In just 70 minutes, the curtain came down on this elaborate encirclement, and the 24th Panzer Brigade, with more than 3,000 British troops under Brigadier General Brown, became prisoners of the Afrika Army, while the total German casualties were less than 200, which was a hearty victory. Even more striking was the tank battle between the 35th Panzer Regiment of the 4th Panzer Division and the British, who eliminated (or captured) 85 British tanks at the cost of 7 tanks (3 of which were still repairable), including 27 of the newer M4 Shermans. Among the 17 British tanks captured, there are 10 Sherman tanks that are intact and can be used directly, plus the Shermans who can still be repaired on the battlefield, their number is as high as 16, and the survival rate is the highest among all British tanks, which is worthy of being called "the best tank on our side".

If Sherman had been directly integrated into the troops, the number of tanks commanded by Collingwood would have increased by several rather than decreased. But now he obviously didn't have the heart to think about it, after solving the tank units of the 24th Armored Brigade, he gave all the finishing work including battlefield clearance, weapons collection, prisoner counting, etc., to Westphal and Baierlein, who came later, and he himself anxiously led his troops to complete the battlefield supply and rushed to the open land of the two mountains, Walster and Bismarck sent a telegram saying that they had handed over the British 10th Panzer Division that had rushed to reinforce them, In addition to this force, the British also had support units, and they hoped that the 35 Panzer Regiment would rush to reinforcements as soon as possible.

"Do you want us to send other troops to help?" Westphaal and others knew that he had been given a new combat mission, and in order to persuade him to strengthen his combat effectiveness, they gave an example, "For example, those 88 guns? ”

"No, they won't be useful in mobile combat, just give me a battalion of panzergrenadiers." Collingwood said, "The 88 guns are left for your air defense, what if the British planes come?" ”

"Yes, then I wish you a successful start." Westphar knew that Guderian had given the order to evacuate the place as soon as possible, and because of the extra prisoners and the captured supplies, the task of the Afrika Army was very heavy, and every person and every unit had to be used on the knife edge.

"That's right." Collingwood turned his head and deliberately explained, "I don't care about anything else, if I lose it, I will lose it, and help me get out as much as possible of those goods underground, otherwise my troops will all lie in two days." ”

"Don't worry, if you can't make a mistake, I'll help you do it!" Seeing that the others were too busy, the idle intelligence chief Mei Linjin volunteered to take over this task, he looked at the busy people at the scene, rolled his eyes, and hit the idea on the depressed British prisoners, called half a military police platoon, and explained to the leading second lieutenant, "Go and catch 100 prisoners, the body should be stronger, I have work for them to do." ”

"Yes, sir." Under the threat of the muzzle of the black hole and the pulling and pulling of the belt, more than 100 British prisoners with big shoulders and round waists were pulled out alone, including the hapless commander of the reconnaissance company, Captain Richardson. Driven by the gendarmes, the selected prisoners boarded the trucks one after another, but a few thorns were unwilling to comply, denouncing the Germans for their treachery and refusing to get into the trucks. The leading military police lieutenant obviously understood some English and knew that what the other party said was not a good thing, plus Mei Linjin had been watching here, his face became more and more ugly, and the submachine gun was directly loaded.

Richardson knew that if he didn't cooperate with the other party's work, the angry officer would definitely shoot and kill a few disobedient prisoners in a fit of rage, whether in shock or to vent his anger. Although the surrendered officers and soldiers as a whole had the Geneva Conventions as a cover, and the Germans would not have done anything to the middle and senior officers, it was normal for ordinary soldiers to be killed or wounded by prisoners, and he walked out of the queue, pressed down on the opponent's submachine gun and pressed the muzzle down, and negotiated in his half-baked German (because he had this ability, he was selected as the commander of the reconnaissance company): "Mr. Ensign, don't get angry, impulsiveness will not solve the problem, if you shoot it will bring unpredictable consequences, Unless you want to mess up these thousands of people. ”

"Can you control them?"

"I can try, but you're going to tell me what you're going to do?"

"My chief needs some help with the work." The German second lieutenant added, "Work hard." ”

Although it was a violation of the Convention to force the prisoners to work at gunpoint, Richardson did not want to talk to the Germans about such a thing, and it was neither meaningful nor necessary. He silently turned around and persuaded his comrades, whether they were the men of the reconnaissance company or the rest of the troops, to obey the command, or at least not to suffer immediate losses. Under his persuasion, the commotion gradually subsided.

The Germans, seeing that his words were still useful in the ranks of the prisoners, and seeing that he could speak a few words of German, they nodded heartily and told him: "Captain, these people are under your command, don't worry, we will only let you help you with some work, and we will not embarrass you - there is no danger in these jobs, you yourself will encounter them in the army, and you will be rewarded with half a pack of cigarettes for each of you for a good job." ”

The word "cigarettes" evoked painful memories for Richardson, who still had a pack of Italian cigarettes in his pocket, but poor Brigadier General Brown had ruined an entire elite armoured brigade for the sake of supplies and munitions.

More than 100 captives were taken to the fuel warehouse, and Merinzin ordered them: "Pull these empty barrels apart." Richardson immediately ordered the captives to do so, and he felt strange: he had come to visit the fuel depot once a long time ago, and could not find anything of value at all, what did the Germans want? Others were also confused and confused.

"......Dig up the earth with tools," Merinjin confessed, as he asked the gendarmes to hand over pickaxes and shovels, and motioned for Richardson to distribute them. The first few captives numbly took the tools and began to work, but many more were shocked, this is preparing to bury us alive? Even the pit has to be dug by ourselves? Suddenly, their emotions became agitated again, and they struggled again and again, and several people who had already obtained the tools also reacted, clutching the tools in their hands tightly, and staring at the Germans who were guarding them, intending to fight their opponents to the death.

"Tubu!" The second lieutenant of the gendarmerie who led the team was obviously taken aback, and subconsciously pulled the trigger into the sky, and the deafening sound of shooting made the prisoners hesitate.

"Captain, you're going to rebel against labor?" He stared at Richardson and said the word "resistance" in a heavy tone.

"Labor?" Richardson didn't pay attention to the word "rebellion" but caught the other word, "What to labor?" ”

"Dig up the dirt."

"You're going to bury us?" Richardson was shocked and angry, "We are prisoners, and we are entitled to all the treatment stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, you fascist brutes ......"

The other party saw that he was agitated, and spoke quickly and quickly, and with a helpless look, he pointed to his ear, indicating that he did not understand at all—Richardson had just spoken it all in English. Richardson also felt strange, although the other party's expression was very serious, but it did not look like a vicious appearance, so he asked tentatively, "You plan to kill us after our 'labor'?" When he said the word "kill", he was afraid that the other party would pretend to be deaf and dumb again, and he also used his hand to make a false slashing posture.

“NO！ NO！ The lieutenant finally understood, shook his head like a rattle, and asked, puzzled, "How could you have such a strange idea?" If you want to kill you, you can just use the machine gun outside to surprise you, why bother so much? The chief wants you to dig out what is underneath. ”

Now Richardson also reacted: "Dig up something? Could it be that there is some treasure buried underneath? ”

"Of course not, you just dug it."

Now that their lives were in danger, the captives resumed their work, and although Richardson explained the misunderstanding, they were still too lazy to do their work, and only when the fierce gaze of the second lieutenant of the gendarmerie approached them, did they move with some force.

Fortunately, there were more than 100 captives after all, and although they continued to grind the foreign workers, the upper layer of soil was quickly cleaned up, and in their confused eyes, one after another steel plates appeared below that pressed the top, and Mei Linjin asked the captives to lift the steel plates, revealing the neatly stacked oil drums below. Looking at these things, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief, it seems that the Germans really did not mean to deceive everyone, but what did the Germans mean by doing this?

Richardson suddenly wanted to slap himself, he couldn't find fuel, the enemy clearly buried the oil in the ground, and smelled the faint smell in the air, which was actually diesel fuel that was even rarer among the Germans. Thinking of things on the battlefield, could it be that this new tank burns diesel? Didn't you say that the Germans only used gasoline tanks? He still didn't know that this batch of T-34s, all of which were diesel burners, had been transported from Italy by Collingwood, and they were very precious. Since there were not enough trucks to carry it, he only carried part of the diesel, and he was reluctant to throw the rest to the British like any other supplies, in case the British blew up the oil depot before they died? So I found a way to dig and seal all the diesel.

According to the original plan, Collingwood was supposed to use the fuel buried in the ground to resupply the tank and keep the fuel on the resupply truck outside. But in a hurry to fight, he reversed the order in order to save time, and directly used the fuel on the supply truck first, and now he needs to replenish the fuel buried in the ground back to the truck.

Now, Richardson knew that the Germans' fuel depot was really out of gas, but what did this have to do with him and the 24th Panzer Brigade?