The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The vanguard of the British 7th Armored Division arrived at 1:30 p.m. that day, and the follow-up troops arrived at 2:20 p.m.

At this time, Qin Chuan had been transferred to the defense line with the troops... Only one platoon was left in the warehouse to be ready to blow up the warehouse at any time, and all the others were transferred to the defense line to defend. After all, if the defense line was breached, there would be no hope of defending it.

From a distance, rows of tanks, armored vehicles and cars from the British direction were seen driving in the dust and spreading outside the defense line. Howitzers were set up by artillery, and the black muzzles were towering towards the German defense line. The Tobruk defense line was like being surrounded by layers of steel fences.

"Will they attack, sergeant?" Werner, who was lying next to Qin Chuan, asked in a low voice.

"I'm not sure!" Qin Chuan answered, and at the same time looked at several dummies made of fine-stemmed needle grass around him.

As the saying goes, "Man proposes, God disposes", this is all Qin Chuan can do.

"We will succeed!" Alfredo responded on the side.

Alfredo actually stayed on the defense line, and said such confident words... This surprised Qin Chuan and the German soldiers.

"Shouldn't you stay in the port?" Werner couldn't help asking.

"Is there any difference between staying in the port and staying here?" Alfredo asked back.

Werner was speechless because there was really not much difference. If there was any difference, it was that the port was farther away from the enemy and would feel safer psychologically.

After the British army set up their positions, they did not attack, and the German army did not open fire, so there was a strange silence on the battlefield. If there were no craters and corpses on the battlefield that could not be cleaned up, I really thought the war was over.

Qin Chuan knew that it was time for the British army to make a decision, and this decision... would announce the fate of the First Infantry Regiment and himself.

This idea and the depressing atmosphere on the battlefield made Qin Chuan feel as if a big stone was pressing on his chest and he couldn't breathe. But all Qin Chuan could do was... wait.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly. When Major General Bolton of the British 7th Armored Division arrived in Tobruk, he had a heated debate with Major General Evans.

"I think we should launch an attack immediately!" Major General Bolton said, "Because we don't have much time left. The sooner we launch the attack, the better it is for us!"

"I don't think so, General Bolton!" Major General Evans replied, "You think so because you don't understand what kind of defense line the Tobruk Line is!"

"Damn it!" Major General Bolton replied, "You seem to have forgotten that it was us who took the Tobruk Line back from the Italians three months ago, and now you say I don't understand it!"

The British 7th Armored Division was the only armored division of the British Army in North Africa at that time. They were the main force to defeat the Italian army... A 35,000-man force assembled by the British Army and the colonial army defeated the 230,000 Italian troops and captured 130,000 of them. This can also be said to be a miracle in the history of World War II. (Note: At that time, the British army had only 50,000 troops in East Africa and North Africa, including 35,000 in Egypt)

"You said it too!" Major General Evans replied: "That was the Tobruk Line of Defense where the Italians were stationed three months ago, but now please open your eyes and look at the line of defense in front of you. Is it still the line of defense you took before?"

What Major General Evans said certainly made sense. After three months of careful transformation by the British Engineer Corps, this line of defense was completely different from the crudely made line of defense by the Italians before.

"Maybe the line of defense is different from before!" Bolton replied: "But the Italians are still defending, right?"

"Oh, really? Did you ignore the Germans?"

"The Germans have been fighting for several days and nights in a row, and their strength is less than a thousand people!"

"Believe me, General Bolton!" Major General Evans said: "Don't doubt the combat effectiveness of these 1,000 German troops... It's because we didn't take them seriously before, so we made mistakes again and again!"

The two of them argued with each other until they were red in the face.

The Seventh Armored Division was known as the Desert Rats because it had defeated an Italian army that was several times larger than itself. At this time, Major General Bolton was on the momentum of victory, so it was reasonable for him to advocate fighting at all costs.

However, it was also the Seventh Armored Brigade in this armored division that was transferred to Burma to deal with the Japanese invasion of Burma soon afterwards. As a result, it was defeated and even pushed the Chinese Expeditionary Force into the fire pit with malicious intentions.

Just when Bolton and Evans were arguing, Lieutenant General Greenhill walked into the command post in a hurry.

"Gentlemen, are you holding a debate?" Lieutenant General Greenhill asked.

"General!" Bolton and Evans hurriedly stood up and saluted.

After listening to the two people's narration, Lieutenant General Greenhill fell into silence.

Lieutenant General Greenhill realized that he was caught in a painful choice: fight or not fight?

Fight!

Although it is possible that taking Tobruk would be of great benefit to the British army's retreat and future wars, if it fails, it means that the British army will miss the time to withdraw to Egypt and consume the already limited ammunition and fuel... The British army must use artillery shells to carpet bomb the Tobruk defense line during the attack, so as to clear the barbed wire and mines so that the tanks can advance smoothly. And these artillery shells and fuel are necessary for the British army to withdraw to Egypt.

Don't fight!

That would mean a complete defeat of the British army, and they would even have to leave behind tanks and other heavy equipment, just like the Dunkirk retreat.

Lieutenant General Greenhill couldn't help but fell into deep thought. At this time, he wished that Lieutenant General Nim or Lieutenant General O'Connor could suddenly appear and make a decision, so that he would not have to face this problem.

As time passed by, sweat oozed from Lieutenant Greenhill's forehead and slowly flowed down.

Also sweating profusely was Qin Chuan, who was lying on the ground on the other side. He was also lying on the hot sand under the scorching sun. Qin Chuan could only rely on drinking large gulps of water to lower his body temperature. The soldiers around them are doing the same thing... This is a critical moment, and they must keep their bodies in the best condition, otherwise they may not even have the time and opportunity to drink water once the fight breaks out.

At this time, there was a sudden explosion. The soldiers thought it was a shelling and lowered their bodies one after another.

Qin Chuan thought at the first moment: "It's over, the British still chose to attack!"

But after waiting for a while, I realized something was wrong, because there was no whistling or sound of shells exploding nearby.

Looking up, I saw black smoke rising from a British tank opposite, followed by explosions one after another. The "Matilda" tanks were blown up one after another.