my head

It was the sudden desert storm, which began as a small whirlwind whirling among the bushes, and then turned into a strong wind with a speed of more than 130 kilometers per hour, stirring up hundreds of tons of hot, tiny red dust. The sand is overwhelming, and the fine sand seeps into the engine filter, pours into the tent, penetrates into people's eyes, nose and mouth, covers the windshield like heavy rain, and cuts off people's sight.

However, the flat ground in the desert has become an ideal battlefield for modern mechanized warfare, allowing those steel beasts to gallop freely.Of course, when fighting in the desolate desert, the tank is the most important weapon. The tank cabin exposed to the sun is like a large pressurized furnace, filled with the mixed smell of fuel, gun oil and stinky sweat. It smells terrible.The tankers usually only wear shorts, and their skin has been peeled off by the sun and become like black paint.After Montgomery took office, Commander-in-Chief Alexander gave him a fairly simple order: destroy Rommel and his Afrika Korps! I hope he can get rid of the passive situation, so the first goal Montgomery set for himself is: in the first battle with Rommel, not only must he win, but he must also fight in such a way that the officers and soldiers can regain their respect for the senior commander. Confidence, so that when they launch offensive operations in the future, they can go into severe battles with high morale.

Of course, Rommel also wanted to destroy the British and American coalition forces, so Montgomery and Rommel, who will win?

Although the soldiers of the British and American coalition forces came from different countries, they were a battle-tested team.And has a strong fighting force.Now.The officers and soldiers have not completely come out from the shadow of failure in front.Churchill once vividly called them "brave, but confused" people.Although Montgomery understood the pain of fighting in the deserted desert for a long time, enduring the torment of harsh weather and being separated from his family for a long time, he also knew that losing confidence is undoubtedly a dangerous signal for a combat force. This situation must be changed as soon as possible, otherwise not only will the battle not be won, but it may also fall into greater passivity.

Now.Montgomery had to contend not only with the German army gaining momentum, but also with the general malaise among the troops.Montgomery said in his heart: The first confrontation with Rommel must be done beautifully, and the German's spirit must be slammed for a moment.As soon as Montgomery took office, he gave his subordinates a different feeling from his predecessors. In his first speech to all staff of the headquarters, he said: "The defense of Egypt is in Alamein, and here we must stand. If you want to fight, you must never retreat half a step back. All previous plans and orders for retreat are burned, and they must be burned immediately. All means of transportation must be withdrawn to the rear. Ammunition, water and rations must be stored in the front area. If Someone is scared, he can walk away immediately.

We are not afraid of Rommel.We are ready and waiting for his attack!" Because Montgomery is very good at mobilizing the enthusiasm of his subordinates and making them work hard to complete his plan in battle. Therefore, in order to establish his own prestige, Let the officers and soldiers of the Anglo-American Allied Forces recognize him and know him-the commander of the Anglo-American Allied Forces is always on the front line. Montgomery threw away the British army's standard military cap and put on the one that made him The world famous Australian bush hat embellished with the coat of arms.

……

Rommel is also going deep into the front line, visiting every unit of his own to boost morale. The harsh living environment in the desert makes the German SS very uncomfortable. When the German SS soldiers are a little tired and tired, their The commander appeared, and Rommel gave full play to his outstanding eloquence and kept going deep among the soldiers to arouse their confidence.Everywhere he went, he made the soldiers sit on the sand while he jumped on top of the tank and spoke in his firm, composed, confident and provocative language:

"I don't really like the atmosphere here. It's an atmosphere of doubt, of looking backwards for reinforcements, picking where to retreat next. You guys should change your minds and let's re-establish a positive, fresh Atmosphere. Our offensive target is here——Alamein. If we lose Alamein and lose the easy-to-get Alamein, then we will lose the whole of Egypt and even the whole world, and the Atlantic Alliance will become even more arrogant. For our For our country, for our people, and for freedom, we must continue to fight here, never step back, attack, attack, and attack again."

In the end, Rommel said impassionedly and loudly: "If we can't survive here, let us die for our country together!" The troops, with his fire-like passion, reawakened the confidence lost by the soldiers due to the harsh desert environment.

While Montgomery was carefully planning his next move, Rommel was also actively preparing for a new offensive.In the face of huge consumption, Rommel used all transport ships to transfer materials. Even water needs to be transported in large quantities. This is the consumption of 200 million people. The water transported alone must reach 1000 million catties per day. under logistical pressure.Rommel felt that he could not procrastinate any longer. He decided that he must attack quickly, and finally took a big gamble.Rommel also had the same thoughts as Zhang Jun, and the world would be settled in one battle, because Germany couldn't afford it.

Rommel fixed their eyes on Mount Alam Halfa.Therefore, the first confrontation between Montgomery and the "Desert Fox" is about to start in the Alam Halfa Mountains.

Alam Halfa is located a few kilometers behind the Alamein front and is the key to the entire Alamein position.When Rommel observed the enemy's inspection and deployment, he found that the enemy did not set up defense at this critical point for some reason.Rommel believed that this was a major mistake, and he had to take advantage of this mistake of the British and American coalition forces to seize the strategic commanding heights of Alamein, especially since he received a lot of information that Montgomery was likely to mobilize his armored forces from Alamein in the near future. Mhalfa launched a massive counteroffensive.

It may be that Montgomery did not let his armored troops appear on Mount Alam Halfa in order to hide his strategic intentions. If there are a large number of armored troops of the British and American coalition forces in this generation, it will expose Montgomery's counterattack direction. This may be why Montgomery There is no reason for the deployment of armored troops in Alam Halfa. Unfortunately, Rommel was the first to find out about Montgomery's huge mistake and decided to attack in advance.

During the inspection, Montgomery also found mistakes in his arrangement, and urgently made the following deployment adjustments: Based on the south wing of the New Zealand Division box position, deploy in the gap between the box position and Alam Halfa Mountain The 22nd Armored Division, all tanks of the division were entrenched in hidden positions.He deployed two divisions of the 44th Division, which had just been transferred from the Nile Delta, on the back of the mountain in Alam Halfa, and deployed the 23rd Armored Division as a reserve behind the 22nd Armored Division.The 8th Armored Division was deployed in a slightly rearward position south of the Alam Halfa Ridge, while maneuver elements of the 7th Armored Division were engaged in skirmishing and defending minefields and the open flank to the south.

Montgomery believed that this deployment would stop Rommel no matter how he attacked.Should Rommel attack due east, he would be blocked by the 8th Panzer Division, while artillery from the 22nd Panzer Division and two divisions would pound from his left.If Rommel broke through the minefield and attacked to the left, he would face the head-on attack of the 22nd Armored Division in a concealed state, while on his right was the 8th Armored Division waiting in full force.In short, Montgomery felt that as long as Rommel launched an attack, he would be surrounded, and once Rommel was trapped by the British army, he would immediately order the British Air Force to carry out carpet bombing against him in a dense formation.Now, Montgomery has laid a strong big bag, just waiting for Rommel to drill.

It is a pity that Montgomery's arrangement is not wrong, but quite perfect, but there is a deviation in time. If Montgomery arranged it like this from the beginning, Rommel would not dare to attack. If he attacked, he would fall into Montgomery's trap , If a large-scale mobilization is required, there is no way to complete it within a day or two. Even if the British and American coalition forces are in place in a day, how fast can the construction of fortifications be, two or three days is the fastest!Montgomery's troops arrived the day before, and that night, the Anglo-American coalition forces were attacked by Rommel before they had time to build fortifications.

At 1 p.m. on January 11, a pale moon illuminated the rolling desert of Alamein.Rommel's armor began to advance eastward towards the British minefields.

The defense line of the German SS in front of Alamein is similar to that of the British and American Allied Forces. These places also need the assistance of armored divisions to resist possible attacks by the British and American Allied Forces. Germany has only 99 armored divisions, and these lines of defense use Eight armored divisions went to Rommel, so there are only eight armored divisions that Rommel can use for offense, six of which are copycats of the [-]th tank division, which is the soul of the SS, the most elite unit, and the other two mixed tanks As for the other defensive tank divisions, the equipment is even worse. The No. [-] is their main force, and the Tiger has only one battalion. The German SS has only one battalion for this armor quota. It is still the little armor property that I have produced and supplemented in Poland and Ukraine.

Rommel commanded his armored forces to launch a powerful offensive. He invested more than 1200 tanks, which is almost all of his current assets.

... (To be continued..)