Graziani was so ignorant that he only knew the flaws and inadequacies that Mussolini did not like to hear, so Mussolini was not ready to hand over the war in North Africa to him.

After thinking about it, Mussolini decided to leave the opportunity to make a contribution in North Africa to Balbo, the old man who had followed him the longest.

"Governor Balbo, in this North African war, I will give you full command power, don't worry." On the hospital bed, Mussolini closed his eyes and said beautifully.

In his view, leaving the opportunity for Balbo to make contributions in North Africa is giving the other side infinite glory.

Balbo had 200,000 men in his hands, which could be used to fight 40,000 in the UK. And he also has a large number of air forces to rely on, which is almost a sure win.

Let you pick the fruits of your victory, and be grateful to the leader of Ben, Mussolini thought.

It's a pity that Balbo, an expert in the Italian Air Force, seems to be as uninteresting as Graziani.

His first reaction was not to boast of the wisdom of the leader and to be grateful for this great opportunity, but to say with a worried face, and once again uttered a bad word that Mussolini did not like to hear.

"Leader, based on what I have seen and seen in North Africa for so many years, I dare not make up my mind about anything else, but it is absolutely impossible for our air force in North Africa to fight for air supremacy from the British."

Balbo counted worriedly: "In addition to the large number, most of the fighters we have deployed in North Africa are backward biplanes. And the new fighters that we developed and produced together with the Germans were not only scarce, but also all remained on the mainland. Without new fighters, North Africa will not be able to win an air battle with the British. ”

True, although Italy is already producing new fighters under the guidance of German specialists. However, not only are there not many new fighters that can be built, but their performance has yet to be tested.

Of course, no matter how bad the performance is, it will be a hundred times better than the backward biplane fighters deployed by the Italian Air Force in North Africa.

"These are not problems!" Mussolini, who had closed his eyes and was ready to enjoy the praise, now had his round eyes again, staring at the uninteresting Balbo Road.

"We have a huge number of fighters in North Africa, and even if we exchange two for one, we should destroy all the British planes there!" Mussolini was forceful.

How can there be such an analysis!

Balbo's professionals were dumbfounded.

If you can exchange two for one casually, then what kind of war is there to fight, just build an airplane at full power, and no matter what the quality is, in short, just pile up the enemy with quantity.

You know, even Reinhardt knew that Italian planes had become "the best listed items in museums", and he really couldn't stand the heroic Italian pilots, who drove backward biplane fighters and happily gave off people's heads, so as to engage in a joint German-Italian fighter development and develop high-quality fighters for the Italians.

But even so, Mussolini, the leader of Italy, turned a deaf ear and was still immersed in the dream that a large number of planes would win.

Balbo saw that Mussolini, an old friend, had made up his mind to launch an attack in Africa, so he said no more.

Still, he had to fight for his chances of winning the war.

"Then we can call the Germans to action." Balbo reasoned for Mussolini in his hospital bed: "The Germans will actually be very willing to help us, to seize the initiative in the Mediterranean, to fight the British." ”

Balbo's thought was very simple, since Germany and Britain are also at war, and recently Reinhardt and Churchill have been fighting each other all day long, and you have issued speeches one by one and mocked each other, then Germany and Britain will definitely become a state of endless death.

At this time, with Italy's help to combat and contain the British military, Reinhardt had no reason not to be willing.

It's a pity that after Mussolini listened to Balbo's advice, instead of nodding yes, he jumped directly from the hospital bed, stepped on the ground barefoot, and roared like thunder: "No! You can't be looking for Germans! ”

Then Mussolini waved his fists and shouted, "I don't want Reinhardt's help, I don't want his handout!" We, the Italians, can win the war ourselves! ”

Looking at the furious Mussolini, Balbo suddenly remembered that his leader, it seemed that he was hospitalized because of Reinhardt.

At this time, when he mentioned asking the Germans for help in front of him, it seemed that he was indeed a little suspicious of sprinkling salt into the wound.

In fact, there is no need for Balbo to remind that Reinhardt had kindly suggested to Mussolini a week earlier, shortly after the end of the French campaign, that the Third Reich was willing to help Italy, and that the two countries could jointly attack and take the island of Malta at the intersection of sea lanes from Gibraltar to Suez and from Italy to Libya, so as to improve and optimize Italy's Mediterranean situation.

Reinhardt was willing to help Mussolini destroy the British H Fleet in the Mediterranean, but unfortunately, it was Mussolini himself who repeatedly refused Germany's help.

Although Mussolini also had his own considerations.

One is that he wants to win this "parallel war" on his own and increase Italy's voice in the Allies.

Second, he was also afraid that Germany would use this to expand its influence to southern Europe and affect Italy's position as the hegemon of southern Europe.

Mussolini always felt that once Italy accepted Germany's help, it would lose its equal status with Germany in the alliance.

As a result, he not only refused the German Navy's help in striking the H fleet, but also rejected Reinhardt's proposal for the German Army to assist Italy in clearing the British army in Africa.

Mussolini's reason for refusing was even more bizarre: "In the heat of North Africa, the Germans must not have fought as well as the Italians." ”

And Reinhardt didn't persuade much, anyway, it won't be him Reinhardt who will lose face at that time.

So, Reinhardt left a message: "Let's wait and see." After that, there was no mention of the North African alliance.

However, he didn't mention it, and in private, Reinhardt secretly ordered Rommel to take a German armored division and a German infantry division for desert combat training, ready to send troops to North Africa at any time.

As for helping Italy to attack Malta, it really has to be put aside for the time being.

After all, the German navy still has to be used in the English Channel to do business!

Even so, Germany's submarine forces had done Italy a great favor, capturing the British Forbes fleet, and also stopping a "British version of Operation Rainbow" that was enough to make Mussolini's flesh hurt.