The vanguard of the British 7th Panzer Division arrived at half past one in the afternoon of the same day, and the follow-up units arrived at 2:20 p.m.

At this time, Qin Chuan had been transferred to the defense line with the troops...... There is only one platoon left in the warehouse ready to blow up the warehouse at any time, and the others are all transferred to the defense line to defend, after all, if the defense line is breached, there is no hope of holding it.

From afar, you can see rows of tanks, armored vehicles and cars in the direction of the British army driving in the dust and scattering outside the defensive line. The howitzers were erected by artillery, and the black holes of the guns towered towards the German lines, which seemed to be surrounded by steel fences one after another.

"Will they attack, sergeant?" Werner, who was lying beside Qin Chuan, asked in a low voice.

"I'm not sure!" Qin Chuan replied, and at the same time looked at the surrounding several dummies tied up with thin stems and needles.

As the saying goes, "planning things is in people, and things are done in heaven", and that's all Qin Chuan can do.

"We're going to make it!" Alfredo answered from the sidelines.

Alfredo was uncharacteristically on the defensive line, and he would say such confident words...... This surprised both Qin Chuan and the German soldiers.

"Aren't you supposed to stay in the harbor?" Werner couldn't help but ask.

"Is there a difference between staying in the harbor and staying here?" Alfredo asked rhetorically.

Werner was speechless when asked, because it really didn't make much difference, and if anything, it was that the harbor felt safer farther away from the enemy.

The British army did not attack after setting up the position, and the Germans did not fire, so there was an eerie silence on the battlefield, if it were not for the fact that there were still craters and corpses on the battlefield, I really thought that the war was over.

Qin Chuan knew that it was time for the British army to make a decision, and this decision ...... The fate of the First Legion and its own will be announced.

This thought, as well as the oppressive atmosphere on the battlefield, only made Qin Chuan feel like he was breathless as if he had a boulder pressed on his chest. But all Qin Chuan can do is ...... Wait.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly, when Major General Bolton of the British Seventh Panzer Division arrived in Tobruk, he had a heated argument with Major General Evans.

"I think we should attack immediately!" Major General Bolton said: "Because time is running out for us, the sooner we attack, the better it will be for us!" ”

"I don't think so, General Burton!" Major General Evans replied: "You think so because you don't know what kind of Tobruk line is!" ”

"Hell!" Major General Bolton replied: "You seem to have forgotten that three months ago we took back the Tobruk Line from the Italians, and now you say I don't know about it!" ”

The British 7th Panzer Division was the only British armoured division in North Africa at the time, and they were the main force to defeat the Italian army...... A 35,000-strong force cobbled together by the British and colonial armies defeated the 230,000 Italian troops and captured 130,000 of them, which can also be said to be one of the great miracles in the history of World War II. (Note: At that time, the British army had only 50,000 troops in East and North Africa, including 35,000 in Egypt.)

"You said it too!" Major General Evans replied: "It was the Tobruk line that the Italians were stationed in three months ago, but now please open your eyes and look at this line in front of you, is it still the line you took before?" ”

Major General Evans was of course right, as the line had been carefully remodeled by the British Corps of Engineers for three months, and was a far cry from the shoddy lines built by the Italians before.

"Maybe the line of defense is different from before!" Bolton replied: "But it's still the Italians who are on the defensive, aren't they?" ”

"Oh, is it? The Germans were ignored by you? ”

"The Germans have been fighting for several days and nights in a row, and their strength is not even a thousand!"

"Trust me, General Bolton!" Major General Evans said: "Do not doubt the combat effectiveness of this thousand-strong German army...... It's because we didn't take them seriously before that we make mistakes again and again! ”

The two of you fight for each sentence.

The 7th Panzer Division, known as the Desert Rat, was known for its previous defeat of several times the number of Italian troops, and Major General Bolton was on the verge of victory, so it was reasonable to advocate desperate combat.

However, it was the 7th Armored Brigade of this armored division that was transferred to Burma soon after to deal with the Japanese invasion of Burma, but it was completely defeated and even pushed the Chinese expeditionary force into the fire pit with sinister intentions.

While Bolton and Evans were arguing, Lieutenant General Greenhill walked into the headquarters.

"Gentlemen, are you having a debate?" Lieutenant General Greenhill asked.

"General!" Burton and Evans hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

After listening to the accounts of the two, Lieutenant General Greenhill couldn't help but fall silent.

Lieutenant General Greenhill realized that he had fallen into a painful choice: to fight or not to fight?

Beat!

Although it was possible that the capture of Tobruk would be of great benefit to the retreat of the British army and even the future of the war, if it could not be defeated, it would mean that the British army would miss the time to withdraw to Egypt and consume the small amount of ammunition and fuel in the first place...... The British would definitely have to carpet bombard the Tobruk Line with artillery shells during the attack, so that the barbed wire and mines could be cleared to allow the tanks to advance smoothly. These shells and fuel were necessary for the withdrawal of British troops to Egypt.

Don't fight!

That would mean a total rout of the British army, and they would even have to leave behind tanks and other heavy equipment, as was the case with the Dunkersk retreat.

Lieutenant General Greenhill couldn't help but ponder, how he wished that Lieutenant General Nimes or Lieutenant General O'Connor would suddenly appear and make a decision, so that he would not have to face this dilemma.

As the minutes ticked by, sweat seeped from Greenhill's forehead and slowly flowed down.

Also sweating profusely was Qin Chuan lying on the ground on the other side, and he was also lying on the sand hot by the sun under the scorching sun, Qin Chuan could only rely on gulping water to reduce the temperature of his body, and the soldiers around him did the same...... Now is the critical moment, they must keep their bodies in the best condition, otherwise they are afraid that once the fight starts, they will not even have the time and opportunity to drink water.

At this time, there was a sudden explosion, and the soldiers thought it was artillery bombardment, so they all fell on their stomachs.

Qin Chuan thought at the first time: "It's over, the British still chose to attack!" ”

But after waiting for a while, I realized that something was wrong, because there was no whistling and no sound of shells exploding nearby.

When I looked up, I saw black smoke rising from a British tank on the opposite side, followed by a series of explosions, and the "Matilda" tanks were blown up one after another.