"Sir, the telegram we just deciphered." In the darkness of the night, at the headquarters of the British Eighth Army at El Alamein Station, Montgomery was walking around in a fratricious circle, until Chief of Staff de Lagan came in to interrupt the process.

"I'll see."

"This is a telegram from Guderian to Berlin and Rome, informing the whole report of the war, but not saying a word about the situation of the Italians."

The Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht: On September 18, 1942, at about 1 p.m. local time, our African Army surrounded the 24th Armored Brigade of the British Army (belonging to the 10th Armored Division) in Tel Akakil by luring the enemy into depth, and after nearly 70 minutes of fierce fighting, our army annihilated it with slight losses and captured more than 3,000 people below the brigadier general; Later, our army fought a fierce battle with the enemy's 10th Armored Division and the Indian 4th Division, which rushed to the rescue, and defeated it in the evening; according to incomplete statistics, a total of 167 British tanks, more than 100 armored vehicles, and more than 200 artillery pieces of various types were destroyed this day, and nearly 13,000 enemy soldiers were killed, wounded, and captured, and countless materials were captured. As a result of this battle, the enemy's 10th Armored Division basically lost its combat capability, and its Indian Division was also heavily damaged. Our army plans to launch a counterattack in the direction of El Alamein tomorrow, please provide reinforcements of troops, equipment and materials as soon as possible......

After Montgomery saw it, his face instantly became gloomy and terrifying, and he forcibly suppressed his anger and squeezed out half a sentence from his nose: "Is it reliable?" ”

"Basically reliable, according to the report of Major General Gatthaus half an hour ago, the troops he can still control are currently only the division headquarters and some of the troops directly under him, the remaining tanks of the 8th Armored Brigade are about equivalent to a tank squadron, the 24th Armored Brigade has not returned, and most of the infantry brigade is being reorganized, and the artillery, especially heavy artillery, is basically lost...... However, he insisted that the rest of the troops were not necessarily wiped out by the Germans, and that the soldiers were likely to be lost in the confusion and that they might return the day after tomorrow. The situation in the Indian division was also terrible, and the soldiers generally lost their fighting spirit. ”

"Bastard! I'm going to take this bastard to court-martial, I'm going to remove him, I'm going to shoot him......" Montgomery was furious, and his anger exploded at once, slapping the table repeatedly, and the roar echoed through the station for a long time.

The situation was already clear, and in the light of the 10th Panzer Division's report and the telegram, Guderian's report was not exaggerated, but on the contrary narrowed, because it was true that some of the British officers and men had lost contact in the confusion - the strict Germans did not include them in the results, but now Gathouse tried to play Montgomery with sloppiness, which the latter could not tolerate.

De Lagan was silent, after today's battle, the 10th Panzer Division is basically finished, and the Indian 4th Division will not be useful. He could understand Montgomery's anger at Gethouse, of course, just listen to the angry words of shooting, dismissal, etc., not to mention that Montgomery and General Alexander didn't have so much authority to deal with a division commander. Now the situation is very serious, Guderian will launch a large-scale offensive tomorrow, and the deployment of the overall defense line is still in disarray. What's even worse is that this battle completely broke the commander's original deployment.

According to Montgomery's plan: along the Coastal Road, the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions plus the next 3 infantry divisions attacked; In the direction of Tella Akquir was an armored division and two infantry divisions straight to the front, with one division and one brigade on each flank; Montgomery led the troops directly under the army group and three other infantry divisions as reserves, coordinating in the center. But now that the attack in the center had been crippled, the Afrika Army had not only jumped out of the encirclement that Montgomery had prepared for them, but instead pointed their armor at El Alamein.

Because Guderian's report on the war was so true and detailed, Montgomery and de Lagan were once again confused by the telegram, believing that it was a real telegram, and that, given the current state and strength of the Afrika Army, the Germans did have a reason to do so.

"Do you need to send a telegram to the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions to get them back?" "From what we have so far we have," he advised, "it is clear that it was mainly the Italians who fled along the coastal road, and that there were only a small number of Germans. ”

"No, the armored forces of the coastal road cannot be withdrawn, on the contrary, they must be urged to eat the enemy as soon as possible." Montgomery gritted his teeth and explained, "I can let the three infantry divisions that originally followed me come back, and the air force must strengthen air strikes against the enemy in front of me tomorrow." ”

"This is ......" de Lagan was a little confused at first, but then reacted that the commander was planning to defend El Alamein. As for insisting on sending the Panzer Division to eat the Italians, it was not from a military point of view, but more from a political point of view - the Germans had beaten the 10th Panzer Division and the Indian Division so badly, and if they had not won the results, the Prime Minister of London would probably have been furious again. Now Montgomery did not have much hope of encircling and annihilating Guderian, but he was still confident in holding on to El Alamein and repelling the Afrika Army.

He believed that Guderian had only 300 tanks at most, and after today's daytime fighting, although the Germans were secretive about their losses, Montgomery estimated that the losses were at least 50, so the Germans would only have 250 tanks available. The El Alamein command directly and indirectly has 1 armored division and 3 armored brigades, adding up to more than 400 tanks, which still has a great advantage over the Germans, plus 5 divisions of infantry units and corresponding artillery forces, Montgomery believes that he has more initiative than the Germans, and this time he can be cleverly deployed, so that the Germans will crash headlong into their anti-tank positions.

But he did not know that Guderian had been reinforced by 96 T-34s, nor did he know that the Germans had captured more than 30 intact British tanks in today's engagement. The losses of the Afrika Army were even smaller than he thought, with only 33 vehicles instead of at least 50 as he estimated, half of which were still the worst tank No. 2, and the T-34 was completely destroyed only 5 of which were completely destroyed due to mechanical problems and track damage, which had been urgently repaired. To sum up, Guderian had not 250 tanks in his hands, but 350, and in terms of average quality and combat effectiveness exceeded the level before the start of the battle in the morning.

Therefore, the diversionary attack of Heinz and Dessau made the British army misjudge it as a test before the main attack of the German army, because their "showing" strength was very close to Montgomery's estimate, in order to find a breakthrough for tomorrow's large-scale offensive, so the Eighth Army completely believed the news that the German army would launch an attack in the direction of El Alamein after dawn, and kept implementing targeted defensive deployments, and the officers in the staff were completely frightened by Montgomery's angry behavior today, One by one, they were busy with specific deployments, and no one thought much about other directions, let alone estimated other possible offensive directions of the African Army.

Guderian was leading the main forces of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions and the 35th Panzer Regiment to attack on the left flank at night, while the 90th Light Division was retreating from the west of Tellacakir with the spoils of capture - it was now a real empty city.

"Sir, the reconnaissance results show that the troops in front are the 2nd Brigade of the Free France, and their combat effectiveness is average."

"Free France?"

"Well, the French Resistance led by Charles de Gaulle, who formed a government in exile in London, was at odds with Marshal Pétain."

"De Gaulle was still a good general in armored warfare back then, and he was half of my teacher, but now he is actually involved in politics, and I don't know what he is thinking?" Guderian teased, "Can his little brain in armored warfare fight against the old fox Churchill?" ”

Everyone laughed.

"Which division is he commanding now?" Guderian burst into a sentence.

"Who?"

"Charles de Gaulle."

"Sir! You wouldn't be ignorant of this, would you? Westphale quipped, "How can a self-proclaimed 'leader of France' come to North Africa to eat sand?" Even if he comes, he is a brigadier general, do you say that he is under the command of Lieutenant General Montgomery or is Lieutenant General Montgomery under the command of the French leader? ”

"Uh......" Guderian originally wanted to say that it must be the brigadier general obeying the lieutenant general, but he instantly thought that the Führer's rank was only a corporal, so he hurriedly closed his mouth, and was speechless for a while, and it took a long time to squeeze out a sentence, "It's okay if you don't come, so as not to cause us trouble." ”

"Sir, you shouldn't be afraid that this 'teacher' will cause you trouble."

Guderian shook his fist and said in a threatening tone: "If he dares to come, I will give him this ......"

Everyone burst into laughter.

"These French are all colonial troops?" Guderian continued to ask.

"Nope! It's all authentic French...... Mainly those who fled from Dunkirk to England. ”

"They?" Guderian pouted, "'Free France' is so famous, I thought it was a warrior from somewhere, but I didn't expect it to be the remnants of the defeated soldiers who were beaten by us in the French campaign, and I didn't expect that a few years later, they actually gave their lives to Churchill, don't they know that France's colonies in the Middle East were taken away by the British?" really recognized the thief as his father, and he didn't grow at all. ”

"What if you don't give Churchill your life? They can eat, drink, and eat all in the hope that the English will squeeze it out of their teeth. "The British are the only ones in the world who recognize de Gaulle's 'Free France,' and the others deal with Marshal Petain of Vichy." ”

Guderian laughed and said, "If Marshal Rommel is here, it will be perfect, and today he can get back the field of the Battle of Arras." But I'll come too, put up my commanding flag, tell them I'm Guderian here, and let these shameless French scum get out of the way......"

Collingwood next to him glanced at him with a smile, and Guderian suddenly realized: "Light up the flag of the 4th Panzer Division for me...... Tell them that I still don't have time to capture the French, and let them dodge, just like in the last French campaign. ”