Disturbed by the German planes just now, Montgomery lost interest in going to the airport to check it out, and returned to the headquarters in displeasure. De Lagan hurriedly barged in, his tone was very anxious, and the news sent was really not very good: "The airport called urgently, they were caught off guard by the sudden attack of the German planes, the runway and hangar were completely destroyed, the remaining planes could not rise into the air, and the pilots also sacrificed a lot, so they could only mobilize the forces of other airfields, so the air fire could not cover and cover in a short time." ”

"I see." Montgomery looked at his watch with a gloomy face, the hour hand was very close to 6 o'clock, and it was too late to wait for the troops from other airfields to be redeployed, obviously the troops had to temporarily fight under the condition of losing air supremacy, "I want to know where the German armored forces are now, the sooner the better!" The more detailed, the better! ”

De Lagan shook his head: "There is no very definite news yet, the positions on the front line are in disarray, the description of the enemy's strength ranges from 100 tanks to 500 tanks, I cannot command the battle according to this illusory enemy situation, we should order all troops to resist on the spot and hold their positions to the death." ”

The chief of staff's order may have given the Germans the convenience of breaking through, but Montgomery decided to adopt it after some thought: "Convey it: all units should carry out contraction defense with brigades and regiments as the core, consolidate their core positions, especially the several north-south passages and corridors on the defense of Delm Hafid Ridge, and not allow the enemy to advance further north, otherwise the northern front will also be chaotic." ”

"Sir, is it necessary to send out the formations directly under the headquarters for reinforcements?"

"I don't even understand the exact location of the enemy, so I can't reinforce it." Montgomery was angry and annoyed, "How could Guderian pick such a time to attack?" This is such a bad and shameless man, not at all knightly, no worse than Rommel, no, more cunning and scoundrel than him......"

de Lagan listened silently, feeling that the commander was right, and then he had an indescribable feeling: how could the British Empire pin its hopes on the enemy fighting you one by one? Isn't this self-deception?

After suppressing the nearest airfield force, the Ju-87s flew towards Delm Hafid Ridge under the cover of the Bf-109s, and the rest of the Fw-190 group was not suitable for escort aircraft, and they continued to hold high, hovering in the air for a free hunting mission, eliminating any fish that slipped through the net to avoid an attack on the bombers. According to the prior agreement, after the completion of the raid on the airfield, the air force was to fight and retreat to the Delm Hafid Ridge area, cover the armored forces on the ground and open a passage for them to advance.

All the pilots were very excited, the battle of the raid on the airfield just now was very smooth, although there are no exact statistics, but they felt that at least they had destroyed more than 150 enemy planes in the air and on the ground, and they had also killed the number one trump card of the British army in North Africa, and they only paid a relatively weak price of 7 fighters and 4 dive bombers. What's even more amazing is Marseilleu, today he killed 16 enemy planes in one day, although he failed to refresh his own record of 17, but he is still full of color, because these results are all fighters, not even a bomber, even including the British ace such a difficult opponent, the total number of falls broke through the 150 mark at once, and even his wingman almost became his special numerical counting machine. As a sign of his apology, Marseilleu signaled his wingman to attack with a sword after damaging a few bombers, so that his record would also increase, which is why the Afrika Star was missing bomber results - not that he couldn't beat it, but that he didn't like it.

After receiving an exclusive enhanced version of the Fw-190 from Hoffmann, Marseilleu fell in love with the ferocious and agile new vehicle, as if it had been built for his own unique tactics. When his record exceeded 100, his comrades and superiors made a bet on when he would break 200, some said it would be another year and a half, some said it would be another year, and he himself said that it was before the end of 1942, that is, less than six months, for which he also made a bet of 100 marks and half a dozen Italian red wines. Many people laughed at his arrogance behind his back, but he didn't expect that his record was hot now, and according to the current situation, no one doubted that he could even complete the task by the end of September.

"Air Force! Our Air Force is coming! When Heinz made contact with the group, the entire armored formation erupted in cheers, and some excited commanders even lifted the hatch and waved warmly to the group painted with iron crosses. Dessau, who was in the command position at the rear of the palace, was also overjoyed: "Now it's good, with Stuka opening the way and air supremacy guarantee, our task of sweeping towards Delm Hafid Ridge is much lighter." ”

Now the offensive of the African Army has finally entered the typical blitzkrieg mode, with Stuka sweeping in the sky and armored forces on the ground battering hard, and the infantry is behind to accompany the attack and occupy positions, but for Heinz's tank formation, this level of cover is now completely extravagant to the extreme -- although there are only about 20 Stuka participating in the attack in the air, they are all under the command of the ground, and there are nearly 200 fighters in the position of escort, which is enough for a group army. With the direct call of the tank formations on the ground, the anti-tank positions and artillery positions deployed in the hidden corners were all knocked out by Stuka, and the anti-aircraft gun positions that posed a greater threat to Stuka were killed by the tanks, and the rhythm of the armored column commander's drive was as smooth as a red-hot knife cutting into solidified butter, only the British infantry scattered everywhere, screaming and hugging rats, or shivering and hiding in the trenches, went unheeded, except for a few German fighters who were unwilling to be lonely to strafe the ground, They're basically left to fend for themselves.

While directing the tank assault, Heinz felt the rigidity of the British: their anti-aircraft guns were anti-aircraft guns, and anti-tank guns were anti-tank guns, the former was not used to fight tanks, and the latter was not used to fight planes. If you change to the 88 guns equipped by the Germans themselves, it is to fight the planes and tanks, which is enough for the enemy to drink a pot. The attack on the southern flank of the Delm Hafid Mountains was not greatly hindered, and the difficult bones were solved by Stuka or the fighters, and although the British army had received the news of the enemy's surprise attack, they were still shocked by the fact that the German armored forces had fought from behind their back, and their spirits almost collapsed, and by the last dozen positions, the defenders had fled before the Germans could come. Only a few unlucky German tanks were hit by a mine and their tracks were blown off and they had to abandon their vehicles, but they were also not bad luck, they actually grabbed the trucks of the Eighth Army Logistics Department to carry supplies to the front, and immediately completed the task of seizing the vehicles with the assistance of comrades disguised as British armored vehicles. This slightly comical special formation marched mightily westward.

At 6:32 a.m., two minutes later than Guderian had agreed, the two Panzer Battalions completed the sweep of the enemy forces on the southern flank of Delm Hafid Ridge, and after destroying a large number of British positions and tactical weapons, they successfully chose an alternative route to retreat to Callakil, while the covering group parted with them earlier - they had to seize the last rays of light before the sun set to fly to other base airfields.

In the vicinity of Guderian's pre-arranged contact point, a batch of gasoline and supplies was buried so that the armored troops could quickly replenish and recuperate, but because of the robbery of the British oil depot on the way and the small losses of the formation, Heinz decided not to dig up this batch of buried "treasures", and after a hurried dinner, he led the formation to continue on the road, and the overall transfer time was a full hour earlier than planned, which meant that their retreat would be smoother and calmer.

After Lieutenant Colonel Merlinjin, who retreated with the telecommunications company and the armored reconnaissance company, received the telegram from Heinz, a hanging heart finally relaxed, and he excitedly handed the telegram to Guderian: "Sir, the battle plan you guided went well, and the two armored battalions and the air force turned the British positions upside down and taught Montgomery a hard lesson. Our losses were almost negligible, with 49 tanks remaining under Heinz's men, only 3 of the most valuable long-barreled Type 4G, and the Air Force's losses were similarly small, probably a dozen planes - they had destroyed at least 10 times as many enemies. ”

Guderian took the telegram and looked at it roughly, and also laughed: "Very good! Tonight it is expected that Montgomery will be suspicious again and will not be able to sleep, so we will retreat as soon as possible, and let the armored forces take advantage of the night to quickly meet at Terreakir. ”