Of course, the German army's goal was not Cairo, but to eliminate the British army's vitality... As long as the British army's vitality can be eliminated, what strategic locations and the Suez Canal are all Germans?!

But Ochinlek was too late to wake up. The 7th Armored Division had lost its combat effectiveness, and the Australian Infantry Division also suffered heavy losses. After more than 2,000 casualties, they were even at risk of being surrounded and annihilated...

The 6th Australian Infantry Division, the predecessor of this unit was the Third Division of the Australian Imperial Corps, a unit that participated in World War I.

Of course, most of the soldiers in World War I have been discharged from the army and replaced with fresh blood, but most of the officers are veterans with rich combat experience. They know how to train their soldiers or how to effectively command the troops to fight.

In addition, what is more special about the Australian colonial army is...

Other colonial armies such as the South African Colonial Army and the Indian Colonial Army. These armies are not only middle-level officers, but also low-level officers are no exception... The British army is to better control the colonial army. On the other hand, the quality of soldiers such as South Africa and India is too poor. Without British grassroots officers to command them to fight, they don’t know what to do.

The Australian army is different. It is basically Australian from top to bottom, and only the highest commander or staff officer is British... This is not because of distrust of the Australian army, but to better cooperate with other British troops.

There are many reasons for this situation. On the one hand, Australians and British people have common ancestors... Britain has exiled criminals to Australia since the 17th century, so many Australians are descendants of these criminals. They are all the same in language and culture. Australia also agrees that Britain is its mother country, so it has a strong desire and consciousness to fight for the British army.

Another point is that Australian soldiers have more combat experience and better qualities than colonial armies such as South Africa and India, so they have the conditions to fight independently.

These make the combat effectiveness of the Australian Infantry Division second to none in North Africa.

For example, in this battle, although they fell into the ambush of the German Armored Division and suffered heavy losses, they actively organized defenses in the face of danger.

In the end, they retreated to a hill and formed a circular position to defend... This approach was obviously correct, because as infantry divisions, they could not escape tanks and armor-piercing vehicles no matter how hard they ran.

Stop and hold on, for example, laying a mine in front of the position and then placing anti-tank guns condescendingly, you can use the terrain to weaken the combat effectiveness of enemy tanks as much as possible... The tank gun has a limited elevation angle and is difficult to hit the Australian troops on the hills. At the same time, the uneven hills on the tank will be difficult to aim because the body is not horizontal.

These are all manifestations of the rich experience of the Australian Infantry Division.

Then, the Australian army summoned British fighter jets and collaborated with them to repel the German attack several times... This surprised the German army and even General Streck. He originally thought that the 21st Armored Division could easily defeat the Australian Infantry Division.

Another surprise was Major General Borton... He was also attacked by the German army, so the Australian infantry division was in a good shape, but the 7th Armored Division retreated and even had no time to call in fighters to cooperate in combat, which made Major General Borton feel completely lost.

General Streck did not waste much time on the Australian infantry division... If the Germans attacked with all their might, they would have the ability to break through the Australian infantry division's defense line and completely defeat it, but there was no need to do so. British fighter jets have discovered the position of the German armored division. If they continue to fight like this, the 21st armored division will suffer heavy casualties, and use precious tanks to exchange for enemy infantry... General Streck would not do such a fool.

The gain of the German army in this battle was that more than a thousand Australian prisoners were added to the rear compartment of the convoy... The British and Australian soldiers successfully met here as prisoners.

On the other side, General Ochinlek was almost hysterically sending newspapers to ask: "Where are the Germans going? Where are they?"

"General!" Major General Archil, commander of the 6th Australian Infantry Division, replied after reconnaissance: "They may be back to Sideoma!"

"Sidioma?" asked General Ochinlek, "What are they doing there?"

"I don't know!" Achiel replied: "They might want to fight Tobrook back!"

General Ochinlek took the telegram and said to himself, "Catch back Tobrook? This is impossible! They ran back and forth in the desert, and there was no longer enough supplies to catch Tobrook back, unless..."

Then General Ochinlek opened his mouth wide for a long time but couldn't close it.

"What happened? General?" Major General Ritchie asked when he saw General Ochinlek's face was wrong.

"Have they confirmed that Sidioma's supplies were blown up?" General Ochinlek asked.

"Of course, general!" Major General Rich replied: "How could the Germans leave supplies to us..."

Before he finished speaking, Major General Ritchie realized what the problem was.

"Oh my goodness!" said Major General Ritchie: "They wouldn't just fool us by pretending, they didn't blow up the supplies!"

General Ochinlek immediately contacted the 7th Armored Division and the 6th Infantry Division without saying a word. The results they got were indeed as expected. They did not dig and verify whether the supply was really blown up...

But then again, who will verify it in that situation?

"We were fooled by them again!" General Ochinlek said: "Are we too stupid?"

"No, General!" Major General Ritchie replied: "They are too cunning!"

"Do we have troops to get to Sidioma?" asked General Ochinlek.

Major General Rich looked at the map and shook his head: "All the nearby troops were involved in the pursuit, and they could not reach Sidioma in front of the Germans!"

After a long silence, General Ochinlek said weakly: "Retreat!"

"Which unit is to retreat, General?" asked Major General Ritchie.

"All!" General Ochinlek replied: "We lost!"

General Ochinlek was right, because the German 21st Armored Division had already obtained enough cars at this time. If they were allowed to return to Sidioma and fill all the cars with supplies, then the next situation would be like:
Chapter completed!