The decisive battle against the Third Reich

While the German army was training and preparing for an attack, the British side also got the news.

Of course, the news that Britain got was that the German army was going to attack the island of Malta.

Montgomery had learned from "super secrets" that the Germans were planning to attack Malta, but he had always been skeptical.

The reasons are two-fold:

First, he believed that the conditions for the Germans to attack Malta were not mature.

As mentioned before, Britain had absolute air superiority over the Mediterranean due to the Germans moving their air wings in the direction of the Soviet Union.

If this is the case, why did the Germans seize the island of Malta?

The other is that there have been several previous experiences where "super secrets" were inconsistent with reality.

Although this did not happen when Montgomery was the commander of the Eighth Army, it was not difficult for Montgomery to dig out the wartime documents... Montgomery was referring to Hitler's previous orders to Rommel to stop the attack again and again, and the British army also thought that The German army would not launch a large-scale attack, but Rommel "surprised" the British army again and again.

"Will this be the same 'surprise' as before?" Montgomery asked.

"I believe not, General!" Degungan replied: "We think this time is fundamentally different from usual..."

De Guingang explained while flipping through the documents and showing them in front of Montgomery: "Most of the previous 'surprises' were ordered by Hitler, but Rommel did his own thing and did not obey. This shows that there is no problem with the 'super secret' itself, but we did not guess. Rommel would have disobeyed Hitler's orders, but this time, it was Rommel who asked for Hitler's help!"

Montgomery nodded.

De Guingang's analysis makes sense, and a series of recent deciphered telegrams show that the German and Italian troops are indeed preparing to attack the island of Malta.

What's more, the German and Italian troops also had reasons to attack Malta... Their transportation lines were blocked by Malta, and the Germans had no choice, otherwise they would wait to die.

"What are you worried about, General?" De Guangan saw that Montgomery still had concerns.

"Could this be another conspiracy of the Germans!" Montgomery said: "I'm worried that they want to transfer our fighter planes to Malta Island and then launch an attack on Port Said!"

De Gangan shook his head and said: "The Germans will not do this, because we can bring back the Maltese fighter planes at any time, unless the Germans can capture Port Said within a few hours, which is almost impossible. possible!"

Montgomery nodded in agreement. Unlike ordinary troops, fighter planes could be dispatched in a short time. The British lost nothing more than some fuel.

So Montgomery immediately ordered 300 fighter planes to be transferred from Crete to Malta Island. The remaining 200 fighter planes in Port Said were also prepared for reinforcements. At the same time, he ordered transport ships to increase fuel supplies to Malta Island. And ammunition supply... This is not difficult for the British army, because the British army has air superiority over the Mediterranean, and transportation is safe for them.

There was nothing else Montgomery could do except order Lieutenant General York, who was in charge of Malta Island, to actively prepare for defense.

Lieutenant General York was not very worried, because he believed that the defense of Malta Island was very strong... This was because the Germans had plans to attack Malta Island before, and because the geographical location of Malta Island was very important, so the Supplies for construction of fortifications are constantly being transported to the island, which almost turns this island with an area of ​​only more than 200 square kilometers into a fortress: the outermost layer is mines, and the beach is covered with iron fences, mines, and barbed wire, followed by a layer of Bunkers and coastal defense batteries.

What's more, Lieutenant General York knew very well that the battle to seize the island was more important in naval battles and air battles. As long as these two battles were won, the German and Italian troops would basically not be able to see the beachhead of Malta Island.

"I don't know what they are thinking!" Lieutenant General York said to his staff after inspecting the defenses along the coastline: "If they really plan to land here, I think they will be disappointed!"

The staff officer replied: "General, I heard that they are training airborne troops, and that the Italian Paratrooper Division has also been transferred to Tripoli!"

Lieutenant General York lit a cigar... Due to the importance of Malta Island and its fruitful battles, the supply situation here is much better than that of Montgomery's main force. It is not a problem for the officers to smoke cigars.

"Do you know what the enemy of the airborne troops is?" Major General York asked.

The staff officer thought for a moment and replied: "Tanks and armored vehicles!"

Lieutenant General York nodded.

The advantage of airborne troops is that they can be parachuted to any place and deployed, which will catch people off guard, but their disadvantages are also obvious, that is, most of their equipment are light weapons, so when facing tanks and armored vehicles, only the ones who are massacred are often ...Tanks and armored vehicles have thick armor, and can quickly reach the enemy's parachute location and launch an attack.

For this reason, Lieutenant General York hoped that Montgomery could transport a batch of tanks and armored vehicles to the island of Malta.

Of course Montgomery would not refuse. After all, this was a very reasonable request.

But the North African battlefield also urgently needed tanks, so Montgomery thought of Crete... The 14th Infantry Division stationed there also had 60 "Matilda" tanks.

So Montgomery didn't think much about it and immediately ordered the 14th Infantry Division to dispatch 30 tanks to reinforce Malta Island.

This news soon reached Rommel... Rommel had bribed some Greeks through the intelligence agency to serve as spies and sneak into the island of Crete for reconnaissance. After all, Greece had surrendered at this time, so strictly speaking he was a German Spies are not traitors.

"These fools!" Rommel said: "They were completely fooled by us!"

"Not only that, General!" Colonel Weiss, who was in charge of intelligence collection, reported: "According to our intelligence, the Greeks on Crete don't have much willingness to resist, which means that the Greeks are likely to regard us as liberators. !”

It makes sense for the intelligence unit to make such an estimate. The reason is that Greece has surrendered at this time and the Greeks have no reason to resist. Even the Greeks in Crete hope to sign some Greek terms with the German army that are beneficial to them. There is no surrender clause in the country, so they may strive for cooperation with the German army.

But in fact, the German intelligence agency underestimated the patriotic enthusiasm of the Greek troops on Crete... In fact, the Greeks' determination to resist had already been shown when Italy invaded the Greek mainland. Defeated the Italian army with much more equipment, which should have attracted the attention of the German intelligence agency.