At dawn, Montgomery, who had been tossing all night and had just fallen asleep for a long time, was woken up by his adjutant, and seeing the anxious look on the other party's face, he suddenly became alert and asked, "The Germans have attacked?" ”

"Yes, sir......" The adjutant seemed to be unable to speak, but nevertheless told the situation in its entirety, "the 1st South African Division and the 2nd Free French Brigade reported separately that their troops were attacked by the main German forces from behind at dawn, and they were caught off guard and routed, and suffered heavy losses. ”

"What?" Montgomery's mouth opened wide in surprise, and the remaining trace of sleepiness was suddenly driven away, "Where are they where they were?" How did the Germans run behind them? ”

De Lagan also hurried in with a group of staff officers, and after looking at the map, Montgomery was convinced that the troops were reporting the truth.

"If the South Africans and the French are right, most of the attacks on us last night were small forces that the Germans used to contain them, while his main forces were shifted overnight to the right flank (Guderian and Montgomery attacked each other, with one left flank corresponding to the other right), and our troops were advancing towards Tella Arckill, and he passed through the gap between the French, the South Africans, and our 50th Infantry Division." Montgomery tossed the pencil, "Damn, why do we get caught by this guy every time we slip through the cracks?" ”

De Lagan knew that the commander had saved face for the French and South Africans, and that Guderian had penetrated through the gaps, clearly catching the two forces and beating them up and squeezing them through. Montgomery has always been reluctant to see the Greeks, the French and other other countries' troops, and has been complaining to London that their combat effectiveness and will to fight are not good, hoping to change to purely domestic troops, but on the one hand, Prime Minister Churchill wants to flaunt international cooperation, and on the other hand, he really can't draw more local troops to strengthen the North African battlefield, so he can only use this strength to prevaricate the Eighth Army.

In the same way that the British often caught the Italians and beat them, Guderian now also liked to fight the French, Greeks, Indians, South Africans, these troops were not as strong and morale as the British troops, and from New Zealand,

Australian troops were not easy to deal with, and their combat effectiveness was sometimes higher than that of the native legions in the British Isles. Now the African army is scored according to its strength, and in the case of roughly the same establishment and strength, if the British army is 100 points, then the armies of New Zealand and Australia can give 115-120 points, the French, South Africans, and Canadians can give 75-85 points, the Greeks have about 65 points, and the Indian division is the worst, with only 50 points at most. As for the Italians, the Afrika gave 51 points - a little better than the Indians, and they certainly couldn't beat the Greeks anyway, and I don't know if the Italian leader in Rome would vomit blood after hearing this.

"What now?" Since the beginning of the Battle of El Alamein, the Eighth Army has been passive everywhere, led by the nose by the Germans, and has no advantage in strength and equipment but cannot give full play to it, but has been lost nearly 20,000 men and 200 tanks by the enemy piecemeal, and now Guderian's tendency should be obvious, after tearing the encirclement that the Eighth Army has built for him in pieces, he will also retreat on the coastal road - then there will not be many troops that can stop the Germans.

At this moment a new telegram arrived, and the vanguard of the New Zealand 2nd Division, which had detoured from the southern flank, had once again occupied Treacakir, this time without setting any more traps. After searching everywhere, the New Zealand troops found traces of yesterday's battle, all kinds of destroyed vehicles, wreckage of equipment, and some supplies that the Germans had not had time to carry - much less than when they lured Brown to the bait, most of them useless things, and also found a group of seriously wounded, who were locked up in a room, numbering about 100 people, accompanied by only a lightly wounded health soldier, and a few had already lost their lives in wailing because of lack of medical care, and the scene was bloody and stinking. The cries and moans were endless, and the scene was extremely tragic.

Montgomery's fists were clenched tightly, and his face was almost deformed because of the hideousness, but he could not say anything: there was nothing to blame for what the Germans had done, and if he had been in Guderian's position, he would have saved the much-needed medical resources for his wounded and sick, and it was extremely humane to leave the wounded to the other side before leaving, instead of machine gunning them out but leaving them for containment.

De Lagan tried to persuade him, but found that he could not say anything, and his stomach was full of bitterness.

It took a long time for Montgomery to recover, and said in a calm tone: "Let the front-line troops handle it properly, and there is no need to think about the pursuit of the German army for the time being." At the same time, the New Zealand 2nd Division was asked to go north as soon as possible to meet other friendly forces and assist them in containing personnel and stabilizing their positions. ”

"Then the French and the South Africans will not have much of a problem, they can be supported by New Zealand and Australian troops, and we will no longer have to worry about Guderian chasing after them." De Lagan breathed a sigh of relief, and finally waited for the good news - it wasn't much better, but it seemed to be good news compared to the string of bad news.

Before everyone could discuss the follow-up matters, a second telegram came, saying that they had found the new German tank repeatedly mentioned by the command, and the result was ridiculous, this so-called new tank was actually made by the Russians, and the Germans just painted it and changed the logo.

"Really?" Montgomery was a little skeptical, the Germans could look down on the tanks of the Soviets? The tail of the mustache has always been cocked to the sky, where can you see the weapon of such an "inferior nation"?

"It's true! Although the armor paint and some of the equipment are German-made, the main components, including the engine and the tank gun, are all in Russian style, not to mention that the 76.2mm tank gun is a Russian caliber. "They also examined the engine inside the wreckage and found that it was a diesel-powered engine with a lot of Russian markings on it - our people don't know Russian, so we don't know the details." ”

It took a long time for Montgomery to say, "I understand that these new tanks are all Stalin's T-34s, which were brought in from the sea a few days ago - the last time there were many ships." ”

De Lagan was shocked, how could Guderian have so many Russian tanks? Could it be that Hitler and Stalin they? …… He didn't dare to think about the rest of the scene anymore.

"What's this, if I'm not mistaken, it is estimated that the Germans brought over the captured Soviet tanks on the Eastern Front, and they have been enriching their arsenals with the captured loot - haven't we been exposed to the Russians' anti-tank guns for a long time?" Montgomery gritted his teeth and said, "I want to know the complete information about this tank, including the main performance and technical indicators, to see how good it really is!" In addition, I will inform London of this matter, and I think the Prime Minister will also be very concerned about the appearance of Russian weapons in the North African theater. ”

"Yes, sir." A staff officer immediately went to handle it.

"We should sit down and study Guderian's next steps." Montgomery sighed wistfully, "His target should also be Tobruk, and it is estimated that he will not come again here at El Alamein Station." ”

De Ragan nodded silently, and the defense plan that had been busy all night was in vain, and it was uncomfortable for anyone to change it.

"What is the current situation of the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions?"

"They expect to catch up with the retreating Italians today." "Major General Horrocks assured me that he was confident that he could solve the problem in one day if there were not too many German troops in it, and he objected to your proposal to send most of the air force back to deal with Guderian, because the Germans also had a lot of planes, and the troops could not do without aircraft cover." ”

"I can't give him that much time." Montgomery hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Ask him, if I give him all the planes, can he destroy all the enemy forces in eight hours, that is, before three o'clock this afternoon......"

"This?" De Lagan asked, puzzled, "What are your considerations?" ”

"Guderian's troops are at least a day's way from the first two panzer divisions, and if Horlocks moves fast enough, they can move to the defense after taking out the Italians, and use the coastal road as an axis to block Guderian, and if we buy me an extra 24 hours, we still have a chance to catch the Germans." Montgomery gritted his teeth and said, "This time I will command myself, take 5 infantry divisions, 1 armored division and 3 armored brigades to see how Guderian escapes?" ”

"Can't solve it in 8 hours?"

"If you can't solve it, you can only let the Italians run." Montgomery, "It takes time for them to move from a state of pursuit to a state of defense, so I have only given them eight hours to destroy the fleeing enemy, and the rest of the time is reserved for them to defend - I know it is unfair to them, but for the sake of the greater good, you pass on my orders at once." ”

De Lagan was pleased to see that the commander, after several setbacks, had not lost confidence, but had become more courageous and had rekindled his fighting spirit.