"What do we do now?" At the operational meeting of the Cairo Command, General Alexander, commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theater, looked at the participants and opened his mouth with a sad face. The general, known for his ability to retreat, found himself on the edge of a cliff again, this time in a much more severe and brutal situation than he had ever encountered before, his most trusted subordinate, Lieutenant General Montgomery, who had become a member of the German prisoner-of-war camp, and who led the last 60,000 men to huddle in Cairo, where the slightest mistake would have been shattered.

Originally, he still had a vague glimmer of hope for the war, believing that as long as the reinforcements of Operation Torch landed smoothly, the British Empire would not only be able to stabilize its position but also have a chance to counterattack, but when he received the news that the rapid column commanded by Admiral Cunningham had been wiped out and that the US 2nd Armored Division and the British 78th Infantry Division, which were planning to land to support, had lost contact, he only felt cold and the world was spinning. Although London is still sparing no effort to cheer him up, he understands that the counterattack has come to naught, and now it is happiness to be able to retreat with his whole body.

"The reconnaissance plane showed that Guderian's large force was already on the way, and it could reach the vicinity of Cairo as early as the 27th and as late as the 28th."

"Didn't the Air Force try to intercept it?"

"Interception? How to intercept? Ted, who reported the news, looked depressed, "After continuous battles with the German army, the air force has continued to lose planes, and now the total number is less than 400, including less than 150 bombers. Results ......"

Alexander was also puzzled: "Didn't you ask you to transfer planes from various theaters of war?" Why is there so little? ”

Ted rolled his eyes and said with a straight finger: "Everything that can be drawn has been drawn: 49 from Iraq and 38 from Persia." 29 were drawn from Syria and Lebanon and 47 from Ethiopia and Somalia...... But the performance of the aircraft is not good, most of the fighters are Hurricanes or Tomahawks, and they can't beat the new fighters of the Germans, and they continue to lose every day. Only the Spitfire 9 can compete with the Fw-190A series, but the problem is that there is not a single Spitfire 9 in other regions, and Egypt now has less than 40 Spitfire 9s left. Oh. There are only 37 left, and yesterday another 3 were lost. ”

Everyone's faces were ugly, although the German ground forces had not yet officially launched the offensive. But the air offensive has become inextricably facing, with hundreds of planes coming to fight every day, and the territory that the Egyptian air force can control has shrunk again and again, and the number of planes and pilots has also been reduced and reduced.

"It's hard to even detect now. For every three reconnaissance planes dispatched, one will inevitably be shot down. The pilots have begun to refuse to carry out such mortal orders. And the number of enemy aircraft is enough 1500 units, and they are now lacking nothing...... Even the fuel was thrown at them by the infantry. ”

"Alright, well, don't talk about that again......" Seeing that Ted was about to blame the Army for losing the port and oil depot so quickly, Alexander immediately stopped him from speaking, and said in a serious tone, "Now is the time to make a decision." ”

Everyone understands what it means to "make a decision on the spot": after the fall of the port and the canal zone, the admiral himself has been making preparations with two hands: on the one hand, receiving torch reinforcements to prepare for a counteroffensive; On the other hand, think about the deployment of retreat. Many people were initially unaccustomed to his conservatism and prudence, but now it seems that the commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theater has a much longer vision than others.

"But. Domestic? Major General Ramsden, a former commander of the Egyptian army and now temporarily appointed commander of Cairo's defenses, asked, "What clear opinion do they have?" ”

The others couldn't help but feel a burst of slander. What other clear opinions can be made at home? There must have been a call for continued hold - there was a telegram from London this morning saying that General Eisenhower of the United States had led one armored division and two infantry divisions on the way to the station, and had agreed that Alexander would call in Ethiopian, Somali and even Kenyan troops to defend Egypt, but what was the point?

Alexander did not open his mouth to explain the plan, but said: "In the past few days, Egyptian politicians and businessmen have come every day to persuade us to make Cairo an undefended city, and the members of the parliament have also criticized us, and after the cut off foreign aid, our military supplies have become increasingly difficult. ”

Of course, with the approaching threat of the German army and the decline of the British army, especially after the news of the destruction of the fast column by the Japanese fleet spread, the attitude of the Egyptian authorities underwent a very subtle change, and the attitude of the Waffle Party, which had always opposed the colonial authorities, became more intense, and even the attitude of those in power who had always cooperated with the British and had always been regarded as "pro-British" became very wonderful: they either threatened, or persecuted, or pleaded, or seduced, with only one purpose, It was hoped that the British troops in Cairo would retreat to Upper Egypt and even Ethiopia, and as for the future position of Egypt, in their words, it was strictly neutral!

Joke! More than 100,000 German troops had now entered Egypt, they had occupied Alexandria, they had taken control of the Oasis Delta, they had taken control of the Canal Zone, and now they were threatening Cairo, and they were bombing and strafing every day. Admiral Alexander was tempted to call these leading figures to him and ask them: how did Egypt want to "maintain its neutrality"? In the end, he held back, and he really couldn't see the same thing as this batch of wall grass.

The crowd was silent, and it was not surprising that Egypt was already short of food after the Axis controlled the Indian Ocean, the shipping routes were cut off, and the port supplies were seized.

Alexander, who had prepared for the worst-case scenario, now said that he "made a decision on the spot" not to convince himself, but on the contrary, to speak to Ramsden - only he had always been resolutely opposed to retreating to the south and wished to fight a vigorous battle for the defense of Cairo, even if it was to a pulp. This is why Churchill insisted on the appointment of Ramsden as commander of Cairo's defenses.

"Before the German encirclement is established, it is too late for us to retreat. An hour ago, I had obtained the consent of the London side: first, to blow up the oil fields and facilities in the direction of Iraq; Second, allow us to retreat to East Africa. Alexander looked at the map and said slowly, "We can take the train to Aswan, and then get off from Aswan and go to Ethiopia." ”

Everyone's expressions were relieved, and Ramsden saw it, and he knew that these people were all against the war and advocated retreat, and he was the only one who was against them—he was now the target of public criticism.

The railway in Egypt has a Y-shape, and Cairo is exactly the node of the Y-shape, with one fork connecting Alexander and El Alamein, and the other fork to go to Gaza and Beirut, and then bypassing to reach the Mosul oil field group and the Basra oil field group.

"Evacuate by train, can I be safe?"

"If we arrange it well, it's okay." Major General Kofi, Chief of Staff of the Middle East Theater of Operations, replied, "This line is 1,000 kilometers long, as long as we choose the right time, we can minimize the risk of exposure, for example, secretly departing at dusk, the train can run 400 kilometers in one night, and the next morning we send fighter jets to entangle with it, even if the German planes see through our operation, as long as we survive 600 kilometers, the bombers will not be able to help us because of the range." ”

"But do we have enough wagons and wagons?" Ramsden asked, "Didn't you complain at the last meeting that a large number of locomotives and wagons had fallen into the hands of the Germans?" ”

"This?" Alexander looked embarrassed and motioned with his eyes for Major General Kofi to answer.

"We have collected some wagons, and we can go first with 30,000 people in two divisions -- just carrying enough people."

"You mean to ditch heavy equipment?" Ramsden accentuated his tone and asked step by step.

"The Americans who are equipped or something will give us ......" Coffey looked unconfident and his tone softened, "the most important thing now is to keep the living force, and then we can talk about anything else." ”

"And then you're going to leave all the heavy equipment to the Germans." Ramsden sneered, "Do you think the Germans haven't captured enough?" ”

"That's not what I mean......," Alexander came out to play the round, "people are the most precious, equipment and everything can be obtained again, don't we also lose all our equipment when Dunkirk retreats." ”

"Okay." Ramsden didn't bother to continue dwelling on this matter, and only asked what he cared about, "If you can only withdraw two divisions, who will retreat first?" ”

"Considering that the Australian 9th Division and the New Zealand 2nd Division are relatively strong in combat, I think they can hold their ground, so ......," Coffey opened his mouth in a hesitant manner.

Ramsden understood as soon as he heard this, his face turned red, and he turned to Alexander and asked: "Sir, is this your order?" ”

"Of course not, let's discuss it together...... Admiral Alexander changed his tone to a pleasant face, and after a change of words, he said, "The local people have a very strong opinion that the Eighth Army will only arrange for the Dominion troops to retreat from Tobruk, if we let the Dominion troops go first in this retreat, I am afraid that this opposition will be even stronger, although they are all soldiers of the British Empire, but ......"

It was only then that Ramsden suddenly realized why it was said that it was a meeting but only a few people from the headquarters came, and the commanders of the two divisions of New Zealand and Australia were not called.

"Okay!" He tried his best to suppress the anger in his heart, sighed, and asked, "When are you going to board the bus?" ”

"I want to leave tomorrow evening...... Tomorrow is the 24th, we need 2 days to reach Aswan, and then the evening train on the 26th will return to Cairo to pick up the other two divisions to retreat. Alexander patted Ramsden on the shoulder, "I won't leave you alone, you just need to hold on for another 3 days." (To be continued.) )