"For the whole of November, we lost 511 pilots and added 1,945 new pilots, and on the whole, everything is still within acceptable limits. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 At the meeting just held, Kesselring reported to Li Le on the development of the Air Force.

In addition to consuming a lot of fuel and almost emptying the inventory of bombs, the Luftwaffe as a whole was strengthened.

Production of the FW-190B and ME-109E fighters increased, and the JU-88 almost completely replaced the outdated HE-111 as the Luftwaffe's iconic bomber.

The number of planes in the air force has steadily increased, the number of pilots has also increased considerably, and the power in Goering's hands is even greater, and the only thing that restricts the air force is the problem of fuel in the national strategic reserves.

"Compared with the beginning of the war, the reserve fuel of our air force has dropped by 30 percent, which is not a small amount." Another air marshal, Sspeller, opened his mouth to report.

The questions he raised were also the ones that Göring, or all the Air Force commanders, were worried about.

The Führer's pie, that is, the fuel oil in Libya, has not been in place for a long time, which has put pressure on the Luftwaffe, which is bombing Britain with a large amount of aviation fuel.

Compared with the real historical time and space, in order to ensure the overwhelming superiority of the air force when bombing Britain, Li Le adopted a large-scale escort tactical system.

Although when luring the opposing air force to dispatch and the driver annihilating the opponent's fighters, a large number of escort fighters have an advantage.

Fighter jets, which can be escorted in large quantities, also consume more fuel than in history. This can make the Air Force very depressed, and it is a pain and a joy.

It hurts to see the massive amount of ammunition and bomb consumption, as well as the decay of the amount of fuel in reserve. The reason for the joy was that they really saw hope for the annihilation of the British Air Force.

If you count the Battle of Brest, where the British themselves sought their own death, the Luftwaffe recorded down, almost 1400 British fighters.

And at the same time, Germany's own crashed fighters, about more than 1500 pilots, lost more than 1550 aircraft.

You must know that in the Battle of Britain, Germany fought an offensive operation against the wind, and it was able to compress the loss ratio to almost one to one, which was already a sufficient achievement against the sky.

"The good news is not for nothing, the French side has agreed to let our semi-finished oil products go ashore in the port of Toulon." Raeder has been in a state of pride, and has spoken out about a series of cooperation agreements he has obtained during his visit to France.

Among them, France allowed German civilian ships to dock at French Mediterranean ports such as Toulon to unload the transported oil to Brest and other places in France.

There are good rail lines in this area, complemented by roads, and if the number is too large, even oil pipelines can be built.

Both Darlan and Pétain saw the victory of the German navy and air force, and for the sake of their future position, they had to start thinking about very practical problems.

For example, once Germany really defeated Britain, how should France, which had already been defeated, deal with itself?

If relations with Germany are not established now, the Vichy government in France is likely to face a new diplomatic crisis.

If Germany is not careful, it is entirely possible that Germany will carve up France with Italy and completely turn the remaining territory of France into a place for Germans to graze.

"The new shipping route is much more convenient than going through the Italian ports, after all, the Italian ports have to support the North African war, and the frequency of use is almost saturated." Raeder pointed to the map on the table and continued to describe Germany's emerging strategic advantage.

He was arguably the greatest marshal in the history of the German Navy, and during his reign the German Navy defeated the mighty Royal Navy and successfully entered the Mediterranean.

Four destroyers and nine old gunboats and torpedo boats on lease from the French, plus two destroyers and seven gunboats and torpedo boats purchased from the Italian Navy, formed the German Mediterranean Fleet.

This fleet is now divided into a blockade fleet stationed in Alexandria, and a route garrison fleet stationed in Malta. Although the combat effectiveness is really not very good, but it is also performing the task decently.

The garrison fleet consisted of 6 destroyers and 6 torpedo boats of the highest combat effectiveness, mainly to prevent enemy forces from threatening Malta and nearby transport routes.

The blockade fleet was basically torpedo boats, responsible for blocking the Suez Canal, as well as British ports on the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East.

If the German Navy had maintained its current offensive momentum, Raeder would have done almost what his predecessors in the First World War Navy could have dreamed of.

"The French side has asked us to guarantee their vested interests in Africa, but also in the Middle East." As Raeder said this, he looked at the Führer, who was sitting at the top.

Li Le nodded, protecting the French colonies is also one of the strategies that the German top brass has determined. There was no need for him to break the alliance with France at this time, for it was becoming more and more effective by successive victories on the battlefield.

Under the original circumstances, it was impossible for France to contribute to the unification of Europe and the small amount of basic industrial capacity in Europe.

But now, when Rommel's troops were roaming near the Suez Canal, when German planes were on the verge of crippling the British Air Force, when the German Navy had begun to threaten the Atlantic......

The French had to seriously consider whether they should be more cooperative in exchange for more benefits.

This included the interests of French prisoners of war under German control, including the interests of French colonies in Africa, and other new interests that France might be able to gain in the war.

Sometimes, the cooperation between the two countries is so realistic, and it is also so shameless. Although the hatred of the country and the family is unforgettable, after being able to share more benefits or give enough compensation, everyone will choose to cover their wounds in embarrassment and hold their hands together.

Giving food to the French and freeing the French captives is not as good as saying: "Brother will take you to get rich." "It's more effective.

France's colonial interests in North Africa needed to be secured, and when Germany saw that it could gain more interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the Vichy French government was immediately tempted.

Although it was not realistic to expect the French to help Germany in the war and provide German weapons and troops, the clever French had already thought of a way to defect to Germany.

Like the Americans, the French began to sell their old warships, selling the rags that were about to be obsolete to the Germans, who were in dire need of a naval fleet.

On the Mediterranean coast of France, French merchants have begun to build large transport ships ready to earn commissions on the Mediterranean route.

This is tantamount to a disguised increase in the production capacity of the Germans, at least the transport ships produced by Germany will not be able to enter places like the Mediterranean in a short period of time.

"Darlang is willing to retaliate with an air strike on Gibraltar, but he is not willing to let us intervene. He didn't have many planes, and he probably didn't have any other use than to scare the British a little. Kesselring also spoke of support from France.

Because of a series of victories, France's attitude in the war changed significantly. Although Petain and Darlan were still reluctant to participate in the German operation, they were no longer so resistant to cooperating with the Germans.

In Li Le's opinion, as long as the French are willing to contribute the transportation route from the Mediterranean to the port of Brest, he has already earned it.

The Germans' oil no longer had to go through Italy to go back home, and from there to Brest. What used to be a transport line that went around Switzerland is now a perfectly straight line.

"The war reparations of the French, we have been using them a little faster lately...... The navy bought some old ships...... "Goering poured cold water on Raeder at this time.

Although the navy was in a hurry to build its own fleet in the Mediterranean, it could cost some too much French reparations. Without the restraint of war reparations, German diplomacy towards France would have fallen into passivity.

Li Le nodded in agreement, and then said to Raeder: "The suppression plan for Gibraltar, it seems that it can't be put in the first place now!" ”

Although he was keen to remove the nail from Gibraltar, France's cautious cooperation, and Spain's first rat, could not allow Germany to take out the most important fortress of the British navy.

Since this fortress cannot be destroyed, there is not much need to expand the Mediterranean fleet. The ships needed for escort could be provided by Italy, and there was no need for Germany to waste resources with a fleet of the same role.

As for counting on the German Mediterranean Fleet to complete the task independently, even Raeder probably did not dare to think so.

"Let's pause the expansion and procurement plan of the Navy's Mediterranean Fleet for a moment, we are not British, there is no need to find someone else to buy a ship at any cost." Li Le smiled and commanded Raeder.

Raeder also knew that he had taken a bit of a big step lately, and that he might be pulling the egg. So he nodded, and agreed to the Führer's plan to postpone the expansion of the Mediterranean Fleet.

"How are the preparations for landing in the UK, how are the preparations of the navy?" After talking about the Mediterranean Fleet, Li Le brought the topic back to the direction he cared about.

If you want to secure the Mediterranean shipping line once and for all, beating the UK is the best option. And if you want to defeat Britain and hit the British mainland, it is the best strategy!

"Recently, the military has started too many projects, and the progress of the construction of transport ships and landing ships is somewhat less than ideal." At the mention of this, Raeder's expression was not so natural.