More than two hours after Rank's convoy had passed, the sun began to cover the land in the west, and Captain Clark found that there was another convoy in front of the position, and even louder and dusty than before.

"What's the matter, is the headquarters so distrustful of us, and sent reinforcements?" He muttered, a little incredulous.

Corporal Adams said enviously: "I don't know how many will come this time, tsk, the lieutenant colonel just now is really lively, but the cigarettes he gave out are really good, this is the first time that an officer has asked me to smoke high-end cigarettes." ”

Not long after raising the binoculars and looking at them, Clark's face suddenly froze, because he realized that the tanks were not his own people - the convoy was full of Imperial flags, and now it was the Iron Cross of the Germans. Hell, how did the Germans come so soon?

"Not good, Germans!" He exclaimed, "...... All of them, immediately enter the trenches, ready for battle......" Before he could finish the order, the T-34 tank, which was in the lead, had already raised its guns high, and as soon as the words fell, the shells had already fallen.

This time, the African Army made a bloody investment, without any tentative attack, and directly set up a posture to assault on all fronts. Not only did more than 200 tanks of the armored forces charge directly into the formation, but also followed by a large number of panzergrenadiers, and behind them, they directly used trucks to pull large-caliber howitzers to rush to the second line, and directly launched an attack without even building a defensive position, almost providing support fire in the state of bayonets on the cannons, and seemed to not care at all about the British artillery counterattack.

Clark made his fastest choice and response, but unfortunately he was still a step too late, and the soldiers who were caught off guard were knocked down by the constantly exploding shells. And the soldiers, who had managed to climb into the trenches with rolling belts, did not have time to catch their breath. The German tanks rumbled up again. Clark had no other way. He could only rush to the telephone to report, but he believed that such a heavy artillery fire must have alarmed the troops behind. As long as you hold on, there is still a glimmer of hope.

Sure enough, the tone of the battalion commander in the earpiece was more anxious than him: "I know that the Germans have launched an attack on all fronts, you must resist it, and the artillery will return fire immediately......"

"Yes, resolutely resist."

However, the British officers and soldiers on all front-line positions soon became disillusioned. They waited for a long time when the artillery position opened fire to cover them, but a very violent explosion was heard from behind, and it was actually from the artillery position -- just when the division's artillery group received the order and was ready to strike, the tank squadron commanded by Heinz arrived. In the past two hours or so, Captain Ranke made full use of the forged name of Lieutenant Colonel Robin to find out the situation of the various positions and the reality of the troops, and the other troops did not suspect the intention of this force at all, and their vigilance was much lower than Clark's. In response, the unceremonious commandos immediately turned their guns on the positions of the 2nd, 4th, 11th Royal Artillery Regiment and the 146th Field Artillery Regiment (the regimental size of the British establishment was smaller, only slightly larger than the battalion level of the other countries), and they were already relatively well established in the case of the urgent construction of fortifications that day. If it was an ordinary firepower, it would never be so easy, but they encountered the Ranke commando who came closely.

"Rapid 5 shots. All high-explosive shells, armored vehicles are responsible for solving the artillery. "Almost at the same time as the Afrika Army launched its offensive, Heinz issued an order to open fire. The British artillerymen who were ready to support the front-line infantry did not react, and suddenly dozens of fires burst out from the flanks, and more than 20 shells fell on their own positions as if they had eyes, which not only caused an explosion all day, but also caused the explosion of other shells that had just opened the ammunition box, and the whole position was suddenly shrouded in fire and screams, shrapnel flew sideways, and the severed limbs and stumps were thrown into the air from time to time and fell down heavily, and many artillerymen were directly killed on the gun position. The German armoured vehicles accelerated their advance, using their machine guns to rain down bullets on the surviving British artillerymen who were desperately trying to dodge, turning the artillery position into a terrible hell in one fell swoop.

Without artillery support, it was clear that the infantry alone would not be able to withstand the attack of Gudery's armored troops, and the British did not even have a covering air force at this time - because the planes were sent by Montgomery to support the armored forces in front, and the first line of positions was broken through by German tanks in less than ten minutes.

Before receiving the urgent telegram from the rear, Horlocks and the others were quite proud, because the Italians who fled along the coastal road were basically the same as the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions. After carrying out the order for a quick assault, the British tank group drove straight in, turning the Italians upside down, littered with the wreckage of Italian tanks, armored vehicles and vehicles that were smoking, blazing with flames, and piles of Italians begging for surrender. At the beginning of the attack, these hordes of Italians scurried around like frightened rabbits, and later, when they saw that the British tanks and armoured vehicles had surrounded the entire area, they "wisely" chose not to fight but obediently became prisoners, and the few Italian thin-skinned tanks that tried to resist or escape became the appetizers of the British tanks, which could be destroyed with a slight attack. Only a few armored vehicles and trucks took advantage of the speed to slip out, but their life was not easy, they were soon surrounded and intercepted by air power, it seems that today the Luftwaffe also realized that the Italian situation has gone, the planes covering in the air did not come to sell their lives in the first two days, and hurriedly dealt with it and retreated, and the desert air force pilots who had been entangled for several days suddenly burst into joy and changed their ways to toss the Italians below. How did they know that these German planes, which had flimsed their guns, had at this time, in accordance with Guderian's orders, to cooperate with the Afrika Army in carrying out lightning attacks on the infantry and artillery positions of the two armored divisions.

Looking at the scene of victory, Horlocks was very satisfied, and said to Major General Langton with a smile: "The command estimate is good, these are all Italians, it seems that all the tank armament in Italy is here, although the results of the inventory have not yet come out, I believe that we have at least killed more than 250 Italian tanks or armored vehicles." ”

Langton was also full of ambition about this: "Fortunately, we have made a decisive light assault, and if we drag the infantry and artillery slowly, we don't know when we will be able to deal with the Italians—I would say that we should have done it a long time ago, and perhaps we would all have returned to the division to deal with the Germans now." ”

Major General Briggs said in high spirits: "It's not too late to return to the division, maybe we can still see Guderian crash headfirst into our carefully prepared position." ”

"Sir, there's an urgent message in the rear."

"New instructions from Chief Montgomery?" Horrocks inquired as he took the telegram from the adjutant's hand

"No, the Germans attacked." The adjutant looked nervous, "About half an hour ago, Guderian began a full-scale attack. ”

The three major generals suddenly felt nervous for no reason, and after reading the telegram, Horrocks exclaimed: "Attack the infantry and artillery left behind us? Doesn't that mean they have at least one more day before they catch up with us? ”

"What?" The other two also looked at each other.

"How many troops are there? How many tanks did the enemy spawn? What is the approximate width of the attack? Major General Briggs asked a series of questions, and the adjutant could only explain in embarrassment: "I'm sorry, but the telegram doesn't say it explicitly." ”

"Now no matter what, the enemy has come, and we must go back." Faced with the defeat of the small group of Italian remnants who were still fleeing in the distance, Major General Langton could only express his painful attitude, "The situation does not allow us to continue to pursue the Italians." ”

Horlocks thought for a moment and clapped his head: "Collect the troops and return to the division!" We had expected to deal with the Italians at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and now the time had come, and although the enemy still had some remnants of the defeated army, it was obvious that there would not be much wind and waves, and besides, we could count on the pursuit of the air force. ”

The two division commanders immediately ordered the tank squadrons to carry out emergency battlefield replenishment and turn around, and just halfway through the operation, a new telegram came: the enemy's artillery fire was very fierce, the 7th Motorized Brigade had not received strong support, and the positions in front had collapsed.

"What?" Everyone was shocked, although it was expected that a motorized brigade could not stop the opponent's armored cluster, but such a rapid collapse rate still greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.

"What about our artillery, why not return fire, why not support?" This question was in everyone's heads, and the big question mark seemed to be wrapped around the heads of the three major generals.

Before they could figure out what the reason was, a new telegram came, and after reading this telegram, they almost didn't blow up the lungs of the three people, and it was actually written on it: The armored formation reinforced by the headquarters of the group army has mutinied and attacked our artillery positions with artillery fire, our artillery has been lost, and the rebels are now attacking the anti-tank positions......

"What?" Everyone's eyes widened, how else could there be such a thing?

"I don't believe it, I don't believe it!" Major General Briggs' head shook like a rattle, "How is this possible, this must be mistaken." ”

Major General Langton said coldly: "I don't believe it either, Chief Montgomery is so far away from us, how can there be an armored formation sent by him?" ”

Horlocks ordered a telegram to General Montgomery for verification, and ordered the rest of the remaining troops to hold their positions to prevent enemy infiltration, while Langton and Briggs urged the tanks to speed up their supply like crazy.

The reaction of the army group command was even faster than they expected, and Montgomery replied clearly: "Except for the air force, the command has not sent any support forces, and the rest of the vanguard troops are at least a day and a night away from the position of your department. ”

"No need to check, it must be a spy convoy infiltrated by the Germans......"

Division Commander Briggs collapsed, stood in place and said to himself: "My artillery, my motorized brigade, it's all over!" (To be continued.) )