The decisive battle against the Third Reich

There was one detail that Rommel did not tell the truth to Hitler. The fuel supply of the German and Italian troops was not as bad as he said... The fuel was indeed difficult to transport, especially since the fuel was easy to burn and explode. After being attacked by British fighter planes, It's hard to escape.

However, when the German army captured Tobruk, Matruh and Alexandria, they seized a large amount of fuel in the port warehouse. This fuel was enough for the German and Italian armies to use for several months. Of course, the German army did not have many tanks, so it consumed less fuel.

This makes it possible for transport aircraft to land in North Africa and conduct training.

What surprised Qin Chuan was that the First Infantry Regiment also participated in this training, and as airborne troops... Rommel did not believe the Italians.

"Considering the importance of this airborne operation!" Rommel said: "We must put the best troops into parachute training and airdrop them to the battlefield as soon as possible!"

On the battlefield, another meaning of "excellent" is the unit with the most military exploits and the greatest results, so the first infantry regiment where Qin Chuan belongs is the one who takes the lead.

The training location is near Alexandria Airport. It was originally an airport warehouse, but due to the reduction in the amount of materials transported by planes, many warehouses were empty and unused, so they were converted into training camps.

There, the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Regiment received two new sets of military uniforms, including a paratrooper suit, better boots and different styles of helmets... These are all German paratrooper equipment shipped from Italy along with the transport plane. .

There is nothing else to complain about, because the soldiers' uniforms were worn out in the desert battles and should have been replaced a long time ago, but the helmet looks really ugly, round and without an edge, like a helmet that is buckled upside down on the head. Half a watermelon rind.

"Uh..." Yacop complained while holding the helmet: "I don't know what you are thinking. I'm not in the mood to fight at all with this thing on!"

"I think this is great!" Werner said as he put the helmet on his head: "Because our enemies will probably laugh when they see our funny look and forget to pull the trigger!"

The German soldiers couldn't help laughing.

"Do you think this is necessary?" Jacop said: "I mean... they still have to transport us this extremely ugly equipment when supplies are so difficult. I would rather they transport some chocolate!"

"Of course it is necessary, Sergeant!" Qin Chuan said: "Because we are going to conduct paratrooper training, and our previous helmets with trailing edges..."

As he spoke, Qin Chuan raised his head towards the pile of tattered helmets he had just replaced, and said, "They can't protect us when parachuting, and the bulges on their edges will seriously injure your neck when you fall. Or other parts!”

"Oh!" The soldiers couldn't help but suddenly realized, and then they put their paratrooper helmets on their heads one by one... Although ugly, the law of the battlefield is that everything is for survival, and the soldiers all know this.

Sure enough, the instructor's first words during class were: "You must not wear a standard helmet when skydiving, unless you want your neck to be broken!"

The instructor was German and was flown over from Berlin on an emergency basis.

This surprised Qin Chuan, because Italy has a paratrooper division, which is located in Tripoli. The Italians even have a paratrooper school in Tripoli... The Italian 185th Paratrooper Division was learned, trained and formed in Tripoli. .

Since North Africa has such good resources, and the German army will fight with the 185th Paratrooper Division in the near future, why not let Italian instructors train the German army?

The reason was that Rommel did not trust the Italians.

Not only because of this, Rommel also considered one thing: German soldiers also did not trust the Italians.

Not believing it is the second best thing. What's worse is that the German soldiers didn't look down on the Italians.

In fact, objectively speaking, Italian instructors are fully capable of teaching German soldiers parachute subjects... This training is a short-term crash training. It only requires the German soldiers to learn how to parachute and successfully deliver to the target airport. The rest are infantry. That set.

The problem is that German soldiers generally look down on the rebellious Italians, so how can Italian instructors suppress the German soldiers and make them study seriously!

From this aspect, Rommel's considerations were indeed correct.

The parachute training is carried out step by step. First, you learn the essentials of parachuting step by step. After becoming familiar with it, the instructor will use a homemade pulley device to hang the soldiers into the air one by one, and then lower them down at a certain speed. Make the landing motion one second before landing.

The movement is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in the inability to judge the landing time in many cases. Doing the movement faster or slower may cause varying degrees of damage to the body.

At this time, the instructor will yell from the side: "Hey, that guy who landed on his butt, you can never get up because of the broken spine. Do we still want to rely on a fool like you to fight? You'd better wait for the enemy to deal with it." You do it!”

"That staff sergeant who cocked his head to the side...your neck is broken!"

…

Under the instructor's reprimands, the soldiers gradually realized the dangers of parachuting.

In fact, the dangers of parachuting are far more than these. Actual combat is far more terrifying than training, especially hanging in the air and having no ability to resist ground firepower. You can only watch them aim their guns and muzzles at you. when.

Due to time constraints, the first skydiving training was conducted a week later.

At that time, when it was Qin Chuan's turn to jump, Qin Chuan hesitated for a moment and looked at the land thousands of meters below...it was a void, and no one knew what would happen if he jumped.

"Jump down!" the instructor shouted from behind: "Remember: the enemy's anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns are aimed at you. Any hesitation may kill the people behind you!"

Qin Chuan could only jump down because he couldn't be the one who dragged down the troops, especially since he was still a second lieutenant.

The moment he jumped out of the cabin, Qin Chuan fell like a stone. He was so dizzy when he was weightless that he could not control his own direction. Then the nine-meter-long forced parachute opening rope opened the parachute...

This process is very scary and a bit thrilling, because you seem to have completely given your life to a few ropes and a piece of cloth.

But this process is also very beautiful, because the sky is empty, except for the blue, there are parachutes like dandelions.

However, Qin Chuan knew that he couldn't enjoy this, because the real battlefield was not like this. He had to add the smoke exploded by anti-aircraft guns and bullets from anti-aircraft machine guns, as well as the bloody arrows shooting out from the bodies of the soldiers.