During the siege of Tella Akhakil, because the command vehicle Brown was riding in was violently damaged by a German tank, he himself did not have the opportunity to send a telegram to report the news of his imminent surrender after being knocked unconscious, and although the infantry and artillery forces under the command of the chief of staff on the other side controlled the brigade radio, he had been busy directing the operation, and he mistakenly thought that Brown would report the latest situation of the troops and the news of the surrender to the division headquarters, and he was unwilling to report the telegram of the surrender news to the above on behalf of the brigade headquarters, so there was no movement at all. As soon as the results of the surrender were announced, the troops raised the white flag and surrendered, the brigade headquarters was immediately controlled by the Germans, and all the arms and equipment were taken away by the Germans.

The British officers were screened one by one and held in solitary confinement, and Brown finally met with his chief of staff, and the two exchanged ideas only to realize that they had forgotten to send back the most important news. The two of them couldn't help but cry, now they were not only prisoners of the Germans, but they had not even fulfilled their obligation to deliver the news, and they would probably be cursed forever in the future.

After crying, Brown's eyes were red, and he suddenly thought: Will the division commander, who has not received the exact news and thinks that he is still resisting, crash in with his troops? The more he thought about it, the more terrible it became, and the more he had said in the telegram about the new tanks of the Germans, he felt that he had not only lost the 24th Panzer Brigade, but that the whole division might be affected, and he was stunned by this terrible prospect - it was a terrible death.

He rushed to the gendarmes on guard, hoping to have a chance to find another means of communication, but the other party told him with a cold refusal: No!

Gatthaus thought his attack was fierce enough, but in fact Walster and Bismarck did not put much effort into him, and only part of the 10th Panzer Division was to be met, and most of the main force was left to deal with the infantry and artillery in the encirclement - at least not to let them bother Collingwood's tank annihilation. But as soon as Brigadier General Brown surrendered, and they began to clear the encirclement and clean up the aftermath, the British attack on the blocking position continued, even harder than before, and the two suddenly figured out that something was wrong.

"Could it be that the 10th Armored Division still doesn't know that the 24th Armored Brigade is finished?" Major General Bismarck said excitedly, "If this is the case, we can lure the 10th Panzer Division in to fight." ”

"Not necessarily, if the enemy was smart enough, they should keep calling the 24th Panzer Brigade, and the delay in getting a response will definitely arouse their suspicions." "We should let the commander know about this," said Walster, who might have done better." ”

Bismarck's personality was even bolder, and he wanted to directly put the 10th Panzer Division in and eat this division like the 24th Panzer Brigade, but Walst felt that it was not steady, not to mention whether the British would be fooled again, the battlefield was still being cleaned up, and the prisoners had not yet been transported away, and other unfavorable factors existed, in case the 10th Panzer Division could not be eaten in one bite, there would be a big mess. Since this decision was related to the follow-up operation, they did not dare to make decisions on their own, and told Guderian about the situation at the front and their different proposals.

Guderian was not sure whether the British had known for sure about the destruction of the 24th Panzer Brigade, and it was useless to ask Brigadier General Brown, who could not find anyone to play the role of the 24th Panzer Brigade in his eagerness, so he gave the order: "Give up some positions appropriately, and at the same time continue to make gunfire at Treacakil, and continue to eat the British if they can lure the bait." Then a hundred thousand urgent orders were sent to Collingwood, which was why he was in a hurry to lead the tank troops to reinforcements.

"Sir, the Indian 4th Division in the back has also come up, and they will cooperate with our attack." The chief of staff in another command vehicle told Major General Gathouse over the radio, "The troops on the north and south flanks have basically arrived at the designated positions, but the minefields are very dense, and they are still clearing mines, and the progress is not fast." ”

"Good, very good!" Gathouse, for a moment, "Report the situation to General Ramsden, and at the same time urge the detour divisions to speed up." ”

"Major General Gatthaus reported that the 24th Panzer Brigade could not be contacted......" the adjutant handed the message to Ramsden.

"What's going on?" Ramsden frowned, and now General Montgomery had given himself the task of directing the troops to surround Guderian, and said that in the event of initial success, he would personally lead other troops over to reinforce him.

"I don't know, the 10th Armored Division advanced about 2 kilometers, the enemy's resistance was very tight, the blocking fire was not weak, and the Indian 4th Division also went up, but the 24th Armored Brigade has not been able to contact."

"When was the last contact?"

"About an hour ago, they said they were fighting the Germans, and the numbers of two German panzer divisions appeared in it, and it seemed that the Germans had dispatched a new tank -- which was said to be very difficult to deal with."

"A new tank that's hard to deal with?" Ramsden was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "How much?" What was the specific situation with the combat effectiveness of German tanks? ”

"About 100 vehicles, they didn't say the specifics, and it is estimated that the telegram is not clear."

Upon hearing this number, Ramsden was visibly relieved, and this figure was still within his psychological tolerance. The new tank, presumably the Germans' new improved Model 4G, is said to have used a long-barreled gun with an armor patch, and is an improvement, but not overwhelmingly superior - he guesses that this batch of tanks is the last time the Germans received reinforcements by sea.

After thinking for a while, he explained: "Telegraph to the headquarters of the group army that the enemy has received tank reinforcements, probably about 100 new No. 4, please send us additional troops." ”

"Which unit do you want?"

"What other troops can be used against tanks? But don't write it in the telegram, let the commander figure it out for himself. Ramsden wanted to come over with the tank brigade that Montgomery had in his hand, but it was a direct unit of the army group headquarters, so he could not speak directly, so he adopted a roundabout method, even if Montgomery pretended not to know, he believed that the chief of staff, de Lagan, could read the meaning - the Germans had not estimated 200 tanks, but received 100 new reinforcements. In this way, the originally estimated 2:1 advantage of the armored forces has become 4:3, and their own side does not have a clear advantage, and it is inevitable to increase the reinforcements.

The adjutant was just about to leave, but Ramsden stopped him again: "In addition, tell Gathouse, let him fight slowly, and don't rush forward like the 24th Armored Brigade." ”

"That'...... Brown's 24 Armored Brigade? ”

"Leave this idiot alone, let him reflect on the encirclement of the Germans - he also has more than 80 tanks on hand, and he will not fail so easily."

When he received a call back from Ramsden, Gethouse was in a state of anger and had nowhere to go: "I really want to rush in, but the Germans have so strong anti-tank firepower, and those damn 88 guns are everywhere, they can't hit at all." ”

The 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions reorganized the defensive line after giving up some positions according to Guderian's requirements, and Gethouse thought that pulling in the Indian 4th Division and the tank units of the 8th Panzer Brigade under him would make the attack easier, but he did not expect that the Germans' hidden 88 guns were powerful, and they rushed twice in succession, except for the loss of more than 10 tanks, it was fruitless. Speaking of which, both Walster and Bismarck had to thank Collingwood, who had solved the big problem by bringing in an additional 100 88 guns from Italy - the Afrika Army headquarters had air defense units directly under it, and the 88 gun battalions of the two armored divisions had been reinforced, and the anti-tank firepower was stronger than before.

Sitting in a shaky armored command car, Gethouse racked his brains to think about how to tear apart the defensive positions of the German troops in front of him, and in order to avoid noise distracting his thinking, he took off his headphones and only told the adjutant sitting in front to pay attention to the dynamics of the battlefield. Unexpectedly, less than 15 minutes later, before he could come up with a safe and reliable solution, the adjutant suddenly said with a panicked expression: "Sir, it's not good, the front-line troops reported that the Germans sent tanks to counterattack us." ”

"Oh, they're finally moving, it's good to come!" Gathouse, who still thought about what was going on, said with a smile, "The tanks of the 8th Armored Brigade can finally fight with them happily, and they don't have to worry about the 88 gun threat that is secretly hidden." ”

"But...... But ......" the adjutant's face was ugly, "the Germans had much more tanks than we had, and they were powerful. ”

"A lot? Terrible? Gathouse's face changed dramatically, "How many?" How powerful? ”

"Listen to it for yourself."

Gethouse put back on his headphones, and the noisy interference was mixed with the hoarse cry for help from the commander of the 8th Panzer Brigade: "The Germans sent out tanks and outflanked us in 3 clusters, about 200 of them. And they have a new batch of tanks that are very powerful, I have never seen such models, our tank guns can't hit them at all, and if they hit the shell, they will be bounced off...... The losses in the troops were great, and I asked for a retreat! Ask the artillery to cover us! ”

Before he could react, the other party suddenly exclaimed: "It's not good, the positions of the Indian divisions on both flanks collapsed first......"

"It's over!" Gathouse's heart swelled with deep despair, the only reason the Germans dared to do this was that the 24th Panzer Brigade was finished, so they could send a large number of tanks to attack without any scruples, but why didn't Brown, the bastard, send a telegram when he was finished? The 10th Panzer Division was really killed by him.

He gritted his teeth and gave the order: "The whole army alternately covers and retreats in the direction of El Alamein." ”