After hearing the consolation, Johnson nodded silently, and then asked in a hoarse voice: "By the way, Chief of Staff, did you have any good news just now?"
He was still very sad in his heart, but as a division commander, the situation at this time did not allow him to remain immersed in sadness. The battle in the city was still fiercely going on, and he had to assume the responsibility of command.
The chief of staff nodded. He did not speak, but directly handed the telegram in his hand to Johnson.
After receiving the telegram, Johnson took a look at it and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The two regiments of the Australian 26th Division were finally arriving, and just half an hour ago, Johnson also received an order from the Army Headquarters. Once the 26th Division arrived, the main offensive task would be handed over to the 26th Division.
Johnson thought for a while and issued a new order to Butler: "Immediately tell the company commander of the third company of the Guard Battalion that his company will immediately move into the city and participate in the battle to stabilize the current front."
The 3rd Company of the Guard Battalion is the last reserve team in the division. It has not participated in the battle in the city of Ejele. It is the last remaining unused force of the Guard Battalion.
But the situation is different now. The follow-up troops are about to arrive. It is no longer meaningful to retain this reserve force. Now is a good time to put this force into battle.
After all, the two regiments of the 26th Division will arrive here in half an hour, but this unit needs a certain amount of time to recover after the rapid march and cannot go into battle immediately.
Therefore, at this time, the 24th Division must buy rest time for the friendly forces so that the 26th Division can have sufficient rest time and be ready to take over from the 24th Division and continue to attack the French army in the urban area of Ejele.
And if the 24th Division is driven back from the front line by the enemy at this time, then the subsequent attack of the Australian 26th Division will definitely become more difficult.
It was with these factors in mind that Johnson finally decided to put the only reserve team in his hands into the battle.
Butler was in favor of the division commander's decision, and he probably understood why Johnson made the decision to send the 3rd company into battle, so he did not raise any objection and immediately went out to find the signalman to convey Johnson's order.
At this time, the battle in Ejele City has also entered a fierce stage.
Although the French commander suffered some losses in the previous battle, as the battle continued, the French commander also discovered that the attacking British troops were not actually large in strength.
Moreover, in some areas, after losing some troops, the French army was able to force the British attacking troops to retreat. In the eyes of the French army, this was a very good signal, a signal of hope for victory!
More than an hour ago, the British army once again deployed the last small force of the 3rd Company of the Guard Battalion to launch an attack. The French army, which had already begun to slowly squeeze the British offensive troops outward, had no choice but to attack.
The pace of squeezing did not stop again.
As the commander of the French 3rd Division, the French division commander knew very well that the last troops invested by the British Army were much smaller than the previous ones, indicating that its reserves had been exhausted. Since the British Army's reserves had been exhausted,
However, the situation of the French army in the city has not worsened, so the French army can gather the reserves they have in hand and prepare to give the British attacking force the final blow, so as to completely squeeze the British attacking force out of the city and defeat them.
A British army unit.
On the other side, when the Australian division commander of the British 26th Division saw Johnson at the 24th Division headquarters, Johnson had begun to look visibly haggard and exhausted.
The battle in Ejele City caused Johnson to lose a large number of comrades and even his cousin who was watching him, and the 24th Division was completely crippled.
If it weren't for the purpose of supporting the arrival of the 26th Division, Johnson might have ordered the troops to withdraw.
Therefore, when the Australian division commander of the 26th Division proposed to take over the main offensive right to attack Ejele City, Johnson had no objections and readily agreed with the other party's opinion.
After giving the upper-level officers of the 26th Division a detailed introduction to the situation of the French army in the city, Johnson asked the other side how long it would take to prepare for an attack.
Finally, they agreed that the troops of the 26th Division would enter the city half an hour later to take over the area still in the hands of the 24th Division. After handing over their positions to friendly forces, all the troops of the 24th Division completely withdrew from Ejele City.
Transition to rest.
Soon, the time for handing over positions came. British soldiers and Australian soldiers started handing over positions according to the agreement of the two division commanders.
Johnson finally withdrew all the British troops of the 24th Division from the city, and assembled and rested not far from the eastern suburbs. At the same time, each unit conducted casualty statistics.
The number of casualties was quickly reported. The two regiments transferred here from the 24th Division, plus the engineer battalion and guard battalion directly under the division, suffered heavy losses. The entire division dropped sharply from nearly 10,000 people when it came here.
Less than two thousand people.
In addition, there were more than 1,000 casualties of various types, including minor and serious injuries.
There were so many wounded that the field hospital of the 24th Division could not fully treat. As a last resort, medical soldiers from the Australian 26th Division were used for treatment. This was barely enough to treat the seriously wounded. There were no medical soldiers to treat the lightly wounded, so they had to rely on
The uninjured soldiers and some health workers were bandaged.
Of course, the desperate fighting of the 24th Division also caused very heavy casualties to the French troops defending the city. The commander of the 3rd Division who joined the French army misjudged the situation and threw all his troops into the battle. As a result, he encountered
The cutting-edge troops of the Australian 26th Division suffered huge losses.
The situation at Edgere seemed to be becoming more and more favorable to the British as Wavell sent in the last of the Australian troops.
Once Wavell captured this place, the French army would no longer have a city that could be used to prevent the British army from accessing the oil fields on the Algerian border.
Just by going one step further and penetrating Ejele, Wavell will get the oil fields in the border area that account for half of Algeria's total oil fields!
