The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Wavell was beyond shocked when he heard the call that the British army was defeated.

"How is this possible!" Wavell shouted into the microphone: "God, you have 50 'Matildas' and the assistance of the air force. The enemy has less than half the number of tanks you have, and you failed. And more than half of the tanks fell into the enemy’s hands?”

"General!" Colonel Gener replied: "This was just an accident. Our tank got stuck in the sand and lost its combat capability..."

Although Colonel Gerner knew that this was not an accident but a deliberate move by the Germans, Colonel Gerner certainly would not say so, because "accident" obviously sounds much better than falling into a trap set by the enemy.

"Fuck the accident!" Wavell interrupted Colonel Gerner: "I only know that you lost, and this will ruin our entire plan!"

With that said, Wavell slammed the phone.

"General!" the staff officer who looked at the map suggested: "We can transfer some troops from the 15th Armored Division to stop the Germans, and then send the air force to assist..."

Wavell shook his head: "It's too late, William! The tanks owned by the 15th Armored Division are all 'Matildas', and they are not much faster than the infantry!"

Wavell is right, this is also the weakness of the "Matilda" tank, so the 15th Armored Division simply cannot stop the Germans on the right wing. To be precise, they cannot stop the Germans from crossing the British defense line in time. Rushing to the battlefield... all they can do is follow behind the German army, and they will be thrown further and further away.

"Then what should we do?" the staff officer asked.

Wavell thought for a moment and then replied helplessly: "Retreat!"

"What?" The staff officer couldn't help but be stunned.

Retreating would mean the complete failure of this plan, and it would also mean Wavell's official career...

"Retreat!" Wavell repeated: "Retreat across the board!"

Wavell could only do this, because if they did not retreat, all British troops might be surrounded, or the Germans would repeat their old tricks of attacking the British supply lines. Such a result would force the British troops to once again abandon their slow-moving troops. "Matilda" had to run away like a tortoise.

Whether it is the former or the latter, the British army will not have enough troops or tanks to defend Egypt.

If this situation occurs, the British may have to leave North Africa forever and lose the Suez Canal.

As a result, the British troops on the frontal defense line quickly stopped attacking and retreated in batches.

At the same time, Rommel and Major General Strike had another quarrel. Unsurprisingly, it was still over the question of whether they should attack.

"I order you to continue the attack!" Rommel ordered to Major General Strike through the microphone: "This is a good opportunity. We will annihilate them on the way to escape!"

"This is impossible, General!" Major General Strike replied: "The 2nd Infantry Regiment located at the Halfa Gate does not have tanks. They only have anti-aircraft guns, and once the anti-aircraft guns are dragged out of the fortifications, they will be easily bombed by the enemy. So they couldn't pursue it. The 15th Armored Division in the village of Capuzo suffered heavy losses. They even had only five tanks left to fight. They were also unable to fight. The 5th Armored Regiment was not much better. There are only eight combat-capable tanks, and the British have at least nearly a hundred 'Matildas'..."

"I know all this!" Rommel said: "But you have to know that if an army loses the will to resist and is on the way to escape, they will be much more vulnerable than they appear!"

"I agree with this!" Major General Strike replied: "But the problem is that they have air superiority. If our few tanks go deep alone, they will be blown up by their planes soon. By then, we Why attack the British? Not only that, we may be surrounded by the British, so I refuse to attack!"

"You..." Rommel was so angry that he couldn't speak, but there was nothing he could do against Major General Strike.

Now, Rommel even has difficulty in replacing Major General Strike, because the 5th Light Division has achieved remarkable and even "miraculous" victories on the battlefield time and time again... Although these victories are strictly speaking It had nothing to do with Major General Strike's command, but Major General Strike was still the commander of the 5th Light Division. If he wanted to replace him, Rommel would have to consider whether it would affect the morale of all the officers and soldiers of the 5th Light Division. .

Objectively speaking, Major General Strike's point of view still makes sense. Although the German army won, it was a great victory... With a total of 90 tanks against 250 British tanks, they not only won the victory but also captured 36 enemy tanks. In addition, a large amount of supplies were seized and many prisoners were taken.

But the problem is that the German army only has a dozen tanks left, and the captured "Matilda" tanks certainly cannot be counted... Although the German army has trained tank soldiers who can drive "Matilda" tanks, if If you use it to penetrate, the speed will probably make the German tank soldiers vomit blood.

In particular, the main force of the British army took the initiative to retreat rather than retreat.

From this we can also know that Wavell, the British general, is still somewhat real. In fact, Wavell was the founder of "Special Operations"... Shortly after the defeat in North Africa, Wavell was transferred to Burma, where he organized and trained the "Chindit", a mixed British-Indian-Burmese long-distance infiltration force. Entered the battlefield in Burma, although in the end this unit failed.

There is actually controversy about Wavell, the founder of "special operations", because his so-called creation is actually to write down the guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, while the Chinese had already put these into practice in the anti-Japanese battlefield and even summarized a very comprehensive theory.

It's just that the Chinese had no right to speak at that time, and the Westerners took it for granted that what you called "guerrilla warfare" and Wavell's stuff was called the high-end "special operations".

However, this also shows that Wavell is not just an empty shell.

For example, retreating at this time is a very correct choice, with an organized, planned, and step-by-step retreat, and with nearly a hundred "Matildas", any German unit chasing after it would be a futile effort.

However, war is a strange thing. Who can say that Rommel is wrong? Rommel ignored the actual situation and launched attacks against enemies that were several times stronger than himself again and again... Everyone thought he could not succeed, and many people even thought he was going to die, but the fact is that he won again and again.