The sun in the sky is behind the horizon again, and the night is again over the earth. The day's fighting came to an end, and the troops sent their information to their headquarters far away in Beirut.

According to the reported situation, the staff officers updated the positions of each unit on the sand table in a timely manner. Hoffmann and Moderick stood by as the busy officers adjusted the positions of their troops.

"It looks like the ministries are going pretty well today."

Chief of Staff Moderick, who was his partner, opened his mouth to comment on today's battle.

However, Morderk's words did not attract Hoffman's approval, and the commander said with a frown. "I don't feel very good, and I feel that the results of the report are a little less."

"It's a lot, and the current statistics show that the number of people killed and wounded and captured by various units has reached more than 7,600, which is already very good."

Faced with Morderk's words, Hoffman shook his head and said. "No, it's a little bit different from what I expected, in my opinion, on the first day of fighting, at least this number needs to reach more than 9,000, but at the moment there are only more than 7,000, and that's the problem."

Hoffman's words made Morderick's face become serious. "What do you mean?"

"I don't dare to make a decision now, let the plane carefully investigate tomorrow morning, and only then will we know what the problem is."

And when Hoffman and Moderick felt wrong, Admiral Wavell, who was far away in the Sinai Peninsula, was also summing up today's results.

"It's looking good at the moment, and all the lines are meeting their expectations."

Looking at the sand table in front of him, Wavell was quite satisfied with today's battle. Although the losses were larger, the losses were basically from the colonial army, and the troops from the mainland and Australia and New Zealand were still intact, which made him still confident in the next battle.

But while Wavell was confident, Arthur Smith, his chief of staff, was a little worried. "The enemy's armored forces in the coastal zone are advancing too fast. If we let them achieve their goals, it will be very bad for us. ”

Faced with the concern of his chief of staff, Wavell comforted. "Don't worry, Smith. I don't think they're fast, if it weren't for the fact that they don't perceive my intentions, or even I'd like to open the coastal road to make them faster. I've got a surprise waiting for them, and I hope they like it. ”

Regarding Wavell's words, Smith, who is the chief of staff, thought about it and gave up continuing. In fact, he originally had some doubts about this plan, but His Excellency Wavell insisted on it, and in the end, of course, it was mainly the opinion of the commander.

What disagrees between the two men is the defense of the coastal plain. In fact, both believed that the coastal plain would become the focus of the enemy's breakthrough. However, in terms of response, Smith believes that it is necessary to defend layer by layer, and use troops to continuously consume the enemy's offensive pace until the opponent completely stops.

Wavell, on the other hand, did not see it that way, believing that Smith's method would not work at all in the coastal plains, and that it would not only be consumed by the enemy, but would also not serve the desired purpose. Because the Palestinian coastal plain is so small, its width is between 10 and 15 kilometers, which is not worth mentioning for the navy, even the main guns of light cruisers can reach.

Therefore, for the British army, which is currently losing sea power in the Mediterranean, the coastal zone is a difficult area to defend. If there are fewer people, it will not be enough for the opponent's attacking troops to fight, and if there are more people, the enemy's navy can teach itself to be a man.

Although the Romanian Navy currently has few main warships left in its eastern Mediterranean, the 380 and 203 naval guns are enough to make even fools feel afraid, so the coastal plain has become a difficult point to defend.

However, unlike Smith, Wavell, as the commander, believed that since the coastal zone was difficult to defend, it was not to be defended, except for a few coastal cities where the garrison troops were trying to become nail-like existence, and the other positions were given to the Romanians, and as long as the enemy dared to attack him, he dared to release them, stretching their supply lines.

Wait until the enemy's supply line is stretched, and then the fist troops prepared by themselves will give a heavy blow, and the best result is, of course, to destroy this lone enemy who has penetrated deeply, and if not to destroy it, it will be inflicted heavy damage. And the fist prepared by Wavell is the mobile corps dominated by the 7th Panzer Division.

That's right, this is the desert rat from the original history. And unlike the original history, the division currently has two armored brigades (the fourth and seventh armored brigades), equipped with 226 tanks of various types, mainly three tanks: Crusader, Valentine, and Matidar.

In fact, these three tanks are at a disadvantage in the face of the Romanian R series. Wavell also knew this very well, so he also prepared a sharp weapon to enhance his anti-armor capabilities, that is, the latest 6-pounder anti-tank gun of the British army.

The development of this anti-tank began after the Munich Agreement in 1938, and considering the performance of the Dro-Roand tanks in the Spanish Civil War, the British Army believed that the 2-pounder anti-tank gun it was equipped with in the future was likely to face a backward situation, so it instructed the Royal Arsenal to start developing it.

The reason for choosing the 6-pounder shell (57 mm caliber) was not the result of penetration calculations, but logistical considerations, the Royal Navy began to use the 6-pounder gun as a secondary weapon for ships at the end of the 19th century, so there were a large number of domestic factories that could support the production of this medium-caliber weapon ammunition.

The development of this anti-tank gun was announced in December 1939, and the first batch of 96 6-pounder anti-tank guns was produced, except for 48 for the formation of the expeditionary force, the other 48 were allocated to the British army in the Middle East.

And this 57 mm caliber anti-tank gun has good performance, with armor-piercing shells being able to penetrate 84 mm armor plates at an angle of 30 degrees at a distance of 500 meters, and 70 mm plates at the same angle at a distance of 1000 meters. Of course, this is laboratory data, and it will be lower on the battlefield.

But it can also inflict damage on the R20 tank, the most threatening tank in the Romanian army at the moment, at a distance of 500 meters. (The current Romanian R30 is not very clear about its data because it rarely participates in battles.) ）

And these 48 6-pounder anti-tank guns have long been assigned to the Mobile Corps by Wavell, so that they can play a sufficient role in this battle.

And in order to accomplish this task, then it is necessary to block the enemy in other directions, otherwise this is not called luring the enemy deep, but being divided and outflanked.

So in the Jordan Valley, another place that is easy to break through, Wavell deployed five divisions, and they will rely on layers of defense to slow down the enemy's offensive until the enemy is attritional.

Therefore, the officers and men of the 3rd and 6th Panzer Divisions led by Sals still have positions waiting for them to break through.