General Auchinleck is indeed weak-hearted.

When he heard that the 15th Armoured Division and the 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division were almost completely annihilated, he didn't know what to say.

This was by far the most embarrassing thing General Auchinlake had ever encountered.

The other failures were not in principle the fault of General Ochinleck, some of them were under the command of Major General Ritchie, and some were the carelessness of the front-line commanders, such as the fact that the troops of the two divisions passed through Sidi Oma and did not verify that the supplies were actually bombed.

But this defeat was clearly due to the miscalculation of General Auchinleck...... He believed that the forces that attacked El Alamein were real and that the 21st Panzer Division, which was besieging Matru, was fake. And on this basis, the 15th Panzer Division was ordered to break through.

It turned out that General Auchinlake was wrong.

"The enemy always wants to be ahead of us!" General Ochinleck sighed: "They have never left Matru, and we have been fooled again!" ”

"General, what now?" Major General Richie asked.

"Let the fighters take off immediately and bomb the German 21st Panzer Division overnight!" General Auchinleck ordered.

"Now?" Major General Richie was puzzled.

It is very dangerous for fighters to fly at night, especially in the desert, because the desert at night is as gray and black as the blue sky, and the pilot cannot judge his altitude and even mistake the ground for the blue sky and fall headlong in the desert.

In addition, it was difficult for the fighter planes to find targets in the dark, and even if they did, they could not bomb accurately, so Rear Admiral Rich did not think it was a wise choice.

"Yes, now!" General Auchinleck said: "They will go along the Esplanade, and our planes will just have to look for it along the Esplanade, understand?" ”

Because of General Auchinleck's insistence, Major General Rich could only obey orders.

"Wait!" General Auchinleck called out to Major General Rich again.

"Do we have submarines near Matroux?" General Auchinlake asked.

"There's a P-class submarine, General!"

"Hmm!" General Auchinlake said: "Let it go to Matroux and bring Lieutenant General Austin!" ”

"Yes!"

This was the only thing General Auchinlake could do for Lieutenant General Austin, and it could be regarded as a little apology from General Ochchinleck to the 13th Army that had been defeated because of him.

British fighters soon appeared over the Esplanade and searched along the road, tasked with bombing the German convoy to halt its advance and buy the British more time to prepare.

This time, General Auchinleck guessed correctly, and the Germans were indeed advancing along the Esplanade.

It's just that even so, the British fighters did not achieve much bombing effect.

As usual, the British used "Mosquito" reconnaissance planes to reconnoiter in front, and when they found the German convoy, they dropped flares...... The flares were used to continue tracking the convoy on the one hand, and to indicate direction and targets to bombers and fighters on the other.

But the German convoy quickly reacted as it should have been:

"Turn off the lights!" At the sound of an order, all tanks and cars turned off their lights.

Then, the sappers built several roads along the highway as fast as they could...... More than a dozen miles away from Matru is the desert, and tanks and cars can actually leave the road, but they have not done so because they are faster and safer to drive on the road.

German soldiers then used special fluorescent lights to guide tanks and cars into the desert.

This fluorescent light is almost a flashlight, but its light is relatively weak and other directions are closed, only some limited light is transmitted in the front, the German soldier holding it clockwise circle means to turn right, counterclockwise circle means to turn left, up and down is to move forward, to stop still is to stop......

At the same time, the air defense units turned on their searchlights and shone into the sky, and pillars of light like sharp swords shot straight into the sky; once they shone on a certain enemy plane, they followed closely, and the shells of the anti-aircraft guns and the bullets of anti-aircraft guns poured into the air.

The wooden-built "mosquito" reconnaissance plane was not hit at all, and soon two reconnaissance planes fell to the other side of the desert with a piercing whistling sound and exploded. Other "mosquito" reconnaissance planes hurriedly flew out of the range of anti-aircraft artillery fire, and only dared to fire one or two flares in the direction of the Germans from a distance.

At this time, the tanks and cars of the 21st Panzer Division had entered the desert in an orderly manner and scattered in all directions, and as long as they were not illuminated by flares, they quickly made anti-aircraft concealment.

So in the eyes of the British pilots, the entire German convoy "disappeared out of thin air" one after another in front of their eyes, and it didn't take long for even a single figure to be seen.

Fighters and bombers followed, but they could only look at the blank space below, and finally threw the bombs indiscriminately and left.

However, the Germans did not dare to advance along the road again, because they feared that the next British bombardment would be more rapid, and if they could not avoid it, they would undoubtedly suffer heavy losses if they were bombed along the road.

The march in the desert is much slower than on the road: the reason is that the tank may get stuck in the sand and cannot get out, so it is necessary to send scouts in front of you to scout all the way, and if there is a danger zone, to direct the tank through.

In this respect, General Auchinleck's purpose had been achieved, and he had indeed slowed down the German march.

While the 21st Panzer Division was making a rapid march to the El Alamein Line, Rommel was making all possible preparations at Matroux.

He first ordered the German and Italian armies to storm Matru...... Although Matru only had the remnants of the British 13th Army left, leaving an army nearby would eventually be a trouble.

Soon Matroux became a complete part of the German army, except that many British troops escaped from the German encirclement (the 21st Panzer Division withdrew and rushed to El Alamein).

Rommel then organized sappers to build a temporary airfield overnight, and ordered transports to step up the delivery of fuel and ammunition from Tobruk and Sidioma.

Rommel did this mainly to fight for air superiority:

If Matroux had a temporary airfield with fuel and ammunition, then German fighters and bombers, having fought on the El Alamein Line, did not need to return to Tobruk to reload or refuel, they only needed to land in Matroux.

This will not only save the Air Force a lot of fuel, but also increase the number of take-offs...... It takes more time and effort to get to and from Tobruk, while getting to and from Matru is almost a single flight into the battlefield.

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