The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The layout started with Rommel.

Of course, Rommel originally did not want to hide this from Hitler, but he had to do it all, not to mention Qin Chuan who was also adding fuel to the fire.

"General!" Qin Chuan said: "If we tell the head of state the real plan, there is a high risk of leakage!"

"What?" Rommel looked at Qin Chuan with a puzzled expression: "Second Lieutenant, do you think the head of state will leak the information? No, no, you are worrying too much!"

"I'm not referring to the head of state leaking information, general!" Qin Chuan replied: "But you know, we need the cooperation of the Italians in this battle!"

"Oh!" Rommel couldn't help but nodded after hearing this.

It requires the cooperation of the Italians, that is, it must obtain the consent of Mussolini, and then the cooperation of General Garibaldo, and then many Italian generals... Rommel has never believed in the Italians, He always thought that the leakage of German and Italian military intelligence was the problem of these Italian generals, so if he did this, he would almost tell the British.

General Strike also interjected: "I think the second lieutenant is right. We don't need to let the Italians know too much. This can make the British more convinced that our target is the island of Malta!"

Rommel agreed quickly without hesitation. Another reason for his choice was that the cost of leaking secrets was too high... The plan to attack Crete can be said to be basically based on the British army being unprepared. If the army knew the real plan of the German army in advance, then the German and Italian airborne troops would basically die, and then the airport would not be controlled by the German and Italian army, so everything would be lost.

Its ultimate impact was that the African Corps was unable to establish another safer supply line and was trapped in North Africa.

Rommel's loyalty to the Führer is unquestionable, but he will not be as foolishly loyal as other generals... Just like before, Rommel clearly knew that only he could win in the end, just like he disobeyed orders and even deceived Hitler , Hitler would not take it to heart, and he would even consider it a necessary means to achieve success.

Thinking of this, Rommel did not hesitate and immediately sent a telegram to Hitler: "Dear Führer, I have to regret to tell you that the situation in North Africa is not optimistic... The British have received a large amount of equipment and supplies from the United States. , but our supply lines were cut off due to the transfer of the 24th Air Wing and the increase in British air power on Malta Island. In more than a month, the fuel we received was not even enough to transport the artillery shells to the island. The front line, but even so, we still successfully repelled the British attack and captured a large amount of equipment, including more than a hundred American tanks!”

Rommel naturally boasted about his achievements. In fact, the achievements he reported to Hitler were often exaggerated.

Then he changed the subject: "However, it is foreseeable that the war situation will turn into a stalemate... Although I do not want to see this, the fact is that we do not have enough strength to launch an attack on the British. This forces us to have only one The choice is to capture the island of Malta, otherwise the African Corps will fail because it cannot get supplies!"

What he said was logical and reasonable. The only thing that puzzled Hitler was... with Rommel's arrogance, how could he overturn his conclusion so quickly. (Not long ago, Rommel also vowed that attacking the island of Malta was completely unnecessary)

"It seems that my general is at the end of his rope!" Hitler said to himself while looking at the telegram.

What Hitler didn't know was that the reason why Rommel behaved like this was not because he was "at the end of his rope", but because Rommel believed that this was not overturning his conclusion at all... Rommel's real goal was Crete, not Mal. Other islands, so Rommel will eventually be proven right. Of course, the premise is that the German and Italian troops can successfully capture Crete.

Hitler had no objection to Rommel's telegram, because Rommel did not ask for more troops... This is what Hitler lacks most now.

If more troops are not needed and Malta can be taken, then why not?

So Hitler immediately called Mussolini to ask him to fully cooperate with Rommel's actions.

At this time, Mussolini was in Tripoli. He once wanted to wait for the German army to capture Cairo and then ride his tall horse into the Egyptian capital as a conqueror like Alexander did, but what he waited for came. The stalemate on the defensive lines and the British blockade of supply lines.

This made Mussolini a little angry. He even said to his staff: "Can't these Germans move faster?!"

The staff officers were somewhat speechless about Mussolini's complaints... The German victory was already quite brilliant. Even in the eyes of the Italians, they almost completed the impossible task: they only had two armored divisions, but they attacked all the way to Alexandria. . But the Italian army of 230,000 was defeated by the same group of British soldiers.

Because Mussolini was in this mysterious self-confidence, he agreed without thinking after receiving Hitler's telegram... In his mind, the island of Malta was not a problem at all, as long as he Nod, it only takes a matter of minutes to win.

So the training and mobilization for Malta Island quickly started with great vigor.

Three Italian infantry divisions and the German 90th Light Division conducted island landing training in Sicily. The 185th Paratrooper Division and a large number of transport aircraft flew to Tripoli at night to assemble.

In terms of the number of aircraft, the Italian army has an advantage... The Italian Air Force is relatively weak in terms of fighters, bombers and transport aircraft, but Mussolini likes to make his face look fat, so he always uses numbers to paralyze himself. They The army and navy are actually in a similar situation, which at least makes them look like a "powerful country".

For example, there are more than 400 Caproni transport aircraft currently in use in Italy, but they are an improved version of the CA101 transport aircraft more than ten years ago. Its top speed is only 280 kilometers per hour, less than half the speed of ordinary fighters. Once it is I found that the target was the fighter plane's target. (Note: The British Spitfire has a top speed of 660 kilometers per hour)

This is also one of the reasons why Qinchuan wants to trick the British fighter planes into Malta Island. If the main force of British fighter planes is still in Port Said or Crete, using such a slow transport aircraft to carry out airborne operations will only lead to serious conflicts. Seeking death doesn't make much difference.