Waking up from a coma, after learning that the Italian side had not made progress on the offensive, Major General Stephen sighed and said: "Actually, I knew that the Italians were unreliable. As early as a few days ago, the Italians took advantage of our war with Germany to attack our southern border, and the Italian army, which was several times our strength at that time, was chased and fought by our three divisions. Now, it seems unrealistic to expect them to relieve the siege for our army. ”

Major General Stephen was previously only a lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of the army under Belant, and it was because of Berente's urgent need for personnel after that battle that Steve was promoted to major general and division commander of the colonial division.

Not long after, Stephen met up with the Italians again, but this time as a friendly force.

But that's the way it is, no matter what, as long as Italy is on the side, it will not always be so easy to win the battle without a hitch.

These Italians always seem to like to make trouble for themselves or their superiors, or make up some ridiculous excuses to get themselves out of the battlefield.

Just like their commander, let his soldiers empty their guns into the sky to shoot out the bullets, this kind of behavior that seems impossible in the German or French army is still many, many in the Italian army.

And now, it seems impossible for Stephen to rely on the group of Italian troops who are difficult to protect themselves, and the only thing they can rely on is themselves!

Stephen, who was refreshed, quickly ordered the French soldiers to try not to leave the trenches to fight, in order to preserve their existing strength.

At the same time, Stephen also urgently concentrated all the mortars in the division on the first-line defensive position on the No. 3 heights to fight the outpost battle.

It has to be said that the French army did not perform well in mobile warfare, but in trench warfare, they still had a lot of excellent experience and theory.

Because of the cover of fortifications, the British had to use curved weapons such as mortars to reach the French soldiers in the trenches. Except for a small number of British soldiers who were too numerous to be completely covered by tanks and armored vehicles, and were killed by French machine guns and rifles, most of the other casualties also came from French mortar bombardment.

The rifles and machine guns in the hands of the French soldiers never stopped, they knew that the situation was dangerous, but they could not break through. Because the rear was the eastern oil fields of Algeria, they had to hold on to this small high ground.

And their hope of survival can only be pinned on the unreliable Italian army, which can break the encirclement of the British army and occupy the flank of the offensive force of the LinkedIn army.

Now the French soldiers could only fire bullets mechanically, delaying the capture of Heights 3 by the British as long as possible, preferably until the slow-moving Italians arrived.

Bullets flew on the battlefield, and the explosions of various shells came and went. Since there were only two fortifications built on this small high ground, the first line of defense could only accommodate a maximum of two battalions at the same time.

Once the number of people increases, unnecessary casualties will increase due to excessive density.

Thus, Stephen was added battalion by battalion to the front-line trenches. This is the so-called refueling tactic, one battalion is wiped out and the other is on the top.

This tactic is actually taboo in defensive warfare, but Major General Stephen really can't help it, because Heights 3 can only allow this amount of troops to be deployed. Moreover, according to the French army's in-depth study of positional warfare, such a style of play is already the most suitable way of playing at the moment.

In addition to the two companies that were withdrawn from Heights 4, plus the reconnaissance companies that had been withdrawn to Heights 3 before the British vanguard surrounded Heights 3, and the two companies that were originally deployed on the left side of Heights 3 and were withdrawn to the Heights because of losses, plus more than 100 men who were withdrawn from the 2nd Regiment after the positions were broken through by the British armored forces...... At this time, the No. 3 high ground was already crowded.

This No. 3 height, which was originally defended by only 2 regiments, is now crowded with almost the remaining soldiers of the Fifth Colonial Division, and thanks to Stephen's construction of a lot of concealment and anti-artillery holes in advance, it can barely accommodate so many people.

And because the entire heights were already overcrowded, all the remaining French colonial troops that did not participate in the war became reserves. They had to be substituted to maintain the two lines of defense on this high ground after the two battalions on the front line had suffered casualties.

In fact, all the black soldiers who served as reserves were very panicked, and all the white officers of the 5th Division were also trying their best to cheer up the soldiers.

But this effect is actually not good. In fact, it is a miracle that these colony conscripts have been able to hold out until now, and in the final analysis, they are only temporary recruits, and many military training is not in place, and their combat effectiveness is not strong.

If it weren't for the fact that Bronte had arranged for a white French officer to control the ranks, and if it weren't for a French officer like Stephen, who had studied trench warfare and built a large number of good fortifications, the British would not have had to spend so much effort.

And now Major General Stephen simply did not have time to calm the emotions of the soldiers, he had more important things to do, and that was to direct the battle.

He placed the 8th Battalion to defend to the east of the small high ground, and the 7th Battalion to the east. Because the British offensive was all-round, there was no distinction between priority and subordination, so the deployment of the French army was also evenly distributed.

Because there were too many black soldiers, the white officers of the French army could only be issued to the battalion level at most. This is also the reason why the colonial troops under the command of Belante can at least be battalions as basic combat units.

Although the remaining four 25-mm anti-tank guns of Stephen's third battalion were relatively small because the gun emplacements were semi-underground and relatively small to the target, the British artillery quickly determined the specific location of the four anti-tank guns based on the flames from the muzzles.

Basically, the British shells were also accurately fired in the direction of these anti-tank guns, but I don't know whether it was luck or poor accuracy of the British gunners, almost none of the anti-tank guns were directly hit by the British troops.

All the shells exploded around the emplacements of these anti-tank guns, and coincidentally all avoided direct hits.

Despite his good luck at the front, Major General Stephen was in a hurry in the command.

Although relatively complete fortifications were built on this high ground because of his insistence, it was likely that this would only delay the total annihilation of the Fifth Division.

At present, the casualties of the 7th Battalion are close to half, and the casualties of the 8th Battalion are much better.

When Stephen was on the front line, he had already seen that the British attacking force was less than 400 meters away from the front trenches, and the British tanks and armored vehicles were still advancing, and the only two anti-tank guns on the position were gradually unable to stop the advance of the British tanks and armored vehicles.

Major General Stephen sighed and personally went to the front to arrange for the dispersal of reserves into combat positions.

After allocating all the soldiers, he was bent down to return to his headquarters along the trench when a tank shell hit the trench about 5 or 6 meters in front of him and exploded.

The huge shock wave pushed him backwards to the ground, and the explosion of the cannonball also caused his ears to temporarily lose his hearing, buzzing and buzzing.

The soldiers saw Major General Stephen fall to the ground, and several French soldiers not far behind him put down their guns and ran over, holding Major General Stephen and shouting: "General, general, how are you?" Are there any injuries? ”

Stephen only saw a blurry face appear in front of him, and the mouth was moving on this seemingly anxious face, but he couldn't hear what the other party was saying.

He shook his head vigorously and tried to stand up against the wall of the trench but without success. His eyes were straight to the sky, and the white clouds in the blue sky were so clear that Stephen thought that this might be the final destination of the French army in Algeria.

In the ringing ears, Stephen faintly heard a cheer from his headquarters, as if his staff officers were shouting a word loudly and repeatedly.

"Reinforcements?!"