The Rise of the Third Reich

"One-time provision of 600,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, 50 BF-109s, 50 Fokker Zeros, 50 Ju87s, 50 No. 3 tanks, 120 SA37 anti-tank guns (47mm anti-tank guns produced in France), 20 sets Maritime beat radar and 50,000 tons of special steel.” At the headquarters meeting on July 6, Adolf Hitler frowned and asked, “Marshal, what can we get after giving so much?”

"Win the World War!" Hersman said. "In addition, we can deploy an air base on the island of Malta and station no more than 3,000 ground troops."

In order to launch the Malta Campaign, Hessmann spent a lot of money and agreed to all the conditions proposed by Mussolini. During the talks on July 4, Mussolini took advantage of the opportunity after Hessmann offered conditions for assistance. The lion opened his mouth and made higher demands, and Hersman actually agreed (this was actually to increase Italy's strength).

"Can we win the World War by taking Malta?" Adolf Hitler smiled, "I thought we had to take London!"

"Leader, taking Malta will block the Strait of Nice," Admiral Reddell explained. "In this way, Britain's traffic with the Middle East and India must not take the Mediterranean shortcut, but must bypass Africa. This will greatly increase the British "

"Will the Italians be defeated miserably?" Adolf Hitler chuckled, as if he had heard a big joke, "There are 500,000 of them! How many British people are there?"

Hersman replied: "By September, the British Australian 6th Division and the Indian 5th Division will arrive in the North African and East African battlefields respectively, and some scattered independent troops will arrive. By then, the British army will arrive in the North African and East African battlefields. The troop strength will reach 150,000.”

"150,000 defeats 500,000?" Adolf Hitler shook his head repeatedly.

"Leader, Italy may fail." Defense Minister Marshal Schleicher said, "The 150,000 British troops are only the situation we have at present. Maybe in September or October, the number will be more. And the Italians The action is very slow. They could have launched the attack in May, but it is said that they are not ready yet... I really don’t know how long they will wait until they can start the attack?”

"In addition, there is reliable intelligence that Mussolini is planning to attack Greece." Hersman then reported to Hitler a piece of intelligence that had just been detected. "This will spread the Italian forces and add greater trouble to logistics."

"What? Greece?" Hitler was a little annoyed when he heard the news of Hessmann's report. "What does Mussolini want to do? Doesn't he know that this is a critical moment for us to deal with Balkan affairs? He is giving us I'm causing trouble!"

During this time, drastic changes were taking place in the Balkans. First, the Soviet Union invaded Bessarabia without waiting for the referendum to begin. However, King Carol II of Romania did not dare to resist, so he had to give up the throne to his son, and then fled with his mistress Elena with a large number of royal treasures. Portugal. Power in Romania fell into the hands of the pro-German Ion Antonescu. After Ion Antonescu came to power, he announced his acceptance of Geneva arbitration, handed over half of Transylvania, and at the same time joined the European Community and accepted German protection.

The Yugoslav provinces of Croatia and Slovenia also declared independence. Subsequently, the Croatian Parliament formulated a monarchical constitution, elected Hungarian King Habsburg Otto (Hungary's surname is first) as the King of Croatia, and formed the Croatia-Hungary United Kingdom.

The Slovenian Parliament elected Kaiser Wilhelm as King of Slovenia and became a co-monarchy of Germany.

However, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia refused to recognize the independence of Croatia and Slovenia, refused to hand over half of Vojvodina, and clamored all day long to defend Belgrade.

Although this was just Prince Paul's way of appeasing the national mood of the Serbs, the mood of the Serbs also became more excited because of his shouting. If the British army appears in Greece during this period, it may be difficult for Prince Paul to calm the situation.

"Marshal Hersmann, from a military point of view," Hitler shouted for a few words and then calmed down, looked at Hersmann and asked, "Are we going to stop Mussolini's aggressive actions?"

"No need," Hessman said, shaking his head. "If Mussolini's adventure in Greece succeeds, the Balkan problem can be completely solved. The Serbs will accept the reality without any hope, and Bulgaria will also fall back. us."

"What if he fails?" Hitler said. "The British won't let the opportunity pass, will they?"

"This is also our opportunity!" Hessman said, "If the British troops from the Middle East enter Greece in large numbers, we have the opportunity to annihilate them all... As long as we can severely damage the Mediterranean Fleet and seize control of the sea in the Eastern Mediterranean."

"What is the strength of the British Mediterranean Fleet?" Hitler asked.

Admiral Raeder replied: "The British Mediterranean Fleet is currently divided into two. Its main force is based in Alexandria, with the battleship Warspite, the battleship Malaya, the battleship Sovereign, and the aircraft carrier Eagle; the aircraft carrier Glory is loyal to France. The rebel (Free French) battleship Lorraine is also in Alexandria and should be operating together with the main force of the British Mediterranean Fleet.

Another part of the Mediterranean Fleet ships formed H Fleet, which owned the battlecruiser HMS Hood, the battleship HMS Resolution, and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, stationed in Gibraltar.

As far as we know, Malta is the dividing line between the main force of the British Mediterranean Fleet and Fleet H. East of Malta is the activity range of the main force of the Mediterranean Fleet, and west of Malta belongs to Fleet H. If we want to capture Malta, we are likely to have a fierce sea and air battle with them. "

"There are five battleships, one battlecruiser and three aircraft carriers..." Hitler looked at Raeder, "Can the Italian navy defeat them?"

Marshal Redl said: "The Italians have 6 battleships and 2 aircraft carriers. Among them, the Veneto and the Littorio are both cutting-edge battleships that have just entered service this year. Their firepower and displacement are equivalent to our Bismarck class."

If we look at military strength on paper, Britain's maritime power in the Mediterranean is comparable to the Italian Navy, which has two more aircraft carriers in this time and space. However, it is better to discount the paper data of Italians...

"Our air force and naval aviation will be deployed to Sicily." Hersman said, "According to the agreement reached between Mussolini and I, the Italians will complete the expansion of several military airports in Sicily in early September. Then we will The aviation force will be stationed, and one combat aviation regiment and two bombing aviation regiments will go to Sicily. In addition, we will also strive to mobilize French naval volunteer battleships to participate in the battle."

"Will the attack on the island of Malta be carried out in September?" Hitler asked again.

"The current plan is September," Hessman thought for a moment and then added, "but the Italians are procrastinating, so it may be delayed until October or November."

If it were not for the procrastination style of the Italians, there would be no problem of occupying Malta at all now. Maybe even the Suez Canal would have been taken down by the Italians.

"But there's nothing wrong with delaying it for some time," Hessmann smiled and added, "This will allow the Italians to be more prepared... I hope to start a decisive sea and air battle around Malta, which requires the Italian fleet to exert its combat effectiveness. "They should be given time to train and install radar."

Hitler thought for a while and finally nodded: "Okay, let's carry out a joint operation to seize Malta... We can give the Italians whatever they want." He glanced at the fat Goering and said, "Hermann "Is there no problem with the General Administration of Arms?"

"No problem, it's just a small number." Goering said, "Now that we have mastered the factories in Belgium and Luxembourg, the production capacity of weapons, aircraft and ships has increased to a certain extent compared with before the Western Front Campaign. In addition, France The industrial production in China is also recovering, and we can send many orders to French factories to complete. "

After using the European Community, the European Customs Union and the European Monetary Union to integrate European countries controlled by Germany or pro-Germany, factories in many European countries began to serve German arms production.

Of course, the situation in each country is not exactly the same. Such as Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia-Hungary, Galicia-Ukraine, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania, Finland, Luxembourg (currently part of Germany) and Alsace-Lorraine (named the capital of the European Community, but actually Factories and mines in parts of Germany) and other places were directly integrated into the wartime management system of the German Armament Administration, and production and investment expansion were carried out with the participation of German engineers and capital (Galicia-Ukraine and Romania will be the focus of investment).

France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and two neutral countries, Sweden and Switzerland, which are not nominally members of the European Customs Union but are actually closely linked to the European Customs Union, will accept a large number of German military orders and European Marks and purchase German issuances. The bonds are actually partially integrated into the German armaments industry system. The German General Administration of Armaments issued some less important production tasks, such as military uniforms, tents, blankets, helmets, transport ships, landing ships and landing craft, rifles, locomotives, wagons, rails, steel bars, cement, etc., to factories in these countries. In order to alleviate the labor shortage in Germany.