The British, of course, knew about the actions of the Germans on Crete.

Montgomery knew this through the Greek militia, and Churchill knew more about it from the "super-secret" telegram Rommel sent to Hitler.

So Churchill got in touch with Montgomery as soon as possible.

"Monty (Montgomery's nickname)!" Winston Churchill said, "Do you still believe that time is on our side?" ”

Churchill's remark was a bit of a "rehabilitation" for himself, because almost everyone thought that Churchill's judgment was wrong, and Britain did not need to rush to attack the Germans, so Churchill even dismissed General Auchinlake and replaced it with Montgomery, and Montgomery had the same view as General Auchinleck.

But now, the Germans have built factories on the island of Crete...... In time, when these factories were ready to produce equipment in large quantities, it became clear that the Germans would replenish their equipment much faster than the British.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister!" Montgomery could only admit: "The Germans' attack on Crete and the relocation of factories to this island were indeed unexpected to me...... But we don't have a solution to them! ”

"You'd better have a plan to deal with it, General!" Churchill said: "Otherwise we would not be able to deal with the parliamentarians who are skeptical of us, understand? ”

"Understood, Your Excellency Prime Minister!" Montgomery replied.

After putting down the phone, Montgomery looked at the map and fell into deep thought.

"General!" De Guengang suggested from the sidelines: "Maybe we can organize an attack to regain Crete!" ”

"Do you have any plans?" Montgomery said: "The Germans have already done a good job of air defense on the island and occupy air supremacy in the surrounding seas, and want to recover Crete...... Easier said than done! ”

"We can use the Greek militia!" De Guangon said: "Provide them with weapons, and cooperate with the outside ......"

This seemed like a viable approach, but after thinking about it, Montgomery shook his head: "The Greek militia is too weak, like the Battle of Crete, they are difficult to play much in the battle!" ”

Montgomery was right.

First of all, the most important air battle for the island, the militia could not help at all in this regard, at most it was to provide a little intelligence for the British army.

Secondly, after the militia was very weakly equipped and suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Crete, it is obviously unrealistic to immediately hope for a "flanking attack" by the militia.

"But the General!" De Guengang said: "We can't let the Germans develop like this......"

Montgomery knew what De Guengang meant, the Germans were able to fight the British army so badly when the supply was difficult, and now the supply situation has improved, not only has it improved, but it has also built factories on the island of Crete and opened mines in Africa for production, so that the British army will still be the opponent of the German army? I am afraid that it will not be long before the German army will be driven out of the African continent.

"The problem of Crete ......" Montgomery said, pointing to the map, "it is outside the combat radius of our fighters, and if we can take Matru, the problem will be solved!" ”

Matroux was only 300 kilometers from Crete, while the British Spitfire had a range of 1,000 kilometers, which was enough for them to fly over Crete and compete with German fighters for air supremacy.

"What does the general mean to break through the German lines?"

"Yes!" Montgomery nodded: "We must compress the German defense line back, at least recapture Matrou, so that the advantage of the Germans in Crete will be lost!" ”

"But it was not so easy to break through the German defenses!" De Guengang said worriedly: "Just like before, we tried several times without success! ”

"But this time it's different!" Montgomery said: "The Germans have thrown a large number of troops into Crete, and we can use the militia to harass them in Crete on the one hand to attract their attention, and on the other hand to attack while they are busy building factories and supplies." What's more important is ......"

Montgomery didn't go any further.

Montgomery didn't say it because he was worried about revealing secrets, but because what he hoped for would not necessarily work out.

Montgomery's hope was nothing else, it was the tank, the new American tank.

One of Montgomery's strengths is that once he has set a strategic direction, he can get the focus on it.

As it is now, it is very difficult to solve the problem of Crete by sea and by air, so the only way to solve the problem is to solve the problem on land, and to solve the problem on land, it is necessary to have tanks.

However, the existing tanks of the British were simply not enough to break through the German lines, not only because of the problems of the training of the British army, but also because of the performance of American tanks...... Of course, the performance of the American tank is of course a great improvement compared with the British "Matilda" tank, but its fatal weakness still makes it repeatedly restrained in the face of the German "No. 3" tank.

Therefore, the British army urgently needed a better tank that could completely suppress the German "No. 3" tank.

Without this tank, Montgomery would not have considered this plan. But Montgomery knew that the United States had it, and this tank was the "Sherman" tank...... At this time, this tank had just been produced, and the United States did not even equip itself.

(Note: Historically, the United States had just had time to equip an armored brigade and urgently provided a batch of "Shermans" for the British army in North Africa to follow-up)

Although Montgomery did not know if the tank would be useful on the battlefield, judging by the data he obtained from the "Sherman", it would undoubtedly be the nemesis of the German tank...... THE 76MM CALIBER TANK GUN IS EQUIPPED WITH 76.2MM ARMOR AND HAS A TOP SPEED OF 38 KILOMETERS PER HOUR.

YOU MUST KNOW THAT THE LARGE-CALIBER TANK GUN OF THE "GENERAL GRANT" TANK IS ONLY 75MM, AND THE FRONT ARMOR OF THE "MATILDA" TANK IS ONLY 78MM...... That is, this new tank of the Americans is almost a combination of "General Grant" firepower and "Matilda" defense, plus quite good maneuverability.

Montgomery knew that if there were no problems with the safety of this tank...... The safety of American tanks is basically fine, as can be seen from the "Stuart" and "General Grant" tanks.

In addition, the American tank has another advantage, that is, it is highly versatile, and those who can operate the M3 tank can operate the "Sherman" tank as long as they are slightly familiar, which can save the tank crew a lot of training time.

In this way, the British Panzer Division could rampage through the German defenses and push them back!

The more Montgomery thought about it, the more he felt that this plan was feasible, because the Germans were so focused on Crete that they did not even transfer the 90th Light Division and its tanks to the Alexander Line.