"How many divisions are there now in Italy proper and in France combined? Did you know? ”

Rundstedt looked at Kluger, who was talking about the joy, and Günter Blumentritte, the chief of staff, and suddenly asked.

"It seems to be 60 divisions, but if you add up Rommel's troops who returned to France, I'm afraid it will exceed 60 divisions!"

Before Kluge and the chief of staff, Günther Blumentritt, could answer, General Vallimont, who was on the side, replied first.

"60 divisions, or even more?"

"Where did the Führer get so many troops to come to Italy and France?"

After hearing the unexpectedly powerful force, Rundstedt, who was still there just now, was slightly stunned and said with surprise on his face.

"For the Führer has supplemented the Italian defensive campaign with the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Nordic commander, Admiral Edward Dieter, and most of the troops stationed in all the overseas occupation zones, as well as a large number of recruits drawn from the reserves!"

"That's why there are so many troops in 2, and if you count the surrendered troops of Italy and the armies of other client states, then there will be even more troops!"

General Vallimont explained.

"Hmmm! Didn't the remnants of Italy and the troops of the client states all be sent by the Führer to the Eastern Front to fight the Soviets? So there are still these troops here on the Western Front? ”

Rundstedt was stunned again after hearing this, and said in surprise.

"The Führer only transferred most of the remnants of the Italian army and the troops of the client state to the Eastern Front, and in the Italian campaign under the personal command of Marshal Kesselring, there are still a small number of the troops of the client state and the Italian troops assisting in the battle!"

"And even some of the elite SS troops were sent here to conduct assault operations, taking the British and American allies by surprise!"

General Vallimont smiled pleasantly.

"Hey! No wonder Kesselring did not have a panicked or nervous expression in the face of the invasion of the British and American armies! ”

"I see! The Führer seems to have taken the battle in Italy very seriously! ”

"He will actually transfer so many troops from various fronts to Kesselring to command the operation and carry out a counterattack!"

When Rundstedt heard this, he said with a little envy.

Because Chen Yanlong attached so much importance to Kesselring, he remembered that when he was in charge of the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, he had not received so many troops and the support of new weapons and equipment!

Therefore, the grapes that cannot be eaten are sour, and Rundstedt, as a high-ranking officer of the German army, will also have such envy and jealousy.

"What happened to Rundstedt? Are you jealous that Kesselring was reused and valued by the Führer? ”

Seeing Rundstedt's subtly changing expression, Klug said with a sarcastic smile.

"Yes and what? Isn't it? ”

"Are you much better than me?"

In response to Klug's provocative and sarcastic remarks, Rundstedt scoffed at him.

"You ......"

Being countered by Rundstedt like this, Klug was speechless for a while.

"That's it! I'm not here today to engage in these pointless quarrels with you, but to discuss the Führer's call to us late last night asking us to find a way to assist the Italian forces of Kesselring, plus Rommel's, from the southern border of Italy to the northern border of our empire! ”

Rundstedt looked at Klug, who was angry with him, and sneered.

"I feel that there is no way to complete this proposal of the Führer, because the coastline we are about to defend is at least more than 3,000 miles, and with the assistance of Kesselring, the troops of more than 60 divisions that can be commanded at most are simply beyond our strength and cannot be realized!"

"Even if Kesselring's reserves are counted, to defend more than 3,000 miles of coastline, which means that every Imperial division must defend 60 miles of defense, such a difficult assignment is simply impossible to complete!"

"Because based on the maximum number of fronts that a division of our empire can defend, that is, the maximum of each division is about 6 to 8 miles!"

"If we still have to face the battle for sea supremacy and air supremacy of the British and American forces, I am afraid that one of our divisions will only be able to defend the defense line within 4 miles, otherwise the battle between our divisions will definitely have a huge gap in the weak forces, so that the British and American troops will take advantage of the weakness to break through all our defense lines, so that our forces will be dispersed even more powerfully, and there will be a huge disadvantage, and even our troops will be defeated!"

Regarding Rundstedt's sudden return to the topic, Kluge also immediately came back to his senses and responded seriously.

"Then what do you think our Führer is thinking in his head now, the battles of Cassino in Italy, the Battle of Gustavus and Sicily are not over, and they are still fighting fiercely! But he suddenly gave us these nonsensical new combat plans, and asked us to publicize them to the outside world, and it was better for the whole world to know about the military operation we were about to take! ”

"I really don't know what he wants to do!"

In this regard, Rundstedt was full of confusion and complained.

"I think the purpose of the Führer in doing this may only be to distract the attention of the British, American, Soviet and other armies, especially the intelligence gathering work of the spies who are lurking around us!"

Before Kluge could reply, General Vallimont suddenly interjected.

"I think so too! If it weren't for the strategy that the Führer's rather shrewd mind now thinks, there should not have been such a bad strategic and tactical order! ”

As soon as the words fell, the chief of staff, Günter Blumentritt, who had been quietly watching the changes, also nodded in agreement immediately.

Hearing this, Rundstedt and Kluge also stared at the chief of staff, Günter Blumentrite, and General Vallimont, with serious expressions and sharp eyes, and stared at them in silence for a long time.