Iron Cross

"Sir, we just deciphered the telegram." Under the night sky, in the headquarters of the British Eighth Army at El Alamein Station, Montgomery paced back and forth anxiously, going around in circles countless times, until the Chief of Staff De Lagan came in and interrupted the process.

"Let me see."

"This is a telegram sent by Guderian to Berlin and Rome, informing the overall battle report, but not mentioning the situation of the Italians."

The High Command of the Wehrmacht: On September 18, 1942, at about 1 pm local time, our African Army surrounded the British 24th Armored Brigade (belonging to the 10th Armored Division) in Tell Akakir by luring the enemy deep into the area. After nearly 70 minutes of fierce fighting, our army wiped it out with little loss and captured more than 3,000 people including the brigadier general. Later, our army fought fiercely with the enemy's 10th Armored Division and the 4th Indian Division who came to rescue, and defeated them in the evening. According to incomplete statistics, a total of 167 British tanks, more than 100 armored vehicles, and more than 200 artillery pieces of various types were destroyed today, nearly 13,000 enemy soldiers were killed, wounded, and captured, and countless supplies were seized. After this battle, the enemy's 10th Armored Division basically lost its combat capability, and its Indian Division was also severely damaged. Our army plans to launch a counterattack in the direction of El Alamein tomorrow. Please provide troops, equipment and supplies as soon as possible...

After reading this, Montgomery's face suddenly became gloomy and terrible. He forced himself to suppress his anger and squeezed out half a sentence from his nose: "Is it reliable?"

"Basically reliable. According to the report of Major General Gatehouse half an hour ago, the troops he can still control are only the division headquarters and some direct troops. The remaining tanks of the 8th Armored Brigade are about equivalent to a tank squadron. No one has returned from the 24th Armored Brigade. In addition, most of the infantry brigade is being reorganized. The artillery, especially the heavy artillery, is basically lost... However, he insisted that other troops may not have been destroyed by the Germans. The soldiers may have been lost in the chaos and may return to the team tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. The situation of the Indian Division is also very bad. The soldiers have generally lost their fighting spirit."

"Asshole! I will send this asshole to the military court, I will remove him from his post, and I will shoot him..." Montgomery was furious. His anger broke out all of a sudden. He slapped the table repeatedly, and his roar echoed in the station for a long time.

The situation is very clear. Compared with the report of the 10th Armored Division and the telegram, the results reported by Guderian are not exaggerated, but reduced, because some British officers and soldiers did lose contact in the chaos. The rigorous Germans did not include it in the results, but Gatehouse is still trying to deceive Montgomery, which is intolerable to the latter.

De Lagan was silent. After today's battle, the 10th Armored Division was basically finished, and the 4th Indian Division was useless. He could understand Montgomery's anger at Gatehouse. Of course, the angry words of shooting and dismissal were just for show. Not to mention Montgomery, even General Alexander did not have such great authority to deal with a division commander. The situation is very serious now. Guderian will launch a large-scale offensive tomorrow, and the overall defense line deployment is still messy. What's more terrible is that this battle completely broke the commander's original deployment.

According to Montgomery's plan: the 1st and 7th armored divisions and the three infantry divisions behind them attacked along the coastal highway; in the direction of Tell Akakir, an armored division and two infantry divisions attacked the front, and the two wings were respectively restrained by a division and a brigade; Montgomery led the army's direct troops and the other three infantry divisions as reserves, coordinating in the middle. But now the offensive spearhead in the middle was crippled, and the African Army not only jumped out of the encirclement prepared by Montgomery for them, but also pointed their armored spearheads at El Alamein.

Because the battle situation reported by Guderian in the war report was very real and detailed, Montgomery and de Lagan were once again confused by this telegram. They believed that this was a real telegram, and judging from the current situation and strength of the African Army, the Germans did have reason to do so.

"Do we need to send a telegram to the 1st and 7th Armored Divisions to ask them to come back?" De Lagan advised, "From the current situation we have, it is obvious that those who escaped along the coastal highway are basically Italians, and even if there are any Germans, they are only a small part."

"No, the armored forces on the coastal highway cannot be withdrawn. On the contrary, they should be urged to eat up the enemy as soon as possible." Montgomery gritted his teeth and explained, "You can let the three infantry divisions that were originally following come back, and the Air Force must strengthen the air strikes on the enemy in front tomorrow."

"This is..." De Lagan was a little confused at first, but then he realized that the commander was planning to defend Alamein to the death. As for insisting on sending armored divisions to eat up the Italians, it was not from a military consideration, but more from a political perspective - the Germans beat the 10th Armored Division and the Indian Division so badly, if there is no outstanding results, the Prime Minister in London will probably be furious again. Now Montgomery does not have much hope of encircling and annihilating Guderian, but he is still confident in holding on to Alamein and repelling the African Army.

He believed that Guderian only had 300 tanks at most. After today's daytime battle, although the Germans kept their losses secret, Montgomery estimated that the losses were at least 50, leaving the Germans with only 250 tanks available. The Alamein command directly or indirectly controls the strength of 1 armored division and 3 armored brigades. In total, there are still more than 400 tanks. It still has a large advantage over the Germans, plus 5 more tanks. With the division's infantry units and corresponding artillery strength, Montgomery believed that he had more initiative than the Germans, and could be deployed cleverly this time to make the Germans run headlong into his own anti-tank positions.

But he did not know that Guderian had been reinforced by 96 T-34s, nor did he know that the German army captured more than 30 intact British tanks during today's battle. The losses of the Afrika Korps were less than he thought. They only lost 33 tanks instead of at least 50 as he estimated. Half of these 33 tanks were still the worst No. 2 tanks. The T-34 was due to mechanical failure and track damage. have been repaired urgently, but only 5 were completely destroyed. To sum it up, Guderian had not 250 tanks but 350 tanks, and the average quality and combat effectiveness exceeded the level before the war started in the morning.

Therefore, the diversionary attack by Heinz and Dessau misjudged the British army as a test before the main German attack, because the strength they "showed" was very close to Montgomery's estimate. The purpose was to find a breakthrough for tomorrow's large-scale attack. , so the Eighth Army completely believed the news that the German army would launch an attack in the direction of Alamein after dawn, and they were constantly implementing targeted defense arrangements. The officers in the staff were completely frightened by Montgomery's furious behavior today. , everyone was busy with the specific deployment, no one thought too much in other directions, let alone other possible attack directions of the African Army.

At this time, Guderian was leading the 15th and 21st Armored Divisions and the main force of the 35th Armored Regiment to attack the left wing under the cover of darkness, while the 90th Light Division was escorting the captured spoils from the west of Tell Akakir. After a detour, we retreated - now this place really has become an empty city.

"Sir, the reconnaissance results show that the unit in front is the 2nd Brigade of the Free French, with average combat effectiveness."

"Free France?"

"Well, it's the French resistance organization led by Charles de Gaulle. They formed a government-in-exile in London and were at odds with Marshal Pétain."

"De Gaulle was a good general in armored warfare back then. He was half a teacher of mine. Now he actually gets involved in politics. I don't know what he is thinking." Guderian joked, "Just because of what he did. Can a little guy in armored warfare defeat an old fox like Churchill?”

Everyone laughed.

"Which division is he commanding now?" Guderian suddenly asked.

"who?"

"Charles de Gaulle."

"Sir! You don't know anything about this, do you?" Westphal joked, "He is the self-proclaimed 'Leader of France', how could he come to North Africa to eat sand? Even if he comes, he is a brigadier general , do you think he obeys the command of Lieutenant General Montgomery or Lieutenant General Montgomery obeys the command of the French leader? "

"Um..." Guderian originally wanted to say that the brigadier general must obey the lieutenant general, but he immediately thought that the military rank of the head of state was only a corporal, so he quickly stopped. He was speechless for a while, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence, "It's okay not to come. , so as not to cause us any trouble.”

"Sir, are you afraid that this 'teacher' will cause trouble for you?"

Guderian shook his fist and said in a threatening tone: "If he dares to come, I will give him this..."

Everyone burst into laughter.

"Are these French people colonial troops?" Guderian continued to ask.

"No! They are all authentic French...mainly those who escaped from Dunkirk to England."

"Them?" Guderian curled his lips, "'Free France' has such a big name, I thought they were warriors from somewhere, but I didn't expect that they were all the defeated soldiers who were beaten by us in the Battle of France, and even more Unexpectedly, a few years later, they actually worked for Churchill. Don’t they know that France’s colonies in the Middle East were taken away by the British?

"So what if they don't work for Churchill? They rely on the British to squeeze everything they eat, drink and use out of their teeth." Mei Linjin said, "Only the British in the world recognize de Gaulle's 'freedom' France', others still dealt with Marshal Pétain of Vichy."

Guderian laughed and said: "It would be perfect if Marshal Rommel was here. Today we can recover the scene of the Battle of Arras. But I will do the same here. I will put up my command flag and tell them that I, Guderian, am here." So, let these shameless French scum go away..."

Collingwood looked at him with a half-smile, and Guderian suddenly realized: "Light up the flag of the 4th Armored Division for me... Tell them that I still have no time to capture the French, and ask them to step aside, just Same as the last battle in France."