Thanks to Jiang Xuanjing's tip, I just saw it, and I will come out with a chapter immediately, I don't know if I will have time to publish four chapters today, if it's too late, I'll make it up tomorrow!

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It should be said that the British army will have a heart to underestimate the enemy, and partly because of Montgomery...... Montgomery's mission to the British army was too simple, and Montgomery was too well prepared and invested, which is like asking a boxing champion to fight a three-year-old child, and it is difficult for a boxing champion not to underestimate the enemy. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Therefore, the British army did not take Montgomery's orders too seriously on the front line, especially since there was still some competition between the Canadian 1st Division and the British 5th Division...... They both want to overtake their opponents, and this is reflected in whether the defense line is a little further forward, so there is a phenomenon that you go a little forward and he goes a little forward, and as a result, the actual defense line advances a full two kilometers forward.

To make matters worse, some of the troops insisted on building fortifications at the planned positions according to Montgomery's orders, and thus formed many salients along the defensive line...... It turned out to be precisely these salient bad things.

On the one hand, this is because the salient is easily flanked by the enemy from several sides and cannot be supported by friendly fire, and there is even a danger of being cut off by the enemy's retreat and surrounded by it.

On the other hand, it is these salients that prevent the artillery from cooperating...... If the line of defense is roughly in a straight line, the artillery knows that there is the enemy outside this straight line, and as long as the shells are fired beyond this distance, there will generally be no accidental injury, but if there is a salient in the line and the salient is besieged by the enemy, then the artillery will not be able to master it, especially at night when it is difficult for artillery observers to play a role.

The British were also not very attentive to laying barricades and mines in front of the defensive line.

One reason for this is that there is another bet between the British and American armies...... The British had to make sure that there would be no confusion when the American troops landed and crossed the British line the next day.

And it is very important that there will be no confusion, that is, to ensure the smooth flow of traffic, not only in the rear that the British army has occupied, but also outside the line of defense...... If too many mines and roadblocks are laid outside the defense line, it is possible to reduce efficiency and even injure U.S. troops. And this is again unbearable for the US military.

In fact, Montgomery already knew that Eisenhower had summoned and used reporters from all walks of life, and why he had called them...... You don't have to guess to think that it is to use reporters to mobilize people from all over the world to jointly supervise the British army's fulfillment of the gambling treaty.

This invisibly put a lot of pressure on Montgomery, and Montgomery put pressure on the British army, so many roads in front of the line were only symbolically deployed with fire and fences, and were not blocked by mines at all.

The British soon regretted this, and the German tanks were able to break through the British lines almost unimpeded on the road, which surprised even the Germans.

The German offensive was launched at one o'clock in the morning of the next day.

The reason why Kesselring chose this time was to hope to catch the British army by surprise when they were most asleep and when they were most unprepared.

Kesselring regretted his decision afterwards, because he positioned the battle to surprise the British and inflict some losses, and then the Germans withdrew in a flash...... He did not believe that the Germans were capable of driving the British into the sea, and on the other hand, the Germans were very different in strength and equipment from the enemy, and if they were entangled, they would be in danger of being annihilated.

In this position, Kesselring was right to set the time at 1 a.m., and at the same time sent not many troops, that is, the Goering Division of the British Eighth Army in Sicily.

But as soon as the fight began, Kesselring realized that the Germans could win a decisive victory in this battle...... Therefore, the attack should have been launched as soon as it was dark, so that there would be enough time to attack in the dark, and more tanks and troops would have been needed to attack the British lines.

But by the time it was discovered, it was already too late.

At one o'clock in the morning, the "rumbling" of artillery suddenly rang out on the other side of the Strait of Messina, and Zhang Chi could easily tell that it was the German attack on the British army in Salerno, because the direction of Salerno had already exploded into bright red flames.

A few minutes later, Zhang Chi received his first call.

Normally, this call is usually to report information or give orders from superiors, but this time it was different.

The call was from Patton.

"Major General!" Patton said excitedly on the phone: "You are so surprised, like you said, the Germans really launched a counterattack!" Now there are Britons who look good......"

"How's it going?" Zhang Chi asked.

This is not good in the campaign under the leadership of the British, who will hide the information on the front line here and there...... This is mainly for political purposes, the British are bent on comparing others, so a lot of information has to wait for filtering before sending it to the US military, and then the US military will send it to the French army, and then Zhang Chi will know the situation.

This is obviously not good for the war, because some important information will be "filtered" out, and at the same time, it will delay the fighters.

Therefore, it was a fluke that the British and American coalition forces in history were able to defeat the German army...... This victory was partly due to luck, partly equipment, and partly due to America's strong industrial capabilities, which provided ample logistics for the Allies.

"No, we don't know the situation yet!" Patton replied: "The British didn't say anything, only that they were attacked by a massive German counteroffensive!" ”

Zhang Chi believes that the British should not have deliberately concealed it this time, because the British army at this time is likely to be in chaos, and I am afraid that even Alexander and Montgomery do not know everything about the specific situation.

Zhang Chi guessed correctly, at this time the headquarters of the British Eighth Army was already in chaos: the radio and telephone were noisy like selling in the vegetable market, and Montgomery had just been woken up from his sleep by the staff officer and there was a large pile of messages in front of him.

"Don't panic, gentlemen!" Montgomery maintained the demeanor of a general who "Tarzan collapsed in front of him and his face did not change...... It's just that this kind of general demeanor must be matched with enough wisdom, if you don't have enough wisdom but remain optimistic, it can only be said to be self-deception.

Montgomery, who clearly belonged to the latter, said to his men before he could read the telegram: "This is probably only a symbolic counter-offensive by the Germans, and I believe that our line is strong enough to withstand the enemy's attack under the management of the soldiers!" ”

"However, the general ......" the staff officer said anxiously, "the information we have received is...... The Germans were found to have a large number of tanks, while we did not have many tanks and at the same time did not have enough anti-tank weapons! ”

"General, in fact, some parts of our line of defense have already been broken through by the enemy!"

……

That's when Montgomery got a little nervous.

"What about our artillery?" Montgomery said: "And warships, let them stop the advance of enemy tanks!" ”