Richardson now fell into deep regret: if he had not been carried away by the optimism of the occupied command and the discovery of a large number of munitions, if he had not easily believed the natives who had said that the Germans had long since retreated, if he had continued to expand the search area and follow the enemy's traces, if he had not been in a hurry to show his merits in front of Brigadier General Brown and call the headquarters of the 24th Panzer Brigade to come, the present situation would probably have been rewritten. But when the shell fell, all the ifs ceased to exist, and his heart slowly sank to the bottom, and there were only two words in his mind: It's late!

Brigadier General Brown now fully understood what was happening, and he blamed it all on Richardson's incompetence and deception, and when he looked at the remorseful face of the other party, he kicked him angrily and scolded without looking back: "Look at what you have done!" ”

Caught off guard, Richardson was kicked hard and let out a scream, but he didn't have time to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, and he got up from the ground and prepared to cover the brigade commander's retreat. He knew how serious the mistake he had made, he didn't want to be torn to pieces by the brigade commander's anger, nor did he want to stand in a court-martial, the only way to make amends was to quickly gather his men to cover the retreat of the brigade headquarters, as long as he could save the brigade headquarters and the brigade commander, maybe he would be saved in the future.

After going out, several staff officers thought he was in the way, and as soon as they pushed him away, he walked to the command car, he didn't care, and hurriedly beckoned his subordinates to follow, and then desperately let out all kinds of shouts, beckoning all the armored vehicles, tanks, and infantry within visual range to retreat with him, so as to gather more forces, the scene was so chaotic that it was like a swarm of headless flies flying around, and it was impossible to see at all.

Brigadier Brown's reaction was not unpleasant, and the order to retreat was given on the spot, without any delay. But the problem is that the reconnaissance company's report that the enemy has fled, coupled with the fact that the troops' successful occupation of the headquarters and warehouses and receiving supplies seriously misled him, made him completely relaxed, and he did not expect the possible traps in the middle, and it was too late to react now: the officers and soldiers of the 24th Armored Brigade from top to bottom were also intoxicated with the optimism of the enemy retreating without a fight, and came with a relaxed mentality, and they never thought about fighting at all, let alone the enemy counterattacking so quickly.

Brigadier General Brown was busy sending telegrams to all sides after entering the headquarters, and a reliable command system was not established in the first place, so that it took great effort to convey the order to retreat. All operational orders were given in a hurry and panic after the shells had fallen, relying entirely on the instinctive reaction of junior officers rather than on a uniform deployment from top to bottom. What is even more desperate is that the 24th Armored Brigade has just entered the center of the town, and is unfamiliar with the terrain of Terre Akhakil, although Guderian gave up laying mines in order to lure the British to the bait as much as possible, but the chaotic scene and panic mood still easily caused the troops to lose control, and Brown's attempt to lead tanks and armored vehicles to evacuate first made ordinary soldiers desperate, and under the transmission of this negative emotion, they abandoned their duties and ignored the orders and shouts of their commanders. Running in all directions, they grabbed all kinds of vehicles and tried to retreat together, but soon blocked the roads.

There are also troops whose commanders have strong control over their subordinates, but they want to defend on the spot, and some troops want to withdraw, saying that they are not united in will, and they cannot establish a unified and complete defense line at all, and the fortifications left by the Germans, as the staff officers said, are only suitable for defending against the east, and have no effect on the enemy from the west. In the center of a town with no friendly support, no flank cover, no fire support, and no strong fortifications, any force that wants to hold on to its position in the face of an armored attack has only one prospect of being wiped out. The move of senior officers and armored units to take the lead in retreating seriously dampened the morale of the troops and deprived them of the courage to resist to the end on the last line.

However, the officers finally had their brains, and knew that there were large minefields in the north and south, and now the detour of friendly and neighboring troops had not yet arrived, and blindly fleeing wherever they could only be sent to death, and a large number of men and horses noisily boarded the trucks to turn the head of the trucks and retreat from the road from which they came, and as for the artillery, ammunition, and supplies that were difficult to carry, they were still on the trucks, and as long as they had been unloaded, they were thrown aside by the soldiers at will, and no one looked at them.

Brigadier General Brown knew that the army had completely lost its command, but he did not despair, and he thought that he still had enough time to reorganize his troops and stabilize his position as long as he retreated to safety, and with a competent army to take over, he could fight the Germans again. So while directing the troops to retreat, he called the division headquarters in a hysterical voice, hoping that the division commander would lead the troops to rescue him.

But Guderian spent a huge price and made careful preparations, how could he let the 24th Panzer Brigade leave so easily?

While Collingwood led the 35th Panzer Regiment to the west to attack the main force of the 24th Brigade, the main armoured groups of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions in the east also made a detour from the flanks of the two hills. In fact, these tanks have been hidden on the flanks of the two mountains, less than 15 kilometers from the valley mouth in the open field. According to the original plan, in order to avoid the 24th Panzer Brigade discovering that they should make a reverse detour, that is, to bypass the entire mountain and advance from the outside to the inside in the direction from which the 24th Brigade came to intercept it. But since Richardson's reconnaissance company did not expand the search area,

Therefore, after discussing with Lieutenant General Walster, commander of the 21st Armored Division, and Major General Bismarck, commander of the 15th Armored Division, they unanimously decided to temporarily revise the battle plan to carry out forward penetration, blocking the 5-kilometer open exit with a faster speed.

"Sir, there are also Germans blocking the way ahead......" Not long after the retreating troops were on the road, more surprising news came from the front.

"Ahh Brigadier General Brown was so frightened that he trembled and said, "The tank will take the lead and rush over and fight a bloody way......

"Sir, no, we can't do it. The enemy in front of him had two armored divisions, and from the visual point of view, there were no less than 200 tanks, which were not only more numerous than us, but even more terrible, they also controlled the open field. The chief of staff next to him was slightly calmer than him, "As long as we dare to go over, we will immediately be torn to pieces by their anti-tank forces." ”

"How could they be there? Could it be that they all came out of the ground? Brigadier General Brown was completely out of idea now, and only yelled hysterically, "Have you contacted the division headquarters, and how long will it take for the division commander to come and meet us?" ”

"The division commander said there were at least two hours to go."

"Two hours?" Brown was silent, the division commander was fast enough, but he was still not at ease, but he couldn't show it, it couldn't be said that the 24th Armored Brigade couldn't hold out for 2 hours, right? Although he was beaten by Guderian two days ago, now there are 5,000 people and a large army of more than 80 tanks.

He had to hide his uneasiness with a complaint: "2 hours? God, how can I hold out for 2 hours in a defenseless place like this? ”

"Sir, you have to find a way as soon as possible, the soldiers are watching." The chief of staff saw the infantry units gathered around the hedgehogs from the lookout hole, all of them looking like six gods and no masters.

"What do you say?"

"Attack the enemy on the west side...... They didn't seem to have many tanks, and then let the infantry rely on the Germans' fortifications to defend against external attacks, and as long as we repelled the enemy behind us, the frontal enemy would not be able to defeat it at once. The chief of staff advised, "We certainly cannot cross the open field, but the enemy will be met by us if he wants to pass through the open field, and in this sense we are equal to each other." As long as we can withstand it, and the follow-up forces of the division headquarters can keep up, we will not only have a chance to get out of trouble, but also counter-encircle the enemy......"

Brigadier General Brown hurriedly glanced at the map and thought for a few more minutes that the chief of staff's advice was not bad. He had come to his senses from the initial panic and understood that such an aimless run would definitely bring down the troops, and the top priority was to immediately organize a defense while the overall strength was still concentrated. The chief of staff said well, you can use the old German defense system to defend against the enemy in the east, and you can only survive for 2 hours without trying to repel the enemy.

He immediately ordered all the armored forces to turn around and attack the enemy's tanks in the west, and the enemy in the east was to be defended by the infantry on the spot, and in order to better coordinate the command, he asked the chief of staff to stay behind and direct the infantry to deal with the east, and left him the brigade headquarters guard company and a few tanks, and he himself led the main tank force to turn around and go west. Richardson thought about it for a moment and decided whether the reconnaissance company should take on the duty of guarding the brigade headquarters and followed the brigade commander to turn west. Looking at the latter's performance, Brigadier General Brown's face softened slightly: although Richardson, the bastard, made today's big mistake, at least he was still a courageous and responsible officer.