Rommel left, first went to Brauchitsch to report for duty, and then came to Li Le in front of him in a proper manner. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Le didn't care about these details, he cared if Rommel could bring him back the victory, not an obedient watchdog.

When Rommel left, he did not take with him the dazzling marshal's scepter that Hitler had given him, but what he preferred to ask for - more troops.

In addition to the 46th SS Infantry Division, which had already reached Africa, he received personal assurances from the Führer that the 10th Mechanized Infantry Division would soon arrive in Africa.

As the commander of the Afrika Korps, he certainly knew what kind of support he would receive for his operations in Africa with the support of both Mussolini and Hitler.

In particular, when the "Sea Lion Plan" for the invasion of Britain and the "Barbarossa Plan" for the invasion of the Soviet Union were not implemented, his offensive became the only battlefield on land.

And on this battlefield, the German Army committed the 15th Panzer Division, the 21st Panzer Division two regular Panzer Divisions, as well as the 90th Infantry Division and the Waffen-SS 46th Infantry Division two infantry divisions.

Including the 10th Mechanized Infantry Division, which was being forced into Africa, Rommel's Afrika Korps was strong enough to sweep across Africa.

This time he returned to Africa, with the strength of 5 divisions, and the order issued by the Führer himself, to march to Cairo and seize the Suez Canal!

"In any case, the capture of the Suez Canal will set the tone for victory in the battle for Africa." Watching Rommel ride away in a car, Li Le muttered to himself behind the window.

The bombing of Britain for almost two months has destroyed more than half of the power plants and steel mills in the southeast of Britain.

Including some precision machining factories, Britain's domestic industry will not be able to revitalize in the short term.

It also strengthened Churchill's determination to stumble the Germans in other directions. The two directions he carefully chose were important directions that could hit Germany!

One is to use the last little time of the Mediterranean Fleet to create trouble for the Italian Navy, so that the other side can no longer have the ability to contain the British H Fleet in Gibraltar.

The other solution was much simpler and crude, the British bomber force planned to set out from the Balkans and bomb the oil fields of Romania!

The exact location of Libya's oil fields could not be found, and British spies had no way to do it. After all, the oil field is in the desert, and the land is vast and sparsely populated, and it is difficult to investigate.

However, the bombing mission of Romania is supposed to be undertaken by the air force, but recently the air force is being suspected of espionage.

Therefore, the plan of the naval attack was almost completely determined, and the target of the attack was Taranto, Pearl Harbor, Italy.

General Cunningham was captured by his younger brother, General Cunningham, and because of the Prime Minister's constant urging, he finally lost his breath.

The Mediterranean fleet he led was actually quite large, and currently had two aircraft carriers, the Eagle and the Brilliant, which could be said to be enough to challenge the Italian fleet head-on.

In total, the two aircraft carriers can carry more than 30 Swordfish attack aircraft, and in fact, in real history, the British used only 24 Swordfish to take out a battleship of the Italian naval fleet.

The basic plan of Cunningham's fleet was to take advantage of the darkness to pick up Taranto and then attack the Italian fleet there, taking out part of the Italian naval fleet.

Then his fleet had to turn, stand by at sea, and then rush through the blockade of Malta and force its way to Gibraltar!

Because of its disrepair, the current navigable capacity of the Suez Canal is simply not enough for warships of tens of thousands of tons.

In this case, the main warships of the British Mediterranean Fleet, in fact, could not fully retreat to the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal.

So Cunningham had to risk forcing his way through the waters near Malta from the sea near Malta to join the H fleet in Gibraltar, after striking at the Italian fleet.

However, this choice is similar to the historical German operation of forcing the passage of the English Channel, Operation Thurbrus.

In real history, the German Navy, under the threat of the British Navy, forced its passage through the English Channel; And in this time and space, the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet is going to forcibly test the garrison strength of Malta.

The original Battle of Taranto actually broke out in November 1940, but now it is just the end of September, so there is a reason why it has advanced so much.

After all, the British Navy in history did not face the unfavorable situation of Alexandria being occupied by the Germans, and the mainland was not bombed by German bombers as it is now.

Moreover, in the real historical time and space, the British Navy was still in control of Malta, and had to shoulder the task of escorting the Mediterranean route.

As the battle for Malta ended with the victory of the German paratroopers, the British Mediterranean Fleet also lost its escort mission, and there was no containment and restraint.

On the other hand, the advance of the action is also due to the butterfly effect caused by the change of the battle situation.

The Italian fleet, which had only moved south to the vicinity of Taranto in November, moved to Taranto ahead of schedule as the tide of the war developed.

The German escort operation at Matroux, that is, the Battle of El Alamein, which covered the floating docks and finally lured Cunningham to the decisive battle, made the Italian fleet use Taranto as its base in advance.

This change has strengthened the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, which is also an adaptive change in history with various changes!

The aircraft carrier Eagle, which had to leave the Mediterranean Sea because of a near-miss, was still in Cunningham's hands at this time because of a mistake.

Cunningham, who was holding two aircraft carriers in his hands, finally stood up this time, and rushed to the Taranto military port with the momentum of a broken ship.

"Sir! Report, the USS Eagle carrier flag message, no anomalies were found directly ahead. "A communications officer stood in front of Cunningham and reported the news of the security of the front of the fleet.

In fact, at this time, Cunningham's fleet was about to enter the combat radius of the Italian Air Force, and he relied on the fact that the Italians did not know the exact location of his fleet.

It was already dark, and the script for Cunningham's air raid on Taranto had been drawn up a long time ago, which is also where this admiral was powerful.

He had long expected such a day, so he had already written the script and waited for everything to happen.

It was planned that the British fleet would take advantage of the darkness to approach a suitable position for attack, and then take off aircraft to attack the Italian warships in the military port of Taranto.

There is a very interesting point here, that is, the entire air raid was launched at 21 o'clock in the evening, and this detail became famous for the Swordfish attack aircraft of the British Royal Navy, which can take off at night.

At the same time, the operation began at 23 o'clock, and the British planes attacking the Italian battleships carried flares, and the entire bombing process was carried out at night - which shows that the British Royal Navy aviation has the ability to attack at night!

And in the end, this attack force, after succeeding, returned to the British aircraft carrier Radiant and landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier!

These three details show that aircraft carriers in World War II can carry out night attack operations with carrier-based aircraft! Including take-off and landing aircraft and attacking targets, it is possible to complete!

Of course, having said that, if the opposing warship is moving at high speed, it is not known how likely and effective it is to rely on flares to support the attack.

Cunningham was on the bridge of the USS Radiance, staring at the calm Mediterranean Sea in front of him, not knowing what was going on in his head.

The war situation in North Africa has been eroded to a shocking degree, and the loss of Alexandria has made Britain lose the initiative in the war in North Africa.

The German Army could use this huge port to occupy Cairo south and open strategic access to Ethiopia and Somalia.

Or you can directly go east, occupy the Suez Canal, and then advance to the Middle East, seize the Iraqi oil fields in the Middle East, and cut off the British supply line!

Which of these two roads to choose now is up to the Germans themselves, and both are very feasible plans.

Britain had no choice but to withdraw from the Mediterranean and retreat the war to the Middle East, which was a clear failure, because it exposed the extremely safe oil fields of the Middle East to the attacks of the Axis powers.

It is entirely possible that the bombers taking off in Egypt will directly bomb Iraq, which makes the replenishment and dispatch of Britain's national strategic resources very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Europe also has a powder keg, the Balkans, which have not yet been conquered by the Axis powers. With this place, Britain more or less had a strategic fulcrum in the Mediterranean.

And this strategic fulcrum can still threaten an important fulcrum of Romania, which is worthy of Britain to continue to hold on in the Mediterranean and continue to counterattack Germany.

"Keep going! Increase your speed! Arrive at the location of the planned attack before the planned time! Looking at the sea, Cunningham gave his orders.

As long as part of the Italian fleet was unknowingly taken out, Britain could still be allowed to hold on, and this was Cunningham's insistence.

"Keep course! Increase your speed! "Keep course! Increase your speed! In the various combat positions, the officers who repeated the order one by one shouted loudly.

Under the moonlight, in the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, the sharp bow of the battleship cut through the sea water, and quickly advanced towards the destination of the fleet.

They're going to attack the Italian military ports and turn Taranto into a sea of fire! The Italian navy would pay a heavy price, and then be thrown out of distance by the British fleet, watching the British fleet break through Malta and calmly return to Gibraltar to continue to threaten the Axis routes in the Mediterranean.

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Readers, forgive me, Long Ling is out of state today, and his writing is a little slow...... Excuse me......