On 15 December, the Canal Army took complete control of Alexandria, and although sporadic exchanges continued, it was clearly not the mainstream, and many Egyptians took the initiative to direct the British hideouts to the Germans, so that they were discovered and disarmed one by one.

At the same time as the fierce battle in the port, Kesselring and Iyakino led the main force of the German and Italian fleets to Alexandria overnight, and soon captured the slow and large transport fleet that had just left the port according to Rommel's instructions. In the face of the Axis Fleet, Andrew, who led the crowd to flee, was like ashes, such a huge force was only worthy of a battle in the heyday of the Mediterranean Fleet, and now he has so many small sampans in his hands, not to mention competing with battleships, and more than 2 heavy cruisers can't stand it. Faced with the situation of not being able to escape and not being able to fight, all the officers and men of the navy were at a loss, and the seamen on the transport ship were even more panicked.

"Invent the code telegraph, the flag language, and drink to make them all surrender." Kesselring, who was well aware of the British temperament, also added a message at the end of the telegram, "Do not sink a ship, otherwise it will be regarded as a rebellion, and all the personnel of the ship will be killed." ”

With such a clear message and the black hole of the cannon, Andrew had no choice but to order the ships to raise the white flag and announce their surrender, and the captains or captains of several of the ships were unwilling to accept defeat and tried to order their men to open the sea valve and sink themselves, but were beaten by angry seamen and soldiers - do you want to die or do we want to die?

Only one destroyer chose to sink itself as if it were dead, and the Germans also fulfilled their promise with murderous spirit: first bombarded the slowly sinking hull with 12 203mm guns, and then swept the sea with 20mm machine guns. Hit until the sea was red and no one escaped alive, and this scene made everyone's hearts twitch.

Probably intimidated by the murderous aura of the Germans, the fleeing fleet was finally escorted back to Alexandria. Behave more deferentially than a sheep.

In fact, Britain and the United States lied to Stalin, and the supplies delivered to the Red Army were not along the African route at all, but had already reached the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and because the Eighth Army had been asking for material support, it was temporarily redirected to Egypt, and Churchill originally planned to let the Red Army take a batch of supplies -- the supplies originally scheduled for the British army in North Africa, the United States approved this temporary adjustment, and these things were all on the transport ships, and many of the goods fell directly into the hands of the Germans with the goods on the ships before they even had time to be counted and unloaded.

Iakino detached a part of the fleet to escort the fleet back to port. He led the rest of the fleet as fast as he could, toward Port Said at the mouth of the canal. On land, despite the sporadic resistance in the city, Rommel ordered the Suez strike group to attack the canal zone quickly -- everyone was worried that the British would jump over the wall and destroy the canal. As for the 128th Brigade, which Alexander sent from Cairo to reinforce him, he heard the news that the port had fallen. simply turned back to Cairo, and the two sides didn't even face each other.

From the afternoon of the same day to the evening of the next day, the forces of the Canal Army were deployed on all fronts, except for more than 2,000 men who were left to hold Alexandria. The rest of the troops rushed and struck as if they had been wound up. The whole army marched more than 200 kilometers along the coastal road of Rashid, Batim, and Damietta, until it occupied Port Said at the mouth of the canal, and the 3 divisions and 1 brigade with a total of 60,000 men stretched into a team of more than 300 kilometers, and it seemed that it had found the passion to kill all the way from Tobruk to El Alamein.

Both Gauss and Balk were worried that the British in Egypt would seize the opportunity to attack their flank, and repeatedly reminded Rommel to be safe and not to let the British take advantage of the loopholes, but the latter firmly stated that he would continue to move forward and not worry about attacks from the flanks. He comforted several of his subordinates: "I fought with the British during the French campaign. I fought with them in North Africa for another year and a half, and I know very well what kind of virtue they are - don't be afraid. They didn't dare to come! Not to mention that their current strength is only half of ours, even if they are as strong as us or even half as much as me, Alexander does not dare to attack. The British did not have 3 times as many tanks and troops as me, and they simply did not dare to attack without sufficient aircraft support. If they dare to attack me, it means that I can get them out in a much quicker time. ”

Although Balk was skeptical, the development of facts confirmed that Rommel was right, and in the face of such terrifying noises as planes covering the sky and tanks on the ground, the British security forces stationed in various places either surrendered obediently or fled in the direction of Cairo, and no one tried to resist at all. The British troops in Cairo trembled with fear, and even fled in a swarm because of the arrival of some German planes in the air raids, all relying on the efforts of officers at all levels to maintain the situation. In such a state of fluctuating people's hearts, Admiral Alexander, who was anxiously like an ant on a hot pot, let alone took the initiative to attack the Canal Army, and even being able to effectively grasp the order of the troops was already commendable.

At this time, we can see Pound's sober understanding of the infeasibility of the plan to destroy the canal: it is impossible to block the canal without a plan and preparation, and it is better to strengthen the defense of Lower Cairo than to waste his efforts.

Alexander sent three telegrams in a row to London reporting that the port had been lost and that Cairo's defense system was incomplete and suggested retreating, but because the Egyptian army led by Ramsden had not yet arrived, Churchill not only did not approve his request to retreat, but asked him to reorganize the city defenses and hold Cairo together with the upcoming Egyptian army, so as to buy time for the arrival of reinforcements from the sea. Finally, in the early morning of the 17th, he received rare good news: Ramsden sent a telegram to tell him that the Egyptian army had only left Romania for more than 100 kilometers and was expected to arrive in the early morning of tomorrow.

Ted reported to Alexander in a worried tone the results of the air force's reconnaissance: The German Canal Army's semi-circular arc encirclement of Cairo had also begun to be built, especially after the German vanguard took control of the mouth of the Suez Canal at noon that day, German troops appeared in the west, north, and east directions of Cairo, and the main force of the German-Italian combined fleet also began to enter the canal zone.

Alexander hoped that the air force would attack the German and Italian fleets, but Ted replied with a wry smile that this could not be done: not only because the number of air force planes had fallen to a terrible level, but also because of the hasty retreat, there was now a shortage of skilled ground crews and supporting maintenance personnel, and the loss of Alexandria exacerbated the situation, but he promised to do his best to detect and grasp the enemy's movements, and at the same time defend Cairo as much as possible. Alexander was stunned for a moment and then could only reluctantly agree.

The only road to the south of Cairo remained open, and Rommel tried to force Alexander to flee from Cairo by "encircling three without one" - Hoffman repeatedly told him to avoid street fighting with the British as much as possible. Alexander didn't want to defend either, but he still had the heavy responsibility of taking over the Egyptian army, and even in the face of the Germans' tightening encirclement, he could only continue to hold on. Finally, late that night, Ramsden's Egyptian army went through many hardships, bypassed the German defense line and evaded the pursuit of the Luftwaffe, and drove into Cairo one after another.

This large force of more than 30,000 men had traveled for a week in the desert, and the physical strength and endurance of the officers and soldiers had been completely exhausted, and without Montgomery's numerous vehicles and supplies, and without the demarcation of a long but absolutely safe road for the troops, Ramsden could not have imagined that he would have gritted his teeth and returned to Cairo again. Many officers and soldiers, including him, generally lost 10-15 pounds, supported solely by perseverance and fighting spirit.

The moment they arrived in Cairo, everyone felt that they had collapsed, and the officers and soldiers of the British Empire, who usually cared most about their demeanor and image, were so exhausted that they even found an open space on the highway and lay down on the ground. Despite their embarrassment, it was a shot in the arm for the defenders - with more than 60,000 men in his hands, Admiral Alexander felt that he could finally sleep peacefully at night.

But this good mood lasted only about five hours, and in the early morning he received a telegram from Admiral Cunningham, and his face became ugly again.

Cunningham told him in the telegram that the Rapid Support Forces were moving at maximum speed and had crossed the line between Mogadishu and the Seychelles in Somalia, but due to the long high-speed travel time along the way, the mechanical failures of ships from time to time, and the bad weather, the center of the fleet was still about 500 kilometers east-northeast of Mogadishu, and there was still at least 2,000 nautical miles away from Egypt, in other words, it was impossible for him to arrive on the night of the 20th. It may be 3-4 days later than planned.

Alexander had no choice but to wait - after the Germans occupied the Canal Zone and pressed in, his troops had lost the conditions to retreat across the canal to Sinai and Persia, and he now had only two options:

First, hold on to Cairo and wait for Cunningham's reinforcements to come up and counterattack;

Second, wait for Cunningham's fleet to arrive to pick up his troops.

Either way, he had to wait for the arrival of the Cunningham fleet, and as for the third option, he had never thought of - to abandon Cairo and retreat to Upper Egypt and wait for an opportunity to retreat into Ethiopia and East Africa, he believed that the supplies and supplies of the troops were simply not enough to support such a long-distance march, and that the German and Italian fleets had sailed into the canal zone, and they had every way to pursue the retreating troops downstream, which he called "a dead end!" ”

He told Cunningham that Alexandria and the Canal Zone had been lost, and suggested that the fleet land at the port of Sefaj, about 500 kilometers southeast of Cairo - and I would hold on until you arrived! (To be continued.) )