With the tacit cooperation of both sides, the feint on the northern front finally began on September 5, and the commanders of the three Italian infantry divisions, including Brescia, Taranto and Bologna, suddenly found that the combat effectiveness of the troops had skyrocketed, and the attack groups they sent actually jointly advanced the front by 10-15 kilometers in the attack that day.

To the delight of several commanders, they found that they were not fighting the authentic British army, but the Dominion Division, which was composed of South Africans and Australians, whom the Italians called "colonial" divisions, and according to their own preconceived notions, believed that the combat effectiveness of the colonial divisions was much inferior to that of the troops in the British Isles - anyway, the colonial troops of the Italians were the worst in combat, and a hundred officers of Apennine origin looked down on them.

In order to make the feint attack "sound and impressive", to prevent the British from detecting the actual situation through reconnaissance planes, and to cheer up the Italian infantry on the ground and prevent them from crushing without a fight, the air force was not yet in Guderian's plan to retreat, but on the contrary, it demanded that the attack be more ferocious than before. Kesselring was very supportive in this regard, and a large amount of spare parts and aviation fuel were airlifted directly to the front line through Juncker's aunt.

Now, the Italians have a great affection for Guderian and feel that he is much better than the former German commander Rommel. First, he took care of the Italians' face, and arranged for them to be a more suitable opponent such as the "colonial division" instead of following the large army to gnaw the bones of the southern front, and second, he frequently dispatched the air force to cover the infantry attacks, and almost every moment they had planes painted with iron crosses above their heads—the Italians had never enjoyed such a high salary, and their morale had risen sharply. What made them even more satisfied was that on the first day of the offensive smoothly advanced 10-15 kilometers, they could not wait to send a telegram to the command headquarters, but they did not expect to lose a large part before the call back, the Bologna division was a new unit that arrived in July, and the division commander, General Gronia, knew that there were planes overhead observing the battlefield, and felt that he could not make too bad an impression on the new commander, so he suggested telling the truth. I thought that the Germans, who were so rigid that they did not understand human feelings, would definitely accuse themselves of lying about the military situation, but I did not expect Guderian's attitude to be surprisingly good, and the telegram clearly wrote: "As long as the position has not been completely recaptured by the enemy, it will be regarded as victory." All this made them feel that they had run into an understanding commander - why didn't the Germans replace Rommel earlier, who was cruel to the enemy and even more ruthless to his own people?

Several division commanders discussed it for a while, and felt that they could not live up to General Guderian's high hopes, and that tomorrow everyone would send a regiment to continue the attack, and it would be better to regain the positions lost today. Feints, it's still going to be a bit imposing. The only problem is that it seems that the logistical supply is not sufficient, so it can only continue to last for half a month, and the result of the negotiation is to ask the commander for supplies after another 3 days, and if it is not given, it can be transferred to the spot to rest and recuperate - the Italians have a very tacit understanding in this regard.

While the Italians were complacent about the progress of the feint, Montgomery was in the war room with his chief of staff, de Guangamp, and a group of his main generals. Although the first shot was fired by the Italians, and it was a feint, Montgomery was still satisfied—this fully showed that the intelligence and information he had were correct, and Guderian, although a little more cautious than Rommel, still advanced on the path hoped for by the Eighth Army. The Germans could have chosen any of the three routes to the north, the center, and the south for the whole battle, but when Guderian had transferred all the Italians to the north, he had only the south route.

The British did not pay attention to the attack of the Italians at all, and if Montgomery had not instructed the South African and Australian divisions on the front line to release a little water, the Italians might have been beaten back, let alone push forward. Because the traffic conditions on the north road were the best, the British army had already concentrated its forces around the El Alamein station, which not only had a narrow defensive area, but also had a good fortified position, and Colonel Guingamp was very confident in this: not to mention the Italians, even the Germans may not be able to gnaw.

Now the question is, Guderian's feint has come, when and where will his real offensive be launched on the southern front? The staff officers in the headquarters had different opinions on this, and Colonel Guingamp was also cautious in his judgment, giving three explanations of September 7, September 10, and further postponement—which was equivalent to not saying anything, which made the combat staff officers roll their eyes. After a long day of discussion, there was only one point of view: Guderian's attack depended on his analysis of the feint on the northern route and the amount of newly arrived supplies.

The high temperature and heat were already impatient, and seeing that there was still no definite opinion from noon to evening, Major General Horrocks, the commander of the British 13th Army, couldn't stand it: "Everyone, since we can't judge the time of the Germans' actions, why don't we just fight them?" ”

"Hit it?" Montgomery asked, confused.

Major General Horrocks pointed to the defensive area occupied by the Italians to the north with his whip: "Since it has been identified that the Italians are weak, I propose to encircle and destroy them directly, and then make a detour from the north to the south to form a flank attack on the Germans with the troops in front of them." ”

"It's not in line with our strategy." Montgomery shook his head slightly, "If you do this, you will immediately scare Guderian away, and there is no point in just catching the Italians." ”

"I can't agree with that." Horrocks puffed up and said, "The Italians have more troops than the Germans, and all the supplies for the Afrika Korps come from Italy, why do you think the Italians are meaningless?" ”

Montgomery smiled and said, "Think about it, where was our front when there were only Italians in North Africa?" ”

Horlocks was stunned for a moment, and immediately came back to his senses: before the Germans intervened in the war in Africa, the Italians launched a vigorous attack, and as a result, the British army wiped out more than 300,000 people at once, and the entire front was pressed to Libya, and Rommel led the German army, the British not only lost Tobruk, but the entire front was overwhelmed by El Alamein, who was only 120 miles away from Cairo. It can be seen whether the Italians have any meaning. Horlocks was Montgomery's confidant, who didn't want to discourage him and deliberately reminded him in this euphemistic way.

Major General Gathouse, commander of the 10th Panzer Division, advised: "What if we attack from the south? ”

Colonel Guengang's eyes lit up: "Tell me what you think." ”

"As the commander said, the Italians on the Northern Front have nothing to worry about. As long as we want, 3 days, no, 2 days can be taken. We can keep an eye on the Italians, and at the same time use the 10th and 1st Panzer Divisions as the lead to break through from the Mitellia Ridge, open the northern corridor, and cut off the connection between the German-Italian groups; Then use the 7th Panzer Division, the 44th Division, to make a detour along the edge of the Getara Basin, bypassing the southernmost minefield of the Afrika Army - the German group can be loaded into our steel cage first. ”

At a glance at the map, everyone understood that this plan was a modification on the basis of what Horlocks had just proposed, which was originally to complete the detour of the German army by first eating the Italian group, and now it was to directly use the armored division to insert the German and Italian groups into the junction and encircle the German group, which was a more daring and direct plan.

Montgomery looked at the map, pondered for a moment, and shook his head in disapproval at the look of hope in Gethouse's eyes.

"Why?" Montgomery's starting unit, Major General James Langton, commander of the 7th Panzer Division, known as the "Desert Rat", couldn't help but ask, "Although this plan requires a little more coordination, if it is well deployed, it still has a great chance of success, even if we can't form an encirclement of the Germans, we can stick to their butts and carry out tail chase attacks......

Montgomery only said, "That means that our tanks will not only have to break through enemy minefields, but will also encounter the enemy's predetermined anti-tank fire." ”

Everyone looked at each other, could the commander have a line of attack that was not subject to the enemy's counterattack?

Seeing that everyone was silent, Montgomery thought that everyone did not understand what he meant, so he waved his hand and said in a resolute tone: "I carefully analyzed all the previous battle examples, and found that the German tanks were always with their 88 guns and anti-tank guns, and as soon as they encountered our tanks, they immediately hid behind, and then destroyed us with anti-tank fire, and finally their tanks came out to occupy the position. Therefore, we must not fall for the Germans, we must stop our tanks from breaking out of their positions to prevent them from becoming targets of the 88 guns, let's hide the tanks and use them as anti-tank guns, let Guderian's tanks come and hit us, and then crush him, we can no longer do the stupid thing of letting our tanks jump out and be hit by the enemy's 88 guns......"

He went on and on before summing it up in one sentence: "Don't attack, wait for Guderian to attack us—I'm sure he'll come." ”

Everyone was so choked by this sentence that they could only roll their eyes and look at the sky: there were more troops than the enemy, the equipment was stronger than the enemy, the defense line was stronger than the enemy, and the information was more comprehensive and sufficient than the enemy, so they had to wait for the enemy to attack first - how stupid would Guderian on the other side have to choose to do this? In the silence of the people, the battle meeting of the British Eighth Army on the night of September 5 ended in a strange atmosphere.