Slightly short and stocky, with good facial features, a gentle appearance, and a pinch of Hitler-esque mustache, the Spanish generalissimo Francisco. Franco has visited Rome. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

After the victory of Germany and Italy in the Battle of the Mediterranean, the Spanish dictator believed that Germany and Italy would be the victors of the world war. Because it was not the British Army that was defeated in the Mediterranean, but the British Royal Navy, which had not suffered a major setback for hundreds of years.

The British Royal Navy lost not only four battleships (including one battleship of the Free French) and one aircraft carrier, but sea supremacy over the entire Mediterranean.

And Germany and Italy get not only the Mediterranean, but also the oil-rich Middle East! Although the British had sabotaged the oil fields of Iran and Iraq, Franco already knew that the French, Dutch, and Belgian oil companies were now involved with great enthusiasm in the repair and expansion of the oil fields in the Middle East - in the face of the industrial power of the whole of Europe, the destruction of the British was not a problem at all, and it was only a matter of time before the Germans obtained huge quantities of oil from there.

And Germany can get more than just oil from the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt has been an important food producing region since ancient times and is rich in cotton, and Syria and Iraq are equally rich in land. The Sinai Peninsula is rich in manganese ore and has been developed to a certain extent, in addition to three important rare metals such as cobalt, lead and zinc. Turkey and Iran are two huge warehouses of non-ferrous metal resources, with extremely rich reserves of boron, chromium, iron, copper, manganese, and bauxite.

With an abundance of oil and non-ferrous metals, Germany's war machine would become sharper, and the defeat of the British Empire would be inevitable. Although the powerful United States on the other side of the country is increasingly showing signs of being pro-British and entering the war. But to date, the United States has not carried out a large-scale military mobilization. The most likely prospect now is that Britain will be captured by Germany before America's war potential is transformed into military power! At that time, the United States will lose its springboard for attacking the European continent, and no matter how strong its military strength is, it will not be possible for them to directly send troops from the Americas to land on the European continent.

After the prospect of war seemed to be certain, Franco expressed his willingness to enter the war to Ribbentrop, who was visiting Madrid, and also made a huge request for assistance. After a visit to Berlin and a promise of Hitler's aid, Franco went to Italy, accompanied by Ribbentrop.

He came to Italy for two purposes: first, to discuss with Mussolini the conditions for entering the war - to ask Italy for assistance; The second is to discuss with Hesman the issue of recovering the Gibraltar Peninsula.

After a cordial exchange of views with Mussolini, the two dictators of Spain and Italy, as well as the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ziano, went together to the Medici Villa, where the headquarters of the German-Italian forces in the Mediterranean was located.

"Your Excellency, our country, which experienced terrible turmoil and civil war in the 30s, and now, although order has been restored, the basis of stability is very weak and it is difficult to withstand a long and large-scale war. Therefore, we hope that the battle for the peninsula of Gibraltar will be resolved quickly. ”

Franco told Hersmann in fluent French that he was an elite member of the Spanish Army, graduated from the best Toledo Army School in Spain, and studied at the French Military Academy in the twenties, so he could speak French very well. And Hersmann and Mussolini can also speak French, Hersmann is also the elite of the German Army, since childhood received strict military training, Germany at that time was the number one imaginary enemy with France, military schools naturally have French classes. Therefore, in order to facilitate communication, Franco spoke to Hersmann in French. Mussolini's French was not very good, but his son-in-law, Count Ziano, was fluent in French and acted as an interpreter on the spot.

"I also agree to a quick decision," Hersman said, "and I hope to seize the peninsula of Gibraltar within two or three weeks of Spain's formal declaration of war on Britain." ”

"2-3 weeks?" Franco asked, somewhat surprised, "How could you possibly do it?" ”

This timetable was clearly beyond Franco's expectations, and he felt that the seizure of the Gibraltar peninsula in a few months was a quick one.

"Of course, you need to be well prepared." Hersman looked at Franco and asked, "Generalissimo, Spain is in no hurry to declare war on England, is it?" ”

"No hurry, of course not."

"Then declare war later, so that we can deploy around the Gibraltar Peninsula. The first is the construction of airfields, and we want to deploy a large number of combat aircraft in Seville and Galicia, which is the key to victory. The experience of operations in the Mediterranean tells us that the concentrated use of powerful shore-based aviation can deal a fatal blow to the enemy's surface fleet. And in this regard, we and Italy have a big advantage. ”

A few months of operations in the Mediterranean tempered the Italian Air Force, and now they are in shape. Most of the S.M.79 aircraft were converted into torpedo bombers.

And another three-engine aircraft, the Z.79 medium bomber, which was equally superior in performance to the S.M.1007, began to take on the task of striking enemy surface ships. Although this type of aircraft only carries out horizontal bombing (in fact, it can also carry torpedoes), because of its high speed and large bomb load, it is also quite a threat to surface ships.

In addition, the Italian Air Force acquired a number of Fokker Zero fighters (at the same time authorized for production) and He-115 seaplanes, formed their own escort fighter units and maritime reconnaissance aircraft units.

The most significant change is in the use of tactics, and the current Italian Air Force has learned to concentrate on the use of bombers and torpedo bombers to attack the enemy's surface fleet.

At the same time, German naval aviation also began to eliminate the inferior He-115 torpedo bombers after the Mediterranean campaign, replacing them with seaplanes for reconnaissance missions. In its place was the Italian hunchback aircraft S.M.79 Sparrowhawk. Fokker exchanged the production license of the Fokker Zero for the production license of the S.M.79, and also equipped the S.M.79 "Sparrowhawk" with an air-cooled engine from Siemens with better performance (in the 40s, there were two companies in Germany that produced air-cooled engines), which further improved the performance of the "Sparrowhawk".

In addition, the technical exchange between Germany and Japan has brought a new boost to the German naval aviation. Two Japanese Meteor carrier-based dive bombers were sent to Germany in early April, and then they flew test. As a result, the Japanese aircraft received extremely high ratings, was considered to have performance no less than the Ju87, and was also a carrier-based aircraft, making it an ideal alternative to the Fokker 99. The only drawback is that the "Meteor" carrier-based dive bomber lands too fast and is very prone to accidents. Therefore, Fokker engineers proposed to replace the liquid-cooled engine of the "Meteor" aircraft with a 14-cylinder air-cooled engine to increase drag and reduce the speed of the aircraft when it landed.

The new scheme has been approved by the German naval aviation and has been named "Fokker 100", which is ready to be mass-produced to replace the Fokker 99 after the completion of the modification design.

"Secondly, we need to strengthen the railways in Seville close to Gibraltar." Hersman continued to talk about his intentions.

"Reinforcement of the railroad?"

Hersman nodded: "That's right, this is to facilitate the transportation and deployment of train guns and overweight mortars. These super cannons will be used to break through the fortress of Gibraltar. Because of the terrain of the fortress of Gibraltar, the fortifications were extremely strong, and a large number of shore guns and anti-aircraft guns were deployed. It is not cost-effective to shoot at them with surface ships, and it is difficult to achieve more desirable results by bombing them with aircraft. Therefore, I intend to mobilize super artillery and completely destroy the defense of Gibraltar with large-caliber artillery! ”

The layout of the batteries in Gibraltar is very tricky, not blocked by the windmill platform and the Europa platform, but simply hollowing out a section of the mountain and stuffing the cannon into it, which is difficult to hit.

Moreover, the number of coastal defense cannons is very large, although the caliber is not very large, and the performance is somewhat outdated, but it is still very unwise to use precious battleships to shoot at them - battleships are actually precious things, not easy to make but easy to break, and once broken, they have to be repaired for a while.

"We now have four very powerful super cannons," Hersman said in a very proud tone, "they are the 420mm 'Big Bertha' howitzer, the 283mm K5 train gun, the 600mm 'Karl' mortar, the 800mm 'Gustav' and 'Dora' super heavy train guns!" ”

“600mm！ 800mm！ Hearing the caliber of the cannon, Franco and Mussolini exclaimed at the same time.

"The 800mm cannon must be the most powerful weapon in the world," Mussolini said, "and with such a cannon, the fortress of Gibraltar would be in ruins within two weeks." ”

Franco nodded and said, "So I'm relieved." I will definitely order the full cooperation of the railway authorities in Spain to complete the reinforcement of the railway as soon as possible. ”

The K5, Gustav and Dora were all train guns, and although they could be disassembled during transportation, they had to be assembled during combat and sometimes moved on the front line, so the railroad had to be reinforced.

"In addition, we are going to build fortifications for the Karl mortars and the Great Bertha howitzers in Lalinea and Algeciras, near the Gibraltar peninsula," Hersman continued. And also to evacuate the residents there. ”

"Build fortifications, evacuate residents?" Franco frowned, "There's going to be a lot of movement, right?" The British will find out. ”

Hersman shrugged his shoulders and smiled mockingly: "Let them find out, the Battle of Gibraltar does not need any secrecy at all." I would like to see how Churchill intends to save the most important fortress of the British Empire. (To be continued.) )