In stark contrast to Guderian's optimism and wittiness, Montgomery paced restlessly back and forth in the command. After the Italian feint on the northern front stopped, the Germans on the southern front did not make any major moves, which puzzled the Eighth Army in front of them, and Colonel de Lagan organized a second operational meeting around the current situation, but this time the atmosphere was just different from the first - the faces of the other participants were calm, their eyes were indifferent, and the corners of their mouths were mechanical, except for Lieutenant General Montgomery, who was as isolated as a lion in a trap, walking around uneasily. Everyone watched his pace, and several staff officers were still silently counting, did the commander walk the 20th or 21st lap?

"It's so unexpected, it's so weird." Montgomery, who had always paid attention to appearance, was tired of walking, so he angrily unbuttoned the military discipline button on his military uniform and pulled off the beret on his head, gasping and said, "The Italians in the north have been fighting for three days, and even after the South African division and the Australian division have tentatively launched a counterattack, they have handed over the positions they have captured in the previous two days, and they have no idea of continuing to fight with us, as if they can knock them all down with a little more strength." ”

A bunch of people laughed tacitly, the Italians were indeed a little indifferent, if it weren't for the command's repeated orders to restrict the actions of the South African Division and Australia, maybe it would have really been taken, but the commander just used the word "push", which makes people easily think of other things that should not be thought about.

"I'm not worried about this, I'm worried about ......" Montgomery didn't seem to hear the obscenity in the laughter of the crowd, but flicked the telegram between his fingers, this paper has been read by him at least dozens of times, it is covered with crumpled creases, "General Alexander sent a telegram saying that the Mediterranean Fleet informed him of the news from the Maltese base, they did not receive the news of the submarine intercepting and sinking the Italian oil tanker, and what is even more strange is that After the morning of September 7, they could no longer contact the two submarines. ”

Everyone's vigilance immediately grew, and the commander of the 10th Army, Major General Horrocks, nervously asked: "They were sunk by the Germans?" ”

"Nor did ...... At least there are no clear signs. Montgomery frowned and explained, "The message also shows that Guderian was also angrily asking for news about the two tankers, and the Italians first told him that the tankers left the port late for other reasons, and later said that the ship's engines were malfunctioning in the middle of maintenance, and then that they could not contact the two tankers now, and were going to send planes to check on them...... Then there was another ambiguous argument between the two sides and the shirk of responsibility, and the long message made the people at the listening desk dizzy. ”

He had considered the meaning of this with Colonel de Lagan, and the two of them had discussed it for a while, and they could not understand what was going on, but Montgomery insisted that the information revealed in the telegram "had an eerie smell in every way," and was ready to let everyone present at the meeting to take a closer look.

"General Alexander thought the same thing, so yesterday another reconnaissance plane was sent out, and the result was ......," said Colonel de Lagan, spreading his hands helplessly, "and by the afternoon there was no return, and we can only reasonably judge that it was shot down by the Germans." ”

The venue had been in a commotion since Montgomery had spoken, and now Colonel Lagan's addition had thrown the scene into complete chaos, and everyone was thinking about the series of questions that had arisen from this:

First, where exactly are the tankers, and did the submarine sink or not? If it wasn't sunk, why did Guderian say he didn't get it? If it was sunk, why didn't the submarine report it and couldn't be contacted?

Second, what exactly was Guderian doing, was he preparing to attack or to retreat? If it is an attack, when and where will he launch it? If he were to retreat, how and when would he go?

Everyone was voicing their opinions on these issues, and the command was noisy like a big bazaar, but no one felt that they could figure it out.

"There may be a plausible explanation for the first question, that our submarines 'maybe, probably, probably' sank or severely damaged Italian tankers, but they were then sunk by the escorting German and Italian planes or warships." Major General Gethouse, commander of the 10th Panzer Division, was very uncertain, and used three question words in a row, and then said, "I find it difficult to answer the second question, from the situation of the Italians, it does not look like they are going to retreat, otherwise the timid Italians would not dare to attack us first without fear, let alone confront us, but if the Germans were to attack, it would have been long past the time for Guderian to report to the country." ”

"What did Guderian say in the last telegram?" Montgomery turned his head and asked the chief of staff.

Colonel de Lagan, who had judged three times at the previous meeting, proved to be broken in practice, and said with a frown: "It cannot be said that it has been exceeded, because the reply from Berlin to Guderian clearly pointed out that if it does not work on the 7th, the attack can be postponed until the 10th or even later." Today happened to be September 10th, and Guderian was preoccupied with waiting for the two tankers, and there was not enough supplies for the Germans to delay the launch of the attack, and Guderian's behavior was logically justified. ”

"Then why is there such a fierce fight in the air?" Someone asked, "The air force has been under great pressure in the past two days, the Germans have killed many of our planes, and their bombers have even attacked our airfields, which is completely prepared for an attack." ”

Montgomery nodded, agreeing with this reasoning, for the intensity of the air battle in the past few days had made him think that a large-scale German attack was likely to be launched, and that the infantry had been tightening their strings every day, and that if this state of affairs continued like this for the afternoon, it would be difficult to maintain the morale of the troops, and he began to express doubts about his strategy of waiting for the Germans to attack first, but he could not reveal it in front of so many men.

"What about the results of our aircraft reconnaissance? Does it show that the Germans are ready to slip away? ”

"Nope." De Lagan shook his head, "The reconnaissance planes show that the enemy is even expanding the airfield, building new oil storage facilities, and building more anti-aircraft artillery positions, as if they are going to do a big job. ”

"His tankers are all in the soup, where is the fuel?" A staff officer sneered, "Could it be that the Germans are playing tricks?" ”

"No one said that the tanker was sunk." Some people objected, "Maybe the tanker just broke down, but why is there no news from our submarine?" Sir, do you suggest that the Air Force send planes out to reconnoitre? ”

This suggestion is to replace the rhythm of the role of chief of staff, de Lagan waved his hand disapprehensively: "It has already been coordinated, and the Air Force said that it will try its best to arrange it." ”

"I do think that an attack by the Germans may be imminent." Montgomery's eyes lit up, and he said to the staff officer, "Tell me your reasons." ”

"In the past two days, the Germans and us have been fighting a big air war, and seizing air supremacy is one purpose, and another purpose may be to take the opportunity to reconnoitre." "Because I noticed that a few planes were flying low, I thought they were going to crash at first, but then they didn't, and I thought they were going to make a ground attack, but it didn't happen." Therefore, there is only a reasonable assumption of reconnaissance, but it is a pity that our anti-aircraft fire was not prepared accordingly and did not shoot down an enemy aircraft. ”

Montgomery nodded: "Your observation is very careful, and I have seen this detail as well." ”

As the conversation shifted to the Germans' imminent attack, the crowd began to argue about the time and place, with some saying that Guderian would not have been so angry in the telegram unless he had received the fuel, while others thought that Guderian might have gotten the fuel and could not explain his efforts to expand the oil storage facility.

In the midst of the noise of the crowd, Montgomery suddenly became agitated, and spat out a sentence fiercely: "Don't wait, I have decided to attack first." ”

"Attack? Sir, are you not afraid that our tanks will run headlong into the ambush nets of the German anti-tank fire? Major General James Langton, commander of the 7th Panzer Division, who had been reprimanded two days earlier, asked rhetorically in an obviously sarcastic voice.

De Lagan glared at the other party fiercely, blaming him for how he could talk to the commander with such an attitude, but Major General Langton on the other side didn't care about this, and thought: I proposed to attack that day, and the old man Montgomery talked a lot of things about not attacking, saying that he couldn't attack, and he was the one who said that he couldn't attack, and he was the one who said that he was going to attack, so he couldn't be right about everything, and we were not right about anything, right?

Montgomery didn't care about the sarcasm in Langton's tone, but nodded, "That's where I hesitated. Seriously, I'm afraid that Guderian will use tricks to escape, and that Guderian will take advantage of our impatience to deliberately lure us into taking the bait - gentlemen, I've found out that he's not an easy player to deal with in the past few days, well, second only to Rommel......"

Did you know that? After hearing this, everyone almost fainted again, and de Lagan involuntarily covered his forehead with his palm and covered his eyes by the way, as if he did not dare to look at the disdain in the eyes of the others, he wanted to give the commander a round, but he felt that he could not speak, so he simply shut up.