Montgomery's request made Barton a little nervous, and he knew how much pressure Montgomery was on at this point in the war. In fact, Montgomery's ability to hold on until now was very much beyond Barton's own expectations. In his and his staff's calculations, Montgomery's forces should have begun to rout a few days ago.

As for why Montgomery has not been defeated by the Germans until now, the reason cannot be anything else, but because Montgomery played an extraordinary role in the battle for the periphery of Alexandria, and the German troops under Rommel did not exert their full strength.

In fact, Barton was most concerned about the second point, which was how much strength Rommel had retained in his reserves. Rommel did not invest his elite armoured forces in the battle for positional warfare, or Rommel did not invest too many armoured troops. Now Montgomery can confirm the location of the German armored forces, there are only three pitiful ones. That is to say, Rommel has at least two Panzer Divisions that have not yet been used, which is undoubtedly a sharp sword hanging over General Patton's head.

After all, Patton's armored forces are not abundant, and after such a long period of accumulation, he finally got 300 M4 Sherman tanks, as well as about 500 M3lee tanks, which is all the strength that he can threaten the German armored forces, as for the other 460 M3 tanks, Patton can only classify them as armored vehicles for use, because this kind of tank is basically useless in the face of German armored forces.

His original hope was to rely on Montgomery's positional warfare before the decisive battle began, delay the time to accumulate strength, and consume some of Rommel's armored forces to gain an advantage in the North African battlefield, but now it was obviously too late, because poor Montgomery's troops were a little too strict.

Because in recent days, German submarines have begun to indiscriminately attack American merchant ships heading to the Middle East, and the supply of the US military in the Middle East has been seriously questioned.

This is a very simple reasoning question, Montgomery's support from the British government-in-exile is almost zero, he can only rely on the original British colonial system in North Africa and some British troops that were originally left in North Africa too late to return home to fight, and now these troops are basically lost, even if Rommel did not win this time, but next time, Patton will not be able to count on Montgomery to replenish in time.

And the German-Italian North African coalition, which occupies the supply advantage in the Mediterranean, can accumulate strength again little by little and wait for the next fighter. For Patton personally, rather than waiting until that time to be annihilated by Rommel with his superior forces, it is better to fight with his troops now, and maybe it is possible to turn defeat into victory.

So Patton sent the idea to Roosevelt and other high-ranking officials in Washington, and won the support of President Roosevelt. Now, if Patton doesn't take advantage of the opportunity to fight with Montgomery, then he can only retreat to the Middle East and wait to be annihilated by Rommel little by little.

"Order the troops, immediately advance 10 kilometers, the main three armored divisions to the south, spread out the formation, and prepare to counterattack the flank of Rommel's Afrika Korps!" Patton stared at the map in front of him, and finally made up his mind to open the decisive battle. His character does not allow him to slowly move towards death, and he has to fight his opponent Rommel with dignity while there is still a chance of winning.

The chief of staff nodded, immediately grabbed the phone in front of him, and loudly gave the order for the troops to be deployed: "All the troops on standby, move forward, execute according to the predetermined plan A, and the counterattack will start on the whole line in 24 hours!"

Not only was the order given here for a full-front counterattack, but the Army Air Command also issued an order for the planes of the American and British expeditionary forces to take off immediately to meet the raging Luftwaffe fighter units, and with this temporary order, Patton became the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in the North African theater of war over Montgomery.

An American tank rushed out of the makeshift camouflage shed and bunker, the soldiers were busy unloading the camouflage on the armored car and the car, one cannon after another was pulled out of the original artillery bunker by the car, and the American soldiers in the car held their weapons and shook their bodies slightly as the car advanced.

On both sides of the wide road in the desert, American soldiers marched forward one after another with rifles, and they lined up in dense lines, driving to the front line in a neat manner with slogans, and on the road, tanks and motor vehicles were trained in a straight line, and the torrent of steel stretched to the end of the sky, which made people shocked beyond comprehension at a glance.

Just when the American soldiers began to advance in an all-round way, in the field airfield behind the Allied defense line, one fighter after another rushed out of the long runway with the roar of the engine, and hundreds of planes took off to fight.

Fierce air battles broke out between the two sides in the airspace where the two sides were engaged, and in the end, German pilots shot down 71 of the 75 American planes that came to fight at a terrible cost of 40 aircraft. However, the air battle was still raging, and although the Luftwaffe firmly held air supremacy, it was unable to use air supremacy to support ground attacks for a while.

"The reconnaissance planes of the 14th Air Wing have returned, and the other side has put in new P-40 fighters, preventing our air force from approaching and reconnoitring. At the German front headquarters, Rommel's aides asked Rommel: "General, should we first inform the air wing and let them continue to send planes to reconnoitre?"

"It's not necessary, Patton has made a move, after all, it is not easy for them to draw out so many planes to fight for air supremacy, and it is impossible to make a dispensable feint, so eighty percent of it is Patton's action. With his hands behind his back, Rommel looked at the almost identical map of operations hanging from Patton's headquarters, and stared at the marching arrows of his troops on it with a frown, as if to determine where Patton would start the fateful battle in North Africa.

"To the north, next to the Mediterranean, the troops left behind by Montgomery in Tobruk suffered a small loss, and I don't think they dare to attack...... Now that's all that's left for the front and the south. Rommel muttered his analysis over and over again as he stretched out one of his hands and tapped his finger on the map, as if to confirm the other man's location.

"I guess Patton must have deployed his forces to the south, and only here can he avoid the advantage of the Mediterranean Fleet that our army may deploy. Rommel tapped on the map hanging on the wall and said in a very affirmative tone: "If I were him, I would have put my forces to the south!

He glanced at Schellner, who was sitting in the command headquarters, and the Italian commander Garibaldi, who had rushed to attend the combat meeting: "My 7th Panzer Corps, as well as the main force of the 12th SS Panzer Division, go south with my command and prepare to meet our old adversary Patton for a while! After all, there are not many opportunities for us to meet again!"

The combat staff nodded, and also gave the order for the main force to move south, and the armored forces gathered in Germany moved its huge body like an ancient beast that had awakened.

With the sound of the order to set off, the soldiers packed their tents and bags, carried their guns, checked their ammunition, accompanied by the rumbling tanks and armored vehicles, and firmly took a step towards the sea of yellow sand, the huge swastika flag was spread on the roof of the tank, and the officers of the German armored forces sitting on the captain's cabin door smiled and stared into the distance, where they would start a large-scale battle.

A fighter jet skimmed the road at low altitude, passing a long line of German Leopard tanks one after the other, because there were so many vehicles on the road, and the soldiers on both sides of the road were marching on foot and raising a cloud of dust, which looked like a huge sandstorm moving slowly from a distance.

Rommel sat in his car, covering his mouth with a shabby scarf, because the sand rolled up by the surrounding vehicles really made it impossible to open his eyes, so he put the plexiglass goggles on his big-brimmed hat and followed his troops quickly.

In Berlin, Germany, Accardo received a report of a campaign from North Africa in his office, the siege of Alexandria was already raging, and the Allied 8th Army led by Patton had appeared in the southern part of Alexandria, and Rommel was leading his armored forces to stop it, and the battle to determine the future of North Africa was about to break out.

"Let's hope Rommel and Schellner don't let us down. Accardo closed the telegram from North Africa, glanced at Anna, who was guarding him, and said, "I have sent them so many supplies and equipment, and I have prepared a follow-up for them, and I hope to hear the news of the great victory in the North African battlefield in a few days." ”

"Definitely, dear. Anna walked behind Accardo, stretched out her hand, and helped Accardo pinch his shoulder: "I listened to the analysis of the staff officers of the Supreme Command, saying that in this battle, the probability of us winning is at least ninety percent!"