The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Halfa Mountain is an east-west mountain located in the middle of the British line of defense.

Any mountain or ridge in the desert must be a strategic point. This is because the desert is empty. 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 range of long-range artillery at this time is more than ten kilometers)

At the same time, the peak will also become a good hiding place for armored forces... Tanks and cars full of supplies only need to hide on the other side of the peak to avoid enemy artillery coverage.

The problem is that this Halfa Mountain is east-west, and the foot of the mountain is still difficult to build fortifications and lay mines... The sand waterfall is severely weathered, and the mountains are usually hard stone mountains.

This is obviously not conducive to the British defense, especially if the German army fires a shell at Halfa Mountain, the blasted rubble will cause heavy casualties to the British troops stationed there.

Once the Germans took Halfa Mountain, it would be another matter... It was east-west, and the German artillery only needed to transport mortars to bombard the British troops on both sides with artillery fire, thus opening a long gap in the British defense line and allowing the German armored division to penetrate deep into the hinterland.

This was one of the reasons why Montgomery believed that if the Germans wanted to attack, they would definitely choose Halfa Mountain, so he carefully deployed a pocket formation here: the front line of defense was garrisoned by the newly reinforced British 44th Infantry Division, and then the 1st Armored Division was ambushed. The other two armored divisions were placed on both wings of Halfa Mountain to prepare for outflanking, and at least 300 artillery guns were aimed at the gap in Halfa Mountain... This could not actually be called a gap, but a trap.

Captain Afuri was very confident in this line of defense, not only because the British army had an absolute advantage in manpower and equipment on this line of defense, but also because Montgomery pioneered the use of "box defense" on this line of defense.

The so-called "box defense" means that the defensive position of each unit is like a rectangular or square box...

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

But the "box defense" makes the two brigades side by side, and the trenches are connected like two stacked boxes.

The benefits of doing this are very obvious.

First of all, it makes the coordination of the troops easier.

Ordinary defense lines will inevitably have "junctions" at the junction of various troops, and this "junction" will often become the focus of the enemy's attack because it belongs to different troops...just like the German attack on Rowaisat Ridge before.

This problem is particularly serious for the British army, because the composition of the British army is very complicated, such as the Indian Division, the South African Division, the New Zealand Division, etc., they don't even speak the same language, which will cause a lot of misunderstandings and coordination problems for the troops.

"Box defense" solves this problem very well. It actually uses its own troops to form a circle on the defense line, so there is no "junction" with other troops. To some extent, they only need to coordinate with their own troops to manage their positions.

Secondly, this "box defense" will form a natural encirclement for the enemy who tries to break through.

This is easy to understand. The defense line is composed of box-like defense lines. 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 to each other, but also be completely locked in the box and can never get out.

"I don't understand why they failed before!" Lieutenant John handed Avery a cigarette and said, "Don't they know how to set up a defense line like this?"

Avery understood what Lieutenant John meant. With such a defense line plus tanks, artillery and aircraft... It is hard to imagine that the Germans can break through, so how did they lose one battle after another before?

Because the British 44th Infantry Division had just been reinforced, they didn't know much about the previous situation.

"Maybe they are eager to attack!" Captain Avery replied: "I heard that in several battles, we wanted to drive the Germans back, but the Germans took advantage of the defense and then started to counterattack!" Lieutenant John nodded. "I think so too!" Lieutenant John exhaled a puff of smoke and said: "The composition of our troops is too complicated. The attack will cause chaos, and the Germans will have an opportunity. Now, it's time for the Germans to be unlucky..." Before he finished speaking, a bullet hit Lieutenant John's chest, followed by a "bang" gunshot. This is the characteristic of long-range sniping... The initial velocity of the K98K rifle bullet is 755 meters/second, and the speed of sound is about 340 meters/second. In other words, if the gunman fires at 500 meters away, the sound will lag by about 0.8 seconds. Lieutenant John covered his chest in disbelief, the cigarette between his fingers was still smoking, and the blood seeping from his fingers quickly dyed it a dazzling red. Lieutenant John looked at Captain Avery with a look of help, and then slowly fell down and died. "Sniper!" Captain Afury drew back his head and shouted, "Take cover!" This surprised Afury because the gunshots were obviously coming from the front of the position, and in front of the position was a minefield and desert. He didn't understand how someone could be hiding there... This meant that they would have to stand in the desert under the scorching sun all day.

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

He thought that only locals who were accustomed to the desert climate and were too stupid to live could do such a thing, but he soon discovered that he was wrong.

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

"I don't think they are guerrillas, Captain!" A British sniper shouted to Captain Avery from a distance of more than ten meters: "The guerrillas do not have such accurate marksmanship, and you can tell from the gunfire that they are using K98K , the Germans will not give this standard rifle to the guerrillas!”

The British sniper was right. Most of the rifles in the hands of the guerrillas were "Enfields" captured by the German army from the British. This is very ironic.

"Did you spot them?" Captain Avery asked.

"No!" the sniper replied: "They are well camouflaged. They are at least four hundred meters away when they hear the gunshots. This is very troublesome!"

Captain Avery knew what the sniper meant. Although the "Enfield" rifle has a large ammunition capacity and a fast rate of fire, its accuracy is far less than that of the K98K, so it does not have an advantage in sniping.

The Germans were obviously prepared.