Attacking south was the rhythm of the Afrika Army's most familiar attack, and for the past three weeks they had repeatedly staged the drama of suddenly attacking the British positions from the defensive line, but this time the plan of action was slightly changed, and Guderian did not take the most common path, but chose to cut straight through the desert gap between Kampot and Adam - this desert is flat and hard, and all kinds of tracked and half-track vehicles can walk freely, which is simply a natural armored battlefield. During the day, it was difficult to take this road, because it was dangerous to march on open ground, and there was no way to hide from the air raids, but now, under the cover of night, the army quickly advanced forward, and the whole force was mighty and magnificent—tanks, armoured vehicles, half-tracks, artillery, and trucks of all kinds were raised in columns of dust, and they were marching from north to south.

According to Guderian's instructions, the whole team was organized into two wings, the left flank was the 4th Panzer Division, the right flank was the 15th Panzer Division, and in the middle of the two was the Tiger Panzer Battalion, which was directly under the command of the Afrika Army Command. Baier Ryan joked with the two battalion commanders that the Tiger would need to be equipped with a "nanny" in the future, and everyone couldn't laugh or cry, but the Panzergrenadiers who accompanied the tank battle had a good impression of this powerful tank, and they felt full of confidence when they saw these rumbling behemoths accompanying the attack.

In addition to the heavily armored battalion, which had an independent and priority right of way, the other two divisions organized a well-organized marching sequence according to the needs of the operation. The skill of the staff of Baierlein was perfectly exemplified: the tanks were followed by panzergrenadiers, sappers and artillerymen, to their left and right were infantry and anti-tank units in trucks, and in the middle of the two divisions was a convoy of thousands of logistics supply trucks in echelons - without these trucks as support. The slightest victory of the combat units was unimaginable, so they were placed under the strictest protection. Each division was arranged in a neat queue as required, painstakingly calculated the direction of travel, the distance of the workshops, and the speed of travel, so as to avoid disjointing the front and rear or congesting the road, and the dark lights made of gasoline cans indicated the marching route, as neatly as a parade of convoys.

The good discipline and obedience of the Germans kept the march as quiet as possible, and everything was silent except for the sound of the engine. There was no noise at all. Guderian himself was actually tempted to lead a tank force to the front, but Melindin, Byrlein, and Westphal were all firmly opposed as concessions. He was stationed at Adem with a lean command to take charge of the war in the south, while Westphal was responsible for the intermediary liaison between the east and the south.

There are many similarities in the personalities of the two commanders of the Afrika Army, when Rommel rode a captured British ACV armored command vehicle nicknamed "Mammoth" every day to patrol the battle situation and direct the construction of various projects and roads. Send a reconnaissance force to retrieve the artillery discarded by the Italians in the desert for their own use. After Rommel left office, the armored command vehicle was left to Guderian, who also preferred to be on the front line but preferred to stay in the tank, and this armored command vehicle allowed Baierlein to transform into a small and fast mobile command center.

However, Guderian's conditions and capital were much stronger than Rommel's, not to mention that he couldn't look at the tatters that the Italians had thrown in the desert, and he was also very casual with the captured British artillery, but it was the 17-pounder cannon newly put into use by the British that aroused his curiosity. According to the captives, the 76.2mm anti-tank gun, weighing up to 3 tons, was said to have been hastily put into battle by the British in order to restrain the German T-34 or other new tanks. Even the right gun mount was not selected, and finally the 25-pounder gun mount was used, the overall number was only 100, which was the same caliber as the Soviet-made 76.2mm anti-tank gun but with better armor-piercing ability (compared to the German army's own 88mm anti-aircraft guns).

As for the captured tanks, he had little interest in them except Sherman, and when they were captured, the ships carrying the supplies were loaded back to Italy with the prisoners and the wounded for Marshal Kesselring to deal with, and the marshal was a good communicator, and every time he could exchange these captured supplies, equipment, and prisoners for all sorts of good things for the Afrika Army, and the Italian leaders who had made a joke were much more low-key, and the reporters never got a chance to get a gold watch.

At 3 o'clock in the morning, the vanguard had reached the periphery of the British line, and the desert was quiet under the bright moonlight, making it unbelievable that it was now in the moment of fierce exchange of fire between the two armies, and the armored reconnaissance unit could clearly observe the flares rising from time to time on the opposite British position, which looked heavily guarded and defended, but it felt more perfunctory, and the units quietly unfolded according to the battle sequence, while making the final supply to the tank and armored vehicle units.

On the battle maps of the battalion commanders, the objectives of the attack were clear, and the first thing was to divide and encircle the British troops near the wells. Water is the source of life, and even more so in the desert than usual, and the whole of Cyrenaica depends on these wells, each of which forms a small oasis around it and where the inhabitants gather, and which the British usually defend for the convenience of supplies, and they are now the top targets.

At 5:25 a.m., the east showed the whiteness of the fish's belly, the vision began to clear, and the weather began to clear as the weather forecast revealed, and five minutes later, three green flares rose into the sky, and the attack of the African Army on the southern front began under heavy artillery fire.

The British sentries on duty sounded the alarm as soon as they spotted the flares, but it was too late, and the overwhelming firepower pounced on the British lines, fortifications, and equipment, followed by the dense artillery fire was the armored forces that the Germans were famous for, and the Tiger took the lead in rushing the British positions with a "rumbling" sound.

In addition to the existing 8th Panzer Division (no infantry brigade), 44th Infantry Division, 151st Infantry Brigade, and 2nd Free French Brigade, the 10th Panzer Division and the 201st Guards Brigade were originally arranged. So the battlefield situation and the balance of forces between the enemy and us became more optimistic than Guderian expected, he thought that Montgomery would only draw 1 brigade from the south at most, but he did not expect that the Eighth Army was frightened by the sharp attack power of the African Army to quickly eat the Seventh Armored Division, and transferred one brigade after another armored division, and now the balance of forces has undergone a big reversal: the total strength of the British army in front of him is only 1.7 times that of the German army, and the number of tanks is only slightly more than half of the German army.

In the fierce attack of the German army, the British lost the first two lines of defense in less than 40 minutes, and the tanks that dared to take the initiative to meet were also bombarded into a pile of rotten iron by the Tigers, and the T-34 and No. 4 behind the two heavily armored battalions had not even had a chance to exchange fire.

"Sir......" De Lagan hurriedly woke Montgomery, who had been busy all night and had not fallen asleep until about 4 a.m., "the main German forces have launched a fierce attack to the south, and we have lost two lines of defense in a row. ”

"What?" Montgomery was taken aback, "Didn't you report that the Germans were still confronting our troops in front of the line of the 7th Panzer Division?" The French and Poles also reported that the Germans were in a head-on battle, and where did so many main forces come out? ”

At 6:23, a second, worse and more detailed news came: Ramsden, commander of the 1st Army in charge of the southern command, reported to Montgomery that the Germans had dispatched "super tanks", that the armored units of the 8th Panzer Division had been completely annihilated, and that most of the troops of the 151st Infantry Brigade had been surrounded...... This kind of tank is by no means a T-34, with fierce firepower and strong defense, none of our tanks is its opponent, the number is expected to be 200 (actually only more than 90), the number of tanks put into the attack by Germany is expected to be more than 800 (the actual total is less than 450, and only more than 300 directly participate in the front-line attack), and it is initially estimated that the German army will invest 7-80,000 people in the main offensive force......"

The telegram's description of the tiger was almost exactly the same as yesterday's Rear Admiral Langton, and both men had agreed to it and urgently reported to London for information, but Montgomery was furious when he saw the description of the enemy's strength, and he shouted: "50,000-60,000 in the west, 7-80,000 here, and 3-40,000 in the east, how many troops do the Germans have?" How does it sound more than us? Also, the figure of more than 800 tanks is also a problem for them - the Germans did not have so many tanks in Africa! ”

De-Lagan could only smile bitterly at this: since the war in North Africa, falsely reporting and exaggerating the combat effectiveness of the German army has been a problem for the Eighth Army: at the beginning, the Germans did not have an advantage in troops and equipment, and at that time, Rommel was afraid of him like a snake and scorpion, and Auchinleck also resorted to assassination; After the Germans increased their strength, replaced the Italians with native troops, and at the same time put in the T-34 and the new No. 4, they cringed at the German tank equipment and the combat effectiveness of the troops.

The battle is here, not to mention Montgomery, even De Lagan is completely confused, how much strength do the Germans have? Where are their main forces? (To be continued.) )