East Africa, Eritrea's border with Sudan. The Italian army, which had rushed forward, was facing a dangerous situation.

Churchill was directly involved in British military operations in Sudan by sending the Indian 5th Infantry Division from India to Sudan in early September 1940, while the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade was transferred to the Red Sea coast to protect Port Sudan.

In addition, the 9th Indian Infantry Brigade was located southwest of Kassala and the 10th Indian Infantry Brigade was redeployed to Godrey to defend the General Headquarters.

At the same time, the British Army in Africa is uniting with the Royal Air Force to prepare a counterattack against the Italian occupation zone.

On 6 November, the long-planned British launched a surprise attack aimed at retaking the Garappas.

The attacking force consisted of the 10th Indian Infantry Brigade of General William Beale.

In addition, his support units were: the reserve of twelve squadrons; A light tank regiment, as well as an artillery regiment.

At the same time, he was supported by the Royal Air Force.

The raid began at 5:30 a.m. and ended at 8 a.m., when William Beal managed to recapture the Garrapas.

Later, the British army made a plan of pursuit: to attack Matema.

The command of the British army, General William Beal, said: "We should take advantage of the victory and pursue the enemy's occupied territory with all our might, so that the Italians will never again dare to invade the Sudanese region." ”

"But, General, we have 19 tanks in our tank regiment that need to be repaired, and I fear that without the cover of these 9 tanks, it will be difficult for our infantry to play to their advantage, and they will be exposed to heavy losses under the fire of the Italian army." One of the adjutant worriedly presented his views to General William Beale.

Indeed, since 19 tanks of the British army had been damaged to varying degrees and needed to be repaired during the offensive just now, the British would not have enough tanks available for the next round of attacks, and the plan had to be postponed.

General William Beale beat his chest and said: "Such a good opportunity, but because of the tank problem, we cannot attack immediately, if we wait until the Italian army has arranged the barbed wire and anti-tank trench defense, we will not be able to break through their position." ”

I have to say that General William Beer's prediction is really accurate.

The commander of the Italian army, the acting Viceroy of Eritrea, Lieutenant General Fresk, did not intend to abandon the occupied areas of the Italian army in Sudan.

He said passionately to the soldiers: "We have finally taken a small amount of Sudanese land from the British, how can we give this land to the British at this time?" We will defend this hard-won land to the death and win glory for the leader! ”

The Italian soldiers were also full of enthusiasm after hearing his speech, and they were all full of fighting spirit.

Let's not talk about the combat quality of the soldiers of the Italian army, even if they have this rare bravery, it will be difficult for the British to take them.

After all, it was the first time that the British Empire was won, and morale was high.

The Italian army was terrible under this morale. Moreover, the Italian army had made full preparations for the defense of rear positions.

They made the front line of the position everywhere covered with barbed wire that only tanks could break through. And all this happened at the time when the British army was repairing tanks.

So when the tanks were repaired, General William Beale had to bring his troops to a halt.

General William Beale sighed: "If I had given me even one more tank regiment, I would have already regained the lost territory and entered the Italian colonial area." ”

After that, General William Beale never found an opportunity to attack the Italian positions.

In fact, he tried to rely on tanks to break through the Italian barbed wire, but failed, because the barbed wire and anti-tank trenches laid by the Italian army were so dense that the tanks were often stuck there after breaking through several barbed wire lines, and the Italian anti-tank guns came in handy, and the British lost 3 tanks.

The British did not make progress on the frontal battlefield, which led the Italian army to plan a counteroffensive against the British.

First of all, the Italian Air Force served as the first knife in the counterattack.

General Martini, the commander of the Italian forces in Geddon, commanded all the Italian air forces in his hands and launched a powerful counterattack against the British.

In this battle, the Italian Air Force suddenly appeared in this area, and they used their familiarity with the environment and their numerical superiority in air confrontation to shoot down 7 British "Gladiator" biplane fighters, while losing 6 CR-42s themselves.

Although this does not seem to be much of a bargain, it is important to know that the Italian army has a much greater numerical advantage in this area than the British army, and even if Italy and the British army fight with a one-to-one downing attrition ratio, it will be Italy and not Britain that will win in the end, not to mention that Italy will lose one less plane than Britain this time.

Over the next 48 hours, the Italian Air Force bombarded the British Essex Regiment and the 18th Royal Rifle Regiment.

When he saw his troops being wantonly bombed by the Italian Air Force and his own army was powerless and inactive, General William Beale sighed bitterly: "We have no chance to counterattack again!" It's all because I missed the plane, and I'm responsible for my actions. ”

In fact, this cannot be entirely blamed on General William Beale, who thought about pursuing the Italian army immediately after the first stage victory, but the Italian army built fortifications too quickly, and the British army's supply and post-war repair work failed to follow up in time, so that the British army missed the fighter.

In his report to Churchill, General William Beale strongly criticized his own mistakes and faults and demanded that Churchill punish him. Churchill was aware of the other reasons for this, and instead of punishing General William Beale, he praised his achievements in the previous stage and assigned more weapons and equipment to his army, and entrusted him with the task of counterattacking in the next stage.

At this time, with the counterattack of the Italian army, the British troops were forced to withdraw from the positions they had just occupied.

Reluctantly, General William Beale sent 10 Indian infantry brigades on a counteroffensive and recaptured some of the hills in the Garabasian sector three days later, but the Italian were unable to advance due to their heavy defenses and numbers. Finally, the plan to attack Montema had to be canceled.

The repeated battles between Italy and Britain over the Sudanese border ended in an Italian victory.

But Churchill will not stop there, and neither will Mussolini, whose rivalry over East and North Africa has only just begun.

And in the end, whether Churchill's defensive success, or Mussolini's "Great Roman Empire" plan, will definitely determine the situation for the next 10 years!