"Although Guderian gave us a hard blow, in fact it did not shake our roots, but exposed its weak nature - the balance of strength between the enemy and us did not deteriorate after this battle, but changed very favorably in our side." De Lagan apparently made use of the information of the Italians, and analyzed it to Montgomery in a very firm tone, "Judging from the comparison of forces, Guderian has less than 50,000 men, and at least 30% of them are not very reliable Italians, and after the accident of the Italian infantry being ruthlessly abandoned on the Northern Front, their remaining will to fight can be imagined." Even so, the ratio of forces between the enemy and us is 1:4; from the perspective of tanks, the Germans and Italians have less than 500 tanks, although we have suffered some losses, there are still nearly 1,200 tanks, the ratio is 2:5, considering that the performance of the Italian tanks in Guderian's hands is very poor, this ratio can be regarded as 1:3; in terms of aircraft, although Guderian has received some reinforcements, the ratio of troops is still above 1:2, and we still have an absolute advantage. So it's not like it's a battle that doesn't have to be fought. ”

"Can the Italians be trusted?"

"I think it's almost certain that they don't have to lie to us, and that it won't do them any good for their future captivity." De Lagan sneered, "The Italians are on fire with Guderian's nest who abandoned them, and they wish to see him unlucky." ”

Montgomery stood up, and after a few turns in place, he made up his mind: "Then prepare to mobilize your forces, and launch an attack tomorrow morning, and advance to Terreakir in a two-way pincer attack, first with a rapid advance of armored forces to open the gap, and then the infantry to follow up and break through." ”

"Don't build a complete encirclement?"

"Time is running out, and," Montgomery sneered, "I'm going to take Guderian all the way to Tobruk, and I'm going to drive him like a lost dog." ”

At the same time that Montgomery made up his mind to eliminate Guderian on two fronts, Guderian in Terle Arcquil ushered in the reinforcements he was looking forward to - the 35th Panzer Regiment of the 4th Panzer Division drawn from the battlefield on the Eastern Front, which was his old subordinate on the Eastern Front, and the regiment commander, Colonel Collingwood, was a general he was familiar with.

"It's been a good trip, right?" He shook hands with Collingwood, who was in the dust, and asked about the situation with concern.

"It went very well, our whole division was withdrawn from the Eastern Front at the end of August, first returned home for seven days to rest and make the necessary additions, and then took the train to Italy, where our regiment had departed from the Italian port to Tobruk five days earlier, and then had arrived all the way here. The division commander, Major General Eberbach, and other troops are still in Italy, and they will come with follow-on transport ships. ”

After getting the fuel given by Hoffman, the Italian Navy finally escorted the transport fleet more generously, because of the small actions of Guderian and Kesselring on the coded telegram, the Maltese British fleet, which could not get accurate news, did not send out naval harassment as before, only dispatched more than 20 bombers, but was choked by the German fighters who escorted the whole escort.

Collingwood witnessed the whole process as an eyewitness: "I saw at least 14 British planes being beaten down, and the rest would have lost more if they hadn't fled quickly, because the number of fighters covering in the clouds was so large that it was far more than I could have imagined." The losses of the transport fleet were practically none, only one ship was hit by an approximate shell, as a result of which there were no men of our regiment on that ship, except for equipment, only two hapless Italian seamen died, and later the plane was hit and exploded in the air. The Italians on the same ship were all envious of us, saying that only when the German troops were reinforced had such a good treatment, and the Führer had arranged for naval escorts and dispatched a large number of fighters, and the Italians had no such good luck at all, and their supplies were almost all sneaked in by transport ships in the past, and even the slow and large oil tankers were not covered by warships. ”

"It's true, they didn't lie to you." Guderian nodded, "In the past, transporting supplies was a very dangerous thing, and every time you had to be prepared to go and never return. ”

"Oh my God." Collingwood's eyes widened, "Isn't this a ready-made target for the British?" I have to remind the division commander and ask him to coordinate the escort before coming over. ”

Guderian was very satisfied with this result: strengthening the escort of the Mediterranean supply route was his strong request with Marshal Kesselring, and after retreating from the front line, Garland led the Udet Wing of the Air Force to seem to have made another contribution this time, but the fighters of the original Eighth Air Force in North Africa were basically Bf-109s, and these short-legged guys could only confront the British at the desert front-line airfield, and were not suitable for this kind of full-time cover fleet task.

"Sir, thank you very much for sending us to fight in North Africa." Collingwood looked at the long yellow sand around him, and said with emotion, "Originally, the 1st Armored Battalion of our regiment was going to be transferred out to undertake the task of forming the backbone of the 15th Armored Regiment, and the orders were issued, but later the General Staff heard that you designated us to come to North Africa to participate in the war, and returned the 1st Battalion that was taken away to us, and also strengthened and replenished the personnel and equipment. ”

"This is ......" Following the direction of Collingwood's finger, Guderian watched the tanks approaching one by one in the telescope, and suddenly showed a look of shock, "This is not our tank, this is the Russian T-34!" Don't look at them painted with the armor camouflage of our army, I recognize it at a glance, how did you get it, the Führer and Stalin secretly ceased war? ”

"Truce?" Collingwood laughed, "Sir, you're thinking too much! These are all tanks that we captured from the Russians, so Stalin will not give them to us in vain. ”

"So many captured tanks in your division alone? That's impossible! Guderian showed deep suspicion, "What about your original tank?" I'm talking about the numbers three and fours? ”

Since Operation Barbarossa, a number of T-34 tanks have been captured on the Eastern Front, and due to insufficient armor, these captured vehicles have been painted with the Iron Cross logo and retained. Considering the possibility of accidental hits, they were rarely incorporated into armored units, and were generally only used as assault guns to accompany infantry operations, and were not very cherished in use due to the lack of parts, and were abandoned after a slight damage, so Guderian was shocked by the full T-34 tank formation that appeared in front of him.

In fact, the T-34 was a very successful tank, overwhelming all German tanks before the German long-barreled No. 4 tank and the Haw Par came out, and it was sturdy and durable, and the failure rate was low, so Hoffman decided to use it on the battlefield in North Africa, anyway, the opponents were British and American tanks, and there was no possibility of accidental hit, and at the same time, after occupying Kharkov to obtain the original Soviet T-34 factory, he decided to relocate the broken production line to the Skoda Arsenal to continue to produce vehicles and parts - Hitler did not like these, and he Hofmann did not mind. As for the T26 and KV1, although not so successful, but can also adopt the policy of take-it-or-leave, the T26 can be effectively transformed into a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, and the KV1 modified 105mm howitzer to get rid of the original high failure rate caused by overweight, but become a sharp weapon for infantry attack.

"Of course this is impossible, this is drawn from the entire army group."

"Why?"

"You don't know the current policy for the replenishment of tanks on the Eastern Front?"

"I don't know, I flew directly to North Africa after receiving the order, and I haven't been back for a day on the Eastern Front." Guderian asked, confused, "What's new?" ”

At Hoffman's request, these T-34s were directly integrated into the armored forces after the necessary tropical modifications, so it was recommended that the Supreme High Command unify the T-34 tanks captured in the various army groups and hand them over to the reinforcements. In order to encourage the enthusiasm of the front-line troops, the Quartermaster Service of the Eastern Front introduced a policy of providing an additional Type 4G for every T-34 that was handed in in good condition (or three damaged but still repairable at the factory) and one additional Type 4G after evaluation. Since the T-34 on the Eastern Front could only be used for infantry operations, all army groups were happy to make such a replacement.

Guderian, who figured out this, laughed and immediately asked: "Then there are usually a lot of T-26 and KV-1 on the Eastern Front, what is the price code?" ”

"These prices are not high, but you can talk to the people in the Quartermaster Department." Collingwood laughed, "You don't know, the sound of bargaining in the army group headquarters that day was like a vegetable market, all the tanks and accessories of our division were replaced with T-34s and corresponding accessories, and a lot of additional shells were found, and the prices were so cheap that people were embarrassed to speak." Now our division has a full set of T-34s, and it is enough to pull them out and pretend to be Russian tank guards, and when the time comes, if you shout a charge, we will shout 'Ula', no, there is still a lack of a political commissar to make a mobilization speech. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone next to them laughed.