So Zhang Chi became the deputy staff officer of the Eighth Army. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The staff officer is Ramsden, and the deputy staff officer is Ramsden's deputy......

But in fact, Zhang Chi can't be regarded as a deputy at all, because he has not done what a deputy staff officer should do since he entered the headquarters, such as searching for materials and intelligence, processing information, etc.

Zhang Chi, the deputy staff officer, did the work of the staff officer, that is, to give Montgomery advice and even battle plans.

"Zhang ......" Montgomery handed Zhang Chi a cup of coffee and said, "I hope the previous unhappiness will not affect the cooperation between us!" ”

"Of course!" Zhang Chi continued to read the information while drinking coffee, he needed to know more information related to the British army, and then he could have a purpose.

It should be said that Montgomery still has real talent and learning...... After all, he was an officer who had been promoted from platoon commander to squad commander in World War I, and most officers like this knew actual combat and had combat experience, and the measures implemented were not too detached from reality.

For example, Montgomery did three things after taking over the Eighth Army:

The first is to establish one's own image within the group army and restore the trust of the group army personnel in the group army itself and in its senior officers.

This should be said to be important.

The reason for establishing his own image is that Montgomery is a new officer, most of his subordinates do not understand Montgomery, and even the troops of various countries in the Eighth Army do not even understand the language, and if they want to carry out their orders, they must gain the trust of the army and establish their prestige.

This may be one of the reasons why Montgomery is so disgusted with Zhang Chi...... Montgomery's hard-earned prestige in the army has been slackened in this way, and I am afraid that there will be very little left.

But what Zhang Chi wants to say is...... Montgomery brought it upon himself!

The second thing is to review the command structure and cut down those "rotten woods" that he considers to be widespread.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is "universal", the British army is an old colonial empire, its armies are spread all over the world, and colonial armies are everywhere, which is why it is called the "empire on which the sun never sets".

However, it is precisely because it has many colonies and colonies can bring endless wealth to Britain, and at the same time, the British army always has a condescending attitude towards the colonized national army, coupled with a luxurious life, so that the British army is full of a large number of incompetent but always with an inexplicable sense of superiority British officers and soldiers.

Zhang Chi had learned this when he was in Burma, and those British officers could be said to be useless, but they ridiculously thought that they were superior and others had to obey his orders.

In fact, Montgomery himself was inevitably contaminated with such a habit, but Montgomery was a general with combat experience, and the so-called "escaped general" Alexander, who only did "pit and abduct" in Burma, and finally even got himself into it.

So Montgomery removed a number of incompetent officers, such as Corbett, Dorman, Smith, etc., and promoted a group of shrewd and capable officers, and Ramsden was one of them.

One of the most striking was Montgomery's transfer of a young teacher named Williams from Cambridge University in England to serve as his intelligence chief...... As for why this teacher was transferred to be the director of intelligence, Zhang Chi saw that it was "confidential".

Zhang Chi is not interested in knowing this, all he needs to know is to think about how to win this battle based on intelligence.

The third thing Montgomery did was to establish a chain of command that would fit in with his character and operational theory.

His personality and operational theory were generally "in order," and Montgomery tried to get everything in order...... For example, a careful pre-war deployment, and a few more pre-war exercises, rehearsing what would happen if the Germans attacked from here, and what would happen if they attacked from there, in the words of the British, they practiced almost every detail that was about to come.

Montgomery then told his men: "If you don't know what to do if you've been killed in the course of the battle, look up the drill records!" ”

This would have been fine.

Of course, the battlefield is ever-changing, and it is impossible to take into account all possible scenarios in a step-by-step approach and in a pre-war attempt, such as the German attack on Maherama, which was completely unexpected by Montgomery and could not find a solution in the exercise record.

However, the British army is a special force, numbering only more than 200,000 people, but it comes from nine countries, and the average strength of each country is only 20,000 or 30,000...... In fact, the number of colonial troops should be small and average, because the British army has more than 100,000 people, and most of the colonial troops are based on divisions, almost the size of more than 10,000 people, and only South Africa has two infantry divisions of more than 20,000 people.

There are so many components to an army that many of them have no idea what they are going to do when the war starts.

Montgomery's method was to tell them what to do, even rehearsed beforehand.

Here's the problem......

Even the British army and even the armored divisions that were supposed to be used for mobility were "rehearsed" in this way.

After thinking about it, Zhang Chi knew the reason: Montgomery's most important combat experience and promotion all occurred during World War I. Although this can be said to be a kind of combat experience, it has long been a backward combat experience that belongs to "trench warfare...... Just like France, the whole country is full of the erroneous tactical thinking of "defense over offense" in the era of "trench warfare", and by the time the problem is discovered, it is too late.

Coupled with the fact that Montgomery grew up under the British system, it is not surprising that its strategy and tactics would be so traditional and conservative.

"Do you see what's wrong?" Montgomery noticed that Zhang Chi closed the information.

"General!" Zhang Chi said: "What I am most concerned about is what you think about the combat aspect of the tank group!" ”

Montgomery flipped through the information, then took out a few from the middle and handed them to Zhang Chi, and said: "I think you also know that the range of German tanks is not as good as ours, but the speed is much faster than ours, which makes German tanks suitable for close combat, while our tank armor is thick and bulky and inflexible, and is only suitable for long-range combat." To do this, I gave an order: tanks are not allowed to engage in close combat. ”

This is Montgomery's style, he often sees things absolutely, and then he will give the troops a dead order, just like he used to ask the troops to check the drill records when in doubt, and now he has asked the troops not to allow tanks to fight in close combat.

But the question is, with the speed of more than 10 kilometers per hour of infantry tanks such as "Matilda", if they encounter enemy tanks and cannot run away, how can they avoid close combat with German tanks traveling at 40 kilometers per hour? Destroy all the German tanks before they come up?!