Wavell was shocked when he heard the call of the rout of the British army.

"How is this possible!" Wavell yelled into the microphone: "God, you have 50 'Matilda' and the assistance of the Air Force, and the enemy has less than half the number of tanks you have, and you have failed, and more than half of the tanks have fallen into the hands of the enemy?!" ”

"General!" Colonel Gerner replied: "It was just an accident, our tanks got stuck in the sand and were incapacitated......"

Although Colonel Gerner knew that this was not an accident but a deliberate act by the Germans, of course Colonel Gerner would not say this, because "accident" is obviously much better than falling into a trap set by the enemy.

"Fucking accidents!" Wavell interrupted Colonel Gnawner: "All I know is that you lost, and this will ruin our whole plan!" ”

As he spoke, Wavell slammed the phone on.

"General!" The staff officer who looked at the map suggested: "We can transfer some troops from the 15th Panzer Division to stop the Germans, and then send the air force to assist ......"

Wavell shook his head: "It's too late, William! The 15th Panzer Division had all tanks 'Matilda', and they were not much faster than the infantry! ”

Wavell was right, this was also the weakness of the "Matilda" tank, so the 15th Panzer Division could not stop the Germans on the right flank at all, to be precise, they could not reach the battlefield in time before the Germans penetrated the British lines...... All they could do was follow behind the ass of the Germans, and they would be thrown farther and farther away.

"So what do we do?" The staff officer asked.

Wavell thought about it for a while, and replied helplessly: "Retreat!" ”

"What?" The staff officer couldn't help but be stunned.

Retreat meant the complete failure of the plan, and at the same time it meant Wavell's career......

"Retreat!" Wavell repeated: "Retreat on all fronts!" ”

Wavell had no choice but to do this, because if they did not retreat, all British troops would be surrounded, or the Germans would again attack the British supply lines, which would result in the British army having to abandon the tortoise-slow Matilda and flee again.

And either the former or the latter would have left the British army without enough troops or tanks to defend Egypt.

If this happens, then the British are afraid that they will have to leave North Africa forever and lose the Suez Canal.

As a result, the British troops on the frontal line soon stopped the offensive and retreated in batches.

At the same time, Rommel quarreled with Major General Stryker again, not surprisingly, because of the question of whether he should attack.

"I order you to go on the attack!" Rommel ordered Major General Stryker into the microphone: "This is a good opportunity, we will annihilate them on the way to escape!" ”

"It's impossible, General!" Major General Stryk replied: "The 2nd Infantry Regiment at the Halfa Pass had no tanks, they had only anti-aircraft guns, and the anti-aircraft guns were easily bombed by the enemy once they were dragged out of the fortifications, so they could not pursue." The 15th Panzer Division, located in the village of Kapzo, suffered heavy losses, and they did not even have five tanks left to fight, and they were also unable to fight. My troops are no better, the 5th Panzer Regiment still has only eight tanks still in combat capability, while the British still have at least a hundred 'Matilda' ......"

"I know all of this!" Rommel said: "But you have to know that if an army loses the will to resist and is on the way to escape, they will be much more vulnerable than they seem!" ”

"I agree with that!" Major General Stryk replied: "But the problem is that they have air superiority, and if our few few tanks go deep alone, it won't be long before they are blown up by their planes, and then what will we do to attack the British?" Not only that, but we also had the possibility of being surrounded by the British in turn, so I refused to attack! ”

"You ......" Rommel was so angry that he couldn't speak, but there was nothing he could do with Major General Stryk.

Now Rommel is even having trouble removing Major General Stryker, because the 5th Light Division has repeatedly achieved impressive, if not "miraculous" victories, on the battlefield...... Although these victories did not have much to do with the command of Major General Stryker strictly speaking, Major General Stryk was the commander of the 5th Light Division, and Rommel had to consider whether it would affect the morale of all officers and men of the 5th Light Division if he wanted to replace him.

Objectively speaking, Major General Stryker's point of view is still reasonable, although the Germans won and still won a big victory...... With a total of 90 tanks against the British 250 tanks, they not only won the victory, but also captured 36 enemy tanks, in addition to capturing a large amount of materiel and many prisoners.

But the problem is that there are only a dozen tanks left in the German army, and the captured "Matilda" tanks, of course, cannot be counted...... Although the Germans had trained tank crews who could drive the Matilda tank, if it was interspersed, the speed would only make the German tankers vomit blood.

In particular, the main forces of the British army retreated on their own initiative rather than in a rout.

From this, it can also be seen that Wavell, the British general, still has some real material. In fact, Wavell was the founder of the "special operation...... Shortly after the defeat in North Africa, Wavell was transferred to Burma, where he organized and trained a mixed Anglo-Indian-Burmese long-range infiltration force, the Chindith, and deployed it on the Burmese battlefield, although this force ultimately failed.

There is actually controversy about Wavell, the founder of "special operations", because his so-called creation is actually to put guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines into writing, and the Chinese have long put these into practice on the battlefield of resistance against Japan and even summed up a set of extremely comprehensive theories.

It's just that the Chinese didn't have the right to speak at that time, and Westerners took it for granted that you called it "guerrilla warfare" and Wavell's things called "special operations."

However, it also shows that Wavell is not just an empty shelf.

For example, retreating at this time is a very correct choice, an organized, planned, and step-by-step retreat, and with nearly 100 "Matildas", any German army will catch up with it will be an egg hitting a stone.

But war is a strange thing, and who's to say that Rommel was wrong? Regardless of the reality, Rommel attacked again and again against enemies who were several times stronger than him...... Everyone thought that he could not succeed, and many even thought that he was going to die, but the truth is that he won again and again.