Port Said, Egypt, 14 December 1940, early morning.

Snow-white searchlights pierced the night, countless trucks rushed between warehouses and docks, Indian soldiers with red cloths on their heads shouted from time to time, urging hundreds of Egyptian coolies to speed up loading and unloading goods, and the booms on the docks swung back and forth more often than usual.

Standing at the top of the bridge of the battleship "Rodney" and looking at the scene of busy unloading on the dock, the commander of the H fleet, James Brown. Vice Admiral Somerville couldn't help but think of the lifeline in the Atlantic Ocean that was sustained by blood and fire.

Since the naval battle in July last year, although there have been no large-scale fleet battles in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the British Empire has not yet shaken off the situation in which its fate hangs by a thread.

The "submarine + plane" tactic used by the Germans to break diplomatic relations once forced the British Empire to the point where its lifeline was almost cut off. It wasn't until someone came up with the idea of installing an aircraft catapult on a large cargo ship to catapult a Hurricane fighter into the sky that the damage was somewhat contained. But the losses of Hurricane aircraft and pilots increased correspondingly. The Hurricane planes that were ejected into the sky suffered great losses, either being destroyed by the Fokker Zero, or being forced to land at sea because they ran out of fuel and could not fly back to the British mainland, and most of them could not be recovered.

Fortunately, the Americans provided volunteer pilots and planes in time to keep Britain's lifeline alive. But the damage is still huge, from July to now, Britain has lost about 500,000 tons of merchant ships every month. In the past year or so, the British Empire has lost more than 8 million tons of freighters, and the total tonnage of new merchant ships is less than 3 million tons. The total tonnage of merchant ships in the British Empire had now been reduced from 15 million tons before the war to less than 13 million tons - not that Vice Admiral Somerville failed in mathematics, but that Britain had taken many French and Belgian freighters at sea and in British and American ports to replenish the losses.

But 500,000 tons of merchant ships are sunk every month, which can still deal a fatal blow to the British Empire. Because a significant portion of these merchant ships were laden with goods and raw materials purchased from the United States or other parts of the world. They sank to the bottom of the sea, along with merchant ships, which is equivalent to the sinking of Britain's remaining gold reserves into the Atlantic!

Under the rapid depletion, Britain's gold reserves were close to bottoming out in October. The situation had to be raised by apportioning special national bonds to the wealthy Indian maharajas, so that the bankrupt British Empire could survive until the Lend-Lease Act was passed by Congress.

But the deadliest threat to the British Empire is not the above, but the crisis in the Mediterranean! This is also the reason why Vice Admiral Somerville and his H Fleet will now appear in Port Said at the mouth of the north of Suez.

Due to the deployment of hundreds of German aircraft on the island of Sicily, now the Strait of Tness has been completely blocked. The H flotilla, stationed in Gibraltar, simply did not dare to go deep into the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Fleet, based in Alexandria, faced the double pressure of German aircraft and the Italian fleet.

Once the Mediterranean Fleet suffers heavy losses and loses its naval supremacy in the Mediterranean, no matter what kind of victories the British Army achieves in North and East Africa, and whether Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey will jump out and act as cannon fodder for Britain. Domination of North Africa and the Middle East would change hands in a very short period of time, and then Britain might even lose India......

Britain, which has lost the Middle East and India, may no longer be the British Empire, which is known as the sun never sets. Germany, which has acquired the Middle East and India, will undoubtedly succeed in integrating Europe into a more powerful behemoth than the United States.

That's why Vice Admiral Somerville led the reinforced H Fleet (including the battleships Rodney, Queen Elizabeth, Warrior, and Ark Royal) around the continent to join the Mediterranean Fleet.

In addition to the warships and aircraft carriers that the main force of the Mediterranean Fleet originally had, the Mediterranean Fleet now has eight battleships including the Warweary, Malaya, Sovereign, Rodney, Queen Elizabeth, Warrior, and Lorraine, as well as three aircraft carriers, including the Ark Royal, the Radiance, and the Eagle. The strength can be said to be very strong, and it should be able to deal a devastating blow to the Italian Navy!

……

Salzburg, Berchtesgaden.

I don't know if he wanted to relax the anxious "Caesar of the 20th century" Mussolini, Hitler did not meet him in serious Berlin, but chose to visit the scenic Berchtesgaden.

The meeting place was the Eagle's Nest at an altitude of 1,881 meters, a marvel of architecture that was built in 1938 by Kaiser Wilhelm as a gift for Hitler's 50th birthday.

The German Emperor originally intended to make Hitler Count of Hittesgaden, but Hitler refused and only accepted the Eagle's Nest.

Mussolini, however, had not yet gone up to the Eagle's Nest, but was a guest at the villa of Marshal Nechsmann in the small town of Berchtesgaden at the foot of the mountain. Hersmann was going to have a heart-to-heart meeting with the Italian leader before Mussolini and Hitler met.

"Mr. Prime Minister," said Hersmann to Mussolini with a smile in a very spacious and beautiful living room, "General Halder has spoken to me several times, and he has told me everything that is going on on the North African front...... It's not as good as it could be, but it's not particularly bad. ”

Mussolini smiled reluctantly and said: "I have given an order to Marshal Graziani to hold the ...... at all costs Hold ......"

He didn't know where to hold anymore, for the Italian army had completely collapsed on 10 December. By 17 December, the Italian 10th Army had lost 237 artillery pieces, 70 tanks and about 38,300 soldiers. The British, trailing behind the routed Italian army, advanced west along the Victorian Highway, passed through the Hafaya Pass, and entered Italian Libya.

"Defend Benghazi," Hirschman kindly suggested, "I think it can still be defended there, and perhaps two divisions of fresh troops can be brought in from the Italian mainland, and deployed in advance in Benghazi." ”

"Ban...... Benghazi? Mussolini's face turned pale, "No, no way!" ”

Hersman shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "Prime Minister, whether the front will retreat to Benghazi or not actually depends on the victory or defeat of the battle at sea. The Battle of North Africa was actually part of the Mediterranean Campaign, and the key to the Mediterranean Campaign was the struggle for sea power, as long as the Italian Navy could defeat the British Mediterranean Fleet with the support of German air power. Defeats on land in North Africa were temporary, and the Italian army was able to realize the ideals of the Pyramid of the Prancing Horse. But if we lose in the Mediterranean......" his tone suddenly became solemn, "our two countries may even lose the war!" ”

The possibility of losing the war certainly exists! Although Hersmann did his best to suppress Hitler's desire to attack the Soviet Union, it is difficult to say whether Stalin would be fooled by Britain and the United States into attacking Germany.

As for the final trump card of the atomic bomb, although Hersmann said in front of Hitler that it could be built in two or three years, in fact he did not know the bottom of his heart.

So the best way to be undefeated is to take the Mediterranean! With the resources of North Africa and the Middle East, Germany can really say that it is invincible.

"Failure?" Mussolini looked at Hersmann with some surprise, "Marshal, what are you talking about?" How could we fail? Now Germany has conquered almost all of Europe, the USSR is also a friend of Germany, and in the East there is Japan echoing us, and Britain is only fighting alone. ”

Mussolini was still quite shrewd and had weighed it twice before entering the war. It is a pity that Hitler in history got into great trouble with the Soviet Union, and Japan gave the United States an excuse to enter the war, and Italy itself lost the war in the Mediterranean with a clear superiority in strength.

Hersmann winked at Mussolini. "The possibility of losing the war cannot be completely ruled out at the moment. But considering the serious consequences of defeat, I propose to completely rule it out with an overwhelming victory at sea! Victory in this naval battle will also make Italy the master of Egypt, Sudan and Syria. ”

According to Hersman's plan, oil-producing countries such as Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would all be protected by Germany. The Kingdom of Jordan will also be protected by Germany, while the State of Israel will be formally established on Palestinian soil.

Therefore, the two territories that can be allocated to Italy around the Mediterranean are Egypt and Sudan - considering the fighting power shown by Italy, it would be good to be able to get the rich territory of Egypt, let alone a sultan?

"And what about Greece?" Mussolini still did not forget Greece, which taught him a hard lesson.

"Then add Greece," Hirschmann nodded, knowing that it was still necessary to catch Mussolini's appetite, "Greece can be given to Italy." But first we must defeat the British, and in order to achieve this goal, a unified Joint Command for the Mediterranean Theater should be formed. Unified command of all German, EC and Italian armies in the Mediterranean. ”

"Command all the armies in one command?" Mussolini asked.

"Yes," Hersman said, "including the Army, Navy and Air Force." ”

"So who will be the commander-in-chief of the Joint Command?" Mussolini asked again.

"Me!" Hersman smiled, "I will hold this position until I defeat the British Army and Navy in the Mediterranean." In 6 months at most, we will be victorious in the Mediterranean! (To be continued.) )