Iron Cross

In sharp contrast to Guderian's optimism and humor, Montgomery paced back and forth uneasily in the headquarters. After the Italians' feint attack on the northern front stopped, the Germans on the southern front did not make any big movements, which puzzled the Eighth Army in front of them. Colonel de Lagan held a second combat meeting organized around the current battle situation, but The atmosphere this time was just different from the first time - other participants had calm faces, indifferent eyes, and mechanical smiles on their lips. Only Lieutenant General Montgomery seemed like a lion caught in a trap. Isolated and pacing restlessly. Everyone was watching his pace, and several staff officers were still counting silently. Was the commander walking the 20th or 21st lap?

"This situation is so unexpected and weird." Montgomery, who always pays attention to appearance, may be tired from walking, angrily unbuttoned the military discipline button on his uniform and pulled off the beret on his head, breathing heavily, " The Italians in the north stopped fighting after three days of fighting. Even after the South African Division and the Australian Division launched a tentative counterattack, they handed over the positions they had captured in the previous two days. They had no intention of continuing to fight with us, as if It looks like I can push them all down with just a little more force."

A group of people laughed in a tacit understanding. The Italians were indeed a bit inexperienced. If the headquarters had not issued repeated orders to restrict the actions of the South African Division and Australia, they might have been captured. But the commander just used " The word "push down" makes people easily think of other things that they shouldn't think about.

"That's not what I'm worried about. What I'm worried about is..." Montgomery didn't seem to hear the obscenity in everyone's laughter. Instead, he flicked the telegraph newspaper between his fingers. At least he turned it over and over. Dozens of times, it is covered with crumpled creases, "General Alexander sent a telegram saying that the Mediterranean Fleet informed him of the news from the Malta base. They had not received news that the submarine had intercepted and sunk the Italian oil tanker. , and what’s even more strange is that they could no longer contact the two submarines after the morning of September 7.”

Everyone's vigilance immediately increased. Major General Horrocks, commander of the 10th Army, asked nervously: "Were they sunk by the Germans?"

"No... at least no clear signs." Montgomery explained with a frown. "The cable also showed that Guderian was also angrily asking for information about the two oil tankers. The Italians first told him that the oil tankers left port late due to other reasons. , and later said that the ship's engine was out of service for maintenance, and then said that they could not contact the two oil tankers now, and were preparing to send a plane to check... Then the two sides had another vague quarrel and shirk of responsibility, which lasted for a long time. The message made the people at the interception station feel dizzy."

He had repeatedly considered the meaning of this with Colonel de Lagan. After discussing it, the two couldn't figure it out and couldn't figure out what the inside story was. However, Montgomery firmly believed that the information revealed in this telegram "how to It has an eerie smell to it." He was going to let everyone in the meeting take a closer look.

"General Alexander thought so too, so he sent out another reconnaissance plane yesterday. The result..." Colonel de Lagan spread his hands and said helplessly, "It has not returned by the afternoon. We can only reasonably judge that it is Shot down by the Germans."

The venue was originally in a commotion after Montgomery spoke. Now Colonel Lagan's addition has plunged the scene into complete chaos. Everyone is thinking about a series of questions caused by this:

First, where is the tanker? Was the submarine sunk or not? If it wasn't sunk, why did Guderian say it wasn't received? If it was sunk, why didn't the submarine report it and couldn't be contacted?

Second, what on earth was Guderian doing? Was he preparing to attack or retreat? If it's an attack, when and where will he launch it? If he wanted to retreat, how and when would he do so?

Regarding these issues, everyone was expressing their opinions. The headquarters was noisy like a big market, but no one felt that they could figure it out.

"The first question may have a more reasonable explanation. Our submarines 'maybe, probably, probably' sank or seriously damaged Italian oil tankers, but they were also subsequently sunk by escorting German and Italian aircraft or warships. "Major General Gatehouse, commander of the 10th Armored Division, sounded very uncertain. He used three question words in a row, and then said, "I find it difficult to answer the second question. Judging from the situation of the Italians, it doesn't look like that. We must retreat, otherwise the timid Italians would not dare to attack us first without fear, let alone confront us, but if the Germans wanted to attack, it would have been long past the time for Guderian to report to the country. "

"What did Guderian say in his last telegram?" Montgomery turned to ask the chief of staff.

Colonel de Lagan judged three times at the previous meeting. Practice proved that the first two judgments were bankrupt. He frowned and said: "It cannot be said that it has been exceeded, because Berlin's reply to Guderian clearly stated that If it doesn't work on the 7th, the attack can be postponed to the 10th or even later. Today happens to be September 10th. In addition, Guderian is waiting for the two oil tankers. Without enough supplies, the Germans can only delay the launch of the attack. Logically. Guderian’s behavior is justified.”

"Then why is there so much fierce fighting in the air?" Someone asked, "The Air Force has been under great pressure in the past two days. The Germans have killed many of our planes, and their bombers even sneak-attacked our airport. This is all about attacking. preparation.”

Montgomery nodded, expressing his approval of this reasoning. The fierce air battles in the past few days made him think that the Germans were likely to launch a large-scale attack. The infantry's strings were very tight every day. If this state continued like this As the afternoon continued, it would be difficult to maintain the morale of the troops. He began to express doubts about his strategy of waiting for the Germans to attack first, but he could not show it in front of so many subordinates.

"What about the results of our aircraft reconnaissance? Does it show that the Germans are preparing to flee?"

"No." De Lagan shook his head. "The reconnaissance plane showed that the enemy is even expanding the airport, building new oil storage facilities, and building more anti-aircraft gun positions. It looks like it is going to start a big war."

"His oil tankers were ruined. Where did the fuel come from?" a staff officer sneered. "Could it be that the Germans are making a fool of themselves?"

"No one said that the tanker was sunk." Someone objected. "The tanker may have just broken down, but why is there no news about our submarine? Sir, do you suggest that the Air Force sends another plane out for reconnaissance?"

This suggestion is to replace the role of chief of staff. De Lagan waved his hands distractedly: "It has been coordinated for a long time. The Air Force said it will try its best to arrange it."

"I do think that the German attack may be imminent." Montgomery's eyes lit up and he said to the staff officer: "Tell me your reasons."

"The Germans have been engaged in an air battle with us in the past two days. One purpose is to seize air supremacy. Another purpose may be to take the opportunity to conduct reconnaissance." The encouraged staff officer said loudly, "Because I found that several planes were flying relatively low. I finally At first I thought they were going to crash, but then they didn't, and I thought they were going to launch a ground attack, but that didn't happen either, so the only reasonable assumption was reconnaissance. It was a pity that our anti-aircraft firepower was not prepared accordingly and we didn't hit a single one. Set up enemy planes."

Montgomery nodded: "Your observations are very careful, and I also saw this detail."

Seeing that the topic gradually shifted to the Germans' imminent attack, everyone began to argue about the time and place. Some people said that Guderian had to get that part of the fuel supply, otherwise he would not have shown such anger in the telegram, and some said Others believe that Guderian may have obtained the fuel, otherwise his expansion of oil storage facilities cannot be explained.

Amidst the noise of everyone, Montgomery suddenly became anxious and uttered a sentence: "No wait, I decided to attack first."

"Attack? Sir, are you not afraid that our tanks will run into the ambush net of German anti-tank fire?" Major General James Langton, commander of the 7th Armored Division, who had been reprimanded two days ago, asked in an obviously sarcastic voice.

De Lagan glared at the other party fiercely, wondering how he could talk to his superiors with such an attitude, but Major General Langton on the other side didn't care about it, thinking: I proposed an attack that day, and old Montgomery said it in a long-winded way. He made a bunch of reasons why we can't attack. He was the one who said we couldn't attack, and he was the one who said we should attack. He can't be right about everything, and we can't be right about anything, right?

Montgomery didn't care about the sarcasm in Langton's tone, but nodded: "This is where I am very hesitant. To be honest, I am both afraid that Guderian will use tricks to escape, and I am also afraid that Guderian will take advantage of our impatience. His emotions deliberately lured us into taking the bait - gentlemen, after dealing with each other in the past few days, I found that he is not an easy player to deal with, well, second only to Rommel..."

You just know? After hearing this, everyone almost fainted again. De Lagan involuntarily covered his forehead with his palms and covered his eyes. It seemed that he did not dare to look at the disdain in the eyes of others. He wanted to give The commander tried to smooth things over, but he felt that he couldn't speak no matter what he said, so he just kept silent.