Naples is the largest city in southern Italy, and it is one of the most famous scenic spots in the Mediterranean. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Mount Vesuvius, the buried site that led to the famous city of Pompeii, is located just southeast of the city of Naples. The history and culture of the region can be traced back to the Roman and Greek periods.

Naples was once the land of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which later broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples on its own. It was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy after the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy. The location is very important, on the southern coast of the Apennine Peninsula, and it is not too far north from Rome.

In addition to the location, the most important thing about the area is that it has a large port facility.

When the size of the modern army reaches hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The logistical requirements for supplies can become terrifying. Even the Japanese Army, which is generally dominated by light infantry, must be supplied with sufficient supplies in modern warfare in order to continue to maintain combat strength. And if it is replaced by a reloaded and mechanized Ming Army, the requirements for logistics supply will be completely geometrically rising.

The assault on the Apennine Peninsula required the mobilization of millions of troops. Because of their proximity to the hinterland of European powers such as Germany and France, these countries will inevitably strengthen their support for the Apennines. Although it was blocked by the Alps, the reinforcements of the Allied forces were certainly not weak. If you want to open up a situation here, you have to invest at least a million troops.

For such a large number of mechanized troops to reach the Apennine Peninsula and maintain logistical supply lines, they would need to have large ports. Naples is the largest port city in the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula.

If the Ming army wanted to recapture the Apennine Peninsula, it first had to send troops up. Too close to the north is unlikely, after all, the Allied naval and air forces are not vegetarians. Naples became the best option.

When the time came to January 1942, the newly established Daming Southern European Theater had made all preparations for landing in Italy. Because of the victory in the Pacific Campaign, the Ming Navy transferred a number of newly commissioned warships and warships originally scheduled to reinforce the Pacific Fleet to the Mediterranean Sea to strengthen the strength of the Mediterranean Fleet. At the same time, a large number of transports and landing craft and other ships also arrived, thus preparing for the battle on the Apennine Peninsula.

On the morning of 7 January, dense shore-based air forces covered the huge landing fleet and approached the port of Salerno, about 50 kilometers southeast of Naples, to prepare for a landing operation.

The main reason why this place was chosen for the first battle is that the defense force here is far inferior to the important Naples, but it is very close to Naples and has good port facilities. If the Ming army can quickly occupy this place, they can quickly move north to take Naples on land.

In addition, another reason is that although the Ming air superiority fighters that took off from Sicily were able to cover the combat radius to Rome, the heavily fortified area near Rome was obviously not suitable as a target for landing operations. To the south of Rome, only the area around Naples was the most suitable for landing operations.

The narrow Apennine Peninsula was home to a large number of Italian and German troops, but the terrain was very advantageous for the attackers. In order to prevent the Ming army from Sicily from crossing the Strait of Messina, the closest distance to the European continent, the Germans deployed a large number of troops across the Strait of Messina and throughout the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula.

As long as the Ming army was able to occupy Salerno and Naples, and then move north, it could directly threaten the core of the Kingdom of Italy, Rome, and thus possibly force the Kingdom of Italy to choose to withdraw from the war.

If the army marched eastward, it would be able to kill Fucha through Benevento, thus sealing all the German and Italian troops in the southern Apennine Peninsula in a huge pocket. The southern part of the Apennine Peninsula is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and as long as the land passage is blocked, the Ming army, which has superior sea and air power, can encircle at least 300,000 German and Italian troops in its pocket.

The initial phase of the landing operation for Salerno went surprisingly well. At first, the Allies were still adamant that the main direction of attack of the Ming army was Sardinia. After all, as long as Sardinia is taken, Corsica can be captured, and then it can land in the flat south of France and sweep Western Europe. As for Italy, because of the existence of the Alps, no one thought that the Ming army would place the main battlefield of the counterattack on Western Europe in Italy.

Zhang Cheng knows very well in his heart that the route from Sardinia, Corsica to southern France seems to be very easy and direct, but in fact it is very difficult. At this time, the strength of France and Germany did not suffer any painful losses in the war. What everyone can see, it is naturally impossible for them not to see.

Not to mention the heavily fortified southern part of France, where at least 200,000 elite troops were stationed on Sardinia alone. Hundreds of artillery pieces and a large number of aircraft were enough to inflict heavy losses on the landing force. And when it comes to the south of France, facing the main force of the French army defending its homeland, how much does the Ming army need to pay to gain a foothold in the south of France? This kind of loss, even Zhang Cheng feels his scalp tingle just thinking about it.

The combat effectiveness of the Ming army was somewhat higher than that of the allies, but it was far from the point of sweeping. It is impossible for Zhang Cheng to send the soldiers to death as a certain army high-ranking said that the millions of war losses swept through Western Europe.

Besides, even if you really pay the price of millions of casualties, you will not be able to sweep through Western Europe. Those who despise their opponents will pay a heavy price.

In the end, Zhang Cheng chose a safe tactic, that is, to occupy the Apennine Peninsula, which was very well positioned, to destroy the war potential and heritage of Western European countries with brutal bombing, and finally defeat or force them to surrender.

However, strategic deception was still possible, and the Allies were very cooperative in focusing their main attention on Sardinia and southern France. Even the Ming army had already landed on Sicily, and the old men in the upper echelons of the Allied forces did not think that the Ming would continue to attack Italy. It was not until 7 January that a large landing fleet appeared off Salerno.

The port of Salerno is within the Bay of Salerno, with open entrances to the bay and beaches, making it easy for large fleets to pass through and landing ships to beach.

Montecovino Airport, just outside Salerno, is located next to a flat beach and is only a few kilometers from Salerno City. After the landing, the Ming army was able to quickly occupy this large, well-equipped airfield, so that fighters from aircraft carriers could take off and enter Montecovino Airport to provide support for the landing force nearby.

Originally, Wang Dexiang, the new commander of the Southern European Theater, was also going to devote a part of the paratrooper unit to seize the Montecovino airfield during the landing operation, but the paratrooper operation was canceled when the battle plan was submitted to Zhang Cheng.

Because Montecovino airport is close to the beach and the city of Salerno, the German and Italian troops stationed in Salerno, especially the armored units, will soon be able to rush to the airport to reinforce them, which will pose a great threat to the lightly armed paratroopers.

Moreover, the landing site was located very close to the Montecovino airport, and there was no need to deliberately carry out a parachute operation. As long as the landing is successful, you will soon be able to take this place. Therefore, Zhang Cheng rejected the plan to use paratroopers when he finally reviewed the battle plan.

As for the plans for a large-scale airborne operation at the airfield. Ever since the Ming paratroopers came to the battlefield, their outstanding performance has long attracted the attention of all enemies. The deployment of a large number of anti-aircraft guns at airfields has become a common practice for the Allies. The result of the landing was definitely heavy losses.

An escort fleet of four battleships, two aircraft carriers, two heavy cruisers, and a large number of light cruiser destroyers covered more than two hundred ships of all kinds and swooped down in the direction of Salerno.

At 9 o'clock in the morning on the 7th, the Mediterranean Sea was calm. The huge flotilla suddenly sounded the alarm as it approached Salerno. Groups of escort fighters that took off from aircraft carriers, as well as from Sicily, sent back alerts to the fleet. A group of more than 70 German fighters was rapidly approaching the escort fleet.

The number of these German fighters was quite large, but compared with the more than 200 Ming escort fighters, it was still slightly insufficient.

They did not get any good opportunities under the encirclement and interception of many Ming fighters. Neither the bombs dropped by the Stukas nor the torpedoes hastily dropped by the Junkers 88 caused little damage to the convoy. However, the Germans were surrounded by escort fighters in this wave of attacks, and lost more than a dozen fighters.

This German attack did not have any effect on the determination of the Ming army to attack. More than an hour later, when the time came to 11 a.m. on the 7th, the landing fleet was more than ten nautical miles off the coast of Salerno. Here again, they were subjected to heavy air raids by the German and Italian air forces.

As a vassal state of Germany, the Italian Air Force actually had little combat effectiveness, and they used old models that were eliminated by Germany.

In addition, because of the loss of the Caucasus oil fields, the Romanian oil fields were bombed by the Ming army, and the oil transported from the United States was attacked by the Ming army's attack ships and submarines on the Atlantic route. As a result, the Allies were relatively short of fuel on the European theater. In this case, Italy, as a weak fighting force and an underground position, naturally did not get much rationing.

Without enough fuel, pilots were not adequately trained, and with the use of old-fashioned and obsolete fighters, the Italian Air Force was largely ineffective. But the Luftwaffe was different.

Since reunification, the Germans, who were considered to have surpassed France to become the number one military power in Europe, even forced the Ming to make compromises, and the strength of their armed forces can be seen.

Because there were a large number of international students studying in Daming, after returning to China, these people brought many advanced concepts and technologies of Daming back to Germany, so that Germany's level in all aspects has been significantly improved. The prime minister, who is now in power in Germany, once studied painting in Daming. (To be continued.) )