0p0 Third Reich Episode 304
Third Reich Episode 304
And wait for the meritorious service of all of you, most of them have also received rewards for promotion to the first level.
Perhaps it was catching up with the frenzy of promotion to admiral. In addition to Germany, Italy, which followed behind Germany, also promoted a naval admiral.
That's right, the Admiral of the Navy secretly invested in Leifer under Rossi's command.
After being confirmed as Rossi's person, Leifer received a notice to participate in the marshal's promotion ceremony in the second week, and successfully became the first marshal to come out of the Italian Navy since the beginning of World War II.
As for the British, they wanted to make Lord Gort a failed hero, a wise general who pulled his troops back to Dunkirk.
For this reason, they even pushed the subsequent failure of Dunkirk to General Alexander who took over.
It's a pity that Lord Gort intuitively accepted the title of field marshal with a sense of propaganda, and rejected Churchill's offer of promotion to field marshal.
In the end, Churchill gave up the idea of being promoted to Marshal like Reinhardt, and changed the original candidate for Marshal, Lord Gott, to Governor of Gibraltar.
As the defeated party, France, whether it was Pétain's Vichy French regime or Charles de Gaulle's Free French regime, was embarrassed to be promoted to marshal.
Therefore, Petain only promoted Berente, who had been "promoted to marshal", to the governor of Algeria.
De Gaulle, on the other hand, gave himself the rank of general, who is in charge of the military and political power of Free France, and at the same time in charge of the sea, land and air forces of Free France.
Interestingly, Quisling, who is actually in power in Norway, believes that Norway also needs a marshal.
Therefore, he forcibly promoted Vice Admiral Ogg, who had participated in the German-Norwegian combined fleet, to the rank of marshal due to his victory in the North Sea naval battle.
Text Chapter 472 The Art of War (seeking a monthly pass)
The moment Reinhardt received news that Italy and North Africa had launched an offensive, he already knew the outcome.
Mussolini, after all, launched this battle that he thought he could make a profit without losing money.
"Unfortunately, our Italian ally is about to stumble in front of the whole world again." Reinhardt said speechlessly to Rommel who was beside him.
"Why, does the head of state think that the Italians will definitely fail?" Rommel was obviously a little surprised.
Although he has seen Reinhardt's infallible prediction talent, Rommel still finds it unbelievable.
After all, Italy has more than 20 troops in North Africa. If the Italian army in East Africa is included, the total number will reach more than 50.
As an ally of Italy, and with the supplementary intelligence provided by Reinhardt in private, now the top management of the entire Third Reich is almost familiar with the situation of Italy's African troops.
Of course, there is also a big reason why the Italians do not intend to cover up their military superiority.
In contrast, Reinhardt's assertion that the total strength of the British in Africa does not exceed 10 and that the British army in North Africa is only 3 has also made many high-level German officials quite optimistic about Italy's North African operations.
"I remember, during the First World War, you fought against the Italians." Reinhardt smiled and asked humorously: "Didn't you capture an Italian division with 600 people at that time?" ?”
In fact, this is the second time Reinhardt has said this.
The last time he mentioned this matter was just after he was beaten up by Rommel.
Rommel also seems to have recalled the last time he touched on this topic.
At that time, Reinhardt alone took full responsibility for the fight, and revealed Rommel's amazing achievements, which made Rommel, who beat Reinhardt violently, free from responsibility.
Thinking of it this way, Rommel was a little embarrassed.At that time, he didn't expect that Reinhardt would become the head of state, and he seemed to be a bit ruthless.
However, Reinhardt's biggest advantage before crossing was that he was particularly resistant to beatings. Fortunately, he kept this advantage, so nothing happened after a while.
Seeing that Rommel was a little embarrassed, Reinhard quickly thought of what happened before.
So he immediately patted Rommel on the shoulder generously and said: "I mean, the Italians are not very resistant to fighting. You could capture an Italian division with 600 people, so the British army has tens of thousands this time. It's not time to capture every acre of Italian officers."
Rommel still remembers the battle against Italy at the beginning.
He has always regarded the Iron Cross he won after the war as his greatest honor, pinned on the front of his collar.
With 600 soldiers carrying light weapons, an Italian division with full weapons and equipment was wiped out. Whenever Rommel thinks of that battle, he will have endless aftertaste.
If the battles in this world are so easy to fight, wouldn't it be a great blessing in life.
As a general, who doesn't like to play this kind of "training mode" where the difficulty of the battle is almost 0.
"Indeed, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army is really not optimistic." Rommel now felt that it was completely reasonable for Italy to fail.
"In the final analysis, we still have to rely on our people to help them stabilize their position." Reinhard shook his head helplessly and said: "If they can win by themselves, it will be much easier on our side. It's a pity, counting on Italy It’s better to count on the British in North Africa to get food poisoning collectively.”
Rommel felt that the collective food poisoning of the British army in North Africa was impossible.If Reinhardt really felt that the above two low-probability events were likely to happen, he would not let Rommel go to train troops and prepare for simulated operations in Africa.
"Führer, my troops are ready and ready to go to Africa to fight at any time." Rommel assured Reinhardt very confidently.
In fact, when he came here today, he also hoped to go to Africa to fight as soon as possible.
However, when he came, he was worried that the Italians had finished fighting the British army, causing his troops to have no battle.
But now, Rommel is worried that the Italians have been beaten by the British army, and his own people have no allies to rely on in the past.
Although the British troops in Africa are weak, but with the colonial army, there are nearly 10 people at any rate.
However, Rommel's current troops are only 2 divisions, about 3 people.
If the Italian allies are wiped out, Rommel's troops must have difficulties if they want to fight three against one.
In fact, after Reinhardt mentioned something, Rommel almost felt that the surrender of the Italians as an organization was entirely possible.
Not to mention how unbelievable it is for this group of waste to lose on the dominant French southern line.
For example, in World War I, Rommel led 600 soldiers to attack an Italian division. In that battle, he just wanted to contain the Italian division in front of him, but he didn't expect the Italians to simply surrender.
Under Rommel's influence, the Italians were procrastinated in their attack, but not sloppy in their surrender.
Because it is an ally with Italy, it is not easy for Rommel to complain about the funny Italian soldiers on weekdays.
But just as Mussolini's confidant Ciano despised the rigor and seriousness of the Germans, Rommel, as a Reinhardt confidant, also despised the so-called romance and superiority of the Italians.
In Rommel's eyes, most Italians were stupid and frivolous fools.They spend most of their lives on flashy things.They claim to be a holy place for the arts, whether it is architecture, art, music or their military bases, they are all known for their dazzling grandeur and complexity.
These Italians never seem to understand that on cold peaks, in narrow rock crevices, and in harsher environments, the flowers that bloom are more important than those cultivated in greenhouses or gardens. beauty.
They will never understand what is the real art, the art of war!
Like Rommel, Reinhardt, who knew the nature of the Italian Army, also took a mocking attitude towards their combat effectiveness.
However, Reinhardt was not like Rommel after all.He is not a simple officer, he has to consider larger political issues.
In North Africa, Italy must lose and the British must win.It's a pity that even if Reinhardt told Mussolini this, the other party would never listen to the advice.
For Mussolini, the arrogant but ambitious Italian leader, he will never accept Germany or the aid sent by Reinhardt until he is desperate.