When Montgomery took the special plane arranged for him by Dowding and arrived at the North African battlefield, what he felt was a completely different atmosphere from the London front.
There is no sense of depression at all here. On the contrary, the morale of the British troops here is extremely high.
They first defeated the Italians' massive attack, and then pressed the French general Berante and the Italian coalition forces on the defense line to beat them. Even after the German reinforcements joined, they were still able to repel the German general Rommel's attack.
attack.
Italy used five times its troops to launch a sneak attack, but was eventually pushed back. Not only did it not gain an inch of land, but it also lost many of its colonies.
The famous French general Berante rose to fame and was hailed as the "modern Napoleon" by the French. In the end, it was not impossible to defeat General Wavell.
As for the German army, they had unimpeded access all over the world and never suffered a defeat. Only in North Africa, at the hands of General Wavell, did they suffer a defeat!
In the eyes of the British Commonwealth troops in North Africa, no army could defeat them.
When Montgomery just got off the plane and met an operational staff officer from General Wavell's headquarters, the staff officer asked Montgomery in surprise: "Why is the local army so useless? It doesn't matter if it can't defeat the German army, it can even resist the German army."
Not even there!”
Montgomery was really surprised at the time. Having personally witnessed the combat quality and powerful combat effectiveness of the German army at Dunkirk, he could not imagine why the British troops in North Africa were so confident.
Just because they organized a probing German attack?
On the plane to North Africa, Montgomery also spent a lot of time studying the previous North African battle reports in detail.
He discovered that the German offensive blocked by the British army in North Africa was basically a defensive battle with no technical content.
Although this was a battle personally commanded by Rommel, the commander of the German-Italian Africa Army, judging from the scale of the German troops dispatched, it could only reach the standard of a tentative attack at most.
When did repelling an enemy's tentative attack become a source of pride for the British Empire?
Not only that, Montgomery felt that the famous German general named Rommel showed so many abilities in this exploratory attack that he couldn't help but applaud him.
Especially in that strong attack that used sandstorms, Rommel used the few troops he had at hand to maximize their effectiveness!
Montgomery was a little scared. When such a formidable opponent has troops equal to his own, can Wavell's soldiers still be as confident as they are now?
You must know that in Africa, the combined total strength of the German, French and Italian coalition forces is much superior to the strength of the British Commonwealth forces in Africa.
And last time the German army only used less than half an armored division to launch such a beautiful offensive battle at Brutok. When Rommel brings the entire German Afrika Korps, what level will it perform?!
Worried, Montgomery followed his staff into Wavell's headquarters.
As soon as he entered the door, he saw an even more incredible scene.
"This is an opportunity! We should use Rommel's offensive to have a head-on confrontation with them and defeat the main force of the German army in Africa in one fell swoop!"
A young general with the rank of major general was shouting loudly and powerfully.
Montgomery could easily deduce the reason from the opponent's age that was not commensurate with his military rank.
To be promoted to a general at such a young age, Xiang must have experienced a lot of military exploits. In the battle with the Italian, French and German teams some time ago, this major general must have stood out a lot.
Having already tasted the sweetness, of course he will continue to clamor for war.
Montgomery was not eager to participate in the discussion of the combat meeting in Wavell's headquarters. He just found a colonel sitting next to him to get a general understanding of the situation.
From this staff officer, Montgomery learned that after the arrival of the seven additional French divisions sent by the Allies to Africa, Rommel, who had obtained Reinhard's approval this time, launched another offensive against Brutok.
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The opponent's attitude was very resolute. Rommel obviously wanted to avenge his past humiliation and use a successful battle to regain the Führer's trust in him.
Montgomery was almost certain that German commander Rommel attacked Brutok with a must-win attitude this time!
Moreover, Montgomery learned that the intelligence in Wavell's hands also showed that the famous French General Wavell and the Italian Commander-in-Chief of the African Army Garibaldi also fully participated in the joint operations organized by Rommel under the instructions of their own governments, sending out
He took most of the troops on hand to form a coalition with the German army.
The strength of this allied fighting coalition has exceeded the total number of African Commonwealth troops!
Montgomery was increasingly frightened by what he heard, but the generals under Wavell on the other side had a completely different scene.
"We just figured out not long ago that the reinforcements Rommel received after his last failure were only two armored battalions. Those tanks that looked like two regiments were just models made of wood and cardboard!"
Another middle-aged general who was slightly older but also had the rank of Lieutenant General analyzed loudly and confidently:
"Rommel will pretend to have received more reinforcements, which means he is afraid of us. If he had not received seven divisions of French reinforcements this time, he would not have dared to launch a new offensive!"
The lieutenant general's analysis almost shocked Montgomery to death.
Rommel, the general who dared to attack Brutok Fortress with an armored reinforcement regiment, was actually said to be a cowardly commander as timid as a mouse!
Anyone with a little bit of brain would be able to understand why Rommel, who was already quite famous, was so timid.
Isn't it normal for others to pretend to have a huge number of reinforcements as a way to confuse people on the battlefield?
It was not until Rommel relaunched the offensive that he realized that he had been deceived, which seemed even more embarrassing!
"London needs us. Only by completely defeating the Allied forces in Africa can we support the local operations. What the local army cannot do, let us do it!"
"Every ** team in the coalition forces across the way has been defeated by us individually. A group of losers uniting together is not worth worrying about!"
"Annihilate the Allied Three Powers in Africa and witness the promotion of General Wavell to Marshal!"
...It seemed that every general under Wavell was dazzled by the previous victory, and only fanatical confidence remained in his eyes.
"Waging a risky war just for reputation is the most stupid behavior!"
In the midst of the clamor, Montgomery finally could no longer hold back and spoke out in a very unsociable voice to object.
