Based on the overly unbalanced balance of forces on the Southern Front, in order to assist Guderian in stabilizing the situation, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Front, Field Marshal Kesselring, decided to further strengthen the force, the first to bear the brunt of the air force, under his command, the fighter commander Garand, who was urgently on duty, led an entire wing (JG3 Udet Wing drawn from the Eastern Front) to the El Alamein front to reinforce the 8th Air Force, and Major General Mustache personally piloted an Fw-190 to follow behind the guide plane.

As soon as the plane stopped and pushed open the cockpit, before the person had time to get down, Garand felt that his whole body had been surrounded by scorching air, as if the whole person had been thrown in front of the steelmaking furnace at once, the wind swept everything and blew through, blowing on the person without the slightest coolness, but the yellow sand carried with it drilled into all the crevices unscrupulously, and the sand was stained on his hair, goggles, and neck, which made him feel uncomfortable, and he wanted to jump into the Mediterranean Sea and take a bath.

"How does it feel to be welcome to Africa?" Guderian, dressed in a tropical military uniform and wearing sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, laughed and greeted him.

After swallowing his saliva with difficulty, and after spitting out the yellow sand in his mouth, Garland opened his mouth in embarrassment: "Barren land, a barren land, except for yellow sand or yellow sand, I really don't know how you live." ”

Guderian laughed: "You have to ask Rommel about this, I have only been here for 2 weeks, and he has been here for a year and a half......"

"I did go to see him." Garland jumped out of the cabin and shook hands with Guderian as he explained, "I went to visit him once before I left, and he was hospitalized and in terrible condition. ”

"He's seriously ill?" Guderian was taken aback, "He seemed to be in good shape when he handed over to me. ”

"He was crushed by himself." Garland pointed to his head, meaning that Rommel was under too much mental pressure, and then simply told Guderian what he knew about the Canaris conspiracy incident, "His most relied on deputy in the reserve army, Colonel Stauffenberg, who was specially transferred from the African Army to assist in training and said that he would also recommend him as chief of staff, was actually an important figure in the conspiracy group, and in 1938 he served as a liaison for the Halder-Hopner coup attempt." As soon as the colonel was arrested, Rommel fell ill. ”

"Poor Erwin." Guderian replied involuntarily, and then was speechless for a while, for he heard Hopner's name. At the time of the Battle of Typhoon, Guderian was the commander of the 2nd Panzer Group, and Hopner was the commander of the 4th Panzer Group. It's just that Guderian was more cautious, and he didn't run until he knew that Hopner had run, in a sense, there was a "common suffering" mood between him and Hopner, and he originally wanted to take this opportunity as the commander of the African Army to see if he could find a suitable opportunity to fish out this old friend again, but he didn't expect that he would never have a chance again

"Things are not people...... Guderian sighed, lowered his voice and asked, "What is the Führer's attitude towards Rommel?" Will he be implicated? ”

"I don't know, it shouldn't be a problem." Garland asked rhetorically, "Rommel was originally the battalion commander of the Führer's guard battalion, and it was all up to the Führer to become a marshal, so what is the need and significance for him to oppose the leader?" Even if the coup succeeds, what good will it do him? Who else can use him in terms of his personality? ”

Although it was a series of three questions, Guderian nodded in agreement with Garland's opinion.

"In fact, the Führer is much more clever than you think, some people think that he is the commander-in-chief of the army and the air force, I dare not evaluate the army, and I still have a certain say in the air force......" Garland briefly summarized a series of things about jet aircraft selection, aviation armament rearmament, air force personnel adjustment, and air defense improvement on the Western Front after Guderian left, and Guderian nodded again and again, echoing, "I also found out what you said, since the Führer drove Halder away and put Zeitzler on the throne of chief of the General Staff, His mood and personality seem to have changed a lot -- he has become more perfect and wiser, not only can he listen to the persuasion of others, but he also does not attach so much importance to the gains and losses of one city and one place on the Eastern Front, and he has also reduced a lot of unreasonable interference in the design of equipment and the specific combat deployment. Before coming to North Africa this time, he clearly told me that it was entirely up to me to decide how the first phase of the battle would unfold, and that the base camp would not interfere but would also provide necessary supplies and help, which was unthinkable before......"

"Maybe it's because of the traitorous group." Garland thought for a moment, and said seriously, "He may have been suspicious of Halder and some of the old officers, or he wouldn't have been so stubborn, and if you had already decided in advance that one of your subordinates had bad intentions, would you have listened to any suggestion he made, whether right or wrong?" The attempted explosion of the base camp certainly exposed the deep struggle and complex situation within the empire, but did it not detonate a lurking time bomb? ”

"If there are mines, it is better to detonate them sooner, at least the situation is more favorable to us." Guderian changed the subject and asked, "What do you think of the battle ahead?" ”

"I am afraid that your actions have aroused Montgomery's suspicions, and we have knocked out an Englishman reconnaissance plane on our way to-day, between Tobruk and Matroux Harbor, and is returning from the west when we meet him. If Montgomery's position were me, I would be very uncomfortable with the current situation. Garland glanced around the airport, "At least you're in a bad situation here, as if you're about to give up, I don't believe you've come to meet me today." ”

Guderian smiled awkwardly: "You can see it." Seriously, I'm going to leave in two days, and now the headquarters is at the airport. ”

"Withdraw?" Garland was taken aback, "Then you still want us to come here?" ”

"The Italians didn't move after three days of feints, so they just turned their heads and asked me for supplies, and I didn't bother to pay attention to them, so they stopped as a matter of course." Guderian gestured to the east, "Montgomery has been in a position for a long time, but he is bent on me crashing into it." ”

"What about the other troops? What about the people in your staff and operations department? ”

"I'm the only one left." Lieutenant Colonel Melinzin interjected, "General, introduce myself, I'm Friedrich Melinzin, the intelligence chief of the African Army, the others retreated a few days ago, and the armored forces and anti-tank artillery were concentrated in Teleacakir, including the Italian paratroopers and our infantry units on their way to Tobruk. ”

"You threw the other Italians to the north?" Garland gasped, "There are quite a few of them. ”

"Three divisions, about 40,000 people." Guderian smiled slyly, "I didn't throw them away, in my strategy they would be the last troops to be ordered to retreat - you see, the Italians were the first to retreat, and the last to retreat were Italians, and we Germans were caught in the middle, isn't it fair." ”

"The Italian leader knows that you will go mad with anger if you do this."

"I've been mad with him for a long time!"

"What a ......," Garand muttered to himself, giving up the desire to speak for the Italians again, "Let the Air Force cover your retreat tomorrow?" ”

"No, quite the opposite...... Offensive! ”

"I'm fine with my ears, right?" Garland felt that his heart was about to jump out, "You have a small number of troops, and you gave up the Italians, retreated a group of troops in advance, and still want to attack, could it be that your subordinates are all supermen with one hundred supermen?" ”

"I only had 2 armored battalions attacking in front, adding up to less than 70 tanks, and without air force cover, I was afraid that I would be beaten to slag by the British immediately." Guderian gave him a blank look, "So I can't do it without you." ”

"What? Two armoured battalions and 70 tanks dared to charge the enemy, but I heard that Montgomery had several armoured divisions and more than 1,000 tanks. Garland was completely frightened by Guderian, and said in a tone that did not know whether it was admiration or sarcasm, "Sir, you are really a character! ”

"It's worse than you think, he has 1,500 tanks, including the latest Sherman, and he is far superior to us. If we don't attack and turn and retreat......" Guderian dragged out, "Montgomery will see the problem at once, and know that we are exaggerating, and then his thousands of tanks will run over." If I attack and then come back, he feels good about himself, thinks he has repelled our tentative attack, and then waits for our full-fledged attack. If we add adequate and heavy air cover, we can make this tentative attack more deterrent and deceptive, and it will also facilitate our retreat. ”

"What if the attack meets a strong enemy?" Merrinjin asked uneasily.

"No one knows what will happen in the next second until the battle starts, but you have to try actively." Guderian shrugged his shoulders and said disapprovingly, "But it doesn't matter, you have to trust my luck, Montgomery is a coward, and I will be able to scare him a lot tomorrow." ”