This was the critical time when the Anglo-American coalition was about to land in France, and Italy was on the verge of the encirclement arranged by Rommel, and if Italy betrayed Germany, Rommel's encirclement would be full of loopholes. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Rommel wanted to make reasonable use of the 23 elite divisions of the German army, so Germany had to rescue Edward and help him regain power in Italy, Edward still had many followers in Italy, which was not very difficult.

What's more, because Rommel still had 23 divisions deployed in Italy, Germany also had more than a dozen divisions in Greece, and 8 or 9 divisions in Spain, Italy at this time was almost under the full encirclement of the German army, but the German army had no time to take care of the coup d'état in Italy in order to deal with the large-scale landing of the Allied forces in France.

Rommel ordered Eddie to immediately carry out the plan to rescue Edward with the "Direct Commando", and the Gestapo spies were responsible for intelligence support.

Eddie received the assignment on August 15 and began preparations on the 16th, selecting 60 special operations personnel and 10 espionage experts to form a rescue commando team.

The first difficulty encountered in drawing up the plan of action was the lack of knowledge of the exact location of Edward's captivity, and the only way to conduct reconnaissance was to secretly organize reconnaissance activities, given the need to conceal the operational attempt.

After searching for 2 days without any clues, Add got 1 piece of information.

According to a fruit seller who lives in a small town near the Bay of Caserta, there is a maid in his main client's house who is engaged to a policeman on the island of Poncha, but they have not dated for two or three weeks recently.

From this information, Eddie deduced that the policeman might have been serving as a guard for important ****** on the island of Poncha. A few days later, a young naval officer revealed to him that Edward had been sent away by the submarine hunter Persephone, further confirming Eddy's judgment.

The next day, however, it was learned that Edward had been transferred from Poncha Island to another location, and that his whereabouts were unknown. Later, the intelligence services found out that on August 16, the Italian government first transferred Edward to a small village on the lesser-known island of Sassi, and then took him to La Dolla, 8 kilometers to the north, where the naval base was built. On the island of Madarena, imprisoned in a mansion called Karen Hill.

Eddie in getting Edward imprisoned in Ra? After receiving information on the island of Maddarena, he disguised himself as a crew member and accompanied Lieutenant Wargan, an Italian naval officer, to Sardinia to visit the German naval detachment stationed on the island.

During the visit, Eddie borrowed a motorboat to reconnoiter the coastal terrain and found that Karen Hill was heavily guarded by ground troops and heavy firearms.

On 17 August, the "Direct Commando" set off from Germany under the leadership of Eddie on a Heinkel He-111 bomber. Fly in the direction of Madarena.

However, no one expected that during the flight, it was attacked by the British Air Force, and the plane crashed into the sea, but fortunately it was rescued by an Italian steamer, which happened to be to transfer Edward, but the crew did not suspect Eddie and his gang, but enthusiastically gave them some clothes to change into, and let them land on Sardinia.

At this time, the news came that, according to the Wehrmacht's spy secretary Canaris, Edward was imprisoned on the island of Elba, where Napoleon had been imprisoned, and Eddie planned to "first ask La? Madarena sent a German warship for a courtesy visit, while R-boats (high-speed minesweepers) loaded with SS and special forces personnel were brought into port.

On the same day, the captain went to visit the command of the Italian naval base, and in the evening the ship temporarily docked in the port. Early the next morning, the R-boat carrying the commandos rushed to the pier with the support of the German ships in the harbor, and after the crew disembarked, the R-boat quickly marched to Karen Hill to rescue Edward. ”

Two days later, Eddy and Vargan, disguised as crew members, returned to Sardinia, but Edward had already been transferred to the Apennines on 19 August. The first rescue plan was declared bankrupt.

Eddy returned to German-held territory in northern Italy to continue to find out about Edward's whereabouts, but intelligence was hard to come by. One day, Eddy's communications squad stumbled upon a wireless telegram from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, saying, "The security measures in the area of Mount Grande Sasso have been completed."

Kujerifa. "Cujeri is a general, and he is in charge of guarding Edward. Eddy then turned his attention to the summit of the Apennines, 120 kilometers northeast of Rome, the Great Sasso.

Halfway up the mountain, at an altitude of 2,000 meters, there is a winter sports center built before the war, and in the center of the sports center there is a hotel called Kangbao? Because of Pelatlet, it is reported that Edward was imprisoned here.

A German stationed in Italy, who had lived here for a few weeks eight years ago, provided information on the terrain, but it was not detailed because of the distance.

As for the exact information, it is only known from a tourist brochure that there is a cable car from the village down the mountain to the hotel, and although there is a path up the mountain, the cable car is usually used to get to the hotel, and from this point of view, it is the most suitable place for prisoners.

After confirming that Edward was under house arrest at the hotel, Eddie flew to scout the surrounding terrain the next day and took aerial photographs. According to reconnaissance, the small road up the hill was closely guarded by the guards.

The hotel sits on a small terrace, surrounded by snow-covered rocks, and there is a small overgrown triangular clearing behind the hotel, which is consistent with the information previously obtained. The idea of a rescue with a glider immediately came to Eddie's mind, and the clearing could be an ideal landing spot.

Italy's Bardolio regime declared its secession from the Axis powers on 21 August and concluded an armistice with the Allies, at which point Edward was likely to be extradited to the Allies.

So Eddie decided to use a glider to carry out the rescue, but was opposed by the air force: "If the ground operation is difficult to implement, there are only two options: either paratroopers are airborne, or use gliders* to land."

However, the open space behind the hotel is too small for the airborne space required by both methods. Moreover, the high altitude of Mount Grande Sasso and the thin air are not suitable for paratroopers, nor for the use of gliders.

In addition, to deal with a guard force of 200 people, at least the same number of troops must be used. However, whether it is a paratrooper parachute jump or a glider * plane landing, due to the landing field, it can only be limited to about 20 people. ”

However, Eddie did not flinch in the face of pressure from all sides, and he resolutely decided to use the method of gliding * glider landing to carry out the rescue operation.

…… (To be continued.) )