It was not the British army to operate in the dark, because the British army had never been good at fighting at night.

However, it is precisely this that better reflects the way General Auchinleck used his troops...... Compared to other orderly-ordered British generals, General Auchinlake preferred surprises, as he did when he sent a commando to assassinate Rommel.

General Auchinleck divided the British army into two parts, the 13th Army and the 30th Army under the Eighth Army.

The backbone of the 13th Army was the British 15th Panzer Division, supplemented by the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Indian 4th Division.

This corps was armed with all Matilda tanks, and its main task was to attract German forces and firepower on the frontal line and to prepare for a flanking attack on the Germans.

This can also be regarded as General Auchinleck's understanding of the "Matilda", knowing that this kind of high-failure, slow-moving tank is not suitable for interspersed combat at all, so he let it use heavy armor and artillery fire to provide cover for infantry attacks in the frontal defense line.

The 30th Army was based on the British 7th Armored Division, supplemented by the South African 1st Infantry Division and the Austrian 6th Division.

Just from the composition of this force, it can be seen that the 30th Army was the main force of the "Crusader" plan.

The British 7th Panzer Division, known as the Desert Rat, had repelled the Italian army with a single armoured division, and although it had been defeated in the subsequent battles with the Germans, it was still able to fight hard.

The 1st Infantry Division of South Africa was just transferred from South Africa by General Auchinleck, and although the combat effectiveness of this unit is not flattering, it focuses on its rich experience in desert marching, combat, and survival, which can make up for the British army's lack of experience in desert combat to a certain extent.

Needless to say, the Australian 6th Infantry Division, which had already shown greater combat effectiveness than the British in previous battles, inflicted considerable casualties on the Germans in the defensive battles of cities such as Agdabia.

Among them, it is worth mentioning the ...... In addition to the 130 "Valentine" tanks, which had a much smaller failure rate, the British 7th Armored Division was also fully equipped with American "Stuart" tanks, and there were as many as 300 of them.

General Auchinleck's idea was simple: to use the 30th Army to cross the German lines from the south and then fight a battle between armored and armored units with the Germans.

The reason for this is that General Auchinlake did not want to meet in flank positions, as was the case in Operation Wavell's Tomahawks.

Because it was obvious that this was not conducive to the deployment of British troops, so that the British army's superiority in strength and number of tanks could not be fully utilized...... Just like last time, two armored regiments of the 7th Panzer Division went up in batches for the German annihilation.

General Auchinleck would not make the same mistake again, so he intended for the 30th Army to cross the line before the Germans could detect it, and to deploy its forces in the vast desert on the German side, building a defensive line and preparing for battle.

As a result, any German armored forces that came to meet the battle would be surrounded and annihilated by the British army, which had an overwhelming superiority in strength and tanks.

General Auchinleck succeeded in this by keeping his troops day and night and keeping them silent...... They used the canvas and terrain to evade the reconnaissance of the German planes during the day, and then advanced at night at a slow and careful pace.

For this reason, General Auchinleck even did enough meteorological intelligence work, he knew that during this time the desert would be windy, and the wind would bring up sand and dust, which would become a good camouflage for the 30th Army.

General Auchinleck was right, and a few days later the 30th Army managed to cross the German lines, and the Germans did not notice it at all.

If the battle had started like this, it would have been no surprise that the British would have won, as the British were well prepared, especially with several times more equipment than the Germans:

The total number of tanks of the British army was 700, in addition to 200 "Stuart" tanks on the way from India to Egypt.

Although the total number of tanks in the German and Italian armies is also quite large, there are 414 tanks, but 154 of them are useless Italian M13 tanks, only 260 are German "No. 3" tanks and a small number of "No. 4" tanks, of which 50 tanks are under repair...... Tanks require regular maintenance, both for combat and peacetime training.

To make matters worse, most of the German air power was concentrated on bombing the island of Malta, with only 120 planes in North Africa, compared to 500 by the British.

Not to mention, the British had 430 tanks just by crossing the German defense line of the 30th Army, which was almost twice as many as all the tanks that the Germans could mobilize, plus the British had air superiority and a large number of anti-tank guns carried by the South African 1st Division and the Austrian 6th Division, they were fully capable of crushing any German unit that rushed to participate in the battle or stood in front of them.

The problem was that Operation "Crusader" was so successful that it was beyond the expectations of everyone in the British army, including General Auchinleck himself...... The entire 30th Army crossed the German lines without being detected by the enemy!

So Auchinlake was a little distracted.

"General!" As soon as the 30th Army was ready, the staff officer asked Ochinleck: "What should we do?" Does deliberate exposure attract Germans? ”

Because the Germans did not know that the 30th Army had crossed the German lines, they did not react until now.

After thinking about it, General Ochinleck replied: "No, this is a good opportunity for us, and I want to surprise those Germans more!" ”

This is indeed an opportunity.

But there are often two sides to the story, and the other side of the opportunity may be a crisis or a mistake......

Then, in order to give the Germans more surprises, General Auchinleck divided the 30th Army into three parts: the main force of the 7th Panzer Brigade and the 6th Infantry Division of Austria carried out a large depth penetration of the German flanks and rear, the purpose of which was to cut off the retreat of the German and Italian armies and encircle them.

The 4th Panzer Brigade was divided into two regimental units: one to attack the Italian forces stationed in Tobruk, and the other to go around the flank of the German line at Harfa Pass.

General Auchinleck's idea was that attacking the Italian troops in Tobruk would prevent them from reinforcing the Halfa Pass Line, and attacking the flank of the Halfa Pass would put the German line in a two-sided attack on the British side, with the result that the German army would quickly collapse and allow the frontal British 13th Army to break through the Halfa Pass and be overwhelmed.

It is conceivable that if the tide of battle had developed according to General Auchinleck's vision, the German and Italian armies would have been besieged by the British in Tobruk, and there would be no other way but to escape by jumping into the sea.

However, there will always be accidents on the battlefield, especially since the British army is still a mixed army of the colonial armies of several countries, and it is difficult to achieve effective coordination between them.