If Sickert is so untamed, why move him in as a military adviser, is Contini a masochist?

Of course not! Although the decision to hire Sickert was made in a short period of time, Contini was fully considered.

First of all, there is no doubt about Sickert's personal ability. Without the foundation laid by the 100,000 Wehrmacht, history is that the Third Reich's army swept across Europe would not have existed, although this is not entirely the credit of Sickert, but his military, political and organizational skills are very outstanding, just to help Contini put the oil guard in order - as for the real tactical command level, Contini thinks that Sickert is very ordinary, the old man's thinking has been rigid, it is okay to deal with the First World War, but it is too difficult to deal with mechanized and modern wars, the latter he would rather believe in Manstein, Guderian, Rommel;

Secondly, Sickert had close ties with the members of the German officer corps in the oil guard. Although on the surface these officers were all retired and later served in Italy, Contini knew that they might actually retire from active duty. Most of them are kept in the secret archives of the Weimar Wehrmacht, and he will go back when necessary - he does not expect to rely on these officers for the rest of his life, as long as he takes 2-3 years, lays a deep imprint and run-in system, the next step is much more convenient, if Sickert can serve as an adviser, it will help to grasp the close connection between this group of officers and Continy, after all, they are also a little worried after Sickert stepped down.

Again, Sickett stepped down because of the royalist movement, and the royalism is the mainstream of the Juncker group at present, and it is impossible to gain their support and recognition without this friendship, and Contini's advantage is that although he is a fascist advocate, he is an aristocrat himself, and he has career ties with European royal families, which is conducive to the establishment of a channel of independent influence, which is extremely important before Hitler can not influence the officer corps.

Finally, and most realistically, if you open fire with the French now and don't invite the old man to take charge, then I'm afraid it will really turn around.

Of course, Sickert has a temper, and Contini doesn't want to get used to him, this kind of person belongs to the more accustomed and more energetic, the more he is praised, the more he will stand upright, he has already seen it in the last time in the action of Bao Hitler, so he must give him a dismount, squeeze him, stimulate him, and ridicule him, so that he can work for himself.

It turned out to be a success, although Sickert was crooked along the way, but he just didn't say things like "I don't care about this", Contini smiled in his heart, and continued to play haha with his face.

Dante slowly departed from Taranto, but the Libyan side was like a frying pan.

"Is this really the president's order?" Blomburg asked the Italian liaison, "That's Algeria, it's French territory." ”

"So what? We are not wrong with the group! Isn't it just a little tribal armament, what's so scary, just kill it. ”

The German officers shook their heads: the Italians were really bold, and they went to the territory of Algeria to spread wild, and they actually had a cheerful face, and they were also convinced.

To tell the truth, the German officers also said they couldn't understand Contini's high profile: the oil guard was obviously the president's private army, and in Germany, this kind of thing could poke a hole in the sky, and the Italians were good, as if nothing happened.

"The president called, he has come to Tripoli on the battleship Dante, let us deploy to the border between Libya and Algeria as soon as possible, and he also carried a batch of military supplies with the ship, so that we don't have to worry about consumption."

Blomburg asked suspiciously, "Fabio, the Italian Navy has also been dispatched?" ”

"Navy? Nope! ”

"That'...... What's the deal with Dante? Isn't this the main battleship of your country? ”

“…… You say Dante...... Sold to the president three days ago, it now assumes the responsibility of the United Group Mediterranean transport boat, responsible for the transportation of North African and Italian ports......"

"Traffic boats?" Blomburg, Kesselring, and a few staff officers next to them were instantly shocked, of course they knew what a transport boat was, wasn't it just about the same size as a torpedo boat, and it was specially used for communications, heralds, and the boarding of important people. Whose transport boat has a displacement of 20,000 tons and 12 triple 12-inch guns?

Blomburg repeated again with disapprehension: "Transport boats? ”

"Anyway, that's what the telegram said, this is the president's current private yacht, the president is so rich, it's not too much to spend $4 million to buy a warship, right?" As a member of the Youth Alliance, Fabio said proudly, "When the rich people of other countries are rich, they like yachts, villas, wine, and beautiful women, and the president is not interested in these things, he only likes warships and equipment, didn't we buy the Roma last time?" Later, the Roma became a bathtub ship, now it should be a new taste, I think Dante is very good, in the future, the cannon can be dismantled and converted into a train gun or a race gun, Tripoli and Benghazi are still lacking these......"

Blomburg knew in his heart: most likely the president had reached an agreement with Mussolini, and it was inconvenient for the Italian Wehrmacht to come forward, and it was still possible to sell a warship to show its support.

"By the way, the telegram also said that General Sickt had been hired as an assistant military adviser to the president of the United Group and had also come with the ship."

"General Sickt?" These were not only shocked, they were simply petrified, and Kesselring stammered, "Is General Sickert, commander-in-chief of our defense forces?" How is this possible? ”

"Nothing is impossible!" Fabio whispered about Sickert's dismissal, and said apologetically, "Some time ago, you were busy clearing up Libyan tribal forces, and suddenly you received an order to move to the border between Libya and Algeria, so I didn't have time to tell you. ”

"This matter is a bit important, I need to discuss it, and how to fight must be deployed."

"Of course, the United Aviation has preliminarily assembled and will carry out reconnaissance missions starting tomorrow to create suspicious dens of terrorists and then clean them up...... The president's intentions are clear! Fabio stepped up, "None of them will be left!" Sweep them all! ”

"How so?"

After listening to Blomburg's briefing, the first batch of German officers who arrived were also a little dumbfounded, but the Italian officers were extremely excited -- although the tactics of carrying out centralized rectification in Libya and slowly advancing and compressing the living space were opposite, they were too slow, too energy-consuming, and physically demanding. So be sure to clean up the terrorists, all of them are excited.

"Let's do it! Sir! We've been training for so many days, it's time to move. ”

"But that's French territory?"

"It doesn't matter, when the company signed the contract with the French government, it was agreed that the company could send and recruit the necessary security forces, so we didn't violate the rules. Besides, didn't the French say that they were not strong enough? Then we'll help them. ”

The French are measured by the company's normal business, operation and money-making, but they did not expect that the opponents they encountered did not play cards according to common sense at all, and as long as the opposite side was strong, it didn't matter whether they made money or not.

Contini even thought of an excuse: the tanks and armored vehicles equipped by the oil guard are all produced by United Defense itself, which is for experimental use, and in essence there is no procurement of armaments - now United Defense is one of the two manufacturers in Italy that can produce tanks and armored vehicles (the other is Fiat), and the supply capacity is about 30%; Rifles, machine guns, grenades and other light weapons are also products of United Defense, which controls 70% of Italy's rifle production capacity (and another 30% in Carcano) and 75% of machine gun production capacity after the acquisition of Breda; United Motors has the manufacturing capacity of trucks and buses, and United Motorcycle has 100% of the manufacturing capacity of military three-wheelers; The planes and bombs owned by United Airlines are also independent products; The United Shipyard can build submarines, torpedo boats or other small warships, and it is complete from the three lines of land, sea and air. The only thing that is lacking now is artillery production capacity, but there is no need to worry, the United Special Steel Company has been established, and small and medium-caliber artillery will have a place in the future.

As the fourth largest armed force in the Mediterranean, how could the United Group be embarrassed if it did not help the French colonial authorities to eliminate terrorists?