It turned out that it was not that there was no news, but that the Italians didn’t take themselves as a "tactical consultant" seriously at all. Perhaps it was the Italian leader’s polite remarks after the initial invitation. Ironically, Germany also carefully selected its best paratroopers commander to approach the chaotic war command room. What Logan first heard was good news. Fort St. Elmore, a column of castles in Valletta, Malta, had been conquered by the Italian army overnight and won this impressive result. It was actually Lieutenant Colonel Tognini who commanded the paratroopers. The paratroopers defeated the real British defenders, specifically the ugly Italian officers and the Libyan soldiers, and defeated the famous British soldiers from England, Wales, Scotland and Egypt.

Although the Italian army still needs to conquer the main city of Valletta and a series of surrounding forts after Fort Saint Elmore, this victory not only won the important attack on the bridgehead by the Italian army, but also dealt a great blow to the morale of the British army. If the German team were to fight this battle, Logan was confident to capture the whole Valletta in one day. After all, no matter how thick the wall is, it can’t withstand the bombardment of battleship guns and heavy bombs!
However, Logan did not see the joy he deserved in General Sapienz’s face. The broad-bodied and fat Italian general was embarrassed to tell himself that his German colleague boarded six or two Italian infantry battalions in Malta yesterday and suffered heavy casualties. After that, he finally chose to surrender to the British army. These British troops did not know that Fort San Elmo had fallen on their way back to Valletta, but they were ambushed by Italian paratroopers. The captives and captives immediately changed roles. The two Italian infantry battalions took up their weapons with their heads held high!
It’s good news to belong to the farce of the Italian Sixth Army, but what happened to the Italian navy was a complete tragedy. The battleship "Duilio" was hit by a mine when it left the port this morning. At present, it is speculated that the mine was laid by a British submarine outside the port of Catania at night. As a result, the old warship was flooded with tons of water for a short time, and its hull was heavily tilted in a group of tugboats to help it barely return to the port. The flagship Italian cruisers and destroyers were unable to fight, so that they could sail alone. They would cover the second batch of Italian Sixth Troops and book the beach to board the sixth in northern and northeastern Malta
Tactical ability is just enough. Roman policymakers are also blind in strategy. The Maltese war is not over yet, and the Italian army’s offensive operations in North Africa and Northeast Africa are also stubbornly resisted by its opponents. The Italian government can’t wait to take a new offensive step because the Greeks have "invaded Albanian territory". The Italian government officially made the final butterfly call to Athens and asked Greece to hand over the designated strategic positions to the Italian army for occupation. Of course, these so-called "security guarantees" are all located in Greek soil, and surrendering these positions is tantamount to automatically giving up their defense line bordering Italy!
The news is that before lunch, the Italian generals seem to have completely forgotten the battle in Malta. The focus of discussion has become how many weeks to occupy Greece. It is said that two weeks is the longest week, that is, before Christmas. Some people think that Greece will surrender without a fight.
Looking at the arrogance of the Italians, Logan was calm, not to mention that Mao interfered with the Italian military deployment. Even if he was in charge of the Italian military and political affairs, he would never clean up this mess in a short time.
At noon, the 3rd Battalion of Italian Infantry was sent to malta island, and the Italian army had previously boarded 6 troops. The number of troops in the South Island was absolute, and the British defenders were compressed to several isolated ancient strongholds such as Donglaita. "It took only half an hour for the Italian army to attack the main city of Valletta for the first time, and the casualties were not great. After the injury, the Italian army stepped up its bombing of the British stronghold, but Logan learned from Francis Boccaccio that the Italian army stationed in Sicily would move to the front-line airport in Greece from the next day, so he stayed in Sicily to deal with Malta, leaving two fighter squadrons and a bomber brigade.
Now that the focus of the Italian army’s attack has turned to Greece, their paratroopers have also completed the initial surrender. Logan obviously felt that it was meaningless to stay in Sicily. That night, he tried to ask the German high command to return to the German newspaper through the Italians, but it was like a sea of water, but there was no response.
The next day, I passed through the German Embassy in Rome, and this time I got a quick reply. I stayed in Italy to closely observe the situation. This somewhat confusing order finally alerted Logan. Is this another bad idea that Ge got fat and put himself aside?
Whether it is intentional or not, it is not clear for a moment that Logan can continue to watch the Italian performance. As the Italian artillery battalion boarded the 6 th Malta War, Italian paratroopers and infantry continued to capture the three ancient cities on the right side of Valletta with artillery support 6, but before the British retreated, all the cannons there were destroyed. The Italians were unable to find a breakthrough to attack the main city of Valletta. People who had lost strength in the past few days.
In this way, the frontline commanders shouted at the heavy losses and attacked. After six army generals discussed and unanimously decided to siege tactics against the British defenders in Valletta.
In Greece, before the last butterfly pass expired, the Italian army could not wait to cross the border, but the first problem they encountered was that there was no good way to walk in the mountainous terrain of Greece, and it was in disrepair for many years, which was even more astounding. The Italian army did not make adequate reconnaissance preparations for this attack, and even made the situation worse in the tourist map of Greece. It rained in winter a few days before the invasion, and the temperature quickly dropped to zero. Rome was confident of victory, and the troops were not equipped with winter clothes to attack in the snow. The effect can be imagined!
In the face of the threatening Italian legion, the Greek army stabilized the front line after retreating for a kilometer, and the Italian army attacked. On the fourth day, the Greek commander-in-chief Papagos your legend counterattacked the Greek army cleverly and tenaciously, and the Italian army suffered heavy losses. At this time, Mussolini finally did not ask for it, but his neighbor Bulgarian government sent troops to support it. As a result, reinforcements did not come; However, his secret bribery activities to Greek politicians and generals did not work. In this case, the Italian army once again fell into an extremely embarrassing situation
The Italian fleet carrying follow-up soldiers and supplies in Malta was ambushed by two British submarines on the 4th of last month. In the naval battle, the female transport ship sank, and hundreds of Italian Sixth Army soldiers almost died. Although most of them eventually landed in malta island, they failed to help but consumed a lot of supplies because of the loss of weapons. The British moved the war preparation materials to the solid coastal fortress early, but the shelling of the Italian Sixth Army did not go off before the month, and the distance just fell by many nautical miles. The sea transportation was also stopped for hours because of this attack! ! On March 3, when the Italian army invaded Greece and retreated, it was forced by the pressure from Rome to board 6. The Italian army in Malta stormed the main city of Valletta with the support of two cruisers. In the battle, the first and second battalions of the Libyan Italian paratroopers once again showed amazing courage. The soldiers smashed a section of the city wall with explosives, and then the British army exhibited fierce street fighting with pistols and submachine guns. After more than an hour of fighting for the Italian flag, the nose fluttered in Valletta.
On the same day, the British fleet coming from Gibraltar was intercepted by the destroyer unit of the Italian navy. This time, there was no capital ship to participate in the war. The Royal Navy finally defeated Italy, but the mad dog bit it. Because of the lack of backup, the remaining British troops in Malta finally put up a white flag and surrendered to the Italians after the last two days. This is definitely the most humiliating scene of the British team in this war! On April th, although the Italian army lost four infantry battalions in Greece, the victory in Malta plunged the whole of Rome into an unprecedented carnival. Of course, the civilians could not see the clumsy performance of their own army, let alone the Italian paratroopers’ close to 50% battle damage rate!
With the fall of Malta, the German high command finally issued a recall order to Major General Hans Logan, who had been oppressed in Sicily for half a month, which brought a confusing end to the whole absurd journey.
Chapter 6 From Tactics to Strategy
The roaring north wind is rolling with snowflakes all over the sky, and the big city is particularly deserted. The magnificent buildings are sleeping quietly. Before night, the street lamps are put on early, but the traffic on the wide main road is much slower than usual. In this era when there is no car adjustment, Logan has to wrap up his blue military coat to resist the cold from the outside.
"I said, bro, you really should stay in the Mediterranean for a few more days, where the climate is much warmer than ours!"
Hans Jeshunk, who is sitting next to Logan, is now the chief of staff of the imperial army, Yuan, a loyal believer, Shan Sui, who is the youngest second-class general in the empire at present. However, because Logan was born, people generally think that this record was broken.
title
Jeshunk is very generous to the potential challenges of the younger generation. On some occasions, he spoke highly of his deputy.
"I don’t mind going to Sicily for a holiday when the war is over, but the artificial efficiency in Italy during the war is a nightmare!" Logan made no secret of his disdain for this group of allies.
Jeshunk laughed. "They are romantic by nature and we have never been a world person! Hey, we’ve been discussing recently that if you hadn’t gone to Sicily, the Italians wouldn’t have attacked Malta! "
Logan gave a hand. "I dare not take the credit for this. The performance of Italian paratroopers is really good. Some places are worth learning! But I heard that Italians are in Greece these days.
"Well, it’s only a matter of time before we turn to strategic defense and see if the Greeks drive us out! The high command has decided to intervene! " Jeshunk’s novels
With his own understanding of history and personal experience of the Italian army, Logan knew that German intervention was inevitable. However, although the German battle in southern Europe ended with a complete victory, the Germans missed the opportunity to attack the Soviet Union. Maurogan, who was idle in Sicily, has recently considered this issue a lot. He asked tentatively
"We sent troops to Romania and Italy to send troops to Greece. What has happened to the Russians recently?"
"Russia?" Jeshunk said cautiously, "The Russians have a big appetite this time. Intelligence shows that they seem to have reached some kind of agreement with the British. I am afraid that the Middle East will be scraped into the scope of Russia!"
Rogan has heard a lot about this news in Italy. Now Iran is under the Pahlavi dynasty. Although they have not formally joined the war side, Germany is very close, and the German government has invested a lot of energy in Iran and Iraq, two Middle Eastern countries, to obtain valuable oil resources. However, it is a headache for Germans that both pro-German Iran and Chou Ying Iraq are too far away from German-controlled areas. Even if the Axis countries control the Mediterranean, there is still a Turkey that is unwilling to participate in the war.
"You mean that the Soviets will expand their power in the Middle East in the near future, such as invading Iran?
"Well, although there is no exact news yet, our Iranian friends have recently felt the pressure from the north!" Azerbaijan, a Soviet Republic, borders Iran in the north. In World War II, Soviet troops and British and American troops jointly sent troops to Iran to expel German diplomats and all Germans there.
"So what’s our plan?" Logan further asked, "This is also the focus of the high command recently! Damn Italians, they always think that the Mediterranean is their sea, "Jeshunk said grumpily.
"If the British want to transfer their Gibraltar fleet and carrier ships to the Mediterranean for safekeeping, their sea will become a sea of fire!" Logan rudely mocked the Italians.
"Speaking of Britain, we’d better be able to end their war this winter, otherwise our navy, army and the elite troops of the Sixth Army will be involved in Britain, which is quite unfavorable to the whole strategic situation! By the way, the commander-in-chief of the army is going to Britain to inspect the combat readiness recently, and when the weather improves, we will strike a final blow at the British. "
"oh? Marshal Kesselring is going to visit England? Ah, then he will become the first German marshal to land in Britain during the war! " Logan said naturally
"Not Marshal Kesselring, but Marshal of our Empire!" Yeshuenke hid his eyes in the brim with his head slightly lowered.
"hmm? Logan was surprised but immediately converged his expression.
"The Imperial Marshal has returned to the position of Commander-in-Chief. The decision made by the high command yesterday should not have come to inform you," Jeshunk said quietly.
"That Marshal Kesselring"
"Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front!" Jeshunk spoke out this new position quickly.
"so!" It’s only half a month since I left Germany, and I have had a lot of things. When I think of these things, Logan feels a little sigh-I can still be regarded as wandering on the edge of the German army’s decision-making circle!
The car finally stopped in front of the imperial prime minister’s office to take care of this Universiade! Before Hillert, Fan Jing returned to the same cold and plastic capital from his cold nest.
In front of the car, Jeshunk said in a strange tone, "Yuan Tian called the high command meeting, which will be an important meeting to decide Britain’s last battle!" You may also change the deployment of other wars today! "
"Are you? Change what? Logan doesn’t know
Jeshunk stared at him for two seconds. "Change what you think needs to be changed!"
In the command room of Xiaohu Yuan War, Rogan saw two phased battle plans in the British theater map "Fortress" and "Poseidon Wrath", and their successful implementation also made the agenda of the last step of "Sea Lion" and there were two directional choices in the final battle plan: one was to exchange the final victory with the least casualties; The second is to get the most out of casualties.
Adolf Hitler, an out-and-out adventurer, has wavered between the two choices several times. Considering that the German army has transported the most elite armored division and the old infantry division to Britain, these battle-tested soldiers are very valuable assets for the first-step war. However, those warships in the slipway of the British shipyard and those weapons production lines in the arms factory are coveted by the German navy and military generals, who have already made a list for the German army to finish and have the opportunity to pay it. The annual capacity of medium and large warships, semi-finished cruisers and destroyers built by young ships reaches 200,000 tons. Of course, the biggest obstacle to prevent the Germans from acquiring these ships and equipment will be the British team and their explosives!
"Hans, do you remember that surprise I said?" Rubbing his hands, Santa Claus speaks as if he didn’t know that he was almost in trouble in Sicily before he became a talented officer.
"It’s respect yuan". Logan certainly remembers that after this trip to Italy, he has been afraid to look forward to it too much.
Hitler smiled wryly and said, "Herman and I discussed that you can choose one of the three positions: Minister of War, Deputy Commander of the First Descent Army and Division Commander of the First Descent Army!"
Before going to Italy, Logan will not hesitate to choose one of the latter two options, because he feels that he is more suitable to stay in the front line with officers and men than to sign documents in the rear all day and then deal with interpersonal and complicated logistics. However, in the first world war in Malta, he saw that a conscientious officer like Tognini could command in Italy and had to use paratroopers as a crucial force.
Rogan, the "Minister of War", said with great pride that he chose to take up this post as a tunnian Major General Hoffman von Varda. Like many military generals, he applied to the front-line troops to command an air fleet very early, and with the launch of the southern European war plan, the young general also obtained his long-awaited position.
"oh? Xiao Hu stared at Logan. "So I bet with the marshal and I won in the end?"
"Huh?" Logan said unexpectedly, "Yuan Congyi thinks I will choose the Minister of War?"
"Ha ha! Who will refuse a position that can fully display their talents? " Xiao Hu continued to rub his hands. "On the surface, Hans, you are a very brave front-line commander who has excellent battlefield resilience, but the real subtlety is that you arrange those battle plans."
Logan’s silence as a staff officer seems to point the way, but the process of planning strategy is too hard. It’s far worse than taking a bunch of Qiang Bing on the rampage on the battlefield. However, his biggest worry now is that Germany is already facing a new strategic choice. If he can’t change something more through the eyes of the traveler, the Germans will still suffer in the vast and cold Russia!
"There is no suspense in the British battle. Come on, Hans, let’s take a longer view! You see, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia are about to surrender, and I am going to attack Greece in January, and our Italian allies will work hard in Africa, and the British forces will be completely expelled from the Mediterranean; In January, we will attack the Russians, Finnish allies will support us from the north, and the Japanese will attack from the Far East. Our first goal is to annihilate the main Russian forces on the Baltic Sea and Ukraine and then seize their largest oil field, Baku. The Russians will bow to us before autumn! In this way, we will get the vast coast from Norway in the north, southern Greece, Ukraine in the east and France in the west, which will be the dream of the Germans to survive! "
Logan is not surprised by this grand blueprint. The generals and staff officers of the imperial high command spent several days and nights perfecting this huge war plan. However, from a historical perspective, there are still many loopholes in it. Fortunately, Logan still has enough time to make up for them!
Chapter 9 Liverpool difficult
In Mi Duo, the clouds in Meiyang are pale and harsh, but the clouds are tattooed like islands of continental gates. Large groups of wings and fuselage are sprayed with German logos. The double bombers are flying northward in an unprecedented dense queue. Those small single fighters in their side have formed more than a dozen four-fighter formations. Through the square porthole, we can clearly see that the pilots wearing leather flying caps are wearing oxygen masks. Although they can’t see the expression, there is a cold and resolute look in their eyes, either blue or green or brown.
The ears are full of motives roaring in the distance, and those black spots almost appear quietly and fly quickly. Experienced German pilots immediately judge that the other side is difficult to "breathe fire" and the German Messerschmitt fighter flying at a high altitude decisively attacks the propeller power era. The two best fighters soon twisted together and fought fiercely from the height of Li Mi to the concave height. If they go further, they will be shot down one by one without distinction between the enemy and the enemy!
"attention! Attention! There’s a team of British fighters coming to the right! All squadrons keep close formation! Close formation defense "
A model German army commander wore a black jacket, and the German army major had a golden head. He was young, but his eyes were wrinkled. When he gave battle instructions to each unit through the line, the technical sergeant of the army, who was in charge of dropping bombs and machine guns, was wrinkling his shoulders to manipulate the millimeter cannon so that the sight could be aimed at the black spots that were approaching rapidly. At the back of the cabin, the machine gunners who are responsible for the defense of the belly and the back of the cabin have also been insured and ready to fire at any time. An abnormal tension has quietly filled every corner of the narrow cabin.
"They are coming! Coming! It’s a hurricane! Damn it! "
In the communication channel, there are captains and bomber pilots, who are far less handsome than fighter pilots. In this era, the killing rate of anti-fire from the ground is still limited. The last thing the bomber group members want is to get close to the Chinese enemy fighters, especially the fighter jets equipped with Browning machine guns like Hurricane. When the fire hits, they can easily penetrate the lightweight but not strong aluminum skin and kill the gunners and bombers. Steel is installed around the seats. Although the chances of being directly killed by the board pilots are less, the flammable and explosive motives still make them feel worried. "They split up on my right." One of them fired at me! Damn it, damn it. "