Montgomery's words immediately aroused the resentment of the generals.
An anxious general immediately stood up and retorted: "It's not just the enemy who has received reinforcements. We also received a large number of weapons and ammunition reinforcements not long ago, and our military strength has at least doubled than before!"
The massive reinforcements the general mentioned were the supplies and equipment Churchill ordered to replenish the British troops in North Africa before the Germans launched their landing operations.
At that time, the German landing operations on the mainland had not officially begun. Churchill, who still had some remaining strength, relied on the English Channel as a barrier and ignored the fact that the local equipment was scarce and insufficient, and decisively decided to strengthen the British army in North Africa.
Unlike Reinhardt who regarded the African battlefield as a secondary battlefield, Churchill regarded the "North African flank positions" as almost as important as the British Empire itself!
While Reinhard was staring at the British mainland in an angry manner, Churchill still wanted to guard the distant African colonies.
For this purpose, Churchill drew a large amount of weapons, equipment and ammunition from the scarce local stocks, including even enough Type IV Crusader patrol tanks to equip an armored regiment.
In order to avoid the Italian navy, which had already controlled the Mediterranean at that time, the British transport fleet had to detour around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and sail to Egypt via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. This resulted in them not being delivered to Wavell until not long ago.
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With this supply of supplies, Wavell, whose strength has greatly increased, has assembled the 7th Armored Division, 7th Armored Brigade, 4th Armored Brigade, 4th Indian Division and 22nd Guards Brigade on the Egyptian border.
The Australian independent infantry battalion, together with the 50,000 defenders of Tobruk, were used to destroy Rommel's one German armored division, one German infantry division and three useless Italian divisions.
For Wavell, Brutok's 50,000 defenders could not actually be mobilized and moved.
On the one hand, Tobruk has become a clear target for Rommel to attack and must be defended.
On the other hand, more than 20,000 of the garrison in Tobruk were African indigenous troops recruited by the British army.
Although Wavell replaced these indigenous troops with Italian weapons and equipment captured some time ago, he actually did not expect the indigenous troops to perform well with Italian weapons.
In Wavell's plan, he only needed to make good use of the defenders of Tobruk Fortress and use defensive offensives to hold off the large number of Allied besieging troops.
In that case, he could mobilize other main forces of the Commonwealth to focus on Rommel's German-Italian Africa Army.
After destroying the African Army, the remaining French and Italian troops were not enough to pose a threat to Wavell's army.
As a result, the situation in Africa will quickly tilt towards the British Commonwealth Army. The Allies will either massively increase their troops in Africa, or they will have to watch Wavell become the "Conqueror of Africa" and lose control of the entire Africa.
As for the Allies, especially Germany, which are focusing their main efforts on fighting on two fronts, it is obviously unlikely to provide much support to the African battlefield.
Wavell's ambitions are actually not small. He also hopes to achieve a large-scale victory that "determines the overall situation" in North Africa.
If Wavell hadn't thought so, the generals under him wouldn't have clamored so enthusiastically to defeat the three-nation coalition of the African Allies with superior strength.
Although Montgomery was a newly transferred general to Africa, he had also been greatly appreciated by Wavell and was deeply impressed.
Therefore, Wavell also came forward at this time to have a good talk with Montgomery, the new general who had a good impression: "We have Tobruk Fortress as a support, which is enough to contain a large number of Allied troops."
"This is the advantage we only have as a defensive counterattack." Wavell came over with a smile and patted Montgomery on the shoulder: "If Rommel huddles behind the defense line, we will not be able to defeat his army again, but it will not be as good as it is now.
It’s easier.”
Seeing that Montgomery did not speak, Wavell continued: "The relationship between these allied armies in Africa is actually not strong. The Italian and French armies that surrendered to Rommel were either forced by the situation or had some kind of relationship with Germany.
Benefit distribution agreement. In fact, Italian and French generals in Africa have a high degree of military autonomy."
"This time, Rommel ostensibly enlisted the three allies to launch an attack on our Tobruk Fortress, but the main force he actually used was the German-Italian African Army Group under his complete control."
Wavell watched the surroundings and simply carried out pre-war mobilization here: "This is also our best opportunity to annihilate the main force of his group! As long as we can quickly annihilate the main force of Rommel's front line, we can then encircle the support team.
Not only will they not gain any benefit from this offensive launched by Brooke, but they will also lose a lot of the strategic advantages they originally had!"
The eyes of Wavell's generals all lit up at this time.
Judging from the force distribution map and the internal composition of the African three-nation coalition, this "decapitation" plan is undoubtedly very manipulative.
Compared to annihilating all the forces in the hands of these three commanders, Rommel, Garibaldi, and Berante, it is obviously much easier to concentrate on annihilating the German-Italian Army in Rommel's hands.
"According to the latest intelligence, the troops sent by Rommel to besiege Brutok were basically French and Italian troops commanded by Berante and Garibaldi."
Wavell paused, looked at Montgomery arrogantly and smiled slightly: "It seems that he has also thought of going with us. He keeps the main force that he has complete control over, and is about to have a decisive battle with our troops rescuing Tobruk.
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This is the result pursued by both sides. Wavell and Rommel, the two general commanders, both hope to completely defeat the other in this battle and get their own marshal title and glory!
"But the problem is, we devote all our strength to confront Rommel. What should we do when Garibaldi and Berante pose a threat?"
Just when Wavell and his old subordinates were at their peak, Montgomery once again sang the opposite tune.
"This is not a problem!"
Wavell didn't even need to speak himself, his chief of staff rebutted Montgomery for him.
"After Garibaldi's Italian troops suffered a disastrous defeat in Libya, they could only contribute a small part of the Allies' African three-nation coalition forces, except for the African Army Group."
Having said this, the chief of staff mocked the Italian army with a strong sense of superiority and said: "They highlight all the problems that can occur in poor and backward military countries."
"The standard Italian tank, the M14. This is a light tank equipped with only a small number of artillery and very thin defensive armor."
"At the same time, although the Italian army's artillery weapons are relatively sufficient, most of them are outdated and backward. For example, the 47mm main gun of the Italian army's anti-tank force is very outdated and has almost no effect in the battle against our tanks."
"And in my opinion, the Italian armored forces are only suitable for show rather than combat. In addition, the Italian infantry training model is pedantic, unrealistic, and all based on outdated tactical theories..."
Sure enough, it is not just a rumor that the British like to find superiority over Italians.
Unfortunately, Montgomery didn't seem to accept this trick. He actually didn't care about the atmosphere at all and said out of step again: "What about the army of the famous French general Berante?"