ps: Modified......

Before the start of the whole campaign, British intelligence officers, using their intelligence network in North Africa for many years, estimated the total number of German troops on the Tobruk Line to be between 100 and 120,000, the number of tanks between 700 and 1,000, and the number of aircraft of various types between 600 and 800.

The source of the difference in the Air Force's estimation lies in the difference caused by the adjustment of the composition of the wings; the air force in North Africa that originally cooperated with the African Army in fighting included a series of combat, destroying, and bombing wings, which sounded like a lot of names, but most of them were not full of personnel and the establishment was too small, but there were still many command personnel -- the Luftwaffe had a large number of redundant personnel due to this, and later through the adjustment and optimization of the number of troops, and at the same time the return of planes from the Eastern Front, the combat strength began to rise.

At the end of October, the air forces of North Africa were unified into the Eighth Air Force, commanded by Admiral Waldau, and the combat aircraft on the German side mainly included three fighter wings of JG3 \ JG27 \ JG53 and two bomber wings of STG3 \ KG77, of which JG3 and JG53 were mainly equipped with Fw-190, and JG27 was mainly equipped with Bf-109. STG3 is a dive bomber wing, mainly equipped with Stuka, KG77 series bomber wing, mostly equipped with Ju-88, and some He-111. In addition to the five wings mentioned above, the Eighth Air Force also had a separate transport wing and an Italian combat wing. However, for the sake of command and coordination, Italian aircraft were generally only responsible for escort and combat missions in the Mediterranean, while the transport wing was under the direct command of Marshal Kesselring. Originally, according to the requirements, the Eighth Air Wing also had to form a separate reconnaissance aircraft wing. Through practice, it has been found that this kind of organization is not as effective as dispersing the reconnaissance planes among the various combat wings when fighting in a vast area, so each of the five combat wings has been assigned an independent reconnaissance group.

After the adjustment of the composition of the wings, the number of first-line fighters of the Luftwaffe in North Africa continued to increase with the highest priority, and by the beginning of December, the overall number of combat aircraft was not 600-800 as estimated by the British, but nearly 1,200. Of these, there are almost 750 fighters. Although the overall scale is not comparable to the strength of the 2,000 aircraft of the enemy's desert air force, excluding the air power of the British responsible for the defense of Egypt, the North African line alone is only about 400-500 fewer than the British. There has been a noticeable improvement in the balance of forces.

Montgomery apparently preferred to believe the data that intelligence officers had painstakingly collected than the reports of the front-line officers, and he did not believe that the Germans had received unimaginable reinforcements during this time, and that the Germans had now numbered more than 150,000 according to the reports of the front-line commanders. Then consider the need for defense of other lines of defense and garrison areas. This figure is obviously distorted, doesn't the Tobruk Fortress need to keep people? Guderian doesn't need to prepare reserves?

He pondered for a moment and said to de Lagan: "We must not be blinded by the war report, the figures reported from the front obviously cannot be true, or not entirely true—German intelligence from three directions must be false. ”

De Lagan agrees with Montgomery, but which is true? Which one is false? The current situation is as dangerous as an egg, and the consequences of a misjudgment are unimaginable.

"First of all, the offensive in the east can be slowed down. The Germans have not sent out their tanks until now - whether they have been hidden or diverted to other areas, and it is clear that there is something wrong with it. The 1st Panzer Division is likely to run into a trap if it continues to attack, and there will be no danger in waiting; secondly, the fighting in the south is fierce, and the priority and main striking force of the air force should be placed here, to assist the ground forces in the same way that we have done in the past few weeks to contain Guderian's offensive - not to mention that they have lost two lines of defense; In the end, the situation of the enemy forces on the western front revealed a strange situation, allowing the armored units of the New Zealand 2nd Division to take the initiative to attack and test the reality of the German army. Montgomery's brow suddenly relaxed, "I don't believe that Guderian has a heavy army on all three sides, and if we poke him a bubble, all the tricks will disappear." ”

De Lagan immediately conveyed all these orders - whether Montgomery's orders were perfect or not, after all, they were a complete series of orders, and in the case of time constraints, it was more valuable to make a decision on the spot than to weigh it repeatedly and make a difficult decision.

"Besides......" Montgomery's face suddenly darkened, and he asked de Lagan, "do you think yesterday's decision to take away a division and a brigade was correct?" ”

"This ...... Of course. De-Lagan hesitated for a moment, then said firmly, "Judging by the situation on the battlefield yesterday, this is reasonable, if it does not happen, once the Germans break through, it will cause the collapse of the whole front." As for the Germans retreating today, it is not that yesterday's response was wrong, on the contrary, because we reacted quickly, and the Germans' attempts were stopped by us - so they redirected their attack. ”

"But we have been exploited by Guderian again!" Montgomery gritted his teeth and said, "Judging by today's situation, we did a completely stupid thing yesterday. ”

"This is unavoidable, the number of troops is just like this, no matter which direction is deployed, there may be danger."

"No!" Montgomery stopped the chief of staff, "I am not concerned with this problem, I want to ask, why do the Germans always seize the slightest hole when we have a problem?" ”

De-Lagan was taken aback: "You mean? ”

"I suspect that there are German spies in the headquarters or somewhere, if they are officers, the rank is not low, at least they must have access to the core secrets, otherwise it is difficult to explain that the Germans can always seize our loopholes just right." He lowered his voice while sweeping the faces of the surrounding group of staff officers with a suspicious gaze, which looked at everyone like spies, and felt that no one looked like them, and everyone was furious by him, but they didn't dare to turn their heads or bow their heads to avoid the commander's eyes - what are you doing?

"This ......," said de Lagán, laughing wryly, "I was the first to have all the information. ”

Montgomery shook his head, he trusted De Lagan, if even such a chief of staff was a spy, the Eighth Army would not have known how many times it was over, but he did not dare to be so sure about others, after thinking about it, he explained: "Control all the personnel who have been in contact with the troop dispatch yesterday, and the personnel in the telegraph system should also check, I think there is probably something wrong with us - this mole is probably very deep." ”

De-Lagan cried with a sad face: "I'll do this right away, but I really don't know how to counter-espionage." ”

"Report to General Alexander and London, tell them of my concerns, and ask the country to send competent personnel to assist us." The more Montgomery thought about it, the more he gained a deeper understanding of the war situation, and he ordered in a resolute tone, "Ask the Air Force to temporarily abandon the offensive on the eastern front, give priority to the south, and be sure to contain the enemy offensive on the southern front." In addition, since the enemy launched an offensive in the south, it was absolutely impossible for the 7th Panzer Division to have heavy troops in front of it, and the New Zealand Division and the Australian Division were required to quickly launch an attack to test the enemy's reality and attract and contain the enemy's forces. ”

At 7:45, the biggest test of the southern front came, and the focus of the desert air force began to shift to the southern front, and the black-pressed bomber group rushed to the southern position under the cover of Hurricane, Spitfire and other fighters.

On the side of the African Army, Garand was also prepared, ordering three fighter wings to go out to meet the enemy planes and ensure air supremacy in the southern position.

At 8:30, a clearer message reached Montgomery, and the Australian 9th Division, which launched a diversion attack on the western front, reported: the position in front was almost empty, most of the artillery and tanks seen were camouflaged, and the troops attacked nearly 20 kilometers in depth and flank, and still no enemy troops were found, but a group of wounded soldiers of our army, numbering nearly 200, had been rescued.

"Damn it!" Montgomery slammed his fist on the map, "We were fooled!" That's a scam, talking about 5-60,000 people, hundreds of tanks - in fact, it's a question of whether there are 5-6 squads. ”

"The news from the air force is not ideal......," De Lagan received his first report at about 9 o'clock, "the fighting between the two sides was fierce, the enemy sent hundreds of fighters, and attacked fiercely around our bomber group, and although the escort planes fought back desperately, many enemy planes still succeeded." At the moment we have shot down more than 50 bombers and lost more than 40 fighters. ”

"What about the enemy?"

"About 40-50 aircraft were lost." "Numbers are not a problem, the point is that the objectives of our air raids have not been achieved, the German armored forces are still attacking fiercely, and the 44th Infantry Division has sent three telegrams asking for reinforcements." ”

"Let the 2nd Free French Brigade go up and the 10th Panzer Division expedite its return to support - I'm going to see their tanks on the battlefield by 3 p.m."

The actual results were even more tragic than those reported by De Lagan, the two sides fought fiercely in the airspace of less than 20 square kilometers in the southern desert, and the tactical stratification of the Germans was clear: the Fw-190 suppressed the best Spitfire of the British army, the Bf-109 dealt with the Hurricane and other fighter-bombers, and the Bf-219 was responsible for dealing with medium and light bombers, and the heavy bombers with four engines were ignored because they were the least numerous--anyway, their bomb delivery accuracy was also very poor, if they dared to drop bombs at low altitudes, 88mm anti-aircraft guns will educate them to be human.

In this tactical pattern, the losses of British aircraft were far greater than reported on paper. (To be continued.) )