After two days of desperate pursuit, by 9 o'clock in the morning of September 19, the vanguard of the British army had successfully narrowed the distance between itself and the Italians to about 20 kilometers, standing on the top of the vehicle and looking through the binoculars, relying on a good field of vision has been faintly visible in front of the fleeing crowd, although this distance is only an hour at most for armored vehicles, but after all, the troops are not racing cars, as long as they rush forward regardless of it, if there are really armored vehicles dare to ride alone, It was bound to be beaten into a sieve by the Italians -- and the pursuit of the enemy had to be fought with due regard to the unity and coordination of the troops, and at the same time to put the enemy under appropriate pressure.

After a short break, Rear Admiral Langton, panting and blistered all over his body, said to the other two men of the temporary command: "I have a suggestion, we should try to give full play to the advantages of the armored forces and pursue quickly, anyway, the Italians are about to run apart, tanks and armored vehicles alone are enough to solve the problem." ”

"And what about the infantry and artillery?" Major General Horrocks actually agreed with the idea of a quick pursuit, but given Montgomery's repeated orders not to let the infantry and tanks disconnect too far, coupled with the experience of the 10th Panzer Division, he could only chase the Italians so unhurriedly, don't look at his leisurely face, his heart was already in a hurry.

"The infantry and artillery can let them take their time, anyway, the Italians didn't have strong fortifications, so they didn't need so many troops to deal with them." Major General Langton quipped, "Maybe when we finish fighting, the infantry and artillery will not be able to catch up, and if we insist on dragging the infantry and artillery away, the speed will never be faster, what if we catch the Italians at the gate of Tobruk?" ”

"That's a real problem." Major General Raymond Briggs, commander of the 1st Panzer Division, said with embarrassment, "What about Guderian in the back?" The infantry and artillery of our two divisions alone could not stop the German armored forces, and the command repeatedly objected to the disconnection between our armored forces and the infantry and artillery, believing that this would give the Germans an opportunity. ”

"First of all, Guderian is still some way away from us, and he will not be in time until we settle the Italians; secondly, the infantry and artillery could build fortifications on the spot if they did not follow the pursuit, which was conducive to maintaining physical strength; In the end, I think that with our forces, it should not be a problem to resist Guderian's vanguard, as long as we hold out until the armored forces have solved the Italians, our strength will be further strengthened, and as long as we can hold off the Germans for 2 days, the main force led by the commander himself will arrive. ”

Horlocks originally agreed with Langton's view of "catching up with the Italians as soon as possible and solving the Italians", but he was a little hesitant when he thought of Guderian's variable, and in view of the disagreement among the people on the pursuit of light advances, he decided to turn in the contradiction and report the proposal to the army group headquarters, which was to be decided by General Montgomery himself.

Montgomery valued the opinions of the three major generals, and the suggestions and concerns they listed in the telegram were in line with what he had in mind, and now he found himself to have to make a trade-off between his goals:

First, regardless of the Italians, let the two panzer divisions stop on the spot and prepare to block Guderian until the main force of the army group comes up to encircle;

secondly, regardless of Guderian, let the two armored divisions continue to pursue the Italians with the whole army, and it is a matter of keeping the troops highly intact, but the disadvantage is that the speed of pursuit is slowed down, and it is likely that it will take more time to deal with the Italian troops;

Thirdly, to take into account both the Italian and German armies, to use rapid armor against the Italian troops, to intercept the German troops with infantry and artillery, as long as they can hold for 48 hours or even 24 hours, all the objectives can be achieved.

The safest course would be to let the Italians flee and attack the Germans, but who knows what other tricks Guderian had in mind? In the unlikely event that the Germans had not been able to reach it and the Italians had slipped away again, the Eighth Army would have lost its troops and gained nothing, a political price he could not afford. After thinking about it, I communicated with de Lagan several times, and deduced it several times in the command headquarters, and finally made up my mind to adopt the third method.

While Montgomery was struggling with too many options, the Afrika Army was struggling with too few options, and it was quite difficult to decide how to proceed next.

Now several major generals of the African Army admire Guderian's foresight in using reconnaissance planes to grasp the retreat of the Italian army, and in this chaotic situation, not to mention that the Italians have no time to deal with Guderian, even if they have a psychological meeting, they will not be able to count it, but the air force reconnaissance can barely provide one or two references, and Guderian used this method to estimate the chase time between the Italian army and the British army. The difference was 24 hours on the first day, 12 hours on the second day, and 4-6 hours on the third day. In other words, the British will be able to catch up with the Italians this evening and go on a killing spree, and the main force of the Afrika Army is about a day away from these two armored divisions.

There was a clear difference of opinion among the people, and Guderian couldn't make up his mind for a while, and the situation suddenly became strange:

First of all, the Afrika Army was now in an awkward position, with two British armoured divisions in front of it and Montgomer leading the main force of the Eighth Army in the back struggling to catch up - even after a hard lesson at Tella Khakil, the British still had an unshakable superiority in numbers.

Secondly, there are very few tactics that the African army can adopt, if it hits the front first, it may be able to succeed in attacking two armored divisions, but behind the success there must be a huge price, which is difficult for Guderian to bear, and this kind of attack speed can not be too slow, and after a long time, it may be stained by the main force of the British army coming from behind, which will cause greater problems; If the two armored divisions turn back and cooperate with the main force of the Eighth Army to launch a full-scale attack, the African Army, which lacks its own strength, will immediately fall into the unfavorable situation of being flanked by the east and west.

In the end, the Afrika Army had even fewer tactics, and the ultimate goal of the troops was to retreat in the direction of Tobruk, which was no longer the case, and the old method of striking in other directions and attracting the attention of the British was no longer working, and Montgomery would no longer be easily confused by Guderian's tricks of distracting his line of sight after being fooled twice, even if the enemy did not dare to do anything, as long as they deployed their forces between the Afrika Army and Tobruk, he could have countless ways to entangle you and destroy you.

"We are now such a large group of troops that there is no way to use a roundabout way to evade in a short period of time." Guderian strangled the last way, "There had to be a different idea, a tactic that was radically different from the previous ones." ”

After studying the map, everyone felt like they had been poured a basin of ice water on their heads. All the options that can be thought of are too idealistic ideas, and the current position of the battle is even a little different from that of Terreakir, and the problem is really a bit difficult to solve.

There was also an embarrassing silence.

In the midst of his irritability, the intelligence department sent the latest reconnaissance of the air force, saying that the tanks and armored units of the British armored division had accelerated their advance, leaving only the infantry and artillery to build defensive positions on the spot.

After hearing this, everyone felt even more uncomfortable, it was already difficult to deal with two armored divisions in a state of motion, and now these infantry and artillery no longer acted together but defended on the ground, which made it even more difficult to attack.

Only Guderian's eyes lit up, raised his eyebrows and asked, "You mean, the British armored forces are basically rushing forward?" ”

"That's what the Air Force said." Mei Linjin was embarrassed to explain, "But this is an aerial reconnaissance, and there may be some problems with accuracy." ”

"Very well, I believe this is basically close to the truth." Guderian suddenly looked happy, "At the critical moment, the British are still very interesting, and it is not in vain that we let them go in Dunkirk." ”

Everyone laughed together, but Collingwood, who had always followed him and was familiar with Guderian's temperament, immediately reacted and immediately asked, "Sir, do you have a good idea?" What to do, let me take the lead. ”

"No, you can't." Who would have thought that this momentum to ask for war would be directly ignored by Guderian, and Collingwood looked depressed. On the contrary, as soon as the other party turned around, Heinz called over: "There is a new task I want you to complete." ”

"Sir, give orders, I think I've done a good job in the recent tasks."

"It's a bit of a difficult task, it's very dangerous, and it's about the future of the entire African Army, and it's of great importance, but I still believe you can accomplish it." As he spoke, Guderian elaborated the overall idea in general.

After hearing this, everyone gasped, this danger, this impact is too great, but, as the chief said, the more enemies, the more opportunities can be taken.

"Sir, don't worry, I promise to complete the mission." Heinz's resolute face revealed confidence, "I will definitely fight a bloody way for the whole army." ”

"Very good, you go and select personnel, and I will have people prepare the necessary supplies and equipment for you." Guderian patted him on the shoulder, "It's up to you whether our tens of thousands of people can retreat to Tobruk unharmed." ”