Reborn as a police officer in South Africa

Mustache once said: Give me five divisions and I can conquer Italy.

Referring to the performance of the Italian army in North Africa, it seems that the mustache can do it.

But considering the performance of the Italian army in the Battle of Volgograd, even if you give Mustache ten divisions, he can't do it.

The Italian Eighth Army was surrounded by about 30,000 people in Volgograd, and its commander was General Giovanni Messe.

In the early days of the Battle of Volgograd, the Italian army captured some Russian soldiers. The German troops who cooperated with the Italian army shot all the Russian prisoners of war without controlling the Italian army. This aroused the anger of the Russians. Zhukov claimed that he would use the most powerful force to

A cruel way to take revenge on the Italians.

The Italians had no doubts about the determination of the Russians. Even if the Italians surrendered, they would not be spared. The Italians under desperate circumstances broke out with amazing fighting power.

Unlike the stubborn Paulus, Giovanni Mesa was determined to break out of the encirclement and formulated a breakout plan the day after the encirclement was formed.

At this time, Giovanni still had hope for Mustache and Paullus. If Paullus decided to break out of the encirclement, Giovanni would cooperate with the German army in fighting, so that the chance of breaking out of the encirclement would be greater.

When Manstein broke through the encirclement, Giovanni went to Paullus personally, hoping that Paulus could follow Manstein's suggestion and break out of the encirclement southward.

Paulus rejected Giovanni, and he had not yet obtained Mustache's permission, so the 6th Army could only stay in Volgograd and continue fighting.

This is not a persistent fight.

But waiting to die.

Giovanni had completely given up on Paulus. In order to survive, the Italians had no choice but to fight their way out, without any cooperation or support.

On the 25th, after a hearty meal, the breakout officially began.

"Have a good meal" should be emphasized.

After the encirclement was formed, the airdropped supplies gradually decreased and could not meet the needs at all.

The Germans would not distribute precious supplies to the Italians. At this time, the Eighth Army had run out of ammunition and food. Giovanni tried his best to feed the officers and soldiers who were about to launch a breakout. After the staff

According to the deduction, it would be good if one-third of the 30,000 Italian troops could successfully break through.

The battle process was more cruel than what the Italian staff had imagined. As the forward force, the "Torino" Division encountered a Russian army four times its size on the first day of the breakout and fell into a bitter battle.

The Italian army was seriously short of ammunition. All tanks were recruited by the German army, and cars could not be used because there was no fuel. In order to increase the chance of a successful breakout, Giovanni decided to bring some light artillery. These artillery shells did not have many shells, leaving only artillery.

There were still bullets in the rifle magazine, but the magazine was empty.

The "Torino" Division is quite effective. This unit is the same unit that captured Russians before. During the battle in Russia last year, the "Turin" Division cooperated with the German army and captured 100,000 Russians.

After two years of bloody battles, the "Torino" Division suffered serious attrition, with only more than 8,000 troops remaining out of a force of 13,000.

After the bloody battle, the "Turin" Division defeated the Russian army four times its own size and broke through the defense line. Then it was intercepted by the Russian army in "Death Valley".

At this time, the "Torino" division's ammunition had been completely exhausted.

The Italians did not give in, and fought bloody hand-to-hand battles with the Russian army, and even more brutal hand-to-hand combat. After paying heavy casualties, the Italian army finally broke out a bloody path.

The Russians certainly did not want to see the Italians escape, so Zhukov dispatched troops to pursue and intercept them, vowing to destroy the Italian army in Volgograd.

The unit serving as the rearguard was the Mountain Army.

Under desperate circumstances, the Italian Mountain Army also burst out with tenacious fighting spirit. Facing the Russian army that was several times their own, the Italian Mountain Army gave full play to its own advantages and used the terrain to deal with the Russian army. They used Molotov cocktails to destroy the Russian tanks and broke their arms.

The mountain soldiers held explosive bags and died together with the Russians. The wounded soldiers were unwilling to surrender and prepared grenades to detonate when the Russians passed by.

After half a month of bloody battle, 30,000 Italian troops finally broke through the siege and escaped.

The battle was extremely brutal. Only about 4,000 of the 30,000 Italian troops successfully broke through. There were not even a single prisoner on the Russian side, including wounded soldiers.

After this battle, the performance of the Italian army shocked the Allies, especially the North African Allies.

While the British Army in North Africa was fighting the German-Italian Allied Forces, a ridiculous thing happened.

After the German-Italian allied forces retreated across the board, an Italian army voluntarily surrendered to the British army, but the British army refused.

The humiliated Italians became angry and did what they themselves did not dare to think of. They took the initiative to attack and defeated the arrogant British army. This time they finally successfully became prisoners of war and exited the war.

Patton had nothing to say after learning the details. The defeated British army was an Anglo-Indian force. He could only say that the Italians and the Indians were both weirdos in their respective camps.

"I am now beginning to worry about the landing operations in Italy. If the Italian army can erupt in combat effectiveness similar to that of the Russian battlefield in desperate situations, then we have to reconsider our combat plan." Giraud was obviously shocked by the performance of the Italian army.

, there is a saying that is true, the people who know you best are not your friends, but your enemies.

There is no feud between the Russians and Italians. France and Italy have been competing for a long time in the Mediterranean. Giraud obviously understands the Italians better.

"The Americans are determined to open a second battlefield in Italy, so the troops landing in Italy must be dominated by Americans." Patton also began to re-evaluate the combat effectiveness of the Italian army. The performance of the Italian army on the Russian battlefield was not very convincing.

The Russians are too tough and straight. They announced early that they did not want Italian prisoners of war, which forced the Italians to fight with their lives.

Compared with the Russian battlefield, the North African battlefield seemed to be performed according to a fixed script. The Allies and the German-Italian forces pushed and pushed, fighting for two years with no results, and there were not many real casualties, so the Italians did not resist surrender.

Don't push people into a hurry. Compared with Germans, Italians are like honest people with no ambitions. As long as they can survive, they can live with it.

"Isn't the federal government of Southern Africa worried about the expansion of U.S. influence in the Mediterranean?" Giraud was surprised, but Barton seemed unconcerned.

"Henry, the Mediterranean is not a lake in a certain country. Ships from any country have the right to appear in the Mediterranean." Patton would definitely not say that southern Africa was in secret contact with Italy, and the Americans' plan was doomed to be in vain.

After the Battle of Volgograd, the situation on the Russian battlefield will gradually become clearer.

Even if it loses the Battle of Volgograd, Russia will continue to organize the Caucasus Campaign, the Baku Campaign, and even the Siberian Campaign.

Germany is at the end of its strength. In order to organize the Battle of Volgograd, Mustache mobilized a large number of servant troops from the slave countries, which has aroused the dissatisfaction of the slave countries. If the deployment continues, it will trigger an even stronger backlash.

Germany's slave countries, such as Italy and Romania, are all following Germany to reap the war dividends and gain bargains, and will not follow the mustache's path to darkness.

When the German army is invincible on the battlefield, Italians and Romanians will follow the German army and wave the flag and shout.

When the war situation is unclear, even if the German army loses temporarily, although the slave countries can tolerate it, their enthusiasm will definitely decrease.

Once the German army showed weakness and showed its defeat, the alliance would fall apart. Think about how Italy became a victorious country after World War I. This set the best example for all Axis members.

After the defeat of the U.S. Second Army, Patton had to adjust the combat plan. When Montgomery defeated Rommel, the adjustment was completed, and the North African Allied Forces were about to launch an attack on the German-Italian Allied Forces.

Eisenhower and Patton Jr. were still working hard. The 2nd Army was forced to withdraw and reorganize. The 1st Army led by Patton Jr. still had high morale. Americans came all the way to North Africa not to be beaten and watch a show, and they couldn't do it anyway. Absent the Allied offensive.

In order to prepare for the final stand against the German-Italian forces, General Patton transferred two Southern African armored divisions from Spain and three divisions of Southern African Union troops.

Including the Free French troops that were organized and on standby, the number of troops available for attack has exceeded 200,000.

When the U.S. 1st Army took the initiative to request a war, Patton Jr. hoped that General Patton could assist the 1st Army with some "Leopard" tanks to strengthen the 1st Army's offensive power.

This assistance is not free, nor is the equipment that the United States leased to the Allies through the Lend-Lease Act. Russia in another time and space did not pay off its World War II debt until 2006.

The British are even worse. The debts from World War I and World War II will not be repaid until 2015.

The one to praise here is France.

Vichy France, which was laid to rest early, owed no money to the Americans. Free France owed about 3.5 billion in debt. After the war ended and France was unified, this debt became countless bad debts.

After the war, the Americans asked France for money.

The French government says that the debt is owed by Free France, so please ask Free France for it.

But Free France no longer exists. The two Frances merged into one. Where can we find it?

In order to collect debts, the Americans launched a plan to rebuild Europe. In order to obtain American loans, the French finally began to partially repay them. In the end, they only repaid about US$500 million, and the rest was all wasted.

It’s not that the French don’t have money, they just don’t want to give it to the Americans.

The French were extremely generous to Germany. After the war, loan sharking became popular. Together with the British, they lent money to Germany. In 2007, German Prime Minister Merkel said that Germany had paid about 64 billion euros in war reparations after the war.

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Faced with the British and French who are so sophisticated in their lending techniques, Wall Street financiers can only lament that if they want to talk about insidiousness, they have to look to Europe.

Since the assistance provided by the United States to the Allied Forces is not free, the assistance provided by Southern Africa to the Allied Forces will certainly not be free either.

Especially the United States.

Unlike Britain and France, Americans are very rich, and if you don’t make money, you won’t make it in vain.

"Are we really going to sell tanks to the Americans?" Alvin was worried that selling the "Leopard" to the Americans would affect Southern Africa's superior position in the army.

"There is nothing that cannot be sold. It mainly depends on whether the price is high enough." Of course Rock sold it. It is not that the Americans cannot build the "Leopard". Give the Americans enough time, and the Americans will have the ability to replace all the tanks.

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Since the outbreak of the World War, the advantages of the "Leopard" tank have been continuously weakened. The improvements made to the "Leopard" in southern Africa in recent years have been tinkering without substantial improvement.

This does not mean that southern Africa does not have relevant technological reserves.

Nyasaland Military Industry is developing a new generation of medium tanks. This tank is equipped with gyroscopes and night vision devices as standard, can shoot on the move, and greatly enhances its ability to fight at night.

After using the latest engines and suspension devices, the new tanks have more powerful movement capabilities, and the artillery has also been upgraded from the current 88 mm to 105 mm, which can easily penetrate the armor of any tank currently in service, including Southern Africa's own "

Tiger tanks included.

The new tank is named "Lion", and prototypes have been produced. It is expected to begin mass equipment for troops next year.

"Since it can be sold to Americans, it can also be sold to Russians." Alvin didn't know the Russians well enough.

"It's possible, but the quantity must be controlled." Roque knows the Russians very well. Doing business with the Russians is mostly like beating a dog with a meat bun, and you will never come back.

Thinking about how easily the Russians treated the British at the end of World War I, you can understand the risks of doing business with the Russians.

Southern Africa's aid to Russia is not free and must be converted into rands or gold, which Lubrok does not recognize.

The Russians don't have rands and don't have enough gold.

Fortunately, the Russians still have resources. The federal government of Southern Africa negotiated with the Russians, and the Russians promised to use resources to repay their debts to Southern Africa.

Rock is not sure whether the Russians will strictly implement this promise.

Considering the role of the Russian battlefield, this risk must be accepted. Without the restraint of the Russian battlefield, the Allies would have to pay a price countless times more painful than economic aid to win.

Just as the Allied forces in North Africa were about to launch the final battle, Mustache was keenly aware that the situation in North Africa was about to get out of control, and made adjustments to the North African Army.

On December 9, Mustache organized the German and Italian forces in Tunisia into the 5th Armored Group and appointed General Anim as its commander.

The 5th Army has 2 German armored divisions, 1 motorized infantry division, 2 infantry divisions and 3 Italian infantry divisions.

At the same time, Mustache ordered Rommel to move closer to Arnim's defense line. Once the defense line was stabilized, Mustache would take away Rommel's command, order Rommel to return home for treatment, and hand over all command of the German-Italian forces in North Africa.

Arnim, and General Mesai who had just broken out from Volgograd.

Oh, it's not General Massey anymore.

After Massey commanded the Italian 8th Army to successfully break through from Volgograd, although only 4,000 of the 30,000 Italian troops escaped alive, this was still a miracle that all other Axis forces rejoiced.

After the fat bald man broke through the encirclement of Massey, he promoted Massey's military rank to marshal in recognition of Massey's contribution.

When Massey became marshal, Paulus, who had just become marshal not long ago, was completely miserable.

On January 8, 1943, Lieutenant General Rokossovsky, commander of the Don Front, issued an ultimatum to Paulus, urging Paulus to surrender.

Paulus sent a telegram to Mustache, hoping that Mustache would allow Paulus to act on camera.

In fact, it is surrender, which is just a more euphemistic way of describing it.

Mustache refused again, and the Don Front launched an all-out attack codenamed "Ring" against the 6th Army.

The end will eventually come.