As a result of this encounter, the British 9th Panzer Regiment ceased to exist as a fighting force......

Colonel Gale, commander of the British 9th Panzer Regiment, was killed on the spot, and several German soldiers found his body in a wrecked Mammoth armoured command vehicle, along with his headquarters and radio station.

From this point of view, the "Mammoth" armored command vehicle, although comfortable, was not safe on the battlefield, mainly because it was very different from the "Matador" car, and the German soldiers could recognize it at a glance and notify the tank to destroy it...... The German armor-piercing high-explosive shells were not waste, and after they were penetrated, they could explode inside the armored car, so none of the officers in it were spared.

The loss of the radio station and headquarters caused the British 9th Panzer Regiment to flee with tanks and cars, but they were unable to contact their superiors, and they were driven by fear to flee to the British lines.

The 9th Panzer Regiment was so silently routed that they didn't even have time to report it to General Ochinleck, and thus became the first domino to overwhelm the "Crusader" plan......

At this time, the commander of the British front, Lieutenant General Cunningham, the commander of the Eighth Army, thought that the 9th Panzer Regiment was still on its way to the side of the Halfa Pass, so the rest of the group continued as planned.

Lieutenant General Cunningham thought that the loss of contact with the 9th Panzer Regiment was nothing more than radio silence of the 9th Panzer Regiment, and it was not until three hours later that the deserters of the 9th Panzer Regiment met with the follow-up troops, and Lieutenant General Cunningham was given the real information......

"What? The 9th Panzer Regiment has already been routed? Lieutenant General Cunningham couldn't help but be shocked: "How is this possible?!" ”

"General, it's true!" The staff officer said: "They were fiercely attacked by the main armored division of the German army, and only 9 tanks and more than 500 infantry escaped!" ”

Militarily, it is taboo to use such vague statements as "the main armored division of the German army" to report, and under normal circumstances, the enemy's number will be explained in detail. But under the circumstances, the British did not even know which German army they were encountering, so they could only report it like this.

"How many tanks does the enemy have? How many troops are there? In which direction are they moving? Lieutenant General Cunningham anxiously asked a barrage of questions.

The staff officer shook his head helplessly: "They don't know anything about the enemy's situation, but they guess that it should be moving in the direction of the Gabshali Line!" ”

The Gabshali Line was the right flank of the German line, where the British had built a line.

"Damn it!" Lieutenant General Cunningham scolded, and then immediately ordered: "Order the South African 1st Division to be ready for battle and block the enemy's attack no matter what!" Also, order the 22nd Panzer Regiment to reinforce the Gabshali Line at once! ”

"Yes!"

Lieutenant General Cunningham is indeed necessary to be nervous, and there is a saying in the military that "if you are not careful, you will lose everything!" ”

The 9th Panzer Regiment was a clever move, able to flank the Halfa Pass on both sides and crush the British 13th Army attacking on the frontal line like a flood of bursting embankments.

But who would have thought that the 9th Panzer Regiment not only failed to play a role, but also let the enemy lose a single shot, which reversed the whole situation......

If the German Panzer Division arrived and captured the Gabshali Line, the entire German line would be united, which would cut off the British supply lines and encircle all British units that crossed the German line on the other side of the German line.

That's the entire 30th Army.

After thinking about it, Lieutenant General Cunningham ordered again: "8th Panzer Regiment...... Tune them back now! ”

The mission of the 8th Panzer Regiment was to attack Tobruk and pin down the Italian forces stationed in Tobruk so that they could not reinforce the Halfa Yaguan Line, and now that the 9th Panzer Regiment had been destroyed, the mission of the 8th Panzer Regiment was no longer meaningful. 、

But the staff officer replied with a telegram: "General, the 8th Panzer Regiment has launched an offensive towards Tobruk!" ”

Lieutenant General Cunningham couldn't help but feel angry when he heard this, and he didn't dare to easily transfer back after he had launched an attack, because it would mean exposing his position, and he would be easily ambushed by the enemy on the way back.

After thinking about it, Lieutenant General Cunningham ordered: "Order the 7th Armored Brigade to move closer to the Gabshali Line immediately!" ”

"Yes!" The staff officer responded.

This order also meant that the 7th Armored Brigade was running back and forth on the road and doing useless work.

And just when Lieutenant General Cunningham had arranged all this and wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, a communications soldier reported: "General, the Gabshali Line is under attack by the Germans!" ”

Lieutenant General Cunningham couldn't help but turn pale, the Germans had rushed to the Gabshali Line so quickly.

"Order General Alger to hold the Gabshali Line!" Lieutenant General Cunningham ordered: "Reinforcements will arrive in two hours!" ”

"Yes!"

It was the 21st Panzer Division that rushed to the Gabshali Line.

Compared with the British army, which was scattered into several units, one regiment here and one regiment there, the deployment of the German army was very simple, they were a defensive line and a base camp.

The defensive line is the Halfa Tooth Pass Line, and the base camp is Tobruk.

Two armored divisions, namely the 15th and 21st armored divisions, served as mobile units.

Among them, the 15th Panzer Division was mainly used for maneuvering on the defensive line, and they rushed to wherever the British were about to break through or needed reinforcements.

The 21st Panzer Division was used as a mobile defense on the right flank...... The Germans were too small to build a line of defense without gaps, so they had to use this mobile defensive method.

The German battle plan was also very simple: when they found a gap in the right flank, they would go straight to the front line and destroy all the enemies who crossed the defensive line.

The battlefield is sometimes like this, the simpler the plan, the more effective, and the more complex the plan, the more scrambling and even a problem in one link can lead to the whole plan being disrupted.

In this battle, the Germans were clearly the former, and the British were the latter.

One of the accidents that occurred was that the road of the German 21st Panzer Division to the battlefield overlapped with the advance route of the British 9th Panzer Regiment, and they met at one point...... So the whole plan of the British army was disrupted.

As a result, although the British army had much more strength than the German army, the German army always had the advantage of strength in every local battlefield and was able to quickly defeat the British army.

For example, on the Gabshali Line, the British had only one South African 1st Division, which was incapable of fighting in combat, and an armored battalion equipped with 80 "Valentine" tanks.

If there is anything else worth mentioning, it is the 9 surviving "Stuart" tanks of the 9th Panzer Regiment.