Listening to Brooke talk about the armament of the army, everyone thought of this question at once, and their hearts couldn't help but tingle: except for the last Egyptian army, the other troops of the Eighth Army were estimated to be doomed, and it was lucky that 10,000 more people could escape—this was worse than Dunkirk, and they were able to save people that time.

"What do you think?" Churchill asked immediately.

"The Eighth Army needs to be rebuilt, especially the four armored divisions in it."

When it comes to rebuilding the armored division, everyone has another toothache like a convulsion, the battleship is a gold-swallowing beast, and the armored division is also piled up with money - the cost of a battleship can only build 2 armored divisions, Brooke proposed in one breath that 4 armored divisions are equal to 2 battleships, and looking at his posture, it seems that 4 armored divisions are only supplemented, and follow-up operations may be added.

Sure enough, Brooke said in a sad tone: "I remember that before the Battle of Tobruk, General Montgomery said that he needed to add 5 more armored divisions to be sure, which was ridiculed by us at first as whimsical, but now it seems that what he said is not wrong at all - although the Germans are less numerous than us, their armored divisions, especially tanks, are much more powerful than ours, if we could have given him 5 more armored divisions, maybe we would have won now." ”

Churchill was very depressed when he heard this, and Brooke also thought that the troops were enough, but now he opened his mouth and closed his mouth about the five armored divisions, which was completely a rhythm of shirking responsibility. To put it bluntly, he hated the Montgomery Lion at first, but now he regretted it - he knew that he would send it to the Eighth Army if he smashed the pot and sold iron like this, and he understood the feelings of Brooke and the others. But he couldn't let Brooke continue to speak, otherwise his prestige would be too damaging, and he frowned and forced himself to finish the conversation. Without waiting for everyone to express their opinions one after another, they were the first to speak:

"I agree with the proposal to replenish four armored divisions, but now we can't just look at the quantity, the quality is also very important, the armaments department must work hard to develop new tanks -- the front line has already reflected that the Germans have used new tanks, and all our tanks and anti-tank guns are not their opponents, and if they build at a low level, they will inevitably suffer defeat in the future."

Aiden stood up to relieve the prime minister: "Engage through diplomatic channels." The Russians have firmly denied their relationship with the new German tank, saying that they have also encountered this tank on the front line, and that they are in much the same situation as we are. There are no active tanks that are opponents, and the losses are significant...... As for the T-34, the Russians apologized, but this is already a fact and cannot be reversed. ”

Churchill hurriedly said: "Therefore." Don't take out the tanks that are obviously backward. Throw it all to the Russians, and let the United States give us Sherman, who gave support to Stalin. In the coming period, for our own needs, we will have to reduce our aid to the Russians - I don't think they deserve more! What else did they have to achieve other than an inexplicable defeat on the Don in November? And even this defeat will only affect more than 100,000 people, hundreds of tanks and planes, and it cannot be compared with the intensity of the war in North Africa - we are the mainstay of the fight against fascist Germany and Italy! We have resisted the German Army and the entire Italian Navy and Air Force that have swept through Europe with a small corner of the place, and I would like to ask Foreign Minister Eden to explain this to President Roosevelt and the relevant congressmen. I think the American people will understand us. ”

"Clever!" This is the only feeling that springs up in everyone's mind, although the war in North Africa and the Middle East has not yet settled. However, the Prime Minister has portrayed this world-renowned defeat as a spirit of resistance that is not able to fight but persists to the end, and has labeled himself a "mainstay" -- this is really a good politician, and it is impossible to say that he is not a prime minister.

Before everyone could react, Churchill changed his words and brought up the technical problem of the tank: "What suggestions does the military industry have for the subsequent development of tanks?" It is terrible not to have a new and good enough tank, and it will have an impact on the hearts of the soldiers, just like a battleship and a cruiser against the enemy, no matter how brave and resourceful the cruiser is, I am afraid that it will not be able to pose a sufficient threat to the battleship, and we must change something. ”

"Experts consider the 17-pounder to be a good anti-tank gun, intend to put them on tanks, and at the moment it seems that the Sherman is a good platform."

Churchill hurriedly asked, "What does it mean to be good?" A new tank that can take on the enemy? ”

"This ......," Brooke said hesitantly, "I'm afraid it's a little difficult, but at least it can deal with the T-34." ”

Speaking of the T-34, Churchill was furious again, and couldn't help but scold: "Damn the Russians let the Germans capture so much, and then the Germans turned around and used it in North Africa, it's really a shame for Stalin." ”

Brooke ignored Churchill's complaints and continued: "The first is to load the 17-pounder gun on the Sherman as planned, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of this tank; Second, intensify research and design new tanks -- they must be able to match the enemy's new tanks, and if we can't do that, we will develop them jointly with the Americans; The third is to improve the existing tanks, we have designed and completed the new 'Cromwell' model, which was originally intended to be produced next month, but from the current reality it seems that the firepower is too weak (57mm caliber), the armor is not thick, and the speed is no longer necessary, so I think it is necessary to thicken the armor, replace the 75mm gun, and reduce the speed appropriately - at least it should be able to match the T-34 or the new German No. 4 tank. ”

Cromwell is the successor of the Crusader tank, weighing 28 tons, with a crew of 5 people, it is a new cruiser tank, but I didn't expect the relevant design indicators to be outdated before it was built - in history, the British won the North African campaign, Cromwell's fault is still not visible, and now the North Africa has been defeated, and the lack of armor has been exposed at once.

Churchill nodded: "Please ask the army ordnance authority to assess whether there is still a need to continue the production of tanks such as Matilda, Valentine, and Crusader, and whether it can be transformed into the production of American Shermans?" Will the Sherman, with the 17-pounder gun, be able to go into production as soon as possible? Will Cromwell's improvements be completed sooner? As Germany and Italy have reached closer cooperation in the command system, equipment production and development, joint operations, etc., Italy's meagre industrial capacity has begun to be brought into play, and we should also realize this transformation -- if Sherman is indeed a good car, why can't we produce it? It is too passive to expect the Americans to send us. ”

In the end, a consensus was reached that the priority construction level of the new Sherman tank and the Navy's three battleships was all raised to A1.

Seeing that the army and navy have reaped the benefits, the Chief of Staff of the Royal Air Force, Admiral Charles Porter, couldn't sit still, and just wanted to stand up and fight for a little benefit for the Air Force, but was preemptively blocked by Churchill: "I know that the Air Force needs new aircraft, and the Spitfire 9 is very good, so let's produce 2,000 more." ”

"But ......" he still needs to say a few more words, at least try to get more bombers, Attlee has frowned, "How much does it cost to produce so much equipment?" ”

"I don't know......," Churchill said with a shrug of his shoulders and a tone of resignation, "ready to issue another £500 million in government bonds." ”

Everyone's hearts are dripping blood, 500 million pounds - the military expenditure in the 1943 financial year is expected to be 4.8 billion pounds, and the national income is only 8 billion pounds, and if you add 500 million, the British Empire does not know if it can afford it. (Note: 1 pound is roughly equivalent to 5 US dollars, and 1 US dollar is about 2.5 Reichsmarks) It's just that as soon as these words came out, Potter could only close his mouth whether he was willing or not.

General Alexander, commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theater of Operations, was so angry at London's indiscriminate intervention that he hated Major General Ramsden even more deeply -- he did not know that this was specially instructed by Montgomery when he was about to part, and the latter knew that Alexander loved to escape, and was afraid that the Egyptian army would eventually become cannon fodder to cover the retreat of other troops, so he told Ramsden that he must send the telegram directly to London when it was sent to the Middle East Theater Command, so that the prime minister could press Alexander. The order to Churchill would have been to revolt with Admiral Alexander in peacetime, but now that Egypt had lost the game, he could not do anything with the prime minister in these matters, otherwise the future would be uncertain, so he reluctantly sent another brigade to the port like swallowing a fly, hoping to take the opportunity to withstand the Germans for 4-5 days.

But the Canal Group told him that there was no need to be in vain, and when Alexander's reinforcements were still halfway, Rommel instructed General Student to personally lead three paratrooper battalions to land behind Alexandria Harbor in the early morning of the 14th. The paratrooper battalion in the street battle had equipment such as STG43 and Iron Fist No. 1, which exerted great power and caused the British troops to retreat again and again. At daybreak, the Suez Rapid Strike Group, which had departed from Arabburg, cleared all resistance on its way and swooped down on the outskirts of the harbor to storm the defenders' lines.

Although the defenders and harbor marines tried to set fire to all kinds of supplies, due to the fact that there were too many supplies and the fighting situation between the two sides was staggered, the defenders only had time to destroy a small part of the goods and fled in a hurry, Andrew saw that the situation was not good, and led the fleet with all the transports and well-moving destroyers to the open sea, preparing to slip into the canal as soon as possible to escape. The Suez Rapid Strike Group on the shore took a little effort to solve the shore fortifications and the marines, and when they arrived at the dock, all the ships had already set sail, and they could only look at the sea and sigh, and they were anxious to call the Luftwaffe to sink them, but Rommel looked at their slow speed and sneered: "Some people clean them up, so that the air force can save some effort." ”

As a result, the Air Force spared this fleet and only dropped bombs on the British 128th Brigade that rushed to support, delaying their attack and gaining convenient conditions for the rapid strike group to take full control of the port and clear it. (To be continued.) )