Mount Halefa is an east-west mountain located in the middle of the British line.

As long as there are mountains or ridges in the desert, it must be a strategic point, because the desert is empty, and as long as you occupy a high ground, you can observe and block the wilderness more than ten kilometers away with long-range artillery. (Note: The long-range artillery at this time had a range of more than a dozen kilometers)

At the same time, the mountain will become a good hiding place for armored troops...... Tanks and trucks loaded with supplies only need to hide on the other side of the mountain to avoid enemy fire.

The problem is that the mountain runs east-west, and it is still difficult to build fortifications and lay mines at the foot of the mountain...... The sand waterfalls are heavily weathered, and the mountains are usually hard rocky mountains.

This was obviously detrimental to the British defenses, especially if the Germans fired a shell at Halefa Hill, which would have caused heavy casualties to the British troops stationed on it.

And once the Germans take Halefa Mountain, it's another matter...... It was east-west, and the German artillery even needed to transport mortars to bombard the British troops on both sides with artillery fire, thus opening a long opening in the British defense line and allowing the German panzer division to penetrate deep into the hinterland.

This is one of the reasons why Montgomery thought that if the Germans were going to attack, they would definitely choose Mount Hallefa, so he carefully arranged a pocket formation here: the forward line was garrisoned by the newly reinforced British 44th Infantry Division, followed by an ambush of the 1st Panzer Division, and the other two Panzer Divisions were placed on both flanks of Mount Harefa to prepare for outflanking, with at least 300 guns aimed at the gap in Mount Hallefa...... This can no longer be said to be a gap, but rather a trap.

Captain Avery was confident in this line, not only because the British had absolute superiority in strength and equipment on this line, but also because Montgomery pioneered the use of "box defense" on this line.

The so-called "box defense" refers to the fact that the defensive position of each army is like a rectangular or square box......

Ordinary defensive positions are pulled apart by defensive lines, such as the defense of two brigades of the British 44th Infantry Division, one in front and one behind, either the 131st Brigade in front or the 133rd Brigade in front.

But the "box defense" was to have two brigades side by side, and the trenches were connected like two boxes stacked on top of each other.

The benefits of this are clear.

The first is to make it easier to coordinate troops.

An ordinary line of defense will inevitably have a "junction point" at the junction of various troops, and this "junction point" will often become the focus of the enemy's attack because of the different units to which it belongs...... Just like the German attack on the Rois Issat Ridge before.

This problem is particularly serious for the British army, because the composition of the British army is very complex, such as the Indian division, the South African division, the New Zealand division, etc., they do not even understand the language, which will bring a lot of misunderstandings and coordination problems to the troops.

The "box defense" solves this problem very well, it is actually using its own troops to form a circle on the defensive line, so there is no "junction point" with other troops. To some extent, they only need to coordinate with the members of their own troops to manage their own positions.

Secondly, it is this "box defense" that will form a natural encirclement of the enemy who tries to break through.

It is easy to understand that the defense line is composed of a line of defense like a box, and if the German army breaks through the first line of defense, which is the surface of the box, and then steps into the middle of the box, it will not only divide the German army into pieces that cannot be connected with each other, but will also be completely locked in the box and never get out.

"I don't understand why they failed before this!" Ensign John handed Avery a cigarette and said, "Don't they know about a line like this?" ”

Avery understood what Ensign John meant, such a line of defense plus tanks, artillery, and aircraft...... It's hard to imagine that the Germans were able to break through, so how did the previous defeats come about?

Because the British 44th Infantry Division had just arrived, it didn't know much about the previous situation.

"Maybe they're in a hurry to attack!" Captain Avery replied: "I have heard that in several battles we tried to drive the Germans back, but the Germans took advantage of the defense and began to counterattack!" ”

Ensign John nodded.

"I think so!" Second Lieutenant John spat out a puff of smoke and said, "The composition of our troops is too complicated, and the attack will be chaotic, and the Germans will have a chance." Now, it's time for the Germans to be unlucky......"

Before he could finish speaking, a bullet hit Ensign John in the chest, followed by a "bang" of gunshots.

This is characteristic of long-range sniping...... The muzzle velocity of the K98K rifle bullet is 755 m/s, and the velocity of the sound is 340 m/s.

That is, if the gunner fires from a distance of 500 meters, then the loud sound will lag by about 0.8 seconds.

Ensign John clutched his chest in disbelief, the cigarette between his fingers was still smoking, and the blood oozing from his fingers quickly dyed it a piercing red, and Ensign John glanced at Captain Avery with a pleading look, and then slowly collapsed and lost his life.

"Sniper!" Captain Avefry retracted his head and shouted, "Cover! ”

To Afri's surprise, the gunfire was clearly coming from the front of the position, which was a minefield and desert, and he could not understand how anyone could be lurking there...... This meant that they had to spend a whole day in the desert under the scorching sun.

"It should be guerrillas!" Captain Avery said to his men.

He thinks that this is something that only locals who are accustomed to the desert climate and are too stupid to live can do, but he soon realizes that he is wrong.

Soon there were two more "bangs", and two British soldiers who poked their heads out were shot and fell to the ground.

"I don't think they're partisans, captain!" A British sniper shouted at Captain Affry from a distance of more than ten meters: "The partisans do not have such accurate marksmanship, and it can be heard from the sound of gunfire that they are using K98K, and the Germans will not give this standard rifle to the partisans to use!" ”

The British snipers were right that most of the rifles in the hands of the partisans were "Enfield" captured by the Germans from the British, which is ironic.

"Did you spot them?" Captain Avery asked.

"No!" The sniper replied: "They are well camouflaged, listening to the gunfire they are at least four hundred meters away, it's troublesome!" ”

Captain Avery knew what the sniper meant, although the "Enfield" rifle had a large ammunition capacity and a fast rate of fire, its accuracy was far inferior to that of the K98K, so it did not have an advantage in sniping.

The Germans apparently came prepared.