The Third Reich in Desperation

Third Reich Episode 329

It seems that the 24th Division's attack on the city is about to fail, and I will lead the Australian troops as the main attack!

This is an order from the military department, and it is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.

Thinking of this, the commander of the 26th Division felt that he was full of passion. He immediately asked a combat staff officer to convey orders to the two regiments he brought in turn. Jerry City.

Of course, the 26th Division originally had 3 regiments, but one regiment was eaten by the French army along with an Indian regiment when it was transferred to the northern end, so now there are only 26 regiments left in the 2th Division .

The chief of staff of the 26th division on the side felt a little strange about this order from the division commander.

He found that the division commander became inexplicably agitated after receiving a telegram from the army headquarters, and he also directly issued an order for the entire division to march in a hurry.

Out of his own responsibility, the division chief carefully reminded: "General, letting the whole division march in a hurry will make the troops very tired, and it will also leave some logistics units behind. What are the latest instructions, it is worth making you decide to do this Woolen cloth?"

"Look at the order sent by the headquarters. The military department requires us to arrive in Ejlei City in two hours, and then take over the task of the main attack from the 24th Division. It seems that the 24th Division's attack is very likely Failed, in order to realize the campaign intention formulated by General Wavell, we must not delay, but must speed up our advance. One more minute of delay means one less opportunity for us." The division commander handed the telegram in his hand to the chief of staff to read road.

After receiving the telegram and reading it, the division chief of staff had to agree that the division commander's opinion was correct.

This is an order from the military department, and it is impossible for him to continue to question it.

However, he still secretly slandered the teacher's righteous words in his heart.The division commander obviously ordered the hasty march because he saw an opportunity to make meritorious deeds. Otherwise, why did the troops keep marching at a normal speed since they set off from Benghazi until now, instead of marching in a hurry before?

Of course, it is impossible for the division chief of staff to say what he thinks in his heart. After all, it is enough to know this kind of thing in his heart.

Besides, now that the Australian 26th Division has got a chance to make meritorious service, it is also beneficial to the chief of staff himself.If his unit eventually captured Ejerai, then as the chief of staff of the 26th Division, the credit would also be inescapable.

Thinking of this, he also echoed the teacher: "It seems to be the case. We must resolutely implement the orders of our superiors. In order to win the victory, our division should indeed rush to the city of Aijielai as quickly as possible."

After another hour or so, the 26 vanguard of the 974th Division arrived at the border between Algeria and Libya.

Previously, when the 24th Division led by Johnson passed the border, an armored vehicle and a platoon were deployed on both sides of the checkpoint to guard the checkpoint.After all, this checkpoint belongs to the key point of the communication line behind the 24th Division. In order to ensure that his troops will not be destroyed by other French skirmishers, he must ensure the safety of this checkpoint.

Therefore, when the vanguard of the 26th Division arrived here, after simple negotiations, the troops of the 26th Division began to pass through this border checkpoint.

The guards at the checkpoint immediately reported the situation to the headquarters of the 24th Division.

The first to get the report was Noelle, the chief of staff of the 24th Division. After receiving the report telegram from the checkpoint guards from the staff of the communications department, he immediately ran into the command room where Johnson was.

As soon as he entered the door, he said loudly and happily: "Master, good news! The 26th Regiment, the leading regiment of the 974th Division, has already begun to pass the checkpoint on the border line. The other 775th Regiment is expected to arrive in half an hour."

But when he finished his report, he found that Johnson had a sad expression on his face, as if he hadn't heard his report.

Next to Johnson was Captain Butler, the battalion commander of the Division Guard Battalion covered in dust.

When Noelle walked up to Johnson, he asked Johnson, "What's wrong? Teacher, what happened?"

Before Johnson could answer, Butler, who also had a sad expression on the side, said: "I just came down from the front line and brought bad news to the division commander. Captain Jess, the deputy commander of the 131rd Battalion of the [-]st Regiment, died He is the division commander's cousin. I knew him before. He also made meritorious service to save the general of the army, but he died here unexpectedly. I witnessed the whole process of his sacrifice. When he led a combat team to attack , he was beaten into a sieve by the enemy's machine gun..."

Johnson didn't speak, he took off his military cap, feeling very sad in his heart.

Jess is his cousin who grew up with him, and the two joined the army together.

Although his position and military rank have been promoted later, he has been trying to find a way to promote the position and military rank of his few relatives and friends.But Jess's command ability is still not good enough, so Johnson can only promote Jess to the position of deputy battalion commander.

What people didn't expect was that this young and optimistic guy died in the battle of Ejele City, which made Johnson very sad.

Hearing the bad news brought by Butler reminded him of his younger brother who used to find a way to come to him to search for cigarettes whenever he had the opportunity.

In fact, the relationship between Johnson, Butler, Jess, and Noah, the commander of the 974 regiment, is very close. Everyone knows this close relationship among the commanders and fighters in the division.

The chief of staff of the division had also heard about their friendship, so after hearing what Butler said, he hurriedly said to Johnson: "I really didn't expect Jess to sacrifice like this. Unfortunately, if he can live until our victory How wonderful it would be that day....... We have many excellent soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the British Empire and our empire on which the sun never sets. They are heroes worthy of our eternal memory! But People can't be resurrected after they die, General Johnson, please forgive me."

Body 5 Chapter [-] The last step

After hearing the comfort, 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 did not allow him to be immersed in sadness all the time. Now that the battle in the city was still going on fiercely, he had to shoulder the responsibility of commanding.

The chief of staff nodded. He didn't speak, but directly passed the telegram in his hand to Johnson.

After receiving the telegram, Johnson took a look and finally let out a long sigh of relief.

The two regiments of the Australian 26th Division are finally arriving soon, and just half an hour ago, Johnson also received an order from the Army Command. Once the 26th Division arrives, the main attack task will 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 enter the city to participate in the battle and stabilize the current front line."

The 3rd company of the guard battalion is the last reserve team in the division. It has not participated in the battle in the urban area of ​​Ejle, and belongs to the last remaining unmoved troops of the guard battalion.

But the situation is different now, the follow-up troops are about to arrive, and it doesn't make much sense to keep this reserve team, and now is a good time to put this army into battle.

After all, the two regiments of the 26th Division arrived here in half an hour, but this unit needs a certain amount of time to recover its physical strength after a rapid march, and cannot immediately go into battle.

Therefore, at this time, the 24th Division must buy time for friendly forces to rest, so that the 26th Division can have sufficient rest time, and is ready to take over 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 Australian 26th Division's attack 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 put the 3rd company into battle, so he didn't raise any objections, and immediately went out to find the signal soldier to convey Johnson's order.

At this time, the battle in the city of Aijielai has also entered a fierce stage.

Although the French commander suffered a little loss in the previous battle, as the battle continued, the French army also discovered that the attacking British troops were actually not many in terms of strength.

Moreover, in some areas, after the French army lost some troops, it was able to force the British offensive 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 also invested in the last small part of the 3rd Company of the Guard Battalion to launch an offensive, which made the French army, which had already begun to slowly squeeze the British offensive troops outward, have no choice but to attack. Don't stop the pace of squeezing again.

As the commander of the 3rd Division of the French Army, the division commander of the French Army knew very well that the British Army finally invested much less troops than the previous few times, indicating that its reserves had been exhausted.Now that the British army's reserves have been exhausted, but the situation of the French army in the city has not deteriorated, the French army can collect the reserves in their hands and prepare to deal the final blow to the British attacking troops, so as to completely wipe out the British army's troops. The attacking force squeezed out of the city and routed the British force.

On the other hand, when the Australian commander of the 26th Division of the British Army met Johnson at the headquarters of the 24th Division, Johnson had already begun to look obviously haggard and exhausted.

The battle in Ejele City caused Johnson to lose a large number of comrades in arms, and even lost his cousin, and the 24th Division was completely disabled.

Had it not been for the arrival of the 26th Division, Johnson might have ordered the troops to withdraw from the Northeast.

Therefore, when the Australian division commander of the 26th Division proposed to take over the main offensive right to attack Ejele City, Johnson did not have any objections, and readily agreed with the other party's opinion.

After briefing the upper-level officers of the 26th Division on the situation of the French army in the city in detail, Johnson asked how long it would take for the opponent to prepare for the attack.

In the end, they agreed that troops from the 26th Division would enter the city half an hour later to take over the area currently 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 and went to rest.

Soon, the time for the transfer of positions came, and the British soldiers and Australian soldiers began to transfer positions according to the agreement of the two division commanders.

Johnson finally withdrew all the British troops of the 24th Division from the urban area, assembled and rested in a place not far from the eastern suburbs, and at the same time, the troops carried out casualty statistics.

The number of casualties was soon reported. The 24th Division was transferred to the two regiments here. In addition, the engineer battalion and guard battalion directly under the division suffered heavy losses. Less than 2 people.

In addition, there are more than 1000 casualties of all kinds.