The Third Reich in Desperation

Let you pick the fruits of victory that are sure to win, and thank you to the leader, Mussolini thought.

It's a pity that Balbo, an expert in the Italian Air Force, seems to be as ignorant as Graziani.

His first reaction was not to brag about the leader's brilliance and prowess, and to be grateful for giving him this opportunity to make contributions, but to look worried, and once again uttered harsh words that Mussolini didn't like to hear.

"Leader, based on what I have seen and observed in North Africa for so many years, I dare not draw conclusions on other things, but our air force in North Africa is absolutely impossible to compete for air supremacy from the British."

Balbo worriedly detailed: "In addition to the large number, most of the fighters we deployed in North Africa are backward biplanes. And the new fighters we jointly developed and produced with the Germans are not only rare in number, but all of them are left behind." At home. Without new fighter jets, North Africa will not be able to win the air battle with the British.”

Indeed, although Italy has already produced new fighters under the guidance of German experts.However, the new fighters can be built just because they are made. Not only are there not many of them, but their performance has yet to be tested.

Of course, no matter how poor the performance is, it will definitely be a hundred times better than the backward biplane fighters deployed by the Italian Air Force in North Africa.

"These are not problems!" Mussolini, who had closed his eyes and was about to enjoy the compliment, opened his eyes again and stared at the ignorant Balbo.

"We have a huge number of fighter planes in North Africa. Even if we exchange two for one, we should wipe out all the British planes there!" Mussolini said forcefully.

How can there be such an analysis!

One or two of the professionals like Balbo were dumbfounded.

If two can be exchanged for one casually, then there is no need to fight, just build the aircraft at full speed, regardless of the quality, in short, use the quantity to pile up the enemy.

You know, even Reinhardt knows that Italian aircraft have become "the best exhibits in the museum". A German-Italian joint development of fighter jets developed high-quality fighter jets for the Italians.

But even so, Mussolini, the leader of Italy, turned a deaf ear and was still immersed in the dream of winning with a large number of planes.

Balbo saw that Mussolini, an old friend, had made up his mind to launch an attack in Africa, so he didn't say any more.

However, he still has to fight for the odds of victory in this war.

"Then, we can ask the Germans to take all actions." Balbo proceeded from reason and analyzed for Mussolini on the hospital bed: "The Germans will actually be very willing to help us, take the initiative in the Mediterranean, and vigorously Hit the British."

Balbo's thinking is very simple. Since Germany and the United Kingdom are also at war, and Reinhardt and Churchill have been fighting tit-for-tat all day recently. You make speeches one by one and mock each other, then the relationship between Germany and the United Kingdom will definitely become A state of immortality.

At this time, there is no reason for Reinhardt to be unwilling to have Italy help to contain the British military.

Unfortunately, after listening to Balbo's suggestion, instead of nodding in agreement, Mussolini jumped off the hospital bed, stepped on the ground with his bare feet, and roared furiously: "No! You must not be looking for Germans. people!"

Then Mussolini waved his fists and screamed with an agitation that did not match his patient status: "I don't want the help of that guy Reinhardt, I don't want his charity! We Italians, we ourselves Can win the war!"

Looking at the furious Mussolini, Balbo suddenly remembered that his leader seemed to be hospitalized because of Reinhardt.

At this time, mentioning asking the Germans for help in front of him seems to be a bit suspected of adding salt to the wound.

In fact, there is no need for Balbo to remind Reinhardt as early as a week ago, shortly after the end of the French campaign, he kindly suggested to Mussolini that the Third Reich is willing to help Italy, and the two countries can jointly attack and win the The island of Malta at the intersection of the sea lanes from Gibraltar to Suez and from Italy to Libya improves and optimizes Italy's Mediterranean posture.

Reinhardt was willing to help Mussolini eliminate the British H fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, it was none other than Mussolini himself who finally refused Germany's help repeatedly.

Although Mussolini also had his own considerations.

One is that he wants to win this "parallel war" alone and improve Italy's voice in the Allies.

The second is that he is also afraid that Germany will use this amount to expand its influence to southern Europe and affect Italy's status as the hegemon in southern Europe.

Mussolini always felt that once Italy accepted Germany's help, it would lose its equal status with Germany in the alliance.

Therefore, he not only rejected the German Navy's help to attack Fleet H, but also rejected Reinhardt's proposal to let the German Army assist Italy to wipe out the British army in Africa.

The reason why Mussolini refused was even more bizarre. He claimed: "In the hot North Africa, the Germans must not be as brave and good at fighting as the Italians."

And Reinhardt didn't persuade him much, anyway, it won't be Reinhardt who will lose face at that time.

So, after Reinhard left a sentence: "Let us wait and see." After that, he never mentioned the North African alliance again.

But I didn’t mention it. In private, Reinhard secretly ordered Rommel to take a German armored division and a German infantry division for desert combat training, ready to send troops to North Africa at any time.

As for helping Italy attack Malta, it really can only be temporarily put down.

After all, the German navy has to be used to do business in the English Channel!

Even so, the German submarine force has already done Italy a big favor by capturing the British Forbes Fleet and stopping a "British version of Operation Rainbow" that was enough to make Mussolini's heart ache.

Chapter 463 The Last Supper

The time went back to one day ago, the day Mussolini was hospitalized.

Although he did not want the help of the Germans one by one, Captain Otto Krezimer, who was sent by the German submarine force to participate in the surrender negotiations of the British Navy, still helped the Italian Navy a lot.

If Captain Otto hadn't stopped Forbes and his party in time to carry out the "British version of Operation Rainbow", the Italian Navy would have to go back to the era of no aircraft carrier.

At that time, because of the German submarine force, five U-shaped submarines headed by the U-99 submarine were dispatched to participate in the Italian Navy's interception operation against the Forbes fleet, and played a key role in determining the victory in the end.

Therefore, as a matter of course, the German side sent a commander of the U-99 submarine, Captain Otto Kretsch, to participate in the British surrender negotiations with the German and Italian fleet.

Before again, Otto had taken the U-23 submarine he commanded at the time to sink the 1375-ton British destroyer "Boldness", creating a classic example of a submarine sinking a destroyer in the German Navy.

Then, he was transferred to command the more advanced U-99 new submarine, which carried out surface attacks on the British escort fleet nine times, and successively sank three 9-ton British armored cruisers!

But this time, Otto not only sank a British destroyer in the war, but also captured the malicious Forbes and his party, avoiding a tragedy for the Italian navy.

Back then, Captain Otto, who had just finished communicating with Italian Fleet Commander Lefer with his subordinates and accepted the personal thanks from Admiral Lefer, not only did not show the slightest pride, but took his subordinates to observe the British fleet. HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier, collecting data.

"Captain, do you think there are five British people acting alone?" One of Otto's subordinates pointed to Forbes and his party who had just separated from the Italian major and obtained the right to act independently.

Immediately sensing that something was wrong, Otto didn't say much, and immediately commanded: "Stop them."

Any fool knows how dangerous it would be to let the British go back to their flagship and act alone.

What's more, in order to maintain the operation of this Ark Royal, a large number of British captured soldiers were retained to operate the warship.

Otto could tell at a glance that the middle-aged and elderly man in front of the four British soldiers was Sir Forbes who surrendered on behalf of the British fleet when negotiating with them.

As a representative of Germany, Otto recognized this obviously older British commander.

And at this time, how can Forbes be allowed to act freely? !

Then, Otto took the four German soldiers beside him and walked up to meet them.

"Take your time, don't worry. I can wait for you for a while." The voice of the Italian major came from a distance, causing Forbes and others to stop in their tracks, and turned back to answer the Italian major.

That is to say, taking advantage of this gap, Otto led his men to go around between Forbes and the others and the passage to the interior of the Royal Ark, blocking the way of Forbes and his party.

5 people vs 5 people!

On one side are Sir Forbes and 4 senior British military officers behind him.

On the other side, it was only the German submarine commander Otto who was only a captain, plus 4 German naval soldiers behind him.