The Third Reich in Desperation

In short, Hoffman is fortunate that these two cannons were not put into battle by the French.

However, if Reinhardt was here, he would definitely sneer at these two "super cannons" of the French.Because in another time and space, the Third Reich built two bigger ones—that is, the historically famous war behemoths, the Gustav Train Cannon and the Dora Train Cannon.

Their barrels are 32 meters long, with a firing range of 28 to 47 kilometers, a total combat length of 53 meters, and a height of 12 meters, which is as high as a 4-story building.Its total weight is as high as 1488 tons. To give a simple example, it is about the same weight as the German Navy destroyer of the same period.

And their shells are even more amazing. Each armor-piercing shell weighs 7.1 tons, a high-explosive shell weighs 4.8 tons, and the propellant ranges from 1.8 tons to 2 tons.Such a heavy shell can only be hoisted up with a crane and then hit the shell into the barrel with a tank.

A Gustav cannonball is taller than the combined heights of two adults.

And its barrel can easily accommodate four adults to drill in.

With such data, even a steel plate with a thickness of 1 meter or a reinforced concrete building with a thickness of 7 meters will be easily pierced.It can be said that these two super cannons are the nemesis of the French Maginot Line of Defense!

But it is a pity that because of Reinhardt's personal intervention, there are no more Dora train guns and Gustav train guns in this world, the two era-level cannon kings.

Anyone who has played Red Alert knows that France has a powerful and exclusive weapon-the cannon!

Although the French cannon consumes a lot of electricity, it is equivalent to the ore refinery of the Allied forces or a super weapon, which requires a large number of power plants to support it.However, as long as the target he aimed at was destined to become a tragedy the moment it was bombarded.

Of course, in actual combat, the conditions are not as simple as in the game, and weapons such as cannons are not as convenient to use as in the game.But it is undeniable that the giant cannon is absolutely worthy of awe in terms of attack power.

As for the Third Reich in this life, because Reinhardt knew early on that there was no need to attack the Maginot Line, and he deliberately emphasized that the artillery unit should be more mobile, so Germany did not have that kind of slow delivery, but it was full of power. cannon-making plans.

Therefore, the two French train guns are undoubtedly the largest artillery that ordinary German soldiers have ever seen.After all, most of the German fast-moving troops use 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm mortars, as well as 75mm and 105mm towed artillery, as well as the No. 150 assault gun and the hunter For this type of self-propelled artillery modified from a tank chassis, the largest caliber support weapon is only a [-]mm caliber heavy artillery.

However, compared with the French-made 400mm train gun in front of me, the German 150mm heavy gun seems to be nothing but nothing to praise.

.........

The good news that Captain Hoffman captured the giant French train gun quickly spread to Major General Hans' division headquarters.

Shocked, Hans could hardly believe his good luck.Their division has just seized 100 French heavy tanks, and now they have captured 2 French giant cannons one after another.Although I have never heard of the old saying in the East called "Fu Wushuang Zhi", Major General Hans also knows how uncommon it is to reap easy and huge achievements twice in a short period of time.

"This thing should be deployed behind the Maginot Line." The excitement turned into excitement, but Hans still calmed down and analyzed: "This type of cannon is usually used to deal with fixed targets, and it is extremely strong fixed target."

"Could it be that the French are trying to use these two giant cannons against our Siegfried line?" Captain Lyon, the battalion commander of the division who was staying next to Hans, joked abusively.

Because of the vigorous propaganda of the Social Worker, the joke that the non-existent German defense line of the Siegfried Line frightened off the French army of one million has long been spread among the German army.During the war, jokes about the enemy are always talked about by people. Almost all walks of life in Germany are full of pride for this non-existent Siegfried line of defense.

"The Social Worker's News is public, and the French can easily get it from our country. From the Social Worker's News, the French must also know that our Siegfried Line of Defense does not exist, so they brought this cannon over to us. Trouble."

Hans calmly analyzed: "It is impossible for the French army to only transfer two guns from the Maginot Line. I speculate that they should have also transferred some troops from the Maginot Line to stabilize the current new position."

"It seems that we have to fight for a while longer." Hearing this, the adjutant shook his head with a smile and said, "Who told the French to find another batch of cannon fodder troops?"

Main body Chapter 4: Italy enters the war

Even though Reinhardt was busy with the war on the Western Front, he still took his spare time to write to Mussolini one after another, telling him the news of Germany's successive victories.

Yes, this is pure show off.

Reinhardt is using Germany's continuous victories to stimulate the leader's nerves, let him know how terrifying the strength of the Third Reich is, and thus correct his attitude.

Prior to this, because of Reinhardt's intervention, Mussolini's army used poison gas to fight in advance, avoiding the embarrassing situation of being runaway by European countries and African countries.

In other words, Italy in this time and space has actually not had any embarrassing records.

If there is no shame, naturally there will be no lesson learned.Although with Mussolini's character, even if he loses the battle, he can still continue to die.Besides, he hasn't lost the battle after all, so it's easier for him to swell.

Of course, it is not that no one has persuaded the Italian leader.It's just that the person who persuaded him was neither an Italian, nor a German who was an ally of Italy, but the President of the United States, Mr. Roosevelt, who was far away on the other side of the Atlantic.

Roosevelt, compared to the stubborn British Prime Minister Churchill, the tough man like Stalin, the Soviet general secretary, or the crazy German head of state Reinhardt, is relatively easy to talk to.

This well-spoken national leader, who was rarely seen in World War II, first contacted Britain and France to make sure that they could give up some of the interests of the Mediterranean for Italy.Then, he expressed his support for Italy to participate in the peace conference as a warring country.Finally, the tactful persuasion stated that the United States has traditional interests in the Mediterranean, and politely threatened that if Italy joined the war to support Germany, the United States would also increase aid transactions to countries such as Britain and France.

As a result, what was Mussolini's reaction?

The Italian bald man contemptuously pointed to the letter from Roosevelt and said to his subordinates: "Don't show me the consequences of paralysis in the future."

As a result, Roosevelt, the only person who seriously advised Mussolini, was humiliated and scorned by Mussolini because of his paralysis due to polio.

In Mussolini's view, the 20 elite British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk were wiped out.On the Maginot Line, hundreds of thousands of French troops were useless.Recently, the Weygand Line was breached by the German army, and the French capital, Paris, was at stake.

Mussolini believed that this time is the best time for him to pick up the leak.

What is missing, that is, when the war is about to come to an end, attack strongly, and cooperate with the strong side to beat the weak side.

What Mussolini pursued was this kind of business with no loss.Now that this kind of business has appeared, why not join in.

Do you really want to watch the Germans take advantage of it?

Britain, shrouded in the brilliance of a superpower, and France, which claims to have the world's largest army, have been recognized by Mussolini as two outstanding transport captains.

The Germans lacked equipment for their military expansion, so they left almost new thousands of cannons, tens of thousands of cars, nearly a thousand tanks, and countless guns and ammunition on the Dunkirk beach.

The Germans were short of labor for production and construction, so they provided Germany with hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war to fill the gap in Germany's labor force.

Recently, the German army went deep into the French territory, and many French factories were confiscated by Germany, which became the wealth of the Third Reich and strengthened Germany's industrial strength.

Mussolini can't wait any longer, the Germans are eating meat, why are the Italians staring blankly?

He had apparently forgotten that, at the beginning of the war, he had personally rejected Germany's offer of cooperation.

From the Battle of Poland to the Battle of France, they were all opportunities for him to refuse to fight side by side with the German army because he was afraid of losing.At that time, he didn't have the momentum he has today.

However, since Britain and France have become the dogs in the water, Mussolini naturally doesn't mind beating them up.

"Soldiers of land, sea and air, comrades of the revolutionary Blackwood team, soldiers from other lands, princes of Italy and the kingdom of Abyssinia, please listen!" Mussolini chose the third day in June to start his speech. war declaration.

"The moment of destiny has arrived!" Mussolini shouted confidently with open arms on the balcony of the Venice Palace.

"As early as at the commemorative meeting in Berlin, I have repeatedly emphasized that since we have concluded a treaty of friendship with Germany, we will definitely advance and retreat with our friendly countries until the last moment."

Mussolini proposed to advance and retreat together today when the German army was victorious. Obviously, he was not prepared to share troubles with the Third Reich.As long as he is a normal person, his intention can be seen, and it is obviously aimed at sharing happiness.

It's just that sharing adversity and sharing happiness can all be summed up with the neutral term of advancing and retreating together.

"Citizens of Italy, take up arms." Mussolini urged self-righteously: "Exert your courage and indomitable spirit, and join in the conquest!"

Although the Italian people themselves don't know that they still have such great courage and indomitable spirit.However, since the leader said so, they cooperated symbolically.

"Conquer! Conquer! Conquer!" shouted a crowd of watching Italians, although they did not intend to pay any price for the conquest.

At this moment, Mussolini was very intoxicated. He enjoyed this moment of participating in the process of writing history.

Mussolini even had a feeling that it was a shame to sit on the sidelines while others were writing history. The important thing was to participate, not who won.

Of course, Mussolini at this time was convinced that he would win.He was convinced that the timing of his intervention in the war was just right, and now that he declared war on Britain and France, he bought a stock that was sure to make a profit.