The Third Reich in Desperation

But such a thing, with Mussolini's arrogance, how could he believe it.

joke!Even if there is an omniscient and omnipotent God in the world, it should be Mussolini.

Not to mention what will happen in the future, at least for now, Mussolini is very happy.

"This Reinhardt is quite sensible." Sitting on the landline back to Italy, Mussolini said to his subordinates with a satisfied smile.

The German head of state agreed to almost all of his requirements and conditions in one go. Whoever it is, he should have a good time.

Waving the battle report in his hand, Mussolini smiled even brighter: "The German submarine force, in cooperation with our Italian fleet, defeated the main task force of the British attacking France in one breath. Then, they took the captured British warship , all delivered to us.”

If we talk about the benefits promised by the Germans, we can't see it for a while.Then this telegram sent from China can really be confirmed!

A HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier, a wounded battleship, and another 4 new British destroyers, these are the great spoils of the Italian Navy.

It can be said that this is the largest formal surrender in the history of the Royal Navy.

And the direct beneficiary of the British surrender this time was the Italian navy who rushed to pick up the leak.

What satisfied Mussolini the most was that the captured HMS Ark Royal was only slightly damaged, and with a little repair, it could immediately appear as an Italian aircraft carrier!

This will be the first aircraft carrier of the Italian Navy!

An advanced aircraft carrier picked up in vain!

Even in the British Navy, the Ark Royal is the most advanced aircraft carrier.

For Italy, which has always been limited by its national strength and lack of knowledge, and has not built an aircraft carrier, suddenly owning a large-scale aircraft carrier that is considered to be of excellent quality in contemporary times is tantamount to sending charcoal in a timely manner.

From preparing funds, to building an aircraft carrier, to putting it into sea trials.Among them, what is needed is countless manpower, material resources, financial resources and a lot of time and running-in.

But now everything is saved, Sir Forbes, the commander of the British Navy, directly packed a finished product and sent it to the Italian Navy.

Text 452 Chapter Cheng and Xiao He, Defeat and Xiao He

There is an old saying in ancient China that success is Xiao He and failure is Xiao He.

It means that Han Xin, the great general of the Han Dynasty, made great achievements because of Xiao He's recommendation, but also because of Xiao He's temptation, he ended up decapitated.

Sir Forbes, who has already surrendered, has probably never heard this sentence, but his situation is similar to that of Han Xin back then.

The British fleet commanded by Forbes was not alerted when it was discovered by Darlan's French navy because it was mistaken to encircle and suppress German submarines, and took the opportunity to deploy a large number of mines.

It can be said that the German submarines inadvertently helped the British a lot, wrongly induced the thinking of the French navy, and caused the Forbes fleet to take advantage of the gap that the French had not had time to react to deploy peripheral interception mines.

These mines directly prevented the French warships from leaving the port for close combat, and had to engage in an artillery duel with the British navy.

The next thing is very simple. The British officers and soldiers have used their powerful artillery skills to suppress the French army in long-distance artillery battles, destroying almost most of the main battleships of the Darlan fleet, and destroying Oran in France. Military Seaport.

"Operation Ballista" can be so smooth, presumably Forbes himself did not expect it.Among them, the German submarine force, which was blamed, happened to play an important role in promoting it.

However, the German submarine force not only helped the British to win, but also led to their subsequent defeat.

It stands to reason that the Forbes fleet has fully demonstrated its strength in this war.

They defeated the Darlan Fleet, whose total number of warships surpassed their own, and once crushed the Lefer Fleet, which was several times their own, on the return journey.

Twice in a row, the French and Italian navies, which had more capital than them, were almost powerless to fight.

However, because of the constraints of the times and the distraction of continuous operations, they did not discover the German submarine force that had secretly surfaced, and suffered a quixotic failure.

The "wolf pack" submarines who were blamed finally found their place and saved the battle.

The sneak attack on the French fleet, which was an ally not long ago, has made Forbes feel ashamed.

Being intercepted by the Italian fleet's mantis catching cicadas and orioles behind him also made Forbes feel surprised for a long time.

Finally, relying on their own strong training level, they miraculously resisted the attack of the dominant Italian fleet, but the German submarine force burst out of the Forbes fleet's main line and fired torpedoes recklessly.

Unparalleled blessings, misfortunes do not come singly!

A person's psychological endurance is, after all, limited.

Take the interrogation method that the Gestapo is best at as an example.

When interrogating prisoners, the Gestapo often chose to do so when they were tired or sleepy.

Taking advantage of the opponent's impetuous emotions and tired body can often relax their vigilance and make them easy to control.

In the same way, Forbes, who had been deeply blamed for attacking his former allies because of "turning against each other", was exhausted and exhausted after experiencing high-intensity battles with the French Navy and the Italian Navy.

And the surprise attack of the German submarine disrupted his position even more.

So when Sir Forbes suffered from heart failure and his judgment was severely weakened due to physical reasons, after hearing the surrender proposal put forward by his subordinates to save his life, after a few rounds of arguing, he was unable to support himself, and thus compromised with this view of surrender.

However, after recovering a little energy, Forbes regretted his behavior.

This is an aircraft carrier formation that has always been extremely combat-effective. Even if it sinks, it is much better than handing it over to the Italians.

The battleship is in the hands of the enemy, so in the end, shouldn't it be used by the Italians against their own people?

Leaving aside, let’s take Fleet H, which provided warships for this operation, as an example.Presumably they did not expect that the warships they provided to the Forbes fleet would follow the Forbes fleet and become the trophies of the Italians. In the future, they would be used by the Italians to deal with the H fleet and compete for hegemony in the Mediterranean.

A HMS Ark Royal, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the British Empire, plus a main battleship, and four latest destroyers.

This is a fat booty, enough to feed the Italian Navy!

After laughing at this piece of fat, the stronger Italian fleet will have the ability to swallow the fatter prey of the H fleet.

"Hey....... I might become the eternal sinner of the British Empire!" Sitting in the prisoner-of-war room specially vacated by the Italians, Sir Forbes lamented in shame.

Before him, there had never been a precedent for a British naval commander to surrender with an aircraft carrier.

Sir Forbes's large-scale surrender this time can be said to have set a precedent in the Royal Navy.

"Commander, I suddenly remembered something that happened 20 years ago." Forbes' adjutant also had a grief-stricken expression.

"Oh?" Forbes felt even more exhausted. He didn't even have the strength to turn his head to look at his adjutant. He just moved his lips and asked, "20 years ago? What did you think of?"

"Operation Rainbow!" Forbes' adjutant said with a long sigh.

Operation Rainbow was also Reinhardt's first decapitation in his career.

After the end of World War I, the German High Seas Fleet was interned under the Armistice Agreement. 74 German warships sailed into Scapa Flow under the escort of the Allied Fleet.

At that time, the firing devices of all artillery in the German fleet had been removed, the number of sailors was limited to a minimum, and the fuel carried could hardly allow the fleet to leave the waters around the Orkney Islands.

It can be said that the situation of the German fleet at that time was even worse than that of the Forbes fleet.