing towards Tell Akakil, he has passed right through the gap between the French, South Africans and our 50th Infantry Division." Montgomery flicked his pencil. Throw, "Damn it, why do we always get caught by this guy every time we make a slight mistake?"

De Lagan knew that the commander was trying to save face for the French and South Africans. Guderian had passed through the gap. He had clearly caught the two troops and beat them hard before squeezing through them. . Montgomery has always disliked seeing troops from other countries such as the Greeks and the French. He has been complaining to London about their lack of combat effectiveness and fighting will, hoping to replace them with purely domestic troops. However, Prime Minister Churchill wanted to flaunt international cooperation on the one hand, and on the other hand It is true that more local troops cannot be allocated to strengthen the North African battlefield, and this small amount of troops can only be used to stall the Eighth Army.

Just as the British army often caught Italians and beat them up, Guderian now also likes to beat the French, Greeks, Indians, and South Africans. The strength and morale of these troops are not as good as those of the British troops, and from New Zealand,

The troops from Australia were difficult to deal with, and their combat effectiveness was sometimes higher than that of the native regiments from the British Isles. The British Army is now graded based on strength within the African Army. With roughly the same organization and strength, if the British Army is given a score of 100, then the New Zealand and Australian armies can be given 115-120 points, and the French and South Africans can be given 115-120 points. , the Canadians can give 75-85 points, the Greeks can give about 65 points, and the Indian division is the worst, with only 50 points at most. As for the Italians, the African Army gave them 51 points - which means they are slightly better than the Indians. Anyway, they will definitely not be able to defeat the Greeks. I wonder if the Italian leader in Rome will vomit blood after hearing this.

"What to do now?" De Lagan began to become a little confused. Since the beginning of the Battle of El Alamein, the Eighth Army has been passive and has been led by the Germans. It has no advantages in troops and equipment, but it cannot be used at all. Instead, it is defeated by the enemy. Nearly 20,000 people and 200 tanks were lost piecemeal. Now Guderian's trend should be obvious. After tearing apart the encirclement built by the Eighth Army for him, he also wanted to retreat on the coastal road - -That way there won't be many troops to stop the Germans.

At this moment, a new telegram came. The vanguard of the New Zealand Second Division, which had detoured from the southern flank, once again occupied Tell Akakir. This time the Germans did not set any traps. After searching everywhere, the New Zealand troops discovered the battlefield traces of yesterday's battle, the wreckage of various types of destroyed vehicles, equipment, and some supplies that the Germans had no time to transport away - much less than when they lured Brown to the bait, and mostly useless stuff, and also found a group of seriously injured people. They were locked in a room. There were about 100 of them. Only one health soldier who was slightly injured accompanied them. Several people were already injured due to lack of medical treatment and medicine. They lost their lives in wailing. The scene was filled with blood and stench, and there were endless cries and moans. The scene was extremely tragic.

Montgomery clenched his fists tightly, and his face was almost deformed because of his ferocious look, but he couldn't say anything: There is nothing to criticize for the Germans' actions. If he were in Guderian's position, he would also put the urgent need He left all the medical resources for his own wounded and wounded. It was an extremely humane approach to not shoot the wounded with machine guns before leaving but to leave them to the other party to come and take them in.

De Lagan wanted to persuade him, but found that he couldn't say anything and his stomach was full of bitterness.

It took a long time for Montgomery to recover and said in a calm tone: "Let the frontline troops handle it properly and do not need to consider chasing the Germans for the time being. At the same time, the New Zealand 2nd Division is required to go north as soon as possible to meet other friendly forces and help them accommodate personnel and stabilize their positions."

"In this case, the French and South Africans won't have a big problem. They can get support from New Zealand and Australian troops, and we no longer have to worry about Guderian chasing after them." De Lagan breathed a sigh of relief and finally waited. I received a piece of good news - actually not that good, but compared with a series of bad news, this not-so-bad news seemed like good news.

Before everyone could figure out the follow-up matters, the second telegram came, saying that they had found the new German tank that the headquarters had repeatedly mentioned. The result was ridiculous. This so-called new tank was actually made by the Russians. , the Germans just painted it and changed the logo.

"Really?" Montgomery was a little doubtful. Can the Germans like the Soviet tanks? The mustache's tail has always been raised to the sky. How could he see such a weapon of an "inferior nation"?

"It's absolutely true! Although the armor paint and some equipment are made in Germany, the main components including the engine and tank gun are all Russian style. Among other things, the 76.2mm tank gun is of Russian caliber." De La After carefully reading the telegram, Gan said, “They also inspected the engine in the wreckage and found that it was a diesel-powered engine with many Russian markings on it—our people don’t understand Russian, so the specific details are unknown. "

After a long while, Montgomery said: "I understand. These new tanks are all Stalin's T-34s. They were shipped from the sea a few days ago - the last time there were many ships reported."

De Lagan was shocked. How could Guderian have so many Russian tanks? Is it Hitler and Stalin? ...He didn't dare to think about the next scene any more.

"What's this? If I'm not wrong, it's probably the Germans who brought over Soviet tanks captured on the Eastern Front. They have been using the captured trophies to enrich their arsenal - haven't we already been exposed to Russian counterattacks? Is the tank gun ready?" Montgomery gritted his teeth and said, "I want to know the complete information about this tank, including its main performance and technical indicators, and see how powerful it is! In addition, I need to report this matter to London. I think the Prime Minister will also pay close attention to the appearance of Russian weapons on the battlefield in North Africa."

"Yes, sir." A staff officer immediately went to handle it.

"We should sit down and study Guderian's next move." Montgomery sighed melancholy, "His target should also be Tobruk. It is estimated that he will not come back to Alamein Station."

De Lagan nodded silently. The defense plan that he had been busy with all night was ruined again, which made everyone feel uncomfortable.

"What is the current situation of the 1st and 7th Armored Divisions?"

"They expect to catch up with the retreating Italians today." De Lagan said. "Major General Horrocks assured me that if there are not too many German troops inside, he is confident that the problem can be solved within one day. In addition, he objects You send most of the air force back to deal with Guderian's proposal, because the Germans also have many aircraft and the troops cannot be without aircraft cover. "

"I can't give him so much time." Montgomery hesitated for a moment, then seemed to have made up his mind before saying, "Ask him, if I give him all the planes, can he make it within 8 hours? That is to say, all the enemy forces will be eliminated before three o'clock this afternoon..."

"This?" De Lagan asked in confusion, "What are your considerations?"

"Guderian's troops are at least a day away from the two armored divisions in front. If Horrocks moves quickly enough, they can switch to defense after getting rid of the Italians and use the coastal road as an axis to block Guderian. "An, as long as you give me an extra 24 hours, we still have a chance to catch the Germans," Montgomery gritted his teeth and said, "This time I will command myself, leading 5 infantry divisions, 1 armored division and 3 armored brigades." Go up and see how Guderian escapes?"

"What if it can't be solved in 8 hours?"

"If we can't solve it, we can only let the Italians run away." Montgomery said, "It takes time for them to switch from pursuit to defense, so I only gave them 8 hours to eliminate the fleeing enemies, and the rest of the time was reserved for them. Defense time - I know this is unfair to them, but for the sake of the overall situation, this is the only way to pass on my order immediately. "

De Lagan was pleased to see that after experiencing several setbacks, the commander not only did not lose confidence, but became more courageous and rekindled his fighting spirit.