Iron Cross

Foreign Minister and core figure of the Conservative Party, Robert Anthony Eden, understood Brooke's intention and explained to Attlee in a low voice: "If General Montgomery retreats first, the morale of the entire Eighth Army will be in chaos, and the troops behind the line will certainly not be able to complete the blockade. , delaying Guderian's mission - that will destroy the overall plan, and the situation requires us to make sacrifices, even for a lieutenant general. "

Even so, Attlee still couldn't bear to sacrifice a lieutenant general in vain, and hoped that Montgomery could be transferred out at the last critical moment to avoid the tragedy of Lieutenant General Harwood. Everyone agreed on this point.

"In addition, Generals Alexander and Ted both informed me that the war situation is very unsatisfactory, and the balance of air power is particularly unbalanced. Since the war began in early December, the Desert Air Force and the Egyptian Air Force have lost more than half of their 2,000 aircraft. Today alone, they have lost "We have purchased more than 300 aircraft." Brook frowned and said, "The frontline commanders reported that the Hurricane, Tomahawk, and Handsome Warrior could not defeat the enemy's Fw-190, and the number of excellent Spitfire 9s was too small, so that we repeatedly fought for air supremacy. "Suffering a loss."

"Give them planes!" Churchill roared through gritted teeth. "Concentrate all the planes from Iran, Iraq, Syria and other Middle East regions to Egypt. Even if we use them all, we still have to intercept the enemy west of the canal. As for the Spitfire 9, Domestic production has been increased, and aircraft with poor combat effectiveness have been selectively discontinued.”

"This..." Attlee reminded tactfully, "is it to prepare people for the destruction of Persian oil field facilities?"

"No! You can't do this!" Upon hearing this, Churchill jumped up angrily like a raging lion. "You want to destroy the oil fields before the enemy has reached this far. How bad will this bring to the troops?" Psychological suggestion? We have to tell the front line that we can definitely defend Egypt."

Everyone looked at each other and decisively stopped talking.

"In addition." Churchill turned to Eden and said, "Please immediately communicate with Commander Stalin through diplomatic channels, and be sure to ask the Red Army to launch a fierce offensive on the Eastern Front to help us contain and attract German power, even if it attracts one more plane or one more Soldiers are good too."

"good!"

At almost the same moment, Germany also received news that all of Britain's main battleships in the Mediterranean had been sunk. The temporary high command on Crete was jubilant. In addition to Montgomery, there were now 200,000 troops who were exhausted and cut off from supplies. The more than 50,000 troops in Upper Egypt were terrified and panicked. The British no longer had any power to resist the German troops. The main force of the Italian fleet was quickly arriving and was expected to join the battle tomorrow afternoon - by that time, the axis The heart must have an advantage not only in the army, air force and even the navy.

The landing fleet has returned successfully, although there was a slight glitch on the way - two transport ships were sunk by submarines belonging to the island of Malta. However, this bold British submarine was also quickly sunk by the escorting destroyer. This loss to the Germans was still Affordable.

"Hahahaha!" During dinner, there was laughter in the restaurant, and senior officers were everywhere wishing each other well. Hoffman was in a good mood and asked someone to open the bottle of Bordeaux red wine and pour a glass for each of his confidants. Major General Gauss was on duty at the headquarters and did not participate. Considering that he still had command duties, Rommel only took a sip and put down the glass.

Keitel picked up the wine glass and said flatteringly: "After taking Egypt and the canal, Britain's connection from India to the mainland will have to go through the Cape of Good Hope, and will be completely exposed to our flank attacks. To commemorate this history At this special moment, I proposed that in the future, a statue of the Führer be built around the famous Sphinx, bigger than theirs, to tell the world about the Führer’s great achievements.”

"This..." The others didn't know what to say. They always thought this matter sounded strange, but when it came to the head of state, they couldn't openly object.

Hoffman knew that Keitel's habit of flattering people had happened again, and he didn't take it seriously. He said lightly on the spot: "I'm afraid this is inappropriate. People will think that it is a statue of the conqueror. This is not conducive to consolidating our position. We It is here to break the colonial system of the British Empire and must be accepted by the local people.”

"That's true, that's true." Keitel smiled awkwardly.

"But after the victory, we can indeed build a statue to remember the great achievements of the German nation in helping the Arab nation to defeat the enslavement of the British Empire and rescue them from colonial oppression." Hoffman considered the words, "In addition, after the battle against Egypt, We must quickly launch a Middle East campaign. The Supreme Command must have a next-step battle plan for this, and at the same time identify personnel to contact local political forces. If they are willing to establish an independent country and cut off ties with the United Kingdom, we can recognize their interests so that we can let them go as soon as possible. The situation has stabilized and we need our own Lawrence in that regard as well.”

"Understood!" Yoder took over the task.

"Now let's wait for tomorrow's fleet and the Italian fleet to arrive, and then send the second wave of landing troops up..." Hoffman said confidently, "Egypt, we are here!"

Just when Churchill was heartbroken, Comrade Stalin was also in a bad mood - after the bloody battle at the Don bend, he originally thought he could ask Britain and the United States for a large amount of supplies and equipment, but the two countries told him with distress that the equipment Yes, but it's still at sea and won't arrive for at least a month. Although he didn't get the things, the attitudes of the two countries were still very positive, which made him feel a little warm, but what happened next made him very uncomfortable.

After communicating about supplies to aid the Soviet Union, the British representative asked the Russians in horror about the new German tanks and took out photos of the Tiger taken from the air. Zhukov initially thought that the unlucky Montgomery had been killed by the T-34s again. He was taught a lesson, and his expression was unnatural, but this time the other party did not dwell on the T-34's bad debt. Instead, he vividly described the appearance of a "super tank". The more they listened, the more Zhukov and Vasilevsky frowned.

Stalin noticed something was wrong with his two subordinates and asked doubtfully: "This is..."

"Comrade Stalin, our comrades have also reported this kind of tank that the British talked about, and now it seems to be true. The equipment in the photo is very similar to the report we received. This tank has an 88mm gun and has strong defense. It is more maneuverable than our KV-1\\KV-2, and its combat effectiveness is amazing. "

"Very amazing? What exactly do you mean..."

"Our tanks, whether they are KV-1, KV-2 or T-34, including other anti-tank guns, cannot pose a threat to them, and the Germans' new tanks can even face the T-34 at 1,500 meters away. The frontal armor can still be penetrated effortlessly... The day before yesterday, our brigade fought against a company of enemy new tanks. We used all kinds of weapons and the enemy was unscathed, but we lost various models including KV\\T-34 and so on. 27 tanks were included, and the enemy finally walked away. "

"Twenty-seven cars?" Stalin gasped. He was a little annoyed that Zhukov exposed his family scandal in front of outsiders. Unexpectedly, the British nodded frequently like chickens pecking at rice. While nodding, he said: "Yes! Yes! That's it." , this kind of super tank is really terrible. All our current tanks and anti-tank guns are no match. So far, we have only destroyed more than 10 tanks. Most of them are due to the Air Force, and even the wreckage was not obtained after the war. ”

Stalin initially thought that there were not many of these tanks, but when he heard from the British that there were 100-200 on the North African front and 50-80 on the Don front, he became interested. As soon as the British left, they immediately attacked Zhukov and Vasilevsky said: "This is not a rare weapon. It is a precursor to the enemy's imminent large-scale equipment. We must find a way to deal with it quickly. Otherwise, there will always be a loss of 27 vehicles but nothing can be done to the enemy, which will greatly dampen morale. Therefore, we cannot delay the development of new tanks any longer.”

Vasilevsky said distressedly: "What kind of indicators should be set? We haven't even been able to seize one to verify."

Comrade Stalin was no less enthusiastic about developing new equipment and weapons than Hoffman. After thinking for a while, he said: "I think the defense level of the Churchill tank can be used as a benchmark, requiring the new tank to be able to attack at least at a distance of 1,200 meters. Wear the frontal armor of the Churchill tank. By the way, the Germans use their famous 88 gun, and we can move our 85mm anti-aircraft gun to the tank - I think the T-34 can be appropriately modified to accommodate this anti-aircraft gun."

"But the T-34's armor is too thin, and he will be killed before he can hit the enemy." Zhukov said worriedly.

"That is just an emergency plan. We should also develop a new tank that is slightly better than the enemy in firepower, defense, speed and other aspects - we cannot count on Britain and the United States in this regard, they are worse than us."

Both of them agreed. In fact, the Red Army has technical reserves for the next generation of heavy tanks. It should have been developed and launched long ago. However, the outbreak of the war changed everything. In order to provide equipment for the front lines that suffered heavy losses, the development of new tanks After repeated delays, the production of the old model continued to be simplified - simplified, and the quality also dropped a lot. Originally, the T-34/76 had an advantage over German tanks, but with the entry of the new No. 4 G and H models into service, this advantage no longer exists.

After asking about the situation of the tanks, Stalin changed the topic and became concerned about the situation on the front line. Both Zhukov and Vasilevsky are very pessimistic about the recent battlefield situation. Although the German fleet retreated from the Black Sea and the troops threatening to land in the Caucasus have also shrunk back to Rostov, the Red Army is still fighting hard in the Don River area. Frustrated.