At this time, the command of the Eighth Army was already frying.

"The 10th Brigade was routed?" O'Connor's eyes widened with an expression of disbelief, "And you encountered a German unit equipped with a new tank?" ”

"Yes, and the commander of the 10th Brigade insisted that he was attacked by the forward units of a division." O'Connor's chief of staff said, "Judging by the casualties they reported, there is some truth to that." ”

"What about our aerial reconnaissance? If it is a divisional unit, the smoke and dust raised by them can be seen from ten kilometers away from the air reconnaissance. ”

"The Air Force reconnaissance planes have all been sent to the Sinai side, and now we are trying to bring some of them back."

"All the reconnaissance planes were sent?" O'Connor's eyes widened, "None of them were left on standby?" ”

"Because the Air Force Command expects reconnaissance operations to be massively blocked by the Allied Air Force." The chief of staff also had a helpless expression, "Maybe we can send some small troops to carry out reconnaissance missions?" ”

O'Connor thought for a moment, nodded and said, "Send someone to drive a jeep along these roads, if there really is a German division in this area-"

O'Connell circled the map with a pencil and continued, "Then it will be difficult for our scouts not to touch them. ”

"Yes, sir."

"But if there really is a German division here, it is now threatening the flank of the 7th Panzer Division, so we should move the 6th Anti-Panzer Artillery Regiment forward, set up anti-Panzer positions here in the foothills, and then move the infantry of the 1st Gurkha Regiment to cover them."

O'Connor said as he made a gesture on the map, on which he skillfully drew a diagram representing the anti-armor position—the same as the one used to use the cannon position of the battle against the enemy, and now this icon is still used as a marker for the operation of the anti-armor firearms position.

"If it's true that the Germans are here here, does it mean that the Indian Ninth Brigade is a feint?" The chief of staff asked O'Connor.

O'Connor stared at the map, lightly tapping the table with a pencil, pondering for a while before saying: "No, how to say it, the fact that the Ninth Brigade was attacked is very strange in itself, they were only ordered to be transferred to the current station two days ago, and we think that the Ninth Brigade is at the destination of the transfer according to the transfer order, but is the Ninth Brigade really there?" Because there were no troops deployed there, and the Ninth Brigade was ordered to establish a defensive line there, we did not receive any reports that would prove that the Ninth Brigade was there for the handover of the defensive zone. ”

The chief of staff frowned: "No matter how you say it, a brigade has gone astray and no one has found out that this is unlikely, right?" ”

"Possibly, because the destination of the transfer is military secrets, the entire brigade may only be known to a few senior officers, and several of them are on the orders relayed by the brigade commander......" O'Connor shook his head, it seemed that he himself thought that this kind of thing was unlikely halfway through, "Forget it, anyway, now that the Anzac is advancing towards the position of the Ninth Brigade, it will be clear as soon as they arrive." ”

As soon as O'Connor's words fell, a major ran up to him with a telegram: "The 7th Division was counterattacked by the Germans at Avaninier. ”

O'Connor nearly dislocated his jaw.

"Avani Naniel? Why are they there? That's already behind the enemy lines! ”

The major who came with the telegram was speechless, and O'Connor had to look at the chief of staff for help, only to find that the chief of staff was also stunned.

"Nonsense!" O'Connor threw his pencil onto the map, "Tell them to make a tentative attack, and they break through behind the enemy!" What is this called a tentative attack, and this is an attack, right? ”

"yes, that's an attack. But, sir, Michael has been promoting his theory of armor infiltration, and he may just want to put his theory into practice. ”

O'Connor cursed, then slammed his fist on the table, "I thought he was a commander who could tell the difference between priorities and priorities!" But it turns out I was wrong! ”

Then he calmed down a little, and then looked up and said to the chief of staff: "Let the troops that have now begun to move speed up and go to meet the Seventh Panzer Division, and at the same time send a telegram to Michael, telling him that after dark, he will have to return to my starting position by the same route." ”

With that, O'Connor looked up at the clock in the command room, it was less than an hour before dark, and the sunlight outside the window was already soaked in twilight. It's still May, and the days aren't long, which really helps.

O'Connor had just withdrawn his gaze when the major who had just sent him a report containing the counter-attack of the Seventh Division came over again.

"Your Excellency, the Commander, the 7th Division reports that they have repelled the German counter-attack, and now they have outflanked the rear of the Turkish division east of the breakthrough point, and Avani Nanir has been surrounded by them. They demanded that we devote more troops to the victory, and General Michael seemed to think that with enough infantry, it would be easy to capture Avani Nanir. ”

O'Connor's mouth grew bigger than it had just been.

"They repelled the German counter-onslaught?"

"It seems that so," replied the major as he looked down at the telegram, "and it said that with the support of the division's anti-panzer battalion, he repelled the counterattack of the German 15th Panzer Division, destroying 49 tanks and losing about 30 of his own. ”

O'Connor and the Chief of Staff looked at each other, then he reached for the telegram and read it for himself.

"Their reconnaissance unit has also discovered that the enemy's Senhime troops are approaching......," O'Connor said as he handed the telegram to the chief of staff, "and if the German Senhime troops arrive, the 7th Division will suffer a great loss, and even if they retreat obediently, they will have to suffer heavy losses." Damn Michael, when this war is over I'm going to have to ask him to treat me to the best restaurant in Cairo. Ordered the military subordinate Flying Battle Ji Brigade to be dispatched immediately to support the Seventh Division. At the same time, the 1st Regiment of the Royal War Queens deployed in Abu Ogra was immediately set off and marched towards Avani Nanika together with the 1st Anzac Division that was rushing there. ”

"Wouldn't it be better to use the 3rd Infantry Division deployed in Abu Ogra directly?"

"We can't leave Abu Ogra defenseless, it's the intersection of two roads, and while the ground in this hellish place allows the tracked guys to use most of the places as roads, we still need roads for the poor creatures on wheels to pass."

O'Connor looked down at the map again, and after a moment he said, "If we stabilize our position and take Avani Nanir, then the Turkish troops on the easternmost side of Lin Youde's entire defense line will be attacked by the enemy, and as long as we continue to invest our troops, we can break off the easternmost side of their defense area, and then we can outflank his rear road." ”

"Sir?" The Chief of Staff stared at O'Connor, "You wouldn't be thinking about it...... Want to attack, right? ”

"What's wrong with that?" O'Connor looked up at the chief of staff, "We've been losing, we've been losing in northern Germany, we've lost in Holland and Belgium, and now though the Battle of Algiers has been won, the credit has been taken away by the Americans." The British Army, the Commonwealth Army, needs a victory to boost our precarious morale. ”

"Well, you're right. But our task is to defend against a possible attack of the enemy, and as long as we defend until the convinces is overcome, victory will naturally come......"

"But then the credit will be snatched away by the Americans, and now if we work hard to defeat the Allied army, think about it, we are facing the troops under the direct command of Lin Youde, who was blown into the sky by the Alliance, and how much impact it will have if we get a victory from him, Lin Youde's prestige will be swept away at the same time, we will also sweep away the sluggishness since the war, isn't this exciting enough? It's like bridge, where you have a card in your hand that can complete a grand slam, and you will still bid loudly, even though you are not sure of your opponent's hand and whether your partner will be able to accurately grasp your intentions. ”

"I don't play bridge, General." The chief of staff said to the excited O'Connor with some embarrassment.

"Well, anyway, the rewards ahead are too tempting for us to give it a try."

"Indeed." The chief of staff finally agreed with O'Connor's idea.

At this time, O'Connor himself added: "Of course, the premise of our offensive is that the Germans have not engaged in a roundabout battle in the mountains of Mount Sinai, and we must wait for our troops to determine the situation in Mount Sinai before deciding whether to continue to invest troops to expand the results of the battle, and until then our goal is to ensure that the presumptuous 7th Division is not eaten by the Germans." ”

In response to O'Connor's statement, the chief of staff simply nodded and said it was "very reasonable."

"Before the results of the reconnaissance at Mount Sinai arrive, let's start making a battle plan, can any of the existing battle plans be used as a blueprint?"

The Eighth Army is the battle group of the British army, and the army group of the German army is a level of campaign units, and the headquarters of such a unit will generally have multiple sets of operational plans, so that whenever something happens, the staff does not have to start from the most basic part to build a complex troop movement plan.

The chief of staff thought for a moment, and then replied: "We do have a 'preemptive' offensive operation plan. ”

"Very good, just use that to change it. That plan broke through from the east side and took a detour, right? ”

"Yes, sir."

O'Connor looked pleased, rubbed his hands together and said, "Then let's get started." ”

In this way, the command of the Eighth Army was busy, and kept busy until nightfall, and then a report came from the New Zealand units that had gone to the aid of the 9th Indian Brigade that the Indians were not at all in their own defense zone, and they had disappeared.

Upon receipt of this report, O'Connor immediately gave the order to assemble his troops in the direction of Abu Ogra to Avaninil, and the main forces of the Eighth Army, which were staying behind the line of defense and preparing to deal with the enemy's breakthrough, all moved and drove towards the battlefield on the road that was already not wide.

At the same time, O'Connor reported the situation to the Egyptian Governor's Palace in Cairo, requesting that the goddess be sent to support the "coming war".