cicada

Chapter 1383 North Africa is complete
15 kilometers behind the Alamein front, there was a lot of traffic outside the headquarters of the British Eighth Army.

This is a temporary command center built with tents, where intelligence and information from various troops are gathered.

In one of the tents, the commander of the Eighth Army, Montgomery, asked his assistant: "Has that Republic of China guy arrived?"

"General, we agreed to spend half an hour later." The assistant glanced at his watch and replied.

Montgomery sneered twice and made a joke in an arrogant tone: "I hope the sedan chair of the Republic of China will not be stuck in traffic, otherwise we will have to wait for a long time."

Within the British army, Montgomery was known for his arrogance, rudeness, conceit, and harsh words.

These character flaws caused him to offend many of his colleagues and also caused a lot of disputes.

For example, Mr. Q once publicly complained that the invincible Monty (Montgomery's nickname) defeated his allies before defeating his enemies.

The assistant smiled bitterly and reminded the other party in a low voice: "General, whether in Asia or Africa, the Empire needs the help of the people of the Republic of China."

Seeing that Montgomery still looked indifferent, the assistant lowered his voice again and expressed his concerns.

“Cooperation with the city is London’s strategy and you cannot disobey Downing Street’s orders.”

Montgomery shrugged. As a self-professed professional soldier, he had no interest in politics and diplomacy. But when it came to Mr. Q, he could only suppress his suspicion.

After all, without the other party's support, he could not become the commander of the Eighth Army. Although Britain does not have the term "benefactor", the meaning is the same.

the other side.

Zuo Zhong sat in the car heading to the Eighth Army Headquarters with a relaxed expression.

As of yesterday, the "Parallel Lines" operation was successfully completed, and Bai Longdu also flew to the UK to steal the British pound paper formula.

What's funny is that a living person has been missing for so many days, and no one has noticed it. I really don't know whether Bai Longdu has bad luck or bad character...

As for the German secret vault, Zuo Zhong planned to wait until after the war to take action, but he also left a team of reliable personnel to guard the vault.

Thinking that he was about to get more than 200 tons of gold, Zuo Zhong couldn't help but smile, but unfortunately this happy mood did not last long.

Montgomery!

Zuo Chong silently repeated the old man's name, and his teeth were itching with hatred.

After reuniting at the oasis, Wu Chunyang, whose hip was injured for the Nth time, reported to him that the British sent FIRC to collect intelligence on the "Devil's Garden" perhaps for other purposes.

In fact, Zuo Chong was misled by certain reports in later generations and did not realize the problem before.

However, after Wu Chunyang's reminder, he immediately realized that the British were looking for someone to take the blame, which was against Tiangang.

It has always been Zuo who has cheated others, and he has never been cheated by others. The British are really not good people.

It is conceivable that when the Allied forces suffer heavy casualties and pass through the Devil's Garden, FIRC will inevitably become the target of public criticism, and he personally will also be criticized.

Thinking further, the British might use this as an excuse to deprive or weaken the National Government's voice in Asian affairs.

MD, these people have such dirty hearts, not as pure as me, Zuo Zhong said angrily in his heart.

The car and the escort convoy were driving at high speed on the desert highway, and it didn't take long for them to arrive at the entrance of the headquarters. Zuo Zhong was about to get out of the car when he heard a quarrel in the distance.

He looked where the noise came from and saw that a group of British soldiers had clashed with the guards at the headquarters.

As for the cause of the conflict, judging from the conversation between the two sides, it should be that the British soldiers wanted to refuel, but the guards did not allow it.

The atmosphere at the scene was becoming increasingly tense, and it looked like the argument was about to turn into a fight. Fortunately, the military police arrived in time and prevented the conflict from escalating.

"Vice President, your meeting with Montgomery is about to begin." Gui Youguang, who was driving, turned around and said.

Zuo Chong'en said, glanced at the British soldiers and guards, got out of the car and walked into the headquarters gate, shaking hands and greeting the British personnel who came to greet him.

Ten minutes later, Zuo Zhong and Montgomery sat on opposite sides of the conference table and started a conversation about the investigation operation.

During the conversation, Montgomery looked arrogant. On the one hand, he expressed his gratitude for FIRC's contribution, but on the other hand, he expressed his dissatisfaction with FIRC's failure to identify the passage of the Devil's Garden minefield.

“General Zuo, your men only found one passage and did not draw a detailed map. This is an unacceptable mistake!”

"When the Allies launched their attack on the Germans, the first thing they had to deal with was those damn mines, do you understand?"

"I will protest to your government because you failed to complete the task within the stipulated time. Please understand."

Montgomery displayed the hypocrisy and cunning of white people vividly, but Zuo Zhong still smiled and said nothing, his eyes looking at him as if he was a clown.

After a long while, Montgomery finally stopped talking nonsense and asked hypocritically: "General Zuo, do you have anything else to say?"

Zuo Zhong smiled, leaned closer to the other person and spoke slowly. As he spoke, Montgomery's expression changed.

Night soon came and the area around the Eighth Army Headquarters slowly returned to silence.

In an alley not far from the headquarters, a group of British soldiers were sorting their weapons and equipment. The leading lieutenant looked at the time and gave orders in English.

"action!"

With the help of the cover of night, this group of British troops concealed their bodies, moved quickly on both sides of the street, and arrived outside the headquarters post without being noticed.

Because they were in the rear and there was no fighting recently, the sentry in the post did not expect to be attacked, so he was stabbed in the neck in his sleep. The lieutenant took back the dagger and his nose twitched slightly. Perhaps he smelled the blood, and his face showed excitement.

After throwing the body into the sentry box, the second lieutenant led his team to rush to the largest tent, where the most important target of their trip, Montgomery, was probably.

Two British soldiers opened the tent curtain and were about to raise their Sten submachine guns when they were shocked by the scene before them and stopped.

There was no Montgomery in the tent, only fully armed guards, with the muzzles of their guns pointed outside the door.

"There's an ambush!" one of the soldiers shouted.

Before the [British troops] who had infiltrated the headquarters could react, the lights in the entire camp were turned on.

Bright searchlights shone from all directions. The lieutenant raised his hands to cover his eyes, and his heart sank suddenly.

"Put down your weapons and stop resisting."

Voices were shouted from the loudspeaker, and more guards rushed out from nearby tents and surrounded these unidentified people.

On a sand dune outside the camp, Montgomery put down the telescope and turned to look at Zuo Zhong beside him.

"General Zuo, I'm very curious, how did you know that someone was going to attack my headquarters?"

Zuo Zhong did not answer directly, but asked him a question, what does the word "Petrol" mean.

Montgomery was puzzled, but gave an answer: "Gasoline."

"This is the problem, General." Zuo Zhong pointed at the camp and explained slowly.

"Outside your headquarters, I heard the other party asking for refueling, but he used the word [gas] when referring to gasoline."

"As far as I know, only Americans say that, which is weird, isn't it?"

"This reminded me of one thing. After the war, a large number of German Americans returned to Germany to join the Wehrmacht. The Germans liked to send them to the front line to conduct disguised reconnaissance."

Zuo Zhong stopped talking here, and Montgomery suddenly realized that this was the case.

After this incident, he finally understood why London attached great importance to cooperation with the National Government. The other party was able to see through the Germans' disguise with just one word. He was indeed a very outstanding intelligence officer.

Realizing Zuo Zhong's importance and difficulty, Montgomery changed his previous arrogance and became more amiable.

"Zuo, do you have any good suggestions for breaking through the [Devil's Garden]?"

Zuo Zhong glanced around and said to Montgomery: "I think the New Zealanders and Australians will be happy to take on the main attack mission. It is understandable that casualties will occur due to command errors during the attack."

Montgomery's smile froze, and then he looked at Zuo Zhong meaningfully, and the next moment he stretched out his right hand.

"Pleasant to work with."

"Pleasant to work with."

At the same time, the Germans in the camp had laid down their weapons. Since the operation had failed, there was no need for them to fight to the end.
-
Half a month later, Operation Light Foot was launched against the German troops in North Africa, and the Allies launched a fierce attack on the El Alamein Line.

The Australian 9th Division rushed towards the Devil's Garden under the cover of artillery fire. Thousands of soldiers used their bodies to open a passage in the minefield that could accommodate a large number of armored troops.

Immediately, the New Zealand 15nd Division took the lead and fought fiercely with the German th Armored Division for several days, barely opening a breakthrough.

On the 12th day after the battle began, the British 1st, 7th and 10th Armored Divisions broke through the German defense lines and the Allies won the final victory.

In this battle, Rommel lost 350 men and 80 tanks, leaving only tanks available in the African Corps.

The Allied losses were also heavy, with more than 20,000 people killed, wounded or missing, most of them Australian and New Zealand troops.

Just five days after the Second Battle of El Alamein, before Rommel could recover from the defeat, the Allied forces landed on the west coast of North Africa.

Under the command of U.S. Army Lieutenant General Eisenhower and British Admiral Cunningham, a landing force of 10.7 people set foot on the land of North Africa.

The naval forces supporting them included 16 aircraft carriers, 7 battleships, 9 cruisers, as well as a large number of destroyers, minesweepers and various landing ships.

The Germans and Vichy France responded hastily, but were quickly defeated due to the huge gap in strength.

This landing operation, code-named Operation Torch, enabled the Allies to successfully occupy France's colonies in North Africa and laid the foundation for the complete defeat of Rommel's North African Corps.

At the end of 1942, Zuo Chong was honored at the British Eighth Army Headquarters along with many other decorated personnel, and a British George Cross was added to his chest.

After the commendation ceremony, the British held a grand cocktail party, and Zuo Chong was also invited to attend as a guest.

When the cocktail party was halfway through, Wu Chunyang walked quickly into the venue and whispered in Zuo Zhong's ear. Zuo Zhong's face changed and he immediately said goodbye to Montgomery.

On the way from the headquarters to the airport, Zuo Zhong asked in a cold voice: "What happened? Why did the Japanese suddenly check the intelligence network in Nanjing? How many people did we lose?"

Half an hour ago, a secret telegram came from the Military Intelligence Bureau headquarters in Shancheng. According to the telegram, Japanese intelligence agencies launched a large-scale operation to capture Military Intelligence Bureau agents early this morning, and many members of the puppet government have been arrested.

Not to mention whether there were any KMT moles among the arrested personnel, Zuo Zhong was worried that Hase Ryosuke did not give any warning before the incident happened.

This makes people suspect that the other party has been exposed. If this is true, the matter will be serious.

Wu Chunyang shook his head: "It's not clear yet. Jinling Station is investigating as soon as possible."

"No! Notify them to lie low immediately." Zuo Zhong ordered sternly, looking towards the night sky with a serious look in his eyes.