Chapter 263 "Sherman" Tank

The British army certainly knew about the German army's actions on Crete.

Montgomery knew this through the Greek militia, while Churchill knew more details from the "top secret" telegram sent by Rommel to Hitler.

So Churchill contacted Montgomery as soon as possible.

"Monty (Montgomery's nickname)!" Churchill said: "At this point, do you still believe that time is on our side?"

Churchill's words were a bit like "vindication" for himself, because almost everyone thought that Churchill's judgment was wrong before, and Britain did not need to rush to attack the German army. For this reason, Churchill even dismissed General Auchinleck and replaced him with Montgomery, and Montgomery's views were the same as General Auchinleck.

But now, the Germans have built factories on Crete... In time, when these factories are formed and can produce equipment in large quantities, it is obvious that the Germans will replenish their equipment much faster than the British army.

"Mr. Prime Minister!" Montgomery could only admit: "The Germans' attack on Crete and moving factories to the island was indeed beyond my expectations... But we are not without a plan to deal with them!"

"You'd better have a plan, General!" Churchill said, "Otherwise we can't deal with those MPs who are skeptical of us, understand?"

"Understood, Mr. Prime Minister!" Montgomery replied.

After hanging up the phone, Montgomery looked at the map and fell into deep thought.

"General!" Deguingan suggested on the side: "Maybe we can organize an attack to recapture Crete!"

"Do you have any plans?" Montgomery said: "The Germans have already built air defenses on the island and occupied air supremacy in the surrounding waters. It's not easy to recapture Crete!"

"We can use the Greek militia!" Deguingan said: "Provide them with weapons, cooperate internally and externally..."

This seems to be a feasible method, but after thinking about it, Montgomery shook his head: "The Greek militia is too weak, just like the Battle of Crete, it is difficult for them to play much role in the battle!"

Montgomery is right.

First of all, the island capture is most important in the air battle, and the militia can't help at all in this regard. At most, they can provide some intelligence to the British army.

Secondly, the militia's equipment is very weak, and they suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Crete. It is obviously unrealistic to immediately rely on the militia's "internal and external attacks".

"But General!" Deguingamp said: "We can't let the Germans develop like this..."

Montgomery knew what Deguingamp meant. The Germans could beat the British army so badly when they had difficulty in supply. Now the supply situation has improved. Not only has it improved, but they are also building factories on Crete and mining in Africa. In this way, will the British army still be a match for the German army? I'm afraid it won't be long before the Germans will drive them out of the African continent.

"The problem with Crete..." Montgomery pointed to the map and said, "It's outside the combat radius of our fighter planes. If we can take Matruh, this problem will be solved!"

Matruh is only 300 kilometers away from Crete, but the range of the British Spitfire fighter is 1,000 kilometers, which is enough for them to fly over Crete and compete with German fighter planes for air supremacy.

"General, do you mean to break through the German defense line?"

"Yes!" Montgomery nodded and said, "We must compress the German defense line backwards, at least we must recapture Matruh, so that the German advantage in Crete will be gone!"

"But it is not so easy to break through the German defense line!" Deguingan said worriedly, "Just like before, we failed several times!"

"But this time is different!" Montgomery said, "The Germans have deployed a large number of troops to Crete for defense. On the one hand, we can use militias to harass Crete to attract their attention, and on the other hand, we can take advantage of their busy construction of factories and supply shortages to launch an attack. More importantly,..."

Montgomery did not say anything else.

Montgomery did not say it because he was worried about leaking secrets, but because what he hoped for might not succeed.

Montgomery's hope was not for anything else, but for tanks, new American tanks.

One of Montgomery's advantages is that once the strategic direction is set, he can grasp the key points.

As it is now, it is very difficult to solve the problem of Crete by sea or air, so we have to solve the problem on land first, and to solve the problem on land, we must have tanks.

However, the existing tanks in Britain are not enough to break through the German defense line. This is not only because of the problem of British military training, but also because of the performance of American tanks... Of course, the performance of American tanks is greatly improved compared with the British "Matilda" tanks, but its fatal weakness still makes it repeatedly restricted when facing the German "No. 3" tanks.

Therefore, the British army urgently needs a better tank that can completely suppress the German "No. 3" tank.

If there is no such tank, Montgomery will not consider this plan. But Montgomery knows that the United States has it, and this tank is the "Sherman" tank... At this time, this tank has just been produced, and the United States does not even have it.

(Note: In history, the United States just had time to equip an armored brigade, and urgently provided a batch of "Sherman" produced for the British Army in North Africa)

Although Montgomery didn't know whether this tank could play a role on the battlefield, from the data of the "Sherman" he obtained, it would undoubtedly be the nemesis of the German tanks... The 76MM caliber tank gun is equipped with 76.2MM armor, and the maximum speed is 38 kilometers per hour.

You should know that the large-caliber tank gun of the "General Grant" tank is only 75MM, and the front armor of the "Matilda" tank is only 78MM... In other words, this new American tank is almost a combination of the firepower of the "General Grant" and the defense of the "Matilda", plus a fairly good mobility.

Montgomery knew that if the safety of this tank was not a problem... the safety of American tanks was basically no problem, which can be seen from the "Stuart" and "General Grant" tanks.

Another advantage of American tanks is that they are highly versatile. Those who can operate M3 tanks can operate "Sherman" tanks as long as they are slightly familiar with them, which can save a lot of training time for tank crews.

In this way, the British armored division can tear through the German defense line and repel them!

The more Montgomery thought about it, the more he felt that this plan was feasible, because at this time the Germans had concentrated too much energy and resources on Crete, and they did not even transfer the 90th Light Division and its tanks to the Alexandria Line.