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Whether or not the Eighth Army could launch an offensive depended not only on the will of the command, but also on the combat effectiveness and number of troops, and it was precisely on the last question that the deliberate Montgomery found himself powerless - for the Eighth Army had now used its forces to the fullest.

Before the start of the battle, the British Eighth Army had a total of 300,000 troops, and its main components included: the 1st, 7th, 8th (owed infantry brigades) and the 10th Armored Division of the British Army, a total of 4 armored divisions, with a total strength of 60,000 troops and nearly 800 tanks; The 44th, 50th, 51st, and 56th British Infantry Divisions, the 151st Infantry Brigade and the 201st Guards Brigade, with a total strength of nearly 80,000, basically no tanks; The South African Army's 1st and 2nd Divisions, New Zealand's 2nd Division, Australia's 9th Division, and India's 4th Division, with a total strength of more than 80,000 troops and about 300 tanks; The 1st and 2nd Free French Brigades, the Polish Brigade, the Greek Brigade and other 4 allied brigades, with a total strength of nearly 30,000 and a total of less than 100 tanks; The above-mentioned front-line combat units are mainly incorporated into the command sequence of the 10th Army, the 13th Army, and the 30th Army, and the army headquarters of the three armies and the relevant directly subordinate units (signal troops, engineers, guards, etc.) have more than 10,000 troops; The headquarters and direct forces of the Eighth Army under Montgomery's direct command exceeded 30,000, including the 1st Armored Brigade, the 1st Tank Brigade, the 2nd and 12th Air Defense Brigades, and the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade (mainly composed of Gurkhas. Undertaking escort tasks, the combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the 4th Indian Division), engineers and signal troops, etc., with more than 200 tanks. Coupled with the supply and logistics units distributed in the rear, it is full of 300,000 troops.

However, it is a pity that these 300,000 troops are fully used, and in Montgomery's view, the strength is still insufficient: in addition to the group army headquarters, military headquarters, and logistics units, there are about 250,000 troops on the front line who can participate in actual operations, while the Dominion and its allies have more than 110,000, accounting for nearly half. Relying on these people, he had to maintain the Tobruk encirclement and ensure a logistics support line of more than 600 kilometers, and he subconsciously believed that the troops were not enough. So even though the fact had formed a 3:1 superiority over the Afrika Army and Tobruk's encirclement, he still chose a solid defense and a resolute waiting strategy, hoping that he could wait for the arrival of the next 100,000 reinforcements in order to eat the Afrika Army in one fell swoop - anyway, now they are all surrounded in Tobruk. They are not afraid that Guderian will fly into the sky, unless they are willing to take a gray boat to Italy.

Was Montgomery's deployment and consideration wrong? Of course, there is no mistake in the calculation, because the German army still has nearly 100,000 troops in the French colonies of Morocco and Tunis, although their goal is to monitor Northwest Africa. But the task was not immutable - in the event of a forced attack on Tobruk's Afrika Army. It is likely to be attacked by two German armies, as long as it takes more than a month, after New Year's Day in 1943, the reinforcements of the British and American forces will come, so why rush to rush forward?

But Guderian's strategy was intended for his wishful thinking and stalemate, and when the Afrika launched a surprise onslaught and maintained a high-pressure posture in the east and south directions, Montgomery found that his wait-and-see strategy had faltered and could not be sustained, and now the situation continued to develop with only two results. Either the fish will die or the net will be broken -- either the Eighth Army will preemptively break through the inner defensive ring and occupy Tobruk, or the African Army will break through the eastern and southern defense lines and sweep through the Eighth Army. As a result, the first staff officer discussed the situation on the battlefield in the past two days and combined it with the situation on the battlefield in the past two days. Most people seem to prefer the latter to be more likely.

When de Lagan fearfully handed the results of the staff officers' discussion to Montgomery, the latter's already gloomy face almost dripped water, but even so, he could not turn a blind eye to the unfavorable news about the situation of the war - from his point of view, the situation in the western theater was the best at the moment, after the collapse of the 7th Panzer Division, the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Australian 9th Division quickly filled the hole, and today they launched a rapid offensive to break through the German perimeter and even capture the strategically important Jazara, Behind them there was also a South African 1st Division and a 50th Infantry Division ready to be reinforced, and they had the fewest German troops in front of them; The situation in the southern theater was the worst, when the 8th Panzer Division, the 151st Infantry Brigade, the 44th Infantry Division, and the 2nd Free French Brigade suffered heavy losses one after another, the Eighth Army could only count on the 10th Panzer Division and the 201st Guards Brigade, which had just been transferred back from the west, and they not only faced the surprise attack of the German Panzer Division but also faced the super tanks that were difficult to destroy; The situation in the eastern theater of operations tended to deteriorate, and when the Polish and French brigades were heavily damaged and the 1st Panzer Division was severely weakened, he could only count on the 56th Infantry Division in the rear and the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division that rushed to support from the supply lines.

"At present, the enemy holding back our offensive in the west is probably no more than 4,000 men, and we have a significant advantage in this theater of operations, but the German defense line is strong, the mines are dense, and there is a large number of anti-tank guns to support the offensive and the offensive is progressing slowly; As for the rest ......of the defensive line," De Lagan sighed, pointed to the small flag on the sand table, and said, "There is only 1 Panzer Division and an Infantry Brigade in the south, only 2 Infantry Divisions and the 1st Panzer Division in the east, which has a declining number of tanks, and it is impossible to stop the German attack in any direction, and we have found out that it is 2 German Panzer Divisions attacking in the south, and a German Panzer Division and an Air Force Panzer Brigade in the east." ”

"The Air Force has armored brigades?"

"Now it's called the Flying Fortress Armored Brigade, which was renamed from the original Hermann-Goering Brigade."

Montgomery's heart sank suddenly: the troops with special names in the Third Reich were not easy to mess with, whether it was Hitler's Guard Flag Division, the Reich Division, or the Greater German Division, they were all elite troops, and the Hermann-Goering Brigade was also a well-known trump card.

De Lagan did not notice Montgomery's increasingly ugly face, and continued: "Guderian has at least one Italian paratrooper brigade at his disposal, not to mention that he has a powerful super tank. ”

Speaking of super tanks, Montgomery was silent, so far, he has no idea about the name, performance, and weaknesses of the Tiger tank, only that he knows that there is no tank and anti-tank gun in his hands that can effectively deal with this new tank, and the troops are full of fear, and even exaggerated to the point that the Germans reported that there were super tanks as soon as they dispatched the tanks, and even the T-34 and the new No. 4 tank, which had been dealt with many times, could be mistaken for super tanks. Before the T-34 crisis was completely resolved, there was another tiger crisis.

In order to destroy this new tank, which the British army hated to the bone, the desert air force did everything in its power to let the fighters hang bombs and sacrifice a little maneuverability to destroy the German tanks, but unfortunately the price was very high and the benefits were very small, and the bombers, attack planes, and fighters of all kinds that were shot down on the southern battlefield exceeded 400, but they completely destroyed less than 10 Tigers, and the desert air force had clearly told the Eighth Army that all the planes that could carry out low-altitude bombing and ground attacks in this way would be reimbursed here. This is a price that no one can afford.

De Lagan continued: "The danger is that Guderian can also reinforce the unused Italian paratrooper brigade to the west to block our advance, and then his forces in the east and south will be combined to attack, and the situation is now that it will be difficult for us to resist him in a divided attack, let alone a combined attack - everyone thinks that before we can conquer Tobruk, the Afrika Army will break through our defenses first." ”

"What about your proposal?"

"The offensive in the west can be slowed down, but it is urgent to strengthen the forces in the east and south directions, and reinforcements should be sent to them." De-Lagan suggested, "Is it considered to strengthen the 50 Infantry Division from the west to the south - anyway, the western force is sufficient, and the South African division is enough to serve as a reserve for the New Zealand and Australian divisions; reinforcing the 1st Tank Brigade and the 1st Panzer Brigade directly under Army Group to the east - after the 1st Panzer Division's tank strength was weakened, they urgently needed tank support; I also propose to bring the Greek Brigade and the South African 2nd Division back from the supply line to strengthen our reserves, which are basically left with no reserves if the 1st Tank Brigade and the 1st Armored Brigade, which are in the direct control of Army Group, are thrown out. ”

Montgomery nodded noncommittally, but his brow furrowed even tighter: "So that there is only one Indian 4th Division on the supply line?" ”

De Lagan understood his concerns, explaining: "Less is a little less, but the danger of the supply line is not great, we rarely receive reports of German commandos sneaking up on supply points, and now that the fighting around Tobruk is so fierce, the main forces of the Luftwaffe are also pinned down here, they cannot bomb our supply convoys on a large scale, and the transfer of some troops will not affect too much." Alternatively, we could ask General Alexander for help and ask him to draw another brigade from the remaining Egyptian forces to support our defense of our supply lines, which would be enough to support the arrival of new reinforcements. ”

Hearing this, Montgomery's face changed a little: Admiral Alexander still had 30,000 men under his command, and the transfer of a brigade to strengthen the supply line would not pose a danger to Egypt's defenses, on the contrary, if he failed at Tobruk, Egypt would be in danger - he was convinced that General Alexander would realize this.

After thinking seriously for a few minutes, he made up his mind: "Reinforcements can be done according to your ideas, but the western offensive cannot be stopped for a minute, and the 2nd New Zealand Division and the 9th Australian Division are strictly ordered to speed up the breakthrough and put more pressure on the German army, I need them to contain Guderian's troops for me." ”

[It's about to be 515, I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list, and the red envelope rain will be able to give back to readers and promotional works on May 15. A piece is also love, and it must be better! (To be continued.) )