Chapter 187: The Fortress Falls
No one expected that the battle between the two camps of the Axis and the Allies around the fortress of Gibraltar lasted for four months, and the duration and the number of casualties on both sides were second only to that during the Battle of Sevana, the German army used "secret weapons" including "Karl" mortars, H-177 heavy bombers and V-1 rockets, "At the height of the battle, the number of German, Italian and French battleships gathered in the Strait of Gibraltar reached 10, although the British and American fleets twice tried to reinforce Gibraltar, However, the Axis navy and air force had a huge advantage, and the fortress finally fell on January 7, 1943!
No one expected that the German and Italian armies would take the initiative to hand over an olive branch to the Allies in March of that year after jointly capturing the fortress of Gibraltar and then controlling the entire Mediterranean region. There are two main reasons for this great change, one is that the Allies carried out large-scale strategic bombing of the big 6 in Europe, especially on the German mainland, although the Luftwaffe fighter units were fully intercepted, they were still unable to prevent the Allies from falling to their own Dublin again and again, coupled with the successive victories of the Allies in the Pacific direction, the Axis gradually lost hope of completely defeating the Allies; Second, on February 11, 1944, Italian Yuan Mussolini went to North Africa to review his troops, but was assassinated by the resisters. The invincible fascist leader was seriously wounded, and although he was rushed to the field hospital in time, he finally stopped breathing the day after his assassination. The unpopular fascist regime in the country quickly collapsed, and the king of Italy then announced the appointment of **** people to form a cabinet. The new Italy** was proclaimed at the end of February, and the new cabinet was determined to abandon Italy's previous offensive strategy and informed Germany** of its readiness to withdraw from the war.
The preliminary talks were held in Madrid, the neutral capital of Spain, and were attended by important representatives from Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. During the talks, Britain and the United States put forward three preconditions for the conclusion of an armistice treaty, namely, abrogating the treaty, withdrawing troops, and jointly administering it. The so-called abrogation of the treaty is the abrogation of the Triple Alliance Treaty by virtue and Italy; Withdrawal, that is, the withdrawal of European countries and parts of Africa that are currently occupied by German and Italian troops; Condominium, i.e. the International Condominium of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal.
Such harsh conditions, especially the withdrawal of troops and the public administration, were unacceptable to the German and Italian representatives after communicating with the main project. Germany and Italy have issued statements that they believe that if Britain and the United States continue to adhere to the above three premises, they will have no sincerity in conducting peace talks, and the two sides can only continue this endless war.
In the end, due to the reluctance of both sides to make concessions, the first meeting
Talk about declaring a miscarriage. In order to gain more say at the negotiating table, the two sides vigorously launched an offensive operation in early April of the year, when the German Afrika Korps, which had been silent for 16 months, attacked the British and American troops entrenched in Syria under the command of Army General Rommel. The Germans not only brought in new Tiger heavy tanks, but also brought in the German 4th Air Force under the command of Air Force General Alexander Lehr from Europe. It took only a week for the Germans to break through the defensive line that the British and American forces had spent a year building, forcing the British and American forces to retreat in the direction of Iran.
At the same time, the German-Italian fleet, which rendezvous through the Strait of Gibraltar, was drawn to form an expeditionary fleet with 8 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, and a large number of cruisers and destroyers, of which 22 French warships were controlled by German and Italian sailors. This fleet, under the command of German Admiral von Fenkenstein, advanced along the coastline of Spain and France to British waters, and the British and American fleets deployed in the Atlantic did not dare to meet them, and when the air forces were ineffective, they had to suspend the Atlantic shipping routes, and all Allied ships and ships took refuge in well-defended ports.
Despite the fact that on the 6th and at sea could not withstand the offensive of the Axis, the Anglo-American troops continued to put pressure on each other in the air. By early 1943, the United States had shipped a large number of B-17 bombers to Britain and formed 40 bomber units, while British aircraft factories were working hard to build large numbers of Lancaster and Halifax for more bomber squadrons. In view of the heavy losses caused by the fierce resistance of the Luftwaffe in the initial daytime bombing, the British and American air forces switched to night bombing, which reduced the bombing losses at the cost of reduced bombing accuracy. In the 10 days of early April, the Allied bomber department visited the German mainland eight times, three of which were over-sized, dropping more than 40,000 tons** in Berlin, Ruhr, Hamburg and other places, causing considerable damage to the German war machine.
The actions of both sides have their own gains and losses, but what really brought them back to the negotiating table were two other things that seemed to be unrelated: First, the Japanese army launched the "Operation I" in the Pacific Ocean aimed at suppressing the Allied air forces, "a large number of Japanese fighters frantically attacked the Allied ships and port facilities along the coast of Kuah Island, coupled with the regrouping and transfer of the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet, the pressure on the Allied forces in the Pacific direction increased sharply; The second is the resumption of the production of the two major oil fields in the Caucasus -- according to the armistice agreement signed between the Soviet Union and Germany, the German army will gradually return to the Caucasus within five years, but the main oil fields here must supply oil to Germany unconditionally within 10 years, and with the resumption of production of the oil fields destroyed by the Soviet army during the retreat, the oil problem that has plagued the German army since the outbreak of the war has been greatly alleviated.
During this period, Germany and Italy decisively announced the German-Italian-Japanese Triple Alliance Agreement, and Germany also announced a plan to return French territory and return the French fleet within 10 years. In response, Britain and the United States stopped their large-scale strategic bombing of the German occupation zone and the German mainland, and after 3 years and 9 months, the sunshine of peace finally pierced the dark clouds of war.
In Africa, vast colonies that once belonged to Britain and France had their flags changed thanks to a legendary German general. At the end of the war, Erwin Rommel was awarded the Order of the German Order, the highest honor of which was given to Marshal Heino von Fenkenstein, who led a staggering breakthrough in a weak navy. Although Germany later returned all the captured French ships to Vichy as agreed, the new Z plan, which had been supported by the United States, had used this precious time to build a modern fleet with H-class battleships, class battlecruisers and class aircraft carriers, making the total tonnage of the German Navy surpass that of Britain and Japan, only after the United States, and the advanced level of equipment and actual combat capability are even more advanced in the world. In addition, the scientific and technological spirit of the Germans led them to develop the V series rockets, the A series jet fighters and the 45 series submarines, which were known as the ghosts of the bottom of the sea.
In the Pacific, the war lasted until late 1944. Despite the victory of the British and American forces freed from Europe in a series of naval battles, which gradually gained overwhelming superiority, and caused devastating damage to Japan's war foundations with large-scale strategic bombing, the stubbornness of the Japanese imperial forces still caused great problems for the Allies.
Due to the existence of Germany and Italy, the historical polar confrontation has become a three-legged pair: Britain and the United States, which occupy the rich resources of the Pan-Pacific region, have a strong economy and industry; The German and Italian factions, which occupy half of Europe and a large number of African colonies, have advanced science and technology, and military guns; The Soviet Union was a faction of its own, and after the army recovered the lost territory according to the Soviet-German armistice treaty, it still ranked in the world in terms of area, and its vast land, generous strategic depth, and cold temperament were the magic weapons for them to gain an invincible foothold. The so-called armistice between Britain and the United States is just a means to deal with the German army, that is, a kind of misfortune to confuse the Axis powers, using negotiations as an excuse to delay time for the later Allied counteroffensive。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。
The Sino-German Joint Operations Department, the Special Reconnaissance Brigade deciphered a plan codenamed Death Zone, the intention is obvious, the plan is generally confused, the German high-level, the follow-up troops in the United States advanced equipment after the time to assemble, and after the negotiations are over, after the two sides sign, the Allies at any time to tear up the agreement to attack the German army, this death zone plan has Stalin, Churchill, Truman three people secretly formulated the battle plan,,,,,,,,,,, The spy reconnaissance team deciphered the telegram and handed it to Li Ming, the supreme commander of the Northern Army in Berlin in Europe, who said that it was very insidious for Britain and the United States to come up with such a plan! So don't tell anyone else yet.
Li Ming sent a report to the Führer Hitler, after the Führer saw it, his heart was very calm, and he did not get angry, this is not like the character that a Führer should have, Hitler was wearing SS clothes, and he was still so handsome and separated, I think this matter is a conspiracy of the Allies, Li Ming saw that the Hitlers were very calm, they had a lot of wisdom in their hearts, and their brains were particularly good, not without anger, Sir Li, didn't we often pit others before? Don't talk about rules in war, this is the political arena you don't understand... The situation on the battlefield is ever-changing, and if you accidentally stumble, you will lose everything。。。。。。
The European battlefield is different from the Asian battlefield, the European battlefield situation is related to the allies, there are many personnel, the terrain is complicated, Hitler smiled and said Sir Li, you and I are the relationship between the allies, then I will tell you, don't believe in the enemy's surrender on the battlefield, the surrender you see with your eyes is not necessarily true, maybe there will be a fraudulent surrender, fake surrender, and the soldiers are not tired of deception。。。。。。。。 What should the two sides do on the mandala side。。。。。。。。。。。