The commander of the 26th Australian Division, when he received this harshly worded telegram from the army headquarters, was already on the border between Algeria and Libya.

Judging from this telegram, the situation of the 24th Division in front was very bad, and there was a possibility that the attack on the city of Ejele would fail. This also brought an opportunity to the Australian division commander, a rare opportunity to make meritorious contributions.

Johnson, the commander of the 24th Division, had a good reputation for outstanding ability in the entire 8th Army and even in the entire British Army in North Africa, and General Wavell and other generals had always habitually reserved the opportunity for meritorious service and awards to the 24th Division. Just before he set off the day before yesterday, he met Commander Brian of the 25th Division and chatted a few words, and the other party half-jokingly and half-seriously said that only the 24th British Division was the darling of the British army, and the remaining two British Divisions were all soy sauce.

Brian had grievances in his heart, which the commander of the Australian 26th Division knew. The reason was in the previous battle to conquer Benghazi, and Brian originally thought that he would win the battle to conquer Benghazi, but he didn't expect that in the end, Johnson of the 24th Division would rob him of the credit in his hand.

The situation is different now, according to the latest order of the army command, as soon as its own Australian 26th Division arrives in the city of Ejele, it will immediately take over the right to attack the city, while the 24th Division will only be tasked with assisting the offensive at most.

It seems that the 24th Division's attack on the city is about to fail, and he will lead the Australian troops as the main attack!

This is an order from the military department, and it is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.

Thinking of this, the commander of the 26th Division felt that he was full of passion, and he immediately asked an operational staff officer to convey orders to the two regiments he brought with him in turn, and the whole division immediately began to march rapidly, and in an hour it would be necessary to see the city of Ejle.

Of course, the 26th Division originally had 3 regiments, but one regiment was eaten by the French along with an Indian regiment when it was transferred to the northern end of the operation, so now there are only 2 regiments left in the 26th Division.

For this order of the division commander, the chief of staff of the 26th Division, who was on the side, felt a little strange.

He found that since the division commander received a telegram from the army headquarters, he was inexplicably emotionally excited, and he also directly gave the order for the whole division to march quickly.

Out of his own duty, the chief of staff of the division carefully reminded: "General, letting the whole division march in a hurry will make the troops very tired, and it will also leave some logistics units behind. What are the latest instructions that are worth making your decision to do so? ”

"Look at this order from the command, the military headquarters has asked us to arrive in the city of Ejele in two hours, and then take over the main attack from the 24th Division. It seems that the 24th Division's offensive is likely to fail, and in order to achieve the campaign intent laid out by General Wavell, we must not delay, but also speed up the advance. One more minute of delay is one less chance for us. The division commander handed the telegram in his hand to the chief of staff.

After receiving the telegram and reading it, the division chief of staff had no choice but to agree, and the division commander's opinion was correct.

This was an order from the military department, and it was impossible for him to continue to question it.

However, for the righteous words of the teacher, he still secretly slandered himself in his heart. The division commander obviously ordered a rapid march when he saw an opportunity to make meritorious contributions, otherwise, why did the troops have been marching at a normal pace since the departure from Benghazi to the present, and did not march in a hurry before?

Of course, it is impossible for the division chief of staff to say what he thinks in his heart, after all, this kind of thing still needs to be known in his heart.

Besides, now the Australian 26th Division has reaped the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, which is also beneficial to the chief of staff himself. If his unit eventually captures Ejele, then as the chief of staff of the 26th Division, the credit will not be escaped.

Thinking of this, he also echoed the division commander and said: "It seems that this is the case, we must resolutely carry out the orders of our superiors, in order to win the victory, our division should indeed rush to Ejele City as quickly as possible." ”

After another hour or so, the 26th Advance Regiment of the 974th Division arrived on the border line between Algeria and Libya.

Previously, the 24th Division led by Johnson deployed an armored vehicle and a platoon on both sides of the checkpoint to guard the checkpoint when it passed through the border line. After all, this level belonged to the key point of the 24th Division's rear line of communication, and in order to ensure that his troops were not destroyed by other French skirmishers, he had to ensure the safety of this level.

Therefore, when the vanguard of the 26th Division arrived here, after a brief negotiation, the troops of the 26th Division began to pass through this border checkpoint.

And the guards at the checkpoint also immediately reported the situation to the 24th Division Command.

The first to receive the report was Noelle, chief of staff of the 24th Division, who, after receiving a telegram from the staff officer of the communications section from the checkpoint guard troops, immediately rushed into Johnson's command room in a hurry.

As soon as he entered the door, he said loudly and happily: "Commander, good news! The 26th Regiment, the vanguard of the 974th Division, has already begun to pass through the checkpoint on the border line. Another 775 regiment is expected to arrive in another half an hour. ”

But when he finished his report, he found that Johnson had a sad expression on his face, as if he had not heard his report.

Next to Johnson was Captain Butler, the commander of the divisional guard battalion, who was covered in dust.

When Noelle walked up to Johnson, he asked Johnson, "What's wrong?" Divisional commander, what happened? ”

Before Johnson could answer, Butler, who also had a sad expression on the side, said: "I just came down from the front and brought bad news to the division commander. Captain Jace, deputy commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 131st Regiment, died. He is the cousin of the division commander, I have known him before, and he once made meritorious contributions to save the generals of the military department, but he did not expect to die here. I witnessed the whole process of his sacrifice, and while leading a combat group to attack, he was beaten into a sieve by enemy machine guns......"

Johnson didn't speak, he took off his military hat, and his heart was very sad.

Jace is his cousin who grew up with him, and the two joined the army together.

Although his position and rank have been promoted since then, he has been trying to find ways to promote the positions and ranks of his few relatives and friends. But Jace's command ability was still not good, so Johnson had no choice but to promote Jace's position to the position of deputy battalion commander.

What people didn't expect was that this young and optimistic young man died in the battle of Ejele City, which made Johnson very sad.

Hearing the bad news brought by Butler reminded him of the younger brother who had tried to find a way to rummage through his cigarettes whenever he had the opportunity.

In fact, Johnson had a very close relationship with Butler, Jace and Noah, the commander of the 974th Regiment, and this intimate relationship was known to everyone among the commanders and fighters in the division.

The division chief of staff had also heard of their friendship, so as soon as he heard what Butler said, he hurriedly said to Johnson: "I really didn't expect Jace to die like this." Alas, how good it would have been if he had lived to the day of our victory....... We have many excellent soldiers, all of whom have sacrificed their lives for the British Empire and our empire on which the sun never sets, in this war. They are heroes that deserve to be remembered forever! But when a man dies, he cannot be resurrected, General Johnson, and I beg you to mourn. ”