Almost tearfully, Ramsden sent a telegram to Montgomery: on the one hand, he reported that he had completed his mission, and on the other hand, he hoped that the commander would retreat as soon as possible, as much as he could.

But Montgomery could no longer support it, and the Eighth Army, which had lost hope, morale, supplies, and supplies, had reached the point of exhaustion. The last few days were fought so fiercely to cover the retreat of the Egyptian army, and when the news of the safe arrival of the Egyptian army came out, everyone felt that they had collapsed - the last faith and mission that supported them had finally collapsed.

It's over!

When Rommel sent Guderian the news that the Egyptian army had escaped and joined the defenders of Cairo, the latter understood why Montgomery was still fighting so fiercely in the face of complete despair - it was not the Afrika Army that entangled the Eighth Army, but the Eighth Army entangled the Afrika Army to the death, not only did it give him a chance to deal with the only remaining Egyptian army, but also added more than 3,000 casualties to the Afrika Army, which was now on the verge of collapse.

In the early morning of 19 December, the Eighth Army received for the third time the field envoys sent by the African Army to negotiate surrender, and this time Montgomery did not refuse as before, but agreed, but put forward the preconditions that the Germans would agree, and demanded that a two-hour ceasefire be achieved first. The envoy agreed to the cease-fire demand, but Montgomery could not respond to the conditions he had put forward, so he had to ask Gudery to settle down.

Alexander, Ted, and Ramsden were all so worried about Montgomery's safety that they telegraphed him that they would send planes to pick him up. In view of the German plane's strong air supremacy during the day, it said that it would dispatch four heavy bombers to pick him up -- because it could fly at night and could effectively ensure safety. But Montgomery rejected the offer. He took the pilots who had come to persuade him to leave to the field hospital, pointed to the wounded soldiers all over the ground and said sadly: "I promised them that I would leave after they were settled, and now they are all struggling here, how can I just leave?" If you must transport people away, please carry some wounded people. ”

As a result, the improvised bomber did not pick up any of the officers. Only a dozen seriously wounded were transported.

Guderian finally readily agreed to Montgomery's terms of surrender, which were the only conditions for the British. According to the agreement, in the case of the German army sending someone to supervise. The Egyptian side could send 10 more transport planes to pick up the seriously wounded, provided that the fuselage was painted with the Red Cross logo and did not carry any weapons, and the Luftwaffe would send planes to escort them and ensure that the planes flew safely and came and went freely.

The seriously wounded of the Eighth Army retreated to Cairo through this special air channel, and an unharmed colonel sneaked into the camp of the wounded soldiers and slipped away. As a result, the Germans found out and detained him aside. The gendarmes who maintained order asked Montgomery for advice on what to do.

"What is the maximum result that can be imposed on disobeying orders in wartime and causing serious consequences and bad effects?"

"Death penalty!" The lieutenant of the gendarmerie moved his throat, "Battlefield discipline can be enforced, and the execution will be carried out on the spot." ”

"You can't do this to me, I've shed blood and been wounded for the British Empire, I've done it for the 7th Panzer Division...... I'm still a nobleman...... I have a knighthood......" the colonel howled hoarsely as he struggled.

"Instead of living and dying with your men, you have to steal the retreat of the wounded. The British Empire does not have an officer who is greedy for life and afraid of death. Montgomery didn't even look at the colonel, and said coldly. Strictly enforce military law and shoot immediately! ”

Although the colonel was still desperately trying to break free and beg for mercy, the gendarmerie dragged him out like a dead dog, and then there was a "bang" shot.

This scene shocked everyone present, and everyone felt that the commander at this moment was still as majestic as a majestic lion, awe-inspiring and inviolable. The German officer, who was watching the whole process, only hesitated but did not stop it, and finally decided to report the matter to the public.

In the afternoon, more than 10 trucks with loudspeakers rushed to various areas of the defense line to play Montgomery's final speech at maximum volume:

"Officers and men of the Eighth Army, I am Bernard Montgomery, commander of this army! In this battle, we fought bravely for the British Empire to the last breath, and gloriously fulfilled our responsibilities as soldiers, and now that the whole army has run out of ammunition and food and there is no rescue, in order to avoid needless killing and sacrifice, this commander has judged the situation and made the following decision -- I hope that you will obey my last order and surrender to the Wehrmacht with honor! ”。

In the evening, Guderian finally met an opponent whom he had fought for months, fighting each other to the death—he was dressed in a straight lieutenant general's uniform, his beard was cleanly shaven, and although his eye sockets were sunken, his piercing eyes were still impressive.

"General Guderian, the defeated general Montgomer surrenders to you the Eighth Army of Great Britain, and I hope that you will fulfill your obligations under the relevant international conventions and treat them with dignity and kindness."

"General Montgomery, thank you for your wise decision, and my men and I pledge to treat prisoners fairly, justly, and reasonably, in accordance with the standards of the Geneva Conventions." Guderian shook hands with Montgomery, quickly took the officer's sword and pistol, a symbol of power and status, and handed it to Barrylein, who did not want to humiliate his opponent on such an occasion.

"Arrange for General Montgomery a decent place and provide him with treatment commensurate with his status." Guderian was still very grateful to Montgomery for his timely surrender, and if he continued to fight, he was sure that he would destroy the army, but he would definitely have to die a lot, especially after seeing Churchill's telegram to Montgomery asking him to fight to the last man. When the battle is about to be won, there is no need to pay such a great sacrifice.

"They surrendered, ha...... They surrendered, I thought they would fight until the last moment! In London, Churchill took the telegram and scolded hysterically, "The British Empire handed him 300,000 troops, and in the end, except for the Egyptian army of more than 30,000 people, but the remnants of the Indian 4th Division of nearly 1,000 people were defeated and wounded, and the others were either killed in battle or became prisoners of the Germans...... The lieutenant general actually led the crowd to surrender! What a fucking bastard! ”

The furious Churchill had completely forgotten what he had said the other day to apologize to Montgomery, and although the politicians' statements could only be counted if they heard them, the gaffe still made others frown.

Attlee advised, "Winston...... General Montgomery did his duty and gave up the chance to get out alone - he refused the plane we sent him. So don't be too demanding. ”

"He didn't dare to come back, for fear that I would take him to court-martial, so he preferred to go into a German prisoner of war camp. I'm going to sentence him to death - in absentia! Churchill roared, so loud that it almost toppled the roof, "Tell Alexander that Montgomery has shamefully surrendered, but he must hold Egypt!" Cunningham's fleet will arrive in a few days, please hold on! ”

There was a gloom on everyone's faces, but in the end no one spoke, and everyone was not optimistic about the prospect of defending Egypt, but they could not say it directly - would they abandon the whole of Egypt without a fight?

"What should parliament and public opinion do?" Attlee said with a gloomy face, "This is an unprecedented defeat, and the optimism of public opinion and the public that we have the upper hand, especially after the Eighth Army besieged the German army at Tobruk, is now reported as a defeat and has lost more than 200,000 men, which will cause people to be shocked -- either to suspect that our initial information was false, or to doubt our subsequent command and response, which is very detrimental to the credibility of the government and the cabinet." ”

Churchill clutched his hair in anguish and didn't know what to do, and the results of the battle had not yet been finally announced, but the people at the top basically knew that the situation at the front was not good, and even some of the most powerful reporters got what they wanted to know - this North African campaign was more painful than Dunkirk's, and that time they were able to save people, and this time they were either killed or all of them went to German prisoner of war camps. The combat effectiveness of the expeditionary force at Dunkirk can only be said to be average, and the Eighth Army lost this time is the strongest and largest group army in Britain. It has 4 armored divisions, and now it is all in vain. Units like the 51st Highland Division, which had been rebuilt nearly once during the French campaign, looked to be rebuilding again.

It is also difficult to explain that in the end, the Eighth Army gave up the opportunity to retreat to the New Zealanders and Australians, which was beyond reproach in military deployment and politically conducive to uniting the Dominions and the colonies, but it was difficult to explain the hysteria of the people at the bottom - why not prioritize the retreat of the British native troops? If this issue is not properly handled, it will induce strong emotional confrontation between the Dominions and the British Isles.

Fortunately, during the war, the control of the press and public opinion was relatively strong, and in recent days the mainstream media has been slowly cooperating with the cabinet to release news that the war in North Africa is not going well, and it is difficult to turn the feelings of public opinion around at once, and can only slowly change the tone, but this will not help, and many people anxiously call newspapers and radio stations to ask for everything they want to know, which makes it difficult for the media to resist.

After thinking about it for a long time, he still couldn't find a way to get the best of both worlds, and finally he could only say gloomily: "Wait for the war in Cairo to change significantly, and then announce it to the media, maybe I need to give a public speech, this time the British Empire has been defeated, but we are far from the point of exhaustion, we will fight the Germans to the end." ”

Everyone shook their heads and sighed, no one could think of a better way. (To be continued.) )