"I command ......," Montgomery raised his voice suddenly.

Everyone stood up for a while, no matter how hippie and smiling they looked just now, they were all straight and energetic when they stood up, after all, the Eighth Army was the most elite army group army in the British Empire, and after Montgomery's transformation, it was hard to say whether its combat effectiveness had improved, at least its mental state was much better than that of Auchinleck's period. Everyone held their breath and waited for the commander's order and the task - everyone thought that they were going to strike immediately.

"Tomorrow the troops will continue to be in strong positions for a day, and if Guderian does not come over, we will fight early the day after tomorrow."

"Oh God!" Everyone complained in their hearts, and almost fell to the ground, but they replied neatly, "Yes, sir!" ”

Only Major General Langton muttered in a low voice, "Is this really good?" ”

The voice was not loud, but Montgomery clearly heard it, and he frowned and said nothing, pretending not to know about it, but nodded slightly towards de Lagann. The latter immediately understood and said: "The meeting is adjourned now, and if it is decided to launch an offensive tomorrow, we will discuss offensive operations on the basis of the two proposals put forward at the first meeting." ”

The ball kicked around and then turned back to its original place, and everyone only felt helpless, but fortunately, the commander finally made up his mind, and it didn't matter if he waited for one more day.

The next day, Montgomery, who was in charge of the headquarters, continued to ask for intelligence information from all sides, asking Malta, Alexandria, the northern front, Cairo, and the southern front, anxiously awaiting an answer. He desperately wanted to know where the submarines were, where the tankers were, what Guderian was doing, and it was a pity that no one could answer his questions.

After 7 o'clock, the temperature on the El Alamein front gradually rose, and the troops of the southern front reported that the Germans had not moved.

After 9 o'clock, the sun had risen in mid-air, and the planes in the sky had already been fighting, and the Germans on the ground still did not move.

Eleven o'clock passed, and the pilots of both sides tacitly collected their troops and returned to the airport for dinner, and Montgomery listened to the adjutant's report on the air force battle report while eating, and when he heard that a German pilot had shot down nine planes of his side in the morning, his face became ugly, and he asked: "Is it the African star from last time?" ”

"Yes! But he got a new plane...... A completely different type of aircraft, numbered the same as the previous yellow 14, this new aircraft is called the Shrike by the Germans, we call it the 'butcher's bird', in fact, it is the Fw-190, our pilot said that he is more powerful, longer range, and faster than the Bf-109......" As soon as he said this, the adjutant seemed to have become a big fan of Marseilleu, and he talked endlessly. He wanted to continue to explain to the commander how the nine planes had been killed, but was directly interrupted by a distraught Montgomery, who had never expected that there was a tacit understanding between his adjutant and his opponent Guderian in terms of the words he had just used to evaluate the Fw-190.

After 14 o'clock, the desert area entered the hottest time of the day, and under the strong sunlight, the British soldiers, who had been holding out in the front-line positions for most of the day, finally could not stand it anymore, and began to chat in twos and threes, complaining in chattering words about the empty time of the day, ridiculing the timidity of the Germans, and the spirit was completely relaxed, Montgomery could guess this situation without looking, although his face was not very good-looking, but he did not have a good temper.

He was just thinking, what was Guderian doing all the time?

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the officers who had suffered for most of the day could not hold it anymore, and returned to their headquarters or rest points to begin to enjoy their afternoon tea, if there was no war, this was a fixed time for them to be untouched, and only this moment could remind them of the beauty of a quiet life and forget the hateful enemy. The orderly also served Montgomery coffee and pastries, and he sighed, completely devoid of the desire to enjoy it.

At four o'clock, just over two hours before the sun set, even the most rigid and conscientious front-line officers left the trenches with sighs and began to report to their commanders by telegraph and telephone about the day's waiting, and by the way pondered reasonable words to describe the soldiers' hard work under the scorching sun. De Lagan walked over, looked at the cold coffee and the motionless pastry next to Montgomery, smiled bitterly, cleaned it up and replaced the commander with black tea, and then wondered how to talk to the other party about the telegram in his hand.

Montgomery's reaction was sharper than he thought, and when he saw the strangeness on the chief of staff's face, he asked, "From the Prime Minister?" ”

"Yes." As soon as he heard this, he didn't need to look at it to know that it was urging the Eighth Army to attack as soon as possible, and Montgomery knocked on the table and said, "Is this the 13th or 14th telegram?" ”

"The 16th letter to be exact."

"16 seals." He smiled wryly, "Call him back in the same tone as yesterday and state our difficulties." ”

De Lagan mechanically agreed, and before he had taken a few steps he was stopped: "Wait a minute, we should probably show the Prime Minister something positive." ”

"What do you want to say?"

"Let's just say that our army plans to launch an offensive on all fronts in the near future." Montgomery paused, as if he had made up his mind, "Within a week." ”

Didn't you say that if Guderian didn't come today, he would fight tomorrow? How did it turn into another week? De Lagan glanced at Montgomery suspiciously, who, as if sensing the chief of staff's doubts, said nothing more but simply repeated what he had just said, and the poor chief of staff, convinced that he had heard correctly, turned and went out to arrange for a reply.

At 4:45 a.m., the fierce air battle in the sky basically ceased, and the planes of the two sides gradually disengaged and flew in formation towards their own airfields. The pilots who fought for a day landed one after another, and after a day of fighting, people felt exhausted, and the yellow sand on their bodies and oozing sweat stains were sticking together, making people feel uncomfortable, and they didn't even have time to congratulate themselves that they were still alive, they just wanted to take a hot shower and lie down. The British anti-tank gunners on the front line lowered their muzzles, packed the ammunition and connected them with cars and armored vehicles to prepare to tow them away, the tanks on the other side had finished their work early, the tankers gathered excitedly in the shade, eagerly deliberating on how to fight tomorrow's attack, and the officers began to brag and chat after leaving the necessary observation posts.

At five o'clock, in the secret position at the forefront, the two armored battalions of the Afrika Army, which had been concealed and waited for a whole day, had a total of 67 tanks, including 30 new Type 4G tanks, 6 old short-barreled No. 4 tanks (2 of which had been converted into command models), and 31 No. 3 tanks in the best condition (equipped with 50mm guns) were lined up in a standard wedge offensive formation. Originally, there were a total of 68 tanks, and the last No. 4 tank was unanimously asked by the two battalion commanders to stay with the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Merlinjin dragged Guderian to prevent him from going to the front line in the tank, and for this matter he even took out the Luger pistol and put it on his temple, meaning that as long as Guderian dared to move, he would die in front of the commander immediately, and his armored corps general could only stand beside the first tank and salute.

"Report to the sir, the sappers have cleared the mines in their path and opened the path, please instruct ......" Major Heinz, commander of the 2nd Armored Battalion of the 15th Panzer Division, and Major Dessau, commander of the 1st Panzer Battalion of the 21st Panzer Division, ran over to ask for instructions, "In addition, after our secret reconnaissance, we found that your reasoning is correct, and the markings on the fake map are completely reversed. The place where it is written as hard ground is actually quicksand, and tanks may not be able to get out if they get stuck in it, but the area marked as sand can be used by vehicles. ”

"Very well, the British really shot themselves in the foot." Guderian raised his hand and looked at his watch, "It's 5 o'clock in the afternoon El Alamein time, you are going to fight for an hour and a half, withdraw from the position on time at 6:30 and then take advantage of the nightfall, the order of command is Heinz 1st Dessau 2nd, and then the order of the rest is up to you to negotiate, do you understand?" ”

"Understood." The two battalion commanders replied in unison.

"Now to the table."

After finishing the table, Heinz urged: "Sir, what about you?" When to go? ”

Guderian originally wanted to say that he would stay where he was and observe the results of the battle, but after being glared at fiercely by Lieutenant Colonel Merlinjin, he had to say against his will: "If you attack, I will slip away, how can you go if I don't leave?" The commander's retreat must always be covered by someone, right? ”

The two battalion commanders immediately burst out laughing, saluted, and ran back to their command vehicles, and as soon as the signal was given, all the vehicles immediately started, and a choking smoke rose from the ground.

Guderian, who was standing on the side, waved his hand heroically and shouted: "Tank, attack!" Then the raised arm pressed down fiercely, and the tank formation that saw the gesture immediately advanced forward, Lieutenant Colonel Merinjin had the illusion that the commander was commanding not two armored battalions, but two armored armies......