Wavell could no longer command in North Africa.

Soon after the failure of Operation Tomahawk, Wavell received a telegram: "To General Wavell, Prime Minister: General Auchinleck will succeed you as Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in the Middle East, and you are an incomparable man of great talent and a very distinguished officer, who will fill the vacant post of Commander-in-Chief of Britain and India." ”

"Outstanding Talent" and "Outstanding Officer" ...... These are words that the British used to comfort the losers, and Wavell certainly understood.

Wavell decided to go along with this arrangement, knowing that he had failed in North Africa, and although he was a little unconvinced, he could have won......

After thinking about it, Wavell called back to London with a heavy heart: "I obey the arrangement unconditionally, and the whole responsibility for the failure in North Africa lies with me, and I wait for General Auchinleck to come and take over my command......"

Before leaving, Wavell showed the gentlemanly demeanor of an Englishman, and the courage of a warrior.

In this regard, Qin Chuan believes that this is Churchill's lack of mind and vision in employing people, and if Churchill had always used Wavell as the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, the historical Rommel might have been defeated in North Africa sooner.

However, the British generals failed one by one, and if they failed again, they changed again...... As a result, every general who goes into battle is unfamiliar with desert warfare and needs a process of adaptation, and when they are almost adapted, they are not far from being replaced.

The reason why Montgomery, who was in the end, was able to win was entirely because the British army had an absolute advantage in troops, equipment and supplies, and it could almost be said that whoever commanded could win as long as they pushed forward without brains.

Auchinleck was not entirely inexperienced in commanding desert operations, having commanded the British in North Africa during World War I to defend the Suez Canal, which is one of the reasons why he was chosen by Churchill to replace Wavell.

But the experience of the First World War turned out to be often useless and even harmful.

Many German generals, such as Rommel himself, also fought in the First World War, and after he had the experience of the First World War, he always avoided fighting on the battlefield to be similar to the trench warfare of the First World War, and other German generals also developed new tactical theories on the basis of this, and the "blitzkrieg" was born.

But if you stick to the experience of World War I and think that future wars will not change like that, and build strategies, tactics, and even research and development equipment based on them, you will make a joke.

France's "Maginot Line" is one of the jokes, the French summed up from the trench warfare of World War I that the future war is between the enemy and the enemy between the trenches, so they built the world's most luxurious, strong trenches to support their "absolute defense" military theory.

Britain will be better than France, but it will also be half a pound and half a two...... It is mainly reflected in the research and development of weapons and equipment, mainly aimed at trench warfare, such as infantry tanks.

The newly appointed General Auchinleck suffered greatly.

He immediately counted his troops and equipment, and then was surprised to find that he only had 100 "Matilda" tanks in his hands.

"Looks like I'm here to clean up the mess!" General Ochinlake said to the staff officer.

"No, General!" The staff officer replied: "The Germans have much fewer tanks than we do!" ”

"Oh, really?" General Auchinleck replied: "But the Germans can at least drive in front of our positions, and we can always feel the threat of the enemy and need to be guarded against, but do the Germans need to worry about our tanks?" ”

The staff officer was speechless.

General Auchinleck was right when he said that the German, Italian, and British lines were thirty kilometers apart...... The reason for this distance is that the British retreated and the Germans did not pursue, so a buffer zone was opened in between.

Thirty kilometers is not even an hour for the German "No. 3" tank, so the British army has to worry that the German tank will suddenly appear in front of them and intersperse, so there is a feeling that everyone is in danger.

This distance took three hours for the Matilda tanks, and there was not even a guarantee of how many tanks would not break down on the way, and the Germans would have been able to spot them from afar and have plenty of time to prepare.

That is, the Germans were much more at ease to defend than the British.

"It's not even worse than this!" General Auchinleck said to the staff officer: "What's worse is that we only have 'Matilda', if you want more or more advanced tanks, you have to transport them from the British mainland in a little more than a month, and the Germans only need a few days to get everything they need from Italy, so it won't be long before the Germans' tanks will multiply, and we will still be these garbage ......"

As he spoke, General Ochinleck raised the list of equipment in his hand.

The staff officer was speechless, because the transport line from the British mainland around the Cape of Good Hope was indeed much longer than the supply line of the German and Italian armies.

In desperation, General Auchinlake sent a telegram to Churchill: "Although we have an advantage in troops, and even in the number of tanks, this is only a data on paper, the tanks we have are all backward tanks, if we can't get more tanks and supplies, I believe we have to withdraw from North Africa!" ”

Churchill certainly wouldn't allow that to happen.

Because if Germany occupied Egypt and then took control of the "Suez Canal", then British transportation with India, Austria and other colonies would have to bypass the Cape of Good Hope, which would not only increase the range at least double, but also add many uncertain dangers.

Churchill's call back: "I will give you everything you want, and all you have to do is drive the enemy out into the sea!" ”

Churchill did exactly that, and his solution was to turn to the United States for help.

At this time, the United States had not yet entered the war, and in principle could not help any of the warring parties, but this was in name only, because the United States passed the "Lend-Lease Act" and provided a large amount of equipment and materials to the Allied forces in the name of Lend-Lease to support the Allied forces.

At this time, the United States happened to have a batch of strategic materials shipped to India, which was originally sent to Burma to be used to support the Chinese expeditionary force, but Britain had a closer relationship with the United States, so Roosevelt agreed to Churchill's request without much thought, and instead used this batch of materials to reinforce North Africa.

In this way, the British supply line was not from the British mainland to North Africa, but from India through the Red Sea and then through the Suez Canal to Egypt...... This route is even shorter than the German route to Tobruk via Italy.