The Rise of the Third Reich

"Hersman, Hersman, Hersman..."

Outside the Porta Constantine in Rome, countless Italians shouted the surname of Marshal Ludwig von Heinsberg-Hersmann and directed their insults at him, his wife Chloe and the Italian diplomats. The minister, Count Ciano, rode in an open car and raised his hands.

"Ah, what we are passing through now is the Gate of Constantine. In history, many famous generals of the Roman Empire entered the city from here when they returned in triumph. I think the Roman citizens at that time must have welcomed their heroes in this way."

Count Ciano spoke complimentary words to Hersmann in fluent German, and he also organized a grand welcome ceremony for Hersmann's visit. However, Hessmann seemed unhappy and frowned slightly after getting off the plane. He ignored Ciano at all and didn't even look at the Italian people on both sides of the road.

Chloe, who had just given birth to Hersman's sixth child (a boy named Carl), was busy trying to smooth things over. He chuckled and said: "I think the citizens of Rome will soon be outside the Gate of Constantine to welcome the Italian warriors who have returned triumphant from the battlefields of North Africa."

"This isn't going to happen anytime soon!"

Hessmann suddenly interrupted his wife and said angrily: "If Italy is unwilling to listen to General Halder's opinion and is unwilling to allow the German army to join the Mediterranean battlefield, then Italy will soon encounter difficulties in North Africa and the Mediterranean! "

As in the original history, Italian leaders were not willing to allow Germany to intervene in the Mediterranean and North African battlefields. Although he reluctantly agreed to the German army's southern headquarters in Rome when he joined the war. But after France surrendered, Mussolini changed his mind and believed that Italy could win the battlefields of North Africa and the Mediterranean on its own without the participation of the Germans.

Marshal Hessmann is now rushing from Berlin to discuss joint operations with Mussolini. Count Ciano, who greeted him at the train station, told Hersmann that Italy had a sure chance of victory and did not need Germany's help at all.

"Well, but this is impossible," Count Ciano said with a smile, "Marshal Graziani (the commander-in-chief of the Italian army in North Africa when the war broke out was Marshal Balbo, but the air marshal died on June 28 Killed by his own anti-aircraft artillery) had an army of 250,000, while the British only had 40,000 at most in North Africa..."

"It's 36,000! There are the British 7th Armored Division, the Commonwealth 4th Indian Division and some directly-affiliated troops." Hersman said to Count Chiano in a warning tone, "Soon there will be an Australian division coming to Egypt. Marshal Graziani will have to deal with a very powerful British army of 50,000 people."

"Marshal, you have included the Indian troops," Count Ciano was still smiling, obviously in a happy mood (maybe it was related to Balbo's death). "Those Indians don't have much fighting power."

The British 7th Armored Division is definitely a capable force. It was the elite that the British transferred from the mainland to Egypt before the outbreak of World War II, including the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 6th Royal Tank Regiment. The troops transferred from Australia, where criminals were originally exiled, are generally better at fighting. The ANZAC is famous for its strong combat effectiveness, and it has already gained a reputation in World War I.

The 4th Indian Division of the Commonwealth is taken for granted as a weak brigade, but in fact there are many Gurkha mercenaries in this Indian Division. They are professional mercenaries, have experienced the most rigorous training, and have been called cruel. They are disciplined and are the fist force in the British army. They suffered a lot from the Germans in the last world war. How could the sloppy Italians defeat them?

But what really annoyed Hersmann and made him rush from Berlin was not Italy's upcoming combat operations in North Africa - he didn't care that Mussolini was beaten to pieces by the British in North Africa, even if Mussolini was beaten to pieces by the British. Solini still wants to go to Greece to make trouble as in history, and Hersman doesn't care.

If Italians don't suffer a little, how can they listen to Germany and join the European Community? Mussolini was still dreaming about the Roman Empire!

What really annoyed Hersman was that Mussolini actually ignored General Halder’s warning (actually Hersman’s opinion) and ignored the island of Malta, an important stronghold blocking the gate of the Nice Strait—— Playing cute in North Africa, East Africa and Greece, and throwing away hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers who can eat but not fight, has nothing to do with the overall situation. Anyway, Hersman is not in a hurry to fight Moscow. But being cute in Malta will harm the overall situation.

But if Malta Island is operated by the British into a maritime fortress and an unsinkable aircraft carrier as it was in history, then the Mediterranean battlefield will fall into complete passivity, and it will be very difficult to get it back in the future.

Therefore, Hersmann learned that Mussolini rejected Halder's proposal and was unwilling to dispatch the "precious" Italian Army to capture the island of Malta, nor did he want to let the German airborne troops dispatch. He and his wife Chloe immediately ended their vacation early and rushed directly to Rome from Berchtesgaden at the foot of the Obersalzburg Mountains.

Mussolini, who considered himself the new Caesar of the Roman Empire, did not dare to neglect the visit of Marshal Hessmann, Chief of the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht. He not only asked his son-in-law Ciano to arrange a reception, but also personally hosted a banquet in the Palazzo Venezia.

The Italian dictator, who still looked very short despite wearing height-increasing shoes, wore a short-sleeved summer military uniform today and took his lover Clara Bettasi, who was about to be shot in history, to warmly embrace Hessmann outside the Venice Palace. , kissed Chloe's fingers, and then politely invited the Hersmans into a magnificent living room.

"Leader," Hersmann did not mince words with Mussolini and said straight to the point at the beginning of the meeting, "I came from Berchtesgaden to tell you the fact that the war has not yet been won. It is possible to fail, and failure will be a disaster for both Germany and Italy. Therefore, we must do everything possible to nip any possible reasons for failure in the bud. The island of Malta is one such thing that may lead to the failure of our cause. In May, when Italy entered the war, there was only one battalion of defenders and a small number of aircraft, and it was very easy to capture Malta. Island, the Taiwan Strait will be completely blocked, the connection between Alexandria and Gibraltar will be interrupted, the activity range of the British Mediterranean Fleet will be compressed to the waters east of Malta, and the logistics transportation of the Italian North Africa Group will The line will be foolproof.”

After listening to Hersman's words, Mussolini let out a sigh of relief - he originally thought that Hersman came to charge because of Italy's upcoming conquest in Greece. At the previous Geneva Conference, Hitler refused to allocate Bosnia and Croatia to Italy, and went back on his word by not handing over Algeria to Italy. This made Mussolini unhappy. Germany did not seem to regard Italy as an ally of the same level.

Moreover, Hersmann's proposal to establish a joint chiefs of staff of Germany, Japan, and Italy also made Mussolini feel that Germany already considered itself the European hegemon. Therefore, he also wanted to score a few victories that could be compared with the Battle of France and the Battle of Poland to increase Italy's worth.

So he came up with the idea of ​​Greece, which had a weak military power, hoping to use a blitzkrieg to establish Italy's prestige. Moreover, he did not want Germany to participate, and wanted the Italian army to make its achievements alone.

Therefore, the military operation to invade Greece was carried out with complete secrecy from Germany. However, Mussolini also knew that it would be difficult to hide "Italian secrets" from Germany. However, when preparations for the invasion of Greece had just begun, Germany's Marshal Hessmann flew over in a hurry, which surprised him.

Now knowing that Hersman came for Malta, Mussolini didn't know what to say for a moment. He pondered for a moment before he spoke: "The terrain of Malta is very difficult. It is a steep rocky island. It is difficult to land on it." Big. But we have completely disabled the island with bombers and it is no longer a threat."

"No, the island of Malta is still a threat." Hersman shook his head and said, "The British will not give up there. It is the heart of the Mediterranean. As long as Malta is in the hands of the British, the channels for Italian North Africa to transport troops and supplies will not be open. , the Italian Navy will be at a great disadvantage when facing the British Mediterranean Fleet. Therefore, the German Wehrmacht General Staff recommends launching a Malta campaign to capture Malta and severely damage the British Mediterranean Fleet that reinforces Malta. It's up to us! Malta must be taken, the sooner the better!"

"Marshal," Mussolini looked at Hessmann and asked suddenly, "do you think our war in North Africa will last for a long time?"

"Yes, leader." Hersman said, "If you insist not to let our armored divisions go to North Africa to help the war, then the war in North Africa will not be easy to win. Therefore, Malta is related to the overall situation and must be captured as soon as possible. There will be It is related to the security of the logistics line of hundreds of thousands of Italian troops and cannot be ignored!”

Mussolini was a little undecided after Hessmann said this. In fact, the Italian Navy had long suggested seizing Malta. However, the Italian Army believed that it was unnecessary and difficult to capture, while the Italian Air Force believed that Malta could be paralyzed by bombing. Therefore, Mussolini, a layman, listened to the opinions of the Air Force, but now a great military strategist like Marshal Hersman came and strongly suggested seizing Malta.

Hersmann saw that Mussolini was still hesitant, so he gritted his teeth and said: "The German Air Force and Naval Aviation were responsible for the main combat tasks in the Malta Campaign, with the Italian Navy cooperating, and both sides carried out joint operations. After Malta was captured, it was handed over to Italy. Control. In addition, Germany will provide 200,000 tons of heavy oil and 10 sets of maritime beat radars to the Italian Navy at one time.”