Iron Cross

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Montgomery was furious at the headquarters at El Alamein Station. At first, he received a telegram of victory from the 10th Armored Division, saying that Tell Akakil had been captured and that the enemy had fled. He was very happy and pulled De. Lagan and his staff were discussing where Guderian should go, but a telegram sent shortly afterwards made him slam the table on the spot: the 24th Armored Brigade encountered an ambush by a superior enemy and was completely surrounded, and was in urgent need of rescue.

"Stupid! Really stupid." Montgomery said to his subordinates sadly. "I warned them not to advance blindly, told them not to be out of touch, and told them to report news to me every two hours and keep in touch. I didn't listen to any of them. , Who is to blame for being surrounded now? Is it my fault?”

Several staff officers thought: everything else can be blamed, except that the 10th Armored Division still fulfilled the requirement of reporting information every two hours. Calculating carefully, from the occupation of Tell Akakir to the shooting The interval between the siege and telegrams was less than 2 hours.

Montgomery said this and was angry like this, but it didn't mean that he could really be indifferent to it. After thinking about it for half a minute, he still couldn't help but ask: "Which unit is closest to them?"

"Tenth Armored Division."

Montgomery waved his hand: "The 24th Armored Brigade is the troops of the 10th Armored Division. It is their duty to rescue them, but I think this strength alone is not enough. We must rely on other forces. What was our original arrangement?"

At this time, the outflanking troops from the north and the south sent telegrams at the same time, saying that they heard fierce exchanges of fire in the direction of Tell Akakir and were temporarily unable to contact the 24th Armored Brigade, which had made a frontal breakthrough. They asked for instructions on how to proceed with the next combat operation. Should we continue to outflank the enemy as originally planned or should we change our battle plan?

De Lagan looked at the map: "After the 10th Armored Division is the 4th Indian Division, detouring from the north is the 1st South African Division and the 2nd Free French Brigade, and detouring from the south is the 2nd New Zealand Division and Greece. 1st Infantry Brigade."

"Are there no other armored units?" Montgomery asked.

De Lagan gave him a strange look and explained: "The 10th Armored Division itself is an armored force. The 1st South African Division in the north and the 2nd New Zealand Division in the south both have their own armored forces, especially the 2nd New Zealand Division. They The armor strength is equivalent to that of an armored division."

"There is no particularly reliable armored force, and the number is insufficient. To break the encirclement, we must have armored spearheads." Montgomery pondered for a moment, "Can other troops be drawn out? I need fast, pure armored troops."

"Except for the 1st Tank Brigade directly under the Army Group Headquarters, there are not many other pure armored units, unless the 1st and 7th Armored Divisions that have rushed forward are turned back." De La said reluctantly, "If the order They temporarily turned to Tell Akakir to rescue them, and we completely let go of the enemy troops fleeing along the coastal road. "

Montgomery waved his hand: "That's not necessary. Since Guderian has surrounded the 24th Armored Brigade at Tell Akakir, most of the people fleeing along the coastal road are Italians or part of the German army, his main force. It is impossible to jump out of the gap to cause trouble for the 1st and 7th Armored Divisions, so there is no need to make a temporary turn to send them a telegram and ask them to be careful not to let the tanks lose too much contact with the infantry behind them, so as not to suffer the same fate. treatment.”

"clear."

"As for Tell Akakir..." Montgomery hesitated, wondering if there was any way to quickly relieve the 24th Armored Brigade.

"I think our armor strength is enough. Not counting the strength of the 24th Armored Brigade in the encirclement, the 10th Armored Division in the front has more than 100 tanks, the New Zealand Second Division in the south has nearly 200 tanks, and South Africa in the north has The 1st Division and the Free French Forces combined have more than 80 tanks, and the cumulative number is close to 400, which is equivalent to the strength of two armored divisions. This strength exceeds the armored strength of the Germans. We really cannot spare too many other tanks. The armored forces are coming."

De Lagan told the truth. The three armored divisions (1st, 7th, and 10th) and the New Zealand 2nd Division before the attack had a total of nearly 900 tanks. In addition to the armored forces directly under the group army and several other divisions, A total of more than 1,200 tanks currently constitute the Eighth Army, which seems to be much more than the Germans. However, while chasing the fleeing enemies on the coastal road, they also need to relieve the 24th Armored Brigade of Tell Akakir. Still feeling stretched thin. Montgomery only complained to London about the lack of troops and equipment, but if Guderian's possessions were in another position, they would have been pushed to Cairo by now.

"Order the 24th Armored Brigade in the encirclement circle to stand firm on the spot, and the remaining troops will be commanded by Major General Ramsden to counter-encircle the enemy. We will strive to solve the scourge of Guderian in Tell Akakir."

"I'm afraid Brigadier General Brown won't last that long." De Lagan said worriedly, "After all, he only has one brigade..."

"How is Major General Gatehouse's 10th Armored Division currently doing?"

"They were fighting the Germans. The enemies were the two old rivals, the German 15th and 21st Armored Divisions. Their blockade was very fierce. The 10th Armored Division was unable to penetrate for a while, according to Major General Gatehouse. The fighting was fierce in the direction of Tell Akakil.”

"Guderian still has the 90th Light Division. If the enemy uses two armored divisions to block the enemy, there will be too few troops to surround the 24th Armored Brigade. It is estimated that one armored division will cooperate with the 90th Light Division to deal with the 24th Armored Brigade, and the other will block the 10th Armored Division. Brigadier General Brown must hold on!" Montgomery thought for a long time, and finally said in a decisive tone, "Give them orders. The 10th Armored Division must entangle the enemy in front and exert strong enough pressure. All our troops in the encirclement must fight to the last soldier. When the troops on the north and south wings arrive, it will be time for us to counter-encircle the Germans."

"Yes." De Lagan secretly wiped his sweat. According to the commander's deployment just now, it might be possible to catch Guderian, but the fate of Brigadier General Brown and the 24th Armored Brigade in the encirclement is not very good. The commander seems to be determined to sacrifice the 24th Armored Brigade to achieve the overall goal. He only hopes that those guys in the encirclement will be smarter and can hold on until the large army rescues him.

Major General Gatehouse, the commander of the 10th Armored Division, who was commanding the battle on the front line, felt that he was going crazy. Part of the contribution on this side was due to the reckless Brigadier General Brown, and a large part was due to Montgomery's order. The 10th Armored Division had two armored brigades in total, with less than 200 tanks, and Brown's 24th Armored Brigade accounted for nearly half of them. Now he had another 8th Armored Brigade in addition to the dozen tanks left in the division headquarters, but the problem was that the enemy in front had two armored division numbers, and he couldn't get in no matter how hard he fought.

Although the German armored divisions in North Africa had suffered heavy losses in recent years due to continuous fighting, the two combined were equivalent to a fully staffed armored division of the British Army, but the problem was that the 10th Armored Division was not fully staffed now. He was equivalent to using one armored brigade to bite off one armored division of the other side, not to mention that he was the offensive side. The Germans could still rely on anti-tank firepower in defensive positions - those damn 88 guns were indestructible monsters, and the tank soldiers had a headache when they saw them.

After receiving a telegram from Montgomery asking him to entangle the Germans at all costs and break the encirclement, he slammed his military cap and slammed into his subordinates in public, accusing his superiors of "blind command": "A few days ago, they vowed that we would never attack the German positions and that they would let the Germans come and hit our anti-tank firepower - it was simply wishful thinking! Now, they ask us to hit the German anti-tank positions at all costs. I have served in the army for nearly 30 years and have never heard such a double-edged order... In short, One day I will die under such an order! "

Seeing the indignant look of the division commander, no one dared to answer. Only the chief of staff coughed and reluctantly changed the subject: "Sir, the telecommunications company reported that it can't contact the 24th Armored Brigade now."

"Is this bastard still alive? Let's just die and let it count. We will retreat directly. Whoever wants to rescue can go!"

Others looked at each other. The 24th Armored Brigade was a unit of the 10th Armored Division. They dared not say that they had any credit for rescuing the siege. Retreating would be even more sinful. Did the division commander and Brigadier General Brown have a grudge? I have never heard of such rumors.

Everyone did not dare to express their opinions and continued to remain silent.

Gatehouse opened his mouth and cursed the Air Force again: "The Air Force is also a bunch of trash. They have been fighting for so long and they haven't come to reinforce. Do you really want me to have a division, no, half a division to deal with two German armored divisions?"

"Sir, Major General Ted has replied to us that the bomber force is insufficient and cannot provide cover in a short time." The Air Force liaison officer replied tremblingly.

"Damn it! Where are our planes? Last time they boasted that they had more than 1,000 planes. Can't they just send 20 bombers to cover us?"

Gatehouse really misunderstood Major General Ted's Desert Air Force. In order to delay the Italian troops retreating along the coastal highway, he sent all the planes he could to perform this task. The fighters and German fighters fought happily, and the bombers took the time to bomb the ground. For a while, they didn't care about Tell Akakir at all.

"Sir." His adjutant suddenly rushed in with a happy expression, "The front-line troops reported that the Germans retreated and gave up many positions..."

"It seems that the German commander is more stupid than our commander!" Gatehouse waved his hand, "Then continue the attack."