Zhang Chi couldn't believe his ears. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Everything he did, such as introducing the Italian 133rd Panzer Division into Alexandria, and then using the Italian 133rd Panzer Division to lure the German 21st Panzer Division to come to the rescue and defeat it, was to consume the German army's vital forces in order to facilitate the British army's counterattack on the German line.

But now that it's all come to this, Montgomery actually told him that "things have changed"!

Zhang Chi sensitively sensed that the British might have given up the idea of counterattacking again.

With doubts, Zhang Chi hurried back to Port Said to attend the meeting convened by Montgomery.

As soon as Zhang Chi pushed open the door of the conference room, there was a warm applause.

Montgomery, like a theatrical actor, said to the British officers in an exaggerated and impassioned manner: "Gentlemen, welcome our hero from distant China, General Zhang Chi!" ”

"Wow!" There was another fierce applause, and along with the applause, many officers came forward to shake hands with Zhang Chi from time to time.

But none of this has dispelled the doubts of the relaxation.

He sat down in his place, and when the applause had quieted down, he asked Montgomery: "General, I would like to know, what do you mean by 'things have changed'?" ”

"Major General!" Montgomery replied, "I admire your resolute personality, but I think you should take a break after this great fight, and perhaps a cup of coffee is a good choice!" ”

As he spoke, Montgomery raised his hand towards the coffee in front of Zhang Chi.

"General!" Zhang Chi replied: "With all due respect, according to the plan, we should launch a counterattack at this time, this is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it would be wrong to waste any second!" ”

"Why?" Montgomery asked.

Montgomery's words couldn't help but make him feel angry.

"Isn't it obvious why?" Zhang Chi replied: "The German and Italian armies have been attacking all along, because they can always succeed in attacking, so their defense is not tight, and at the same time they do not have so many troops to build a tight defense line!" ”

As everyone knows, the British Commonwealth army has more than 200,000 troops, while the German and Italian armies have only 80,000, and even if some new reinforcements are added, they will not exceed 100,000.

In a terrain like the desert, even the more than 200,000 people of the British Commonwealth Army could not build a tight defensive line, let alone the German army, which was less than half of the troops.

"Yes!" Montgomery said, "What else? ”

"This means that the German and Italian armies are underprepared and under-armed!" Zhang Chi replied: "And just now, we annihilated two armored divisions of the German and Italian armies, which will inevitably cause a hole in the defense line of the German and Italian armies, all we have to do is to attack, and then find this loophole and then break through, so that we can defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps, isn't it?" ”

"I appreciate your courage, Major General!" Montgomery said: "Prime Minister Churchill was right that he compared you to Rommel, and you, like Rommel, always emphasised offense. However, the major general ...... The current situation is that we do not have air supremacy, and how can we launch a counteroffensive without air supremacy? ”

It turns out that this is the case, and when Montgomery said "the situation has changed", he meant that the air supremacy, which was originally evenly matched, completely fell in favor of the German army.

It should be said that Montgomery's statement is still reasonable to some extent, because combat air supremacy in desert terrain is indeed very important, just like the Battle of Alexandria, because without air supremacy, all the armored units had to be hidden in Alexandria and could not participate in the battle, otherwise they would become excellent targets for enemy fighters.

By the same token, it is inconceivable to attack the German and Italian lines without air supremacy, unless the British attack is carried out with pure infantry instead of tank cover...... And this obviously could not break through the defensive line built by the German and Italian armies.

However, nothing on the battlefield is absolute, for example, Zhang Chi won the Battle of Alexandria without air supremacy.

"General, we can choose to attack at night!" Zhang Chi suggested.

"Major General!" Montgomery replied a little helplessly: "You forgot that our tanks do not have the ability to fight at night, including the 'Sherman' tank!" ”

"Of course I haven't forgotten!" Zhang Chi replied: "But the Germans' tanks also do not have the ability to fight at night, and their 88 anti-aircraft guns used as anti-tank guns are difficult to give full play to their long-range advantages at night!" ”

As we all know, night fighting is the best way to avoid air superiority, even on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea after World War II, the volunteers also used night battles to avoid the air superiority of the United Nations Army and other aspects of equipment superiority.

There was silence in the conference room for a while, and Montgomery replied helplessly: "Major General, there is another thing you don't understand, you can't measure the Commonwealth army by the quality of the Chinese army...... If all my troops were like the Chinese army, even with only two divisions, I would immediately attack the German lines! ”

After a pause, Montgomery continued: "But not now, we are not ready to attack!" On the other hand, our original strategic purpose was to attract the Luftwaffe firepower to reduce the pressure on the island of Malta, and now we have done it, haven't we? ”

Saying that, Montgomery glanced at Ramsden on the side, Ramsden was stunned for a moment, and then nodded and said, "Yes, Major General." You see, the Germans, if they were to hold the line, had to maintain their air superiority, that is to say they had to put an air flotilla in our direction, which already relieved half of the pressure on the island of Malta. And as soon as the Germans withdraw this air force, it will be time for us to attack......"

"Didn't you think it might be too late to attack by then?" Zhang Chi aggravated his tone: "The Germans will perfect their fortifications, which will cost us twice the price or even defeat!" ”

Zhang Chi glanced at everyone in the conference room, and then said: "Moreover, haven't you thought that the Germans' supplies are still in a state of shortage? Although their supply situation has improved due to the arrival of the air brigade and the bombing of Malta, this is only the beginning of the improvement! In addition, the Germans had dispatched so many planes and tanks in the attack on Alexandria that they were probably running out of fuel, and we stopped the attack to give them a respite......"

"Major General, that's just your guess!" Montgomery reminded: "This is an army group attack, and the lives of 200,000 soldiers are at stake, and we cannot base it on a guess!" ”