ps: It's been modified, sorry......

In the face of the Bf-219 commando's almost rogue style of play, Thomas, a British Royal Air Force colonel who commanded in the air, was angry, but he had no choice, and now the problem facing the group was big: it was not a clever idea to let some fighters reflexively fight with enemy planes, leaving too little was almost useless, and if they failed to defeat the opponent quickly, it would be difficult to ensure the smooth return of these blocking planes with the remaining fuel, even if they parachuted, it was almost no different from waiting for death in this desert area; And if the whole fleet accelerates to get rid of it, the engine power consumption will increase at an accelerated rate, and the range will also be reduced, and the fighter cannot leave the bomber and attack group and run away first, which is equivalent to abandoning his comrades.

The rest of the British planes were visibly panicked, they had no idea that they would encounter such an incident on the way back, and after more than two hours of fierce fighting, not only did they have little fuel and ammunition left, but they were also mentally exhausted, and judging from the neat defeat of the rearmost planes of their own side, it was obvious that they were a group of veterans - and even more so an opponent that no one else wanted to face. Although there were fighters with more fuel left to stay and break off, and there were also handsome fighter fighter-bombers with a relatively wide range to join the team, but their numbers were obviously not enough, and in order to intercept and block Garand's air commandos, they had to enter the dogfight, and this was the favorite combat mode of the Bf-219 veterans, and such as the Handsome Warrior fighter-bomber was not a pure fighter opponent. After another ten minutes, the Garand commandos shot down 18 planes one after another. Nothing to lose.

Thomas really had no choice but to order the three air squadrons, mainly equipped with P-40\P-38 fighters, to stay behind, because these two aircraft had the most fuel left. The rest of the aircraft accelerated their disengagement. The three squadrons had 36 planes at full strength, and after the morning's fierce fighting, there were still about 27 left, and the commander almost fought with the German air commandos with a certain mentality, which played into the hands of Caland -- his temporary squadron could not nibble at the British large group of more than 300 planes even if they were good at fighting, and by about 11 o'clock, all the British planes that remained to block the attack were shot down, and the German air commandos lost only two planes.

The British pilots used their own blood to spill the tragedy in the sky to compose the most tragic scene of the air war in North Africa.

Around noon. Montgomery received a telegram from General Ted, and after reading it, he could not calm down for a long time, and De Lagan saw that he was depressed. He comforted: "Although the Air Force has suffered heavy losses, the situation in the southern battlefield can still be maintained, and once the troops of the 10th Panzer Division arrive in the afternoon, the overall situation is expected to be quickly reversed." ”

Montgomery shook his head: "It's not that simple. Although the situation reported from the front line exaggerated Guderian's troops and equipment. However, it can still be seen that the Germans have invested key forces in the south, which is completely different from the previous few superficial attacks, which cannot be reversed by a 10th Panzer Division, and they need more support. ”

"This ......" De-Lagan thought for a while, and found that there were really no troops to use, and after the collapse of the 7th and 8th Panzer Divisions and the defeat of the 151st Infantry Brigade, the forces to maintain the entire defensive line suddenly became overstretched, although the 51st Highland Division was already on the way to reinforcements. But it will take at least 2 days for the main force of the division to arrive, and a single 51st Highland Division will not make up for the current shortfall in strength.

Report. The Australian 9th Division under the command of General Leslie Mosshead sent a telegram that they continued to advance 15 kilometers, and did not find a large German force, only encountered sporadic resistance, but now faced two large minefields, and the sappers are speeding up the demining, please ask for instructions on how to proceed next? ”

Montgomery immediately rushed to the map to check the situation, and found that the Australian 9th Division was deeply embedded in the German outer ring, and if the New Zealand 2nd Division, which was flanked by the same advance, they could immediately break through the outer ring and even capture Jazara - something they had been trying to do but had not been able to do a few weeks ago. He glanced up at De-Lagan and saw that the latter's eyes were full of eagerness.

"It seems that Guderian did transfer the troops of the western defense zone to the southern front to attack, which is a surprise." Montgomery thought about it for a moment and said, "Order: The 2nd New Zealand Division will occupy Jazara as soon as possible, attack the German inner defense circle and force Guderian to return reinforcements, and at the same time require the 1st South African Division to fill the gap in the battlefield after the advance of the two divisions, and the 201st Guards Brigade to speed up the reinforcement of the southern defense area." ”

In Adium's temporary headquarters, Baierlein said worriedly: "Sir, the British are advancing fast, and they have now occupied Jazara, do you want the Flying Fortress Panzer Division to send out to take it?" ”

Guderian stared at the map and looked at it carefully, shook his head and said, "The flying fortress will not move for the time being, and let the 21st Panzer Division divide an armored battalion and a grenadier regiment to block the attack near the inner defense ring." ”

"Then their remaining strength in the east will not be enough."

"Nope! Enough! Guderian laughed confidently, "Fearing our attack in the south, Montgomery has halted his offensive in the east. ”

This laugh confused Baierlein: "Will we continue to attack the 44th Infantry Division opposite in the afternoon?" ”

"Of course! Be loud, weaken and destroy the enemy as much as possible, but don't really break it up - this will force Montgomery to send reinforcements in a steady stream. ”

Bairlein couldn't keep up with the other side's rhythm: "You don't want to break through the southern defense? ”

"I never thought about it."

Baierrhine was taken aback, which was very different from what he had imagined: "What do you think?" ”

"The south is now just a front for the attention of the Eighth Army, and my next goal is to ...... here," Guderian's hand gestured across the map.

"But the direction of Jazara, does it really matter?"

"The more we play elsewhere, the more suspicious Montgomery will become, and it's not so easy to break through the inside ring." Guderian comforted his men, "In the afternoon you are in charge of commanding the south, and I will turn to the east." ”

In the afternoon, the 10th Panzer Division, which was hurrying and hurrying, finally arrived on the southern battlefield, and Montgomery and de Lagan were also greatly relieved, watching the 10th Panzer Division talk about "...... For the time being, there was no enemy attack, but the units were informed that the artillery fire ahead was extremely heavy - more intense than any attack in the past three weeks! The two were still nervous. The desert air force conducted a new air raid on the battlefield in the afternoon, and after the lessons learned in the morning, this time General Ted reduced the number of bombers and increased the density and intensity of fighter escorts.

The Germans still dispatched more fighters to respond to the battle, but those who are careful will find that the number of German fighters seems to be smaller than in the morning, especially the Garand commando, which used obscene fighting methods to grind out more than 50 enemy planes in the morning, was nowhere to be seen on the southern front.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, just as the British planes on the southern front had completed their air raids on the battlefield and began to return one after another, a shocking bad news was transmitted to the headquarters of the Eighth Army -- 15 minutes earlier, a huge formation of German bombers and dive bombers, under the cover of a large number of German fighters, suddenly dispatched an air attack on the troops in the eastern theater, and at the same time, the German armored units that had been dormant behind the battle line also dispatched to attack the French and Polish brigades that had just been put on the defensive. These two brigades had been greatly damaged in the previous attack and were completely powerless, although they were quickly supported by the tanks of the 1st Panzer Division, which had been prepared to outflank from the flanks, but the Germans were all fresh troops, and even the Flying Fortress Panzer Brigade, which served as a reserve, also appeared on the battlefield.

Under the lightning attack of two German bomber wings, an armored brigade, and half an armored division, the French brigade and the Polish brigade, which were relatively weak in fighting will, were the first to collapse, and then this atmosphere infected the 1st Panzer Division.

Fifteen minutes later, the 44th Division and the 2nd Free French Brigade of the Southern Position, which had been fighting bloodily continuously, also reported to Montgomery that they were unable to maintain the situation, and withdrew after handing over the main defensive line to the 10th Panzer Division that had just arrived, and now it was the division's turn to accept the repeated onslaught of the Tiger Panzer Battalion, T-34 and No. 4 Tank Battalion, not to mention that there were "ground-washing" weapons such as Himmler's organ eyeing the side, and the poor 10th Panzer Division was continuously transferred back and forth in two days, and now the overall state has not yet recovered and ushered in a fierce battle, the whole division was miserable, and could only grit its teeth and persevere to the end, and at the same time did not forget to ask the headquarters to ask the 201st Guards Brigade to come up as soon as possible to support.

At about the same time, the 2nd New Zealand Division and the 9th Australian Division sent a telegram that the headquarters had captured Jazara, but the attack on the inner defensive ring was stubbornly resisted by the Germans, and the progress was currently slow, and asked for a grace time.

Montgomery and de Lagan were dumbfounded: they had no idea that Guderian would play in such a strange way—he ignored the more important fortress of Tobruk and the inner defenses, and instead fought in the east and south, and for the British, the situation was now going well in the west, but the east and south were in decline, which was completely beyond their imagination.

An even more difficult choice was before them: should they adjust their forces to strengthen their defenses and calmly cope with the attack in the east and south, or should they resolutely launch a general offensive against Tobruk regardless of the east and south directions? (To be continued.) )