On the Tobruk front, taking advantage of the cover of night, Montgomery had withdrawn the remaining troops of the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Australian 9th Division, and secretly assembled in the southern position, and the western theater was only supported by a South African division, but because the German army was not strong, the Italian paratrooper brigade, which was responsible for defense, did not realize for a while that the enemy in front of him had changed.

Montgomery had wanted to withdraw the 201st Guards Brigade, the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade, the 1st Tank Brigade, or the 1st Armoured Brigade, but the German offensive was so fierce that it was difficult to maneuver the entire line of defense after withdrawing these troops, so he could only continue to grit his teeth and ask these troops to harden up.

The two Free French Brigades, the Polish Brigade, the Greek Brigade, and the 8th Armored Division were almost all reimbursed, the 151st Brigade, the 50th and 44th Infantry Divisions and other units were also nearly paralyzed, and the only ones that still had a little combat effectiveness were the 1st and 10th Armored Divisions, the 51st and 56th Infantry Divisions, the 201st Guards Brigade and the 2 South African Divisions, and the 2 Tank Brigades and the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade directly under the original army group were used by Montgomery as firefighting troops on various fronts. For notches that appear at any time.

The 7th Panzer Division, which was first attacked by the Afrika Army and collapsed, was dismantled by him into supplementary divisions and stuffed into various units, and those artillery who lost all their artillery, armored troops who lost tanks, and baggage soldiers who had no supplies to transport also joined the front line to serve as ordinary infantry to deal with the German attack. Before the Battle of Tobruk, the Eighth Army had 300,000 troops, although not a single division or brigade unit has been completely annihilated until now. However, excluding the headquarters of the group army, the 4th Indian Division that was blocked in the rear, some supply troops, and the two divisions of Singapore and Australia, which were secretly dispatched and concentrated, the rest of the forces that could be used for actual combat were less than 120,000.

The field hospital belonging to the Eighth Army was full of wounded soldiers rescued from the front, and hundreds of people died every day in painful groans. After the supply was cut off and the large logistics base was wiped out by the Germans, the logistics department, which lacked medical care and medicine, could not come up with a solution at all, and they also tried to call the air force to use transport planes or even bombers to evacuate the wounded, but it was simply a drop in the bucket, and the air force now even had difficulty guaranteeing the fuel needed for combat aircraft, let alone organizing a retreat, and those ubiquitous and extremely ferocious German fighters chased the British bombers every day to attack. I had no choice but to give up. Seriously wounded commit suicide in despair every day, and doctors and nurses now look more like carnarians than healers – hell on earth.

The Afrika Army, which was in good shape, fought hard, but the soldiers of all the units knew that the El Alamein landing was going well. They all gritted their teeth and fought hard, they knew that as long as they bit Montgomery to the death and withstood the enemy's final counterattack, the British would have nothing to do with themselves. A truly comprehensive and complete victory is not far off. In such a situation. Even the extremely valuable Tiger tanks were pulled out and fought hard, hoping to open a gap for the troops with their unrivaled strong defense and powerful firepower, without any regard for the air threat of the British. Fortunately, two days before Kesselring left for Crete, he instructed Guderian to send the last batch of 5,400 additional troops and tanks by transport planes, and also asked the Italians to send a group of planes to support, which greatly alleviated the difficulties of the African Army - otherwise Guderian would have been forced to stop the offensive, and those armored soldiers who had lost their tanks no longer cared whether they would be injured by mistake, and hastily brushed the captured Churchill, Valentine, and Sherman tanks with iron crosses and then took them out to attack, using various means to maintain the fierce attack of the troops.

But the British were in a bad position to the point of being strong. As supply lines were cut off, there was a shortage of ammunition and fuel. Even the sorties of aircraft at the air base west of Port Matru were becoming more and more restricted, and it was no longer possible to provide air cover for the Eighth Army as recklessly as before, and the pain of Rommel's inability to fight for a long time due to logistical and supply constraints was now finally enjoyed by the British.

"General Ramsden, according to the reconnaissance of the Egyptian air force, the enemy has deployed and established a defensive line on the Matruh and El Alamein lines, and is currently confronting the rest of our Indian 4th Division and the 72nd Brigade, General Alexander is mobilizing all Egyptian troops to prepare to go to the front, and the second batch of German landing troops will soon arrive -- due to the successive failures of the naval and air force attacks, we can no longer prevent the landing of the German follow-up troops, and the heavy task of resisting the German attack and encircling Egypt can only fall to the army." Montgomery was exhausted from the days of fighting, and the lieutenant general's hair, unkempt, dusty, and his eyes were sunken at the moment.

Everyone looked serious, and everyone knew that the war situation in North Africa had reached a precarious point, and it was impossible for even the battered Eighth Army to retreat in its entirety, and the main force of the air force was forced to move eastward, and even air supremacy had been lost on the Tobruk front.

"Now, I am ready to let you lead the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Australian 9th Division, two units that are relatively well formed and complete in the whole group army, and have a tenacious fighting style, to break through the encirclement, plus some personnel of the headquarters of the group army, temporarily form an Egyptian army and retreat in the direction of Cairo, and I will give you the last remaining vehicles, ammunition, materials and fuel of the whole group army as a priority......"

Major General Ramsden and the commanders of the remaining 2 divisions were shocked: fighting in the desert, supply is everything, the group army has not much remaining supplies, and if the supply of 2 divisions is given priority, the other troops will definitely be finished in the end.

"Sir." "You have to think carefully," he cried out anxiously, "the reinforcements from South Africa are already halfway there, and as long as we grit our teeth and persevere, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome—I thought you were just leaving us in reserve as the last reserve." ”

Montgomery smiled sadly: "I can't hold on and I can't hold on, Egypt may still be saved, but the Eighth Army can't—you know what?" The whole army group still had 7 military rations left, less than 2 base ammunition and fuel. ”

"We are willing to open a bloody road for the group army, with the Australian and New Zealand divisions acting as the vanguard along the coastal road to attack the German landing force and open up the link with Egypt, and the group army can follow us -- the German landing force currently has only one division and one division!" Ramsden yelled, "You must not give up! ”

"This is a dead end, a dead end to bury the whole army!" Montgomery's mood did not fluctuate in the slightest, but calmly said, "How can more than 100,000 troops retreat along the coastal road in a swarm?" With enemy planes in the air, the pursuit of the armored units of the Afrika Army on the ground, and the blocking of the German landing force in front, how could the retreating troops with lost souls beat the high-morale new troops? - Have you forgotten the fact that at the end of the battle of El Alamein, the Italians fled along the road and were crushed by us? ”

Everyone was silent.

"Moreover, the enemy now has only one division, will there be only one division after today?" Montgomery laughed miserably, "The Mediterranean Fleet has completely failed, and the Germans can now send as many as they want." ”

Everyone looked at each other: the Mediterranean fleet is also finished?

"Your mission and the route of your march must be adjusted, and you can no longer make a quick retreat along the Primorsky Road and engage the German landing force - that is a dead end without our air superiority, and your aim is to make as detour as possible, to return to the enemy's line of defense and back to Egypt, which I have devised as such." Following Montgomery's finger on the map, he drew a road more than 300 kilometers south of the Marina Kilometer, almost all winding through the desert.

"Follow this path, take as much supplies as you can, conceal your whereabouts, and travel lightly. As for me, I'll cover you here, and I'll hold on as long as you want me to last. Montgomery patted Ramsden on the shoulder, "Your job is not easy. In addition, please leave all the wounded soldiers of your troops, and hope that the commanders at all levels will do a good job of explaining that we are trying to achieve the task of killing and dying, not abandoning them, but that there is really no way to take them on the road again, because no one will organize another Dunkirk retreat this time. As commander of the Eighth Army, I promised them that I would not leave until they were properly settled. ”

"Sir......" Ramsden said excitedly, "or you take this army away, and I'll stay and cover." ”

Montgomery shook his head and said firmly: "This is the responsibility of the lieutenant general, and you can't replace ......it."

With tears in everyone's eyes, Chief of Staff de Lagan could not hold back his sobs - he had been placed on the evacuation list by Montgomery.

Everyone understands what Montgomery meant: the commander left all the tanks, gasoline, armored vehicles, and trucks that could be looted to the retreating troops, and the rest of the troops could not even escape at that time, and Montgomery's final outcome was only to die in battle or lead his subordinates to surrender, this is not a fear of life, this is a lieutenant general who decided to sacrifice all his glory, fame and seniority to protect his subordinates, which is far more difficult than dying in battle.

"You must move quickly, as the supply is cut off, the troops are panicked and shaken, and there are scattered deserters and surrenderers...... May you succeed in your retreat before the final collapse of the army group, and then keep Egypt for the British Empire, this is our last hope! ”

"Yes! Sir! Everyone saluted him in unison.

Montgomery solemnly returned the salute at the end of the salute to Ramsden and the others, and then disappeared into the night without looking back, only the bright moonlight stretched his figure long, long...... (To be continued.) )