"The Big Killer?" Many people in the venue were stunned.

Hoffmann laughed: "Just as the Anglo-Saxons were good at shipbuilding, and often invented all sorts of unbelievable warships, so the German nation was good at forging cannons. We are not only good at casting cannons, but also good at dealing with those supposedly impregnable fortifications, the last great battle of the Liege fortress, the Maginot Line, the Sevastopol fortress, etc., are all defeated by our men, and there is no strong fortress in the world that the German nation cannot overcome. Now it's Gibraltar's turn to be put to the test to see whether the British are good at building or the Germans are good at casting cannons. ”

Hoffmann's mouth of the weapons of mass destruction includes two categories, the first is all of Germany's current number, the number of up to 16 K5 train guns, this caliber 280mm train guns can hit up to 57 kilometers away without the use of rocket range extender shells (the accuracy of range extender shells is not ideal), the power is enough to bombard most of Gibraltar's fortifications, and now these train guns are being mobilized one after another and are about to cross the German-Italian border, they will decide according to the attitude of Spain whether to take the railway network to Spain or from the sea route to the port of Ceuta.

In addition to the K5, two 800mm caliber train guns (Gustav and Dora) are also in the process of intense disassembly and preparation, Hoffmann hopes that they will not be needed, because transportation, assembly and use are too troublesome, a gun needs thousands of people to serve in order to play its value normally, which involves a lot of energy and engineering and technical personnel, and now for Germany, every technical talent is very valuable. But if he encounters a target that K5 really can't deal with, he doesn't mind pulling out this 7 million mark toy to use it again.

"It is expected that it will take two to three weeks to prepare after the Battle of Malta, and then these huge guns will be transported over and fired at the Gibraltar fortress." Hoffman confidently told the crowd, "Rest assured, I won't risk my precious battleship." ”

The German High Command assessed the Battle of Gibraltar and believed that saturation bombing and naval artillery alone could not take such a strong fortress, but after using train guns, it was fully sure that the caliber of the artillery in the Gibraltar fortification group was 233mm, and the effective firing range did not exceed 35 kilometers, and the high-precision range of Dora and K5 was more than 40 kilometers, and it was completely possible to carry out artillery bombardment in an orderly manner outside the range of the opponent.

The only thing to worry about is the air defense of the train guns now, too: there is only one airport in Gibraltar, and the number of planes, although the exact number of aircraft is unknown, is presumably not too much. The location of the airfield was completely fixed, easily destroyed, and under the total suppression of the German army, and more advantageously, the British did not have any other military base available for use within the combat radius of Gibraltar aircraft, and even if Spain did not cooperate, the German army could still use any French African colonial airfield, which could ensure effective air supremacy.

In Hoffman's eyes, Gibraltar is a large Malta, nothing to be afraid of, the reason why it is boasted as the most impregnable fortress in the world is because the British have sea supremacy, and the Royal Navy can attack any force that wants to move Gibraltar with impunity, and now the combined naval power of the Axis has completely overwhelmed Great Britain, and the remaining strength of the Royal Navy will never dare to come, and it will be sent to death when it comes, and even the reinforcements may not dare to sail into the German air defense circle, What's more, Hoffman had prepared an even more troublesome plan for a tsunami for Churchill - even more lethal than Gibraltar.

"Let's wish the German cannon a victory!"

The first meeting of the Troika summit was quickly dismissed, Mussolini was anxious to communicate the explosive news he had heard today to Franco, and Hoffmann declined the invitation to the evening event, citing the exhaustion of the journey.

"Sir, it looks like the situation in Europe is far more complicated than we thought." Tsukahara 243 asked Horiyoshimichi, "Do you think the Spaniards will give in?" ”

"It's hard to say, the ideas of the Europeans are usually at odds with us, but I don't care about that, the German Führer will definitely find a way to fight if he wants to." Horikichi suddenly shifted the topic to other aspects, "I have decided to take all the officers above the rank of major general who have no combat mission to Germany after completing my visit to Italy. ”

"Do you want to investigate the purchase of 1 billion marks?"

"Not exactly, I want them to look at the production and economic layout of Germany, and see how the German army started in logistics and supply -- the Imperial soldiers think too little about this, the navy still knows a little about the international situation and modern trends, the army is full of bushido spirit, and does not know the importance of production, logistics and supply at all, only Vice Minister Ishihara has a clear mind, but he cannot change much alone."

"Now the Ishihara faction is full of scenery, and I don't know how many pairs of eyes are staring at him......" Chief of Staff Kusaka Ren sighed, "I heard that someone has attacked him for making too many concessions to the navy." ”

Horikichi smiled bitterly, "We must keep this group of army leaders who are currently willing to cooperate with the navy, not only because they can achieve land and sea unity, but more importantly, it will be more beneficial to the empire." Some of these methods can be flexible, and if we say that the army will not listen to them, the Germans will listen to some of them--Is it good for foreign monks to recite scriptures, so it is urgent to bring in German submarine officers and army officers, so that they can brainwash those red deer -- if Germany and Italy can cooperate sincerely, can we as Imperial soldiers not be able to do it? ”

"That means 50 naval officers." Cao Lu said with some distress.

"Don't be reluctant, I have the same attitude as Yamamoto-kun on this point, so let's select from the existing fleet -- give priority to the selection of outstanding officers who are young and good at foreign languages, and arrange more aircraft carrier officers."

Tsukahara two-four-three sighed: "Okay, since the commander has made up his mind, I will arrange the aircraft carrier officers, but I can only give 20 at most." ”

"20 is okay, Caolu-kun is responsible for the remaining 30."

The exchange of officers is the second major agreement after the barter between the two sides, and the two sides will send 50 officers of the colonel and lieutenant grades to carry out reciprocal exchanges; Germany urgently needs experienced Japanese naval officers, and Japan is very interested in German army officers and submarine backbones, especially armored officers, and it will be a big trouble if no one understands combat command when a bunch of tanks are brought back. At this point, the army is asking for the navy, and there are differences of opinion within the navy on whether to bear this cost, and Yamamoto Isoroku is obviously in favor of it, but the military command system has different opinions, and the two sides kick the ball to the combined fleet, and Horiyoshi also supports it, but he needs to convince his subordinates that the personnel who are transferred are the backbone of the ship.

In Italy in the past two days, Horikichi and other high-level Japanese officials have visited various types of Italian industry, especially heavy industry and military industry, under the leadership of the ostentatious Mussolini. Horiyoshi was the chairman of the company, and he had a deeper understanding of production and manufacturing than other senior officers, and he could clearly feel that the Italian workers were not as hard-working as the Japanese workers, but their technical level, equipment capacity, and production efficiency were not comparable to those in Japan, and at least in the important equipment factories in Italy had completely realized standardized operations -- the parts were completely interchangeable, and there was no need to rely too much on the technology of skilled workers as in Japan, which was very crucial for rapidly expanding production on the premise of ensuring quality.

In it, he saw many German engineers on site to guide the technical details and optimize the operation process. What touched him the most was that after the integration of the German-Italian axis, many equipment in Italy and Germany began to be unified. For example, rifles, the Axis countries, including Italy, have begun to replace the German Mauser 98K, and the Italian arsenal is working hard to produce the relevant 7.92mm bullets - all production lines relocated from Germany mainland, and the ammunition in Italy has been cleaned up one after another.

Only then did he understand why the Germans had delivered to him a large number of Italian weapons in the infantry light weapons, which were part of the trade between Japan and Germany, and Germany first delivered them to Japan, and Japan sold them. At first he thought it was all foreign weapons captured by Germany, but now he realized that there were old goods that had been exchanged by Italy.

"What does your Mauser company produce?"

"They are concentrating on the production of more technically demanding thin-shelled ammunition and new rifles, and the 20mm cannon ammunition sold to your country is all thin-shelled ammunition."

The new rifles include the STG43 assault rifle and the G43 semi-automatic rifle, Germany does not intend to hide from Japan, and it cannot hide it, these weapons have begun to be equipped on the Eastern Front, and Speer ambitiously said that he would basically complete the replacement within two years. The Japanese side was also quite impressed after seeing the new rifle, but after inquiring about the ammunition consumption, they could only sigh -- if Japan also used such a rifle, the weak logistical supply would probably collapse first. The thin-shell bombs made the Japanese sigh even more, and after being equipped with German machine guns, the pilots of carrier-based aircraft flying Bf-219 used them and said that they were 2-3 times stronger than domestic machine gun ammunition, and they asked the major arsenals and replied that it was difficult to make domestic products, so they all had to be imported.

He was shocked to learn that Germany had relocated the Bf-109, the No. 3 tank chassis production line and other important equipment to Italy for production, and now he finally understood why the Italians were willing to hand over all the command of the navy and air force to the Germans, because Germany really gave Italy benefits. Horikichi was considering whether he could move some production lines to Japan, but the machine tools alone gave him a lot of ideas. (To be continued.) )