The Third Reich in Desperation

To be precise, the equipment that Rommel gave to this French colonial division was actually the equipment that was lost to the British after the Italians failed, and was used by Montgomery to equip the Egyptian troops.After Montgomery surrendered, the Italian equipment was transferred from the Egyptians to the French colonial troops.

As a result, the New African Army under Rommel had such a feature-German troops were equipped with German equipment, Italian troops were equipped with British equipment, and French colonial divisions were equipped with Italian equipment.

In this way, just because of the equipment factor, the combat effectiveness of the servants provided by Italy and France has been improved to a higher level!

But the embarrassing thing is that this increasingly powerful African group army has now lost its opponent!

After taking Egypt and taking the Suez Canal into his pocket, Rommel's options for attacking are already very limited.

On the other hand, Germany's military operations in the Soviet Union have also seriously affected the enthusiasm of the Supreme Command for the African Army.

From the perspective of the Supreme Command, since Britain has surrendered and the African British army has also disarmed and handed over the colonies to the Allies for management, then Africa has no interests that need to be fought for by the army.

It may be a good choice proposed by the Supreme Command to leave a armored division with the strongest mobility, transfer the outstanding 30th Mechanized Infantry Division back to China, fill in new recruits and expand into an army, and then enter the Soviet battlefield. .

However, Reinhardt ultimately rejected this option.

He emphasized again in the military conference room that the size of the German army in Africa is already very small.With just two divisions, it is necessary to affect the situation in Africa as a whole and ensure Germany's leading position in Africa. All these things do not allow the German army in Africa to be reduced in size.

Even if one division is transferred back, the German army can have three more divisions on the Eastern Front after expansion. Such a deal is still not worthwhile.

On the one hand, on the Eastern Front, Germany's allies have provided a total of nearly 200 million Allied troops. In contrast, the 5 more German troops on the Eastern Front are actually not that important.

On the other hand, if Rommel's direct line of the German army had only one armored division with more than 1 people, then the influence of the German army in his 20-strong Three-Nation Allied Forces would drop significantly.

As a German commander, Rommel naturally did not want his already scarce troops to be transferred again.

Besides, looking at the whole world, which group army commander has only 2 divisions of his own troops as his team?

"General Rommel, I want to congratulate you."

After completing the process of accepting Montgomery's surrender ceremony in Cairo, Hans, who returned to the new headquarters together with Rommel, came to congratulate him.

The new headquarters is a beautifully decorated two-story building with Egyptian architectural features.

This was the headquarters originally used by Montgomery, but now he was given over to Rommel by Montgomery.

After the grand surrender ceremony, Rommel returned here first.After Lieutenant General Hans went to receive a telegram, he also came here 10 minutes later.

Now, as soon as Hans pushed open the door of Rommel's office, Hans smiled with joy: "The Propaganda Department sent special personnel to fly to us to film and edit a movie "Africa" ​​for General Rommel who conquered North Africa. The Conqueror documentary.”

Becoming the conqueror of Egypt has been Rommel's dream since he came to Africa.However, when this dream came true today, he was not as excited as he had always imagined before.

There must be joy, but apart from that, Rommel obviously felt that something was missing.

"In addition, the number of the fifth field marshal of the army has come out. The fifth field marshal scepter belongs to you. Rommel is the only field marshal in Africa!" Hans laughed and clapped his hands.

"Field Marshal!" This made Rommel's heart beat faster.

For any German soldier, the significance of the field marshal's scepter is extraordinary.In this life, Reinhardt deliberately suppressed the number of German field marshals, which made this title even more valuable and precious!

Becoming a field marshal is also a fulfillment of one of his long-cherished wishes.Rommel thought with some satisfaction that even if he really didn't have many battles to fight in the short term, his heart would not be too painful.

"There's another piece of good news." At the end, Lieutenant General Hans smiled even more: "The head of state specially prepared a gift for you as a gift for the new marshal. I think you must like it!"

Text 727 Fooling Hiroshi Oshima

Few people know that Reinhardt once vowed to make a promise to Japan. After a series of talks with the pro-German Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka, he made a guarantee that reassured the Japanese.

It all stemmed from Reinhardt's policy toward the United States, but in the first few years of the war, Reinhardt was doing his best to keep the United States out of the war.

Keeping the United States out of the war is also the top priority of the German embassy in Washington.

To this end, they used all means, including bribing members of Congress, trying to subsidize famous German-friendly American writers, and funding the "America First Committee", to support American isolationists and keep the United States from participating in the war against Germany's enemy.

Reinhardt fully believed that as long as the United States was led by President Roosevelt, the ideal of the Third Reich to dominate the world would not be realized.He also made this very clear in private conversations with his cronies.

Reinhardt confessed frankly to almost everyone he trusted around him that the German Third Reich would deal with the United States sooner or later, and it would have to deal with the United States "hardly".

But Germany can only deal with one superpower at a time, which has been the recipe for his strategy's success thus far.

The time will surely come to deal with the United States, but only after defeating the Soviet Union.At that time, with the assistance of the entire Allied military group, he will gather powerful external forces to deal with the nouveau riche Americans.

In that case, it would be nothing more than Europe, Asia and Africa confronting North and South America, and the Americans' "chosen place" advantage will eventually limit their hands and feet.

The Americans who are isolated and helpless can only be blocked in the Americas in the end.

Therefore, Reinhardt has been trying his best to avoid provoking the United States and preventing the US military from joining the war before the preparations for attacking the United States are ready.

And to do this, Japan is the key!

Not only Reinhardt, but even Field Marshal Brauchich agreed that Japan has the power to contain the United States. It can prevent the United States from sending troops to Europe to fight against Germany like it did in World War I.

For this reason, after the start of the war with Britain, when dealing with the Japanese, German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop initially emphasized repeatedly the importance of not provoking the United States to give up its neutrality.

By the beginning of 1941, when the Soviet Union and Germany were fighting fiercely across the board and the British army was defeated at home, Ribbentrop, following Reinhardt's request, was particularly eager to drag Japan into the war, not to fight the United States, let alone cooperate with the German army on the two fronts. Instead of flanking the Soviet Union, go to Britain, which has clearly failed but still has a large number of overseas colonies.

After the British government moved its capital to Northern Ireland, Germany put more pressure on Japan.

At that time, Ribbentrop received the Japanese ambassador, General Hiroshi Oshima, in his mansion near Salzburg, and preached to Hiroshi Oshima provocatively: Although the German sea lion operation has been victorious, the Japanese "For its own benefit," it should enter the war "as soon as possible" and occupy the territories of the British Empire in Asia.

Ribbentrop also admitted frankly that Japan's sudden dispatch of troops would definitely prevent the United States from participating in the war.According to information personally guaranteed by Reinhardt, the U.S. military is not yet fully armed, and it will not want its navy to be endangered west of Hawaii.In the case of Japan sending troops, the United States is less likely to enter the war.

Ribbentrop also imitated Reinhardt's tone to fool Japan: "As long as the Japanese government respects the interests of the United States in other respects, it is impossible for Roosevelt to persuade the Americans to fight with any reliable arguments. Had the United States also had to stand by while Japan invaded the Philippines, it would have been unlikely to declare war.

Finally, Troff said that even if the United States really entered the war, the Japanese fleet would definitely defeat the American fleet with ease.If the Japanese Navy wanted the aircraft carrier technology that the German Navy could use to defeat the British Royal Navy, the Germans even offered to give it generously.

Under such arguments, Ribbentrop preached to Hiroshi Oshima that the war would end quickly with the collapse of the US government.As a bridge connecting the governments of Japan and Germany, Hiroshi Oshima's achievements will be indelible after the war.

Being fooled by Ribbentrop, Hiroshi Oshima is also ambitious.What's more, he also knows that in China, Yamamoto 56's "first-hand strategy" has achieved a large part of the consensus among naval officers and soldiers, which coincides with the German's suggestion.

Therefore, the hot-headed Hiroshi Oshima advised Japan to be resolute in the ongoing negotiations in Washington, to speak simply, and not to be afraid of the power of the Americans.

(Refresh after 10 minutes)

By the beginning of 1941, when the Soviet Union and Germany were fighting fiercely across the board and the British army was defeated at home, Ribbentrop, following Reinhardt's request, was particularly eager to drag Japan into the war, not to fight the United States, let alone cooperate with the German army on the two fronts. Instead of flanking the Soviet Union, go to Britain, which has clearly failed but still has a large number of overseas colonies.

After the British government moved its capital to Northern Ireland, Germany put more pressure on Japan.

At that time, Ribbentrop received the Japanese ambassador, General Hiroshi Oshima, in his mansion near Salzburg, and preached to Hiroshi Oshima provocatively: Although the German sea lion operation has been victorious, the Japanese "For its own benefit," it should enter the war "as soon as possible" and occupy the territories of the British Empire in Asia.

Ribbentrop also admitted frankly that Japan's sudden dispatch of troops would definitely prevent the United States from participating in the war.According to information personally guaranteed by Reinhardt, the U.S. military is not yet fully armed, and it will not want its navy to be endangered west of Hawaii.In the case of Japan sending troops, the United States is less likely to enter the war.

Ribbentrop also imitated Reinhardt's tone to fool Japan: "As long as the Japanese government respects the interests of the United States in other respects, it is impossible for Roosevelt to persuade the Americans to fight with any reliable arguments. Had the United States also had to stand by while Japan invaded the Philippines, it would have been unlikely to declare war.

Finally, Troff said that even if the United States really entered the war, the Japanese fleet would definitely defeat the American fleet with ease.If the Japanese Navy wanted the aircraft carrier technology that the German Navy could use to defeat the British Royal Navy, the Germans even offered to give it generously.

Under such arguments, Ribbentrop preached to Hiroshi Oshima that the war would end quickly with the collapse of the US government.As a bridge connecting the governments of Japan and Germany, Hiroshi Oshima's achievements will be indelible after the war.