The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The British army was certainly aware of the German actions on Crete.

Montgomery knew this through the Greek militia, and Churchill knew more detailed contents from the "super secret" telegram sent by Rommel to Hitler.

So Churchill got in touch with Montgomery immediately.

"Monty (Montgomery's nickname)!" Churchill said: "To this day, do you still believe that time is on our side?"

Churchill's words somewhat meant to "rehabilitate" himself, because almost everyone thought that Churchill's judgment was wrong before, and Britain did not need to rush to attack the German army. For this reason, Churchill even dismissed General Auchinleck and replaced him with Montgomery, who shared General Auchinleck's views.

But now, the Germans have built factories on Crete... In time, when these factories take shape and can produce equipment in large quantities, it will be obvious that the Germans will replenish equipment much faster than the British army.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister!" Montgomery could only admit: "The Germans' attack on Crete and the move of their factories to the island really surprised me...but we are not without countermeasures against them!"

"You'd better have something to deal with, General!" Churchill said. "Otherwise we won't be able to deal with those Members who are skeptical of us. Do you understand?"

"Understood, Your Excellency Prime Minister!" Montgomery replied.

After putting down the phone, Montgomery looked at the map and fell into thought.

"General!" Degungan suggested from the side: "Perhaps we can organize an attack to regain Crete!"

"Do you have any plan?" Montgomery said: "The Germans have already set up air defense on the island and have occupied air superiority in the surrounding waters. If they want to regain Crete... it's not easy!"

"We can use the Greek militia!" Degangan said: "Provide them with weapons and cooperate inside and outside..."

This seemed to be a feasible method, but after thinking about it, Montgomery shook his head: "The Greek militia is too weak, just like the Battle of Crete. It is difficult for them to play much role in the battle!"

Montgomery is right.

First of all, the air battle is the most important to seize the island. At this point, the militiamen can't help at all. At most, they can provide some intelligence to the British army.

Secondly, after the militia's equipment is very weak and they suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Crete, it is obviously unrealistic to immediately place their hopes on the militia's "internal and external attacks".

"But General!" De Guangang said: "We can't let the Germans continue to develop like this..."

Montgomery knew what De Guingan meant. The Germans were able to defeat the British army in such a panic when supplies were difficult. Now the supply situation has improved. Not only has it improved, but it has also built factories on Crete and started mining and production in Africa. In this way, Will the British army be a rival to the German army? I'm afraid that it won't be long before the German army will be driven out of the African continent.

"The problem with Crete..." Montgomery pointed at the map and said: "It is that it is outside the combat radius of our fighter planes. If we can capture Matruh, this problem will be solved!"

Matruh is only 300 kilometers away from Crete, but the British Spitfires have a range of 1,000 kilometers, which is enough for them to fly over Crete to compete with German fighter planes for air supremacy.

"General, do you mean to break through the German defenses?"

"Yes!" Montgomery nodded: "We must compress the German defense line back, and at least recapture Matruh, so that the Germans' advantage in Crete will be gone!"

"But it's not that easy to break through the German defense!" Degangan said worriedly: "Just like before, we failed several times in our attempts!"

"But this time is different!" Montgomery said: "The Germans will deploy a large number of troops to Crete. On the one hand, we can use the militia to harass Crete to attract their attention, and on the other hand, we can take advantage of the situation." They are busy building factories and launching an attack when there is a shortage of supplies. What's more important is..."

Montgomery said nothing more.

Montgomery didn't say it, not because he was worried about revealing the secret, but because what he hoped for might not necessarily succeed.

Montgomery's hope was nothing but tanks, America's new tanks.

One of Montgomery's strengths was that once he set a strategic direction, he could grasp the key points.

Just like now, it is very difficult to solve the problem of Crete by sea and air, so we can only solve the problem on land first. To solve the problem on land, we must have tanks.

However, the existing British tanks are simply not enough to break through the German defense line. This is not only due to the training problems of the British army, but also because of the performance problems of American tanks... Of course, the performance of American tanks is different from that of the British "Mattie" Of course, it is greatly improved compared to the Erda tank, but its fatal weakness still makes it repeatedly restricted when facing the German "Plank III" tank.

Therefore, the British army urgently needs a better tank that can completely suppress the German "Plank III" tank.

Without this tank, Montgomery would not have considered this plan. But Montgomery knew that the United States had it, and this tank was the "Sherman" tank... At this time, this tank had just been produced, and the United States did not even have the equipment itself.

(Note: In history, the United States urgently provided a batch of subsequent production "Shermans" to the British Army in North Africa as soon as it had time to equip an armored brigade.)

Although Montgomery does not know whether this tank can play a role on the battlefield, judging from the data he obtained on the "Sherman", it will undoubtedly be the nemesis of German tanks... The 76MM caliber tank gun is equipped with a 76.2MM armor and a top speed of 38 kilometers per hour.

You must know that the large-caliber tank gun of the "General Grant" tank is only 75MM, and the front armor of the "Matilda" tank is only 78MM... In other words, this new American tank is almost of the "General Grant" type. The combination of firepower and "Matilda" defense, coupled with pretty good mobility.

Montgomery knew that if there was no problem with the safety of this tank... there was basically no problem with the safety of American tanks, which can be seen from the "Stuart" and "General Grant" tanks.

In addition, American tanks have another advantage, that is, they are highly versatile. Those who can operate the M3 tank can operate the "Sherman" tank with a little familiarity, which can save the tank crew a lot of training time.

In this way, the British armored division can rush through the German defense lines and repel them!

The more Montgomery thought about it, the more he felt that this plan was feasible, because at this time the Germans focused too much energy and resources on Crete, and they did not even transfer the 90th Light Division and its tanks to the Alexander Line of Defense.