On July 11, in the town square of Modena, groups of German soldiers cleared the scarred streets to clear the area for the armored troops entering the city.

The airdrop operation in Modena lasted 12 days, and through the careful planning and actions of the air force, in the course of 12 days, the airborne troops first successfully landed outside the city of Modena, and the defenders of Modena did not notice it at all. In the early morning, the training battalion of the 11th Airborne Division, which had entered the city, quickly seized the main street in the city and divided and surrounded the Italian defenders who were still asleep and captured them.

On the evening of 30 June, after a full day of air transport, two infantry battalions of the field army also joined the defense, and the armory, which was planned to be destroyed, became a supply for the German army.

I don't know if the Italian army's means of communication were too backward or because they were planning to break the boat, but for two whole days there was no formed Italian army approaching Modena.

On July 1, the field army, which had been ready to attack, relied on the supplies of the Italian army to take the surrounding cities of Cento, Vignola, Vergato, and Fort Montineugen.

Finally, on July 2, three days after the 11th Airborne Division captured Modena, the Italian army began to organize troops to launch a military operation in the Modena area.

It's just that Italy could not have imagined that all the military supplies it originally stored fell into the hands of the Germans, and with the fall of the cities around Modena, the entire logistics line had to be exposed to German firepower.

The Italian army, which lacked supplies and was copied from the back, was greatly reduced in combat effectiveness, and the German army, which was waiting for the opportunity head-on, seized the opportunity to carry out a surprise attack. The Italian navy in Chioggia was also forced to retreat to the port of Garibaldi, where it was lucky to escape.

On July 4, the 502nd Panzer Battalion, which was ready to attack, launched a surprise attack on both sides of Rovigo, and the ensuing 24th Army, under the leadership of General Ernst Busch, attacked Rovigo.

On 8 July, the 22nd and 23rd armies succeeded in capturing northern Italy after a seven-day pursuit.

The devastation and accident of the airborne operation caught the Italian army by surprise, and under the deliberate indulgence, the Italian army, lacking fighting spirit, retreated along the coastline to the central part of Italy, and Mussolini himself was of course most angry about this, and he had to take responsibility for the heavy losses of the whole country since he came to power.

When his prestige was questioned, his first thought was not to regain the lost territory and drive Germany back to where it had been before June 28, but to send a strangely worded telegram to Chancellor Stresemann.

Germany, Berlin, Hanseatic Palace, Stresemann reported to the Hanseatic Palace as soon as he received Mussolini's telegram.

"What did he really say?" Eric was so shocked that his pen fell off.

"Yes, demand that we withdraw immediately, or face his wrath." Stresemann replied with a strange expression.

"Could it be that Hoffmann was lying about the military when I told me that I had taken northern Italy?" Eric finished reviewing the documents on his own.

"What a madman, I can't recognize the form." Stresemann was also very puzzled by such a national leader who did not play according to the routine.

"Forget it, let Hoffmann keep the current form, don't go overboard, it's futile to fight any longer, Germany is in dire need of time now, and there is not much effort to spend on Italian affairs." As if remembering something, Eric ordered: "Let Hoffmann take care to exercise restraint in the troops bordering France in the occupied zone, and this is the time not to make any trouble." ”

"Okay, I'll pass it on, what about peace talks?" Stresemann really didn't know how to make peace with a leader like Mussolini, he was a complete idiot.

"What's the hurry, it's a good thing that he doesn't want to talk peace, I remember Hoffman telling me that the railroad in northern Italy has not been damaged, and the captured trains are all intact, so I can take advantage of this time to drag some more things back. In this way, you don't need to come forward in the peace talks, or let Holwig be in charge of this matter. After signing the paperwork after reviewing it, Eric stood up and straightened his clothes, and then said, "How's it going?" Busy or not, if you are not busy, come with me to Dresden, I heard that the plan for Lufthansa 1 is going well, go and see? ”

Stresemann waved his hand, although the two places were not far away, and they could go back and forth in a day, but he had to be busier after Eric left Berlin, so it was almost impossible for the two to be in the same place except Berlin.

"Okay, how busy you are, I'll go first, and I'll run to Dresden one more time to stimulate Marshal Hippel." Eric quipped.

"This..." Stresemann was also a little speechless.

Speaking of Hipper, after the start of the German-Italian war, the German navy was completely useless, this is polite, to put it mildly, the German navy could not compete with Italy at all, otherwise with Italy's long coastline, if the German navy could overpower the Italian navy, the war would end with Italy's admission of defeat, and there would be no ground war at all.

After arriving at the Eric Industrial Park by plane, he met with his wife, Dinah, before heading to the Wind Tunnel Base in the Industrial Park, where there are four formed wind tunnels that were originally intended for internal testing by ALM, which stands for Eric Aeromanufacturing.

The two-seater, miniature 40 cm x 40 cm supersonic wind tunnel is used to test the basic model and theory, and the 1.8 m x 1.8 m is used to test the design model.

By the time Eric and his wife arrived, so did all the designers and staff of the project, and Eric shook Junkers' hand and gave him a cordial offer of condolences before ordering the experiment to begin.

"Mr. President, this time we have adopted a single-wing layout design, with a tail hanging down..." While Junkers was analyzing, Eric was also taking a closer look around the model.

"Is it theoretical?" Eric asked if the small model had passed.

"Passed, the effect is good, considering that the material to be used will be relatively light, and our design is also very conservative, so if the power of the engine is sufficient, this design should be able to meet some requirements." After the Junkers introduction, he asked the designers of other companies to introduce the structure of the wing and the design of the fuselage, and almost every link is the result of the continuous run-in of these designers.

"To be honest, I was already surprised that I was able to design a model and start testing it in just ten days, even if it didn't pass this time, it doesn't matter, there is still time, all you have to do is make it enough for him to carry four AF990 engines." The AF990 engine that Eric is referring to is a V-piston engine developed by Eric Arsenal, with a single horsepower of up to 990 horsepower. When Dinah introduced this engine to the main designers, everyone was surprised, but they didn't know that Eric developed this engine for high-altitude bombers at that time, and it was not until later that he needed to visit the United States and lacked the armament to show his national strength before spending a huge amount of money to build these four cross-era engines, the all-handmade AF990 engine was originally designed to make the bomber's alien more streamlined, and the horsepower of the engine was increased to a certain amount to consider the space occupation of the engine.

Undoubtedly, such a V-piston engine, which had relatively little space requirements, gave hope to the Lufthansa 1 that Eric wanted.