The Eighth Army headquarters' holiday cottage in an oasis, sheltered by relatively dense trees, is a nice sight to look out of the glass: the wet desert in the distance is empty, and the rain-soaked dunes and artemisia stretch gently to the south, rising higher and higher. Brown, ochre, and yellow, mixed with the egg-blue sky, mixed with the warm sea breeze blowing from the direction of the Mediterranean, like a sad landscape painting.

Lieutenant General Montgomery was in no mood to pay attention to the dripping raindrops on the roof, and he paced thoughtfully around the house, sometimes bowing his head and frowning at the map and the latest state of his forces, he was irritated by the recent stalemate: since the end of the battle of El Alamein, and especially since the recent siege of Tobruk, he had been under great pressure, and Churchill and London urged him to attack Guderian and take the fortress as soon as possible, but he always refused on the grounds that his troops and equipment were insufficient, Only a long siege was carried out, and of course, if the Germans had any attempt to break through, he must have locked them firmly in the encirclement.

This "negative" attitude displeased Prime Minister Churchill, who thought Montgomery was a timid and cowering figure, and even mocked Rommel for taking the fortress with fewer troops than the garrison, but Montgomery wanted to angrily ask: Is it the same now as it was then? Guderian received a steady stream of troops, supplies, and equipment transferred from Italy, and the multiplication of strength, which was not comparable to the Rommel era, although the Eighth Army also received a large amount of supplies. However, most of the time it was to make up for the losses in the Battle of El Alamein, and the strength did not increase significantly, as for the reinforcement requirements of 1,000 tanks for the five armored divisions he requested. It has been rejected by the bureaucrats in London under the guise of haha. Compared to the time of the Battle of El Alamein, the gap between the current forces is not widening but narrowing!

The gap depends on how to understand it, purely in terms of troops, the number of the African Army has not increased but decreased, but nearly half of the African Army in the Battle of El Alamein is Italian, and now Guderian has in his hands except for an elite Italian paratrooper brigade, the rest are all local troops, and the combat effectiveness is almost a world apart. In terms of equipment. The German army is not what it used to be, a large number of T-34 and No. 4G are rolling in, and they have long since survived the embarrassment of the 90th Light Division mixed with the No. 2 tank. If Montgomery knew that there was such a unit as the Tiger Heavy Armored Battalion in the African Army, he would have to jump in shock.

But Churchill also had unspeakable secrets, and after the loss of super-secret, the Maltese side could no longer deal with the Italian navy as it pleased. And the garrison was shocked to find that the Italian navy was much more heroic than before. Not only did the frequency of sorties increase substantially, but they even dared to continue to advance against the threat of the Maltese detachment and bombers -- although the British knew the news of the German-Italian command system through the Italian side, they did not know how deep the German penetration was, and with the large-scale infusion of German troops, every warship and every air squadron in Italy now had German liaison officers, and Marshal Kesselring had firmly grasped all this, and the Italian side was not without resistance. But as soon as Italy's fuel security was in the hands of the Germans. If Kesselring did not open his mouth, all Italian warships and planes could lie on their stomachs; Second, German military production is also infiltrating Italy. Shipbuilding, aviation, trucks, tanks and other industries are developing rapidly, and if there is no war and no mobilization, the capitalists will not be able to spare Mussolini in the first place; As for the Army, no one bothered to pay attention to the little strength of the Italian Army, and after the withdrawal of some troops from the Eastern Front, the actual number of the Italian Army declined; Last but not least, the leader still had his dream of a North African empire - what reason should he not support the Germans who were now fighting all over Italian territory?

In such a firm determination, it is difficult for the Maltese side to take advantage, although they sank and damaged the Italian warship through air raids, but their own losses are also very serious, especially the air force losses are particularly large, after the main force of the German air force, especially the Fw-190 large-scale convoy into escort, the life of the Maltese bomber group is difficult, even if there are fighter escorts, the losses of the bombers still rise in a straight line, not to mention that those Spitfires and Hurricanes are not the opponents of the Fw-190 now. In the end, in case the German plane was successfully shot down, the pilot could also jump into the sea to escape, and the following was more than his own fleet rushed to the rescue, and the British parachute pilot could only be taken prisoner if he did not want to be drowned, in the tug-of-war for more than two months, the plane in the direction of Malta was fighting less and less, the position of this unsinkable aircraft carrier was still important, and the defense was also extremely strong, but it was also blocked by the Luftwaffe formations in the Sicilian Strait and the Turkish-Nice coast, and the general transport ships could not enter at all, The large-scale naval formation was withdrawn to carry out the "Torch Plan", and there was a vacuum in the British fleet in the Mediterranean direction, so in the end, this kind of ship attack battle had to be abandoned.

Originally, Montgomery, after learning of the cancellation of Operation Torchlight, had the idea of letting those troops that were supposed to land in Algiers land in the nearest El Alamein or Port Matroux through the Mediterranean, but the navy was afraid of the Luftwaffe in the direction of Sicily and Tobruk, and refused to take the slightest risk, and had to take a detour from South Africa to the Suez Canal. Although the Germans are currently eyeing the territory in the hands of Vichy France and Darlan, it is undeniable that there is such a possibility that once there is a difficulty in the direction of Tobruk, this German force will not hesitate to kill, and they will be a time bomb hanging over the head of the Eighth Army.

This painstaking effort was not destined to be forgiven by Churchill, and in his mind, Montgomery's performance gradually slipped to the point where it was inferior to Auchinleck, and he had expressed this opinion several times in private, but because Montgomery did not make much mistake, and General Alexander still supported him, he could barely continue in this position, but Churchill was already asking for the name of a possible successor......

While he was pondering, he suddenly heard the dull sound of artillery in the distance - Guderian opened the gap with a surprise attack and then prepared fire to cover the enemy position, Montgomery paused for a moment, and was about to order his men to find out the truth of the matter, when the chief of staff, de Lagan, had hurried in, waving a telegram as he entered, and said, "Major General James Langton has sent an urgent telegram that his 7th Panzer Division is being attacked by the enemy's superior forces, and that there are at least 500 tanks on sight!" ”

"The Seventh Panzer Division? 500 tanks? He was taken aback, because he clearly remembered that the division was deployed in the western sector of the defensive line, "the enemy troops coming from the direction of Morocco?" ”

"Nope! It's Tobruk's Germans! ”

"But the Air Force didn't report any special changes...... Montgomery, although he doubted the accuracy of the report, but the response was swift, "telegraph to General Ted, let the bombers be dispatched immediately to assist the ground forces in filling the loopholes, just like the previous times, and must not let Guderian rush out!" ”

"But, s......ir," explained De Lagan in a prolonged voice, "it has rained so hard for the past two days that the runways of the airport have been washed out, and the air force cannot be dispatched at all!" ”

"Damn! Let Guderian catch the loophole again! Montgomery slapped himself on the head, "Order the Seventh Panzer Division to hold on to the spot, and fight to the last man and not be able to retreat, I will send reinforcements to them......"

He really wanted to transfer his reserves over immediately, and this recruitment had worked very well in the previous weeks of operations, but unfortunately most of the reserves were hoarded in the east, and now the gap that was being assaulted was in the west, and he didn't dare to guarantee whether it would be too late to dispatch in the past, and the road would be very difficult to travel in this kind of ghost weather today-the idea of moving quickly was still dispelled as soon as possible, and after careful consideration for a while, he decided on the overall idea.

"Tell Langton that he must hold out for 48 hours, and I'll give him enough reinforcements." Montgomery recovered his mood for a moment and said in as calm a tone as possible, "Let the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Australian 9th Division on his left and right flanks come closer, and I will let the 10th Panzer Division and the 201st Guards Brigade go up to fill the vacancy behind the New Zealand Division and the Australian Division." ”

"That's all it can be." De-Lagan nodded, and immediately went to adjust the deployment.

In the process of Montgomery's orderly redeployment, the positions of the 7th Panzer Division were under attack by the Germans on all fronts, and after the destruction of various anti-tank fire points, the infantry and artillery became the targets of the German armored forces, and in order to block the German tanks that broke through the positions, Major General Langton sent an urgent telegram requesting reinforcements, and bravely let his backbone armored forces, the 4th and 22nd Panzer Brigades, rush forward.

Although his troops suffered a lot of losses in the Battle of El Alamein, they gradually recovered through replenishment, and the domestic support was not bad, in the face of the threat of T-34 and No. 4G, the original weak Valentine, Crusader, and Stuart tanks were all replaced, and the main force of each brigade was replaced with Sherman and Churchill tanks, with an establishment of nearly 1:1, and the entire Seventh Panzer Division had 198 tanks, especially the Churchill tank, which was almost an upgraded version of Matilda, with a total combat weight of 39 tons and a 75mm gunThe frontal armor reached 100mm at its thickest point, but the speed was slower than that of the Tiger, less than 25 km/h, and Rear Admiral Langton confidently believed that the new tanks could withstand the enemy's attack.

It's a pity that they tragically bumped into the Tiger ...... (To be continued.) )