The decisive battle against the Third Reich

People always have the mentality of underestimating the enemy, especially when they have long-term and comprehensive control of the situation.

For example, the Allied Air Force in the Battle of Sicily...

They had fully gained control of the air more than a month before the launch of the campaign, and the entire island of Sicily was bombed by the Allies. Any German and Italian fighter planes that dared to take off to challenge the battle would inevitably be ruthlessly eliminated.

This forced German and Italian fighter planes to avoid Italy or Sardinia. Allied bombers did not even need fighter escort to carry out bombing missions deep into Sicily.

Over time, the Allies almost forgot about the German, Italian and Air Force services.

Qin Chuan took advantage of this.

He first separated the U.S. navy and air force from the British navy and air force... If the military forces of the British and American militaries were closely united, to be honest, anything Qin Chuan did in Sicily would be in vain.

Tactics, deception, quality...these will all be wiped out in the face of absolute strength.

But this is not the case between the British and American armies. There are also conflicts between them. Qinchuan realized this before the war.

Therefore, if you want to defeat the Allies, you must first separate the British and American troops and let them fight on their own.

The method of dissension is very simple, that is, attack the US military instead of the British army at the beginning, and keep chasing the US military, making the US military feel that they are suffering and being frustrated alone against the main force of the German army, while the British army is easily reaping fame and fortune on the other side. Hype.

Perhaps Eisenhower could bear this because he was the supreme commander and his task was to unite the two armies.

But if... the safety of the US military itself is in question, Eisenhower may not be able to persist.

Sure enough, things were as Qin Chuan thought. The U.S. Navy retreated to the beachhead for self-protection, and its fighter jets stayed dormant in Tripoli, just to provide timely reinforcements to the "surrounded" beachhead when needed.

In this way... the German and Italian armies could concentrate their efforts on dealing with the British army.

Not only Syracuse, but also the British fleet and the British Air Force. The British army, who thought that the German and Italian air forces were no longer capable, were destined to pay the price.

Originally, it was difficult for the Italian Air Force to function in front of the British Mediterranean Fleet and the British Air Force.

This can be said to be Mussolini’s fault. Mussolini’s vain character made him pay more attention to superficial data than to substance. Therefore, the Army has the best formation in the world but has no combat effectiveness. The Air Force is huge but mostly focused on performance. A fighter plane that is lagging behind and unable to fight.

What's worse is that the Italian navy and air force are completely different services and basically have no coordination with each other... The poor performance of the Italian navy is largely due to the failure of the air force to coordinate. You must know that naval battles are the most The most important thing is air supremacy. Before the naval battle begins, the Air Force needs to conduct reconnaissance, and then the Air Force needs to compete for air supremacy. If the Air Force completely ignores the interests of the Navy, warships will be almost blind at sea: they will not be able to see where the enemy is, and they will not be able to conduct air strikes on the enemy. There is no way to fight back, and you don't know whether the enemy warship is attacking you, so you can't be prepared, etc.

Of course, the Air Force also has its own reasons: the top speed of the fighter jet Maiki 200 is only 512 kilometers per hour, which is quite different from the 655 kilometers per hour of the British Spitfire. The top speed of the BR bomber is only 440 kilometers per hour, and this data is still watery.

In order to cater to Mussolini's vanity, Italian high-level officials often did this kind of thing, that is, they exaggerated equipment data to make Mussolini happy.

The "Piaggio" heavy bomber claimed to have a range of 3,600 kilometers. Even the Italians believed it and used this data to bomb the Strait of Gibraltar and the British fleet. As a result, more than half of the aircraft had to fly due to lack of fuel. Spanish crash landing.

After investigating the reason, it turned out that the 3,600-kilometer range was based on taking off without ammunition and full fuel.

The results of these water-laden fighters and bombers being put into actual combat can be imagined... Air supremacy in the Mediterranean is basically transferred between the German and British forces, with nothing to do with the Italian Air Force.

But it’s different now. The sky is full of fighter planes flying around like kites. From time to time, two fighter planes even collide with each other without being able to avoid it, and the aircraft is destroyed and everyone is killed, not to mention the anti-aircraft gunners and anti-aircraft aircraft on the ground. There were gunmen, and even the British pilots in the air were in chaos.

A Spitfire easily locked on the Italian fighter with its much faster speed. As a row of bullets was fired from the wing, a row of bullet holes burst out of the Italian Maquis fighter and then plunged into the sea.

However, when the British pilot was about to find another target, there was a roar of machine guns behind him... Just as he shot down the Italian fighter plane, the German fighter planes had also locked onto him.

A Hurricane fighter dived towards an Italian Br bomber preparing to carry out low-altitude bombing. The pilot noticed that the target of the Br bomber was the British aircraft carrier HMS Fearless.

The pilot knew how dangerous this was, because there were fighter planes preparing to take off parked on the deck of the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, so even if there were German fighter planes chasing him behind him, he had to shoot them down.

But just when the pilot locked the target and shot it down, several clouds of black fog suddenly appeared in front of him, and then with a "boom", the plane lost its balance and fell hard to the sea.

At the moment when it rolled and fell to the sea, the pilot opened his mouth and shouted angrily... because he knew that it was not the enemy that destroyed the fighter plane, but the anti-aircraft gun on his own warship.

The anti-aircraft gunner who committed this "crime" couldn't help but be stunned. He aimed at the Italian bomber in front, but because the plane was too fast, the shells he fired could not keep up, and instead destroyed his own fighter plane behind.

Then, he could only watch helplessly as the Italian bombers dropped rows of bombs with whistling sounds... and below was the "Intrepid" aircraft carrier.

"Boom", amidst the fire and explosions, the fighter planes on the flight deck of the "Fearless" aircraft carrier were blown to pieces. Since these fighters were full of fuel, they immediately caused a fire, and many British soldiers were killed. The soldiers were affected by the fire, and they screamed wildly when they were set ablaze. Many people couldn't bear the pain and jumped from the aircraft carrier into the sea.

The anti-aircraft gunner couldn't help but stop what he was doing, because he thought that all this was caused by him, because of his own mistakes.

But he soon no longer needed to worry about this, because a Markey fighter plane swooped down and then fired a row of bullets at the anti-aircraft gun.

Whistling sounds, machine gun sounds, and explosion sounds were heard together. Fire and black smoke were everywhere on the sea and in the air. A fierce and cruel sea and air battle took place over the port of Syracuse...