The decisive battle against the Third Reich

In fact, Qin Chuan had this plan and other considerations.

For example, the problem of labor force... If he had not reached Greece before, Qinchuan would not have dared to think of establishing industry on the African continent.

On the one hand, this is because it is too easy to attack the industry established on the African continent... The British still occupy the island of Malta, and they can send a force from Malta to attack the arsenal at any time, just like they did when they assassinated Rommel.

The British can even bribe African underground organizations to launch guerrilla warfare and sneak attacks on arsenals... There are countless tribes in Africa, many of which have no national concept. As long as the British spies give them some small profits or some temptations , easily exploited by the British.

More importantly, the educational level of Africans is low, and it is difficult for them to become qualified labor forces because they are naturally lazy. Therefore, building arsenals on the African continent is likely to become tasteless and useless.

But building a factory in Crete is different.

Crete is a closed island. Apart from the Greek People's Liberation Army, there is basically no need to worry about other harassment. What's more important is that the Greek people and British prisoners have a high level of education... there are even some senior intellectuals or people who originally worked in factories. The technicians who come out can easily become qualified labor force after simple training.

As a major industrial country, Germany will certainly consider the feasibility of these issues.

So Rommel made this suggestion to Hitler and was quickly agreed... Of course, Hitler was still more cautious. He first sent a geological exploration team to Europe to inspect the iron mines in Egypt.

This is the basis for establishing an arsenal in Crete. Greece and Italy are both resource-poor countries. If they cannot obtain a large amount of iron necessary for the production of equipment from Africa, it will not make much sense.

As a result, the exploration team was surprised to find that the iron ore reserves in Africa were very large and of high quality.

"I can't believe it!" Professor Backhouse, the leader of the exploration team, said when reporting to Rommel: "General, we seem to be lucky. The iron ore here has a high iron content, the ore body is shallowly buried, and the quality is high... Who would have thought that there are such rich resources buried in this barren land of death!”

"Very good!" Rommel replied excitedly: "You will report it to the Führer truthfully!"

"Of course, General!" replied Professor Backhouse.

"General!" Qin Chuan on the side reminded: "Why don't we let the exploration team stay longer? They can go around and see what other resources are here, such as coal or oil!"

"What a great idea, Lieutenant!" Rommel agreed immediately.

If coal or oil can be found, it will of course be of great help to the industrial island, especially oil... This is not only a resource that is in short supply for the Afrika Korps, it can even be said to be a resource that is in short supply for Germany (part of the reason why Hitler attacked the Soviet Union Just for the Baku oil fields).

Of course, Qinchuan knew that it would be difficult for the Backhouse exploration team to find oil... The reason was that there was a misunderstanding about the formation of oil in this era. Scholars generally believed that oil was formed from mud on the seabed, so the search for oil fields was basically on the seaside, and in Libya and Egypt’s oil fields are all some distance from the sea.

But there is no rush now. Qin Chuan has plenty of time to give Buckhouse a heads up.

Because supply lines were open, ironworks were soon built on Crete. At the same time as the iron smelting stone, an arsenal for the production of bullets and cannonballs was built.

Although bullets and artillery shells are inconspicuous, the demand is huge. If they can be self-sufficient, it can reduce Germany's transportation pressure to a great extent, and thus free up more transportation capacity for transportation to Africa. Other machines.

On the other hand, iron ore mines on the African continent have also built a road to Matruh.

Later, Rommel felt that the road efficiency was too inefficient, so he simply built a railway from the iron mines to Matruh. As for the materials and equipment for building the railway... When he captured Alexandria, he captured the British railways and trains. Just make the best use of it.

Therefore, iron ore was continuously transported from Matruh Port to Crete. The iron smelting plant refined it into steel and became the raw material for the arsenal. Other raw materials such as gunpowder were shipped from Italy if they could not be produced on their own for the time being. ...This forms a system that can operate production. Other factories also sprung up on Crete, including a tank assembly plant.

Qinchuan was not surprised at all by this. The most important thing needed for desert operations was tanks, so as long as there was a chance, Rommel would never let go of the tank factory.

In terms of defense, Rommel did just what Qin Chuan suggested. Instead of transferring troops from Crete, he also strengthened the defense of Crete...

The coastline is basically defended by the Italian army, which is necessary. The German army is simply insufficient in strength to defend such a long coastline.

The German army mainly defends three airports... The 90th Light Armored Division is divided into three parts and distributes tanks and armored vehicles at the three airports.

As mentioned before, the nemesis of the airborne troops are tanks and armored vehicles, and the German tanks are not as slow as the British "Matilda". They can rush to the enemy's airborne point and enter the battle in the shortest possible time.

More importantly... the British army does not have an "iron fist", which means that it is difficult for British paratroopers to fight against German mechanized troops.

Rommel was not at ease about this. He deployed many anti-airborne facilities on the island of Crete...the wooden poles were sharpened one by one pointing towards the sky, and barbed wire with barbs was hung between the wooden poles. Landmines were also tied to the barbed wire.

Because these sharpened wooden stakes looked like bamboo shoots, German soldiers called them "Rommel bamboo shoots."

And doing so does not seem to be difficult, because Crete itself is more mountainous and there are not many places suitable for airborne landings. It is even more difficult to be arranged by Rommel.

In terms of air defense, Rommel invested a large amount of anti-aircraft firepower along the coast, including 88MM anti-aircraft guns.

Of course, these are secondary, and more important are the fighters... Rommel deployed both air groups in the air wing on Crete.

This arrangement certainly makes sense. The Alexandria defense line requires almost no fighter planes, and if fighter plane cover is needed, Cretan fighter planes can fly to Alexandria for support at any time.

Coupled with the thirty air defense radars shipped from Germany, Crete can almost be said to have cast a dragnet.

Then, it seemed that the German army only had to wait for the construction of each factory to be completed, and then victory would come.