The decisive battle against the Third Reich

When conflicts arise between the two parts of the Allied forces, the conflicts between the German and Italian forces are actually even greater.

Under the command of Hitler, Rommel pretended to move his headquarters to Greece. After inspecting several new units that were reinforcing Greece and giving a few passionate speeches, he secretly flew to Sicily.

The first thing he did when he arrived in Sicily was to convene a meeting with the officers... He needed to integrate the forces on the island into a team that could coordinate with each other. This also included the Italian troops stationed in Sicily, so Rommel also invited the Italian commander Lieutenant General Zoni.

Of course, for fear of leaking secrets, only Lieutenant General Guzzoni was Italian who attended the meeting, and even Lieutenant General Guzzoni's translator was brought in by Rommel.

"Gentlemen!" Rommel introduced to the officers: "This is Lieutenant General Guzzoni, commander of the Italian 6th Army!"

The officers politely applauded Lieutenant General Guzzoni as he stood up to salute.

"Forgive me for not introducing the others one by one!" Rommel said, "After all, this is not an award ceremony!"

The officers couldn't help but laugh.

"This is the situation!" Rommel immediately got to the point: "We have received accurate news that the Allied forces will launch a large-scale landing operation on Sicily, and the number of troops invested may be around 200,000! They are The British 8th Army commanded by Montgomery and the US 7th Army commanded by Patton!”

The officers were not surprised by this news, because the British had already carried out large-scale bombing of Sicily... Although this could be regarded as strategic deception, most people did not think so.

However, the fact that the Allies would dispatch 200,000 troops to launch an attack still made the German officers uneasy. Only General Guzzoni seemed calm.

"The good news is that we have more troops than the Allies!" Rommel continued: "We have the Italian 6th Army..."

As he spoke, Rommel glanced at General Guzzoni and said, "I think it would be more appropriate for General Guzzoni to introduce this aspect!"

Lieutenant General Guzzoni nodded and stood up. He pointed at the map with his baton and introduced: "Gentlemen, the Italian 6th Army has two armies, namely the 6th Army deployed west of Syracuse. The 12th Army and the 16th Army south of Messina have a total strength of 4 field divisions, 6 coastal defense divisions, 2 coastal defense brigades, and 6 artillery groups. I believe the total strength is only 250,000. If we work together, we will be able to defeat the Allied attack and defend Sicily from the enemy!"

Lieutenant General Guzzoni was full of confidence, but the German officers present disagreed. They were not even interested in hearing the numbers on the table... because they all understood the truth that no matter how many Italian soldiers there were, they were just numbers. It is impossible to become a comrade-in-arms, and may even be a burden.

Of course, Rommel hoped that these Italian soldiers could at least play some role, or that they could cooperate with the deployment and operations of the German army, so he asked Lieutenant General Guzzoni to participate in this meeting.

After asking Lieutenant General Guzzoni to sit back in his seat, Rommel continued: "We have a total of seven divisions, including one armored division, two mechanized infantry divisions, three infantry divisions, and one paratrooper division... In total... One hundred thousand troops!"

At this point, Rommel paused intentionally. The officers all understood that this meant that the German army could basically only rely on these 100,000 people to deal with the 200,000 Allied forces.

"We will lose air and sea control!" Rommel said: "There is no doubt about this. In fact, air and sea control are already in the enemy's hands. So what we can do is to deploy our troops on deep and high ground."

As he spoke, Rommel pointed at the map with his baton and explained: "From west to east are the 22nd Infantry Division, the 200th Infantry Division, the 1st Infantry Regiment, and the 23rd Infantry Division. These troops rely on the terrain to build a tunnel defense. . I believe your fortifications are almost complete..."

At this point, Rommel turned his attention to the generals of several infantry divisions.

"Yes, General! We need two more days!"

"We may need three more days!"

…

"Very good!" Rommel nodded and said: "I will take my guards to the highlands for a walk to ensure that you have all built the fortifications and conducted at least three drills!"

"Yes, General!"

"The Göring Armored Division and the 39th and 52nd Mechanized Infantry Divisions are on standby behind Enna..."

At this time Guzzoni muttered a few words, as if in protest.

Rommel asked the translator in confusion: "What is he talking about?"

"General!" the translator replied: "Lieutenant General Guzzoni thinks we should first discuss the ownership of command authority!"

The German officers couldn't help laughing.

The translator continued: "Lieutenant General Guzzoni said that the Italian army was larger than the German army and was more familiar with the terrain and climate of Sicily, while the German army came from France from Africa and was unfamiliar with everything here. , especially since Sicily is also the territory of Italy, the hometown of the 6th Army, and their relatives here, so Italy should have the right to command the battle! "

The officers couldn't help laughing again.

"I am not willing to hand over the tank to the Italians!" Major General Graf said with a smile: "Because I absolutely believe that they will transform the tank into a stove for cooking pasta!"

The officers laughed even louder.

Major General Graf is the commander of the "Hermann Goering" Armored Division.

As soon as you hear the name of this armored division, you know that this force was formed by the Gestapo Goering.

And this armored division is a bit special. It is also called a paratrooper armored division... This is because Germany attaches great importance to the cooperation between the air force and armor, and it will be difficult for these two armies to do so if they are not familiar with each other's combat methods. Close coordination, so just like the US military always uses pilots as aircraft carrier captains, the Goering Paratrooper Armored Division often exchanges officers with the Air Force for auxiliary command. The Goering Paratrooper Armored Division even has its own flying reconnaissance team.

Of course, this may have something to do with Goering being a pilot.

Rommel ignored Lieutenant General Guzzoni and continued: "What we have to do is wait. The enemies on both wings will launch a fierce attack towards the port. The 22nd and 23rd Infantry Divisions will fight and retreat... because of their routes. It expands along the triangle, so it will become farther and farther away from the center..."

"General Rommel!" At this time, Lieutenant General Guzzoni stood up and said with a displeased face: "I strongly recommend that this battle be commanded by me. We must place our troops and defense lines along the coast, so that we can destroy the enemy on the sea. superior!"