Chapter 209: Hurricanes in North Africa

After the end of World War I, Europe and the United States, as the victors, seemed to have lost the courage to fight, until they were blocked by the Germans at the door and beaten violently, and then they remembered to fight back.

The appeasement policy of Britain and France was a complete failure, and Britain was trapped on an isolated island until the United States entered the war. I don't want to say that the Navy actually killed the US Pacific Fleet violently, Australia and the US military to help defend it, and India can only come by itself. The formation of the Anglo-Indian army requires a large amount of weapons and equipment, and the productive forces of the United States are certainly strong, isn't it out of stock? Only China can supply Britain with the equipment it desperately needs. So now Britain is asking China, in the history of parallel time and space, didn't the British army rely on betraying the Chinese expeditionary force to retreat to India?

In this time and space, Britain does not have this opportunity, and even Myanmar is directly ceded. What Churchill wanted most was not equipment from China, but the Chinese political axe to join the allies and fight against it. In order to achieve this, Churchill was a bit of a will-do thing. Because of this, Johnson did not beat around the bush and completely abandoned the inherent reserve of the British.

"Britain should have the technology that China needs, and even if Britain doesn't have it, the United States should have it. President Fang Da, the alliance between the United Kingdom, the United States and China is the most in China's interests. In the future world, Britain will dominate Europe, the United States dominate the Americas, and China dominates Asia. It is in China's interest for the free world to unite to dominate the world order. Johnson spoke very directly about interests, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's vision of the post-war world pattern.

Fang Jianxiong was secretly amused in his heart, the United States ** entered the war, and Britain still wanted to dominate Europe after the war? Fool whom? Britain couldn't dominate Europe before the war, and now it's beaten by people blocking the door, just like a dying patient, relying on the ginseng of the United States to hang a life, and dare to say anything about dominating Europe. Even if China can agree, can US imperialism agree? Isn't Churchill's wishful thinking just to use the United States to fight Germany and pull China against the United States after the war? This set was played once after the First World War, and now do you expect to replicate the results after the First World War? What a whims!

"Last time I made it clear that there can only be one winner between China and China, and now my attitude is still the same. However, China is not ready to fight on two fronts, and China needs time to form new forces. Fang Jianxiong's attitude was the same as last time, and Zhuang Sen was somewhat relieved, but soon said worriedly: "It is very likely that Ben will attack India!" The British political axe needs help. ”

Fang Jianxiong said in surprise: "What? Is Britain worried that even India will not be able to hold on? China has a mechanized corps and two infantry corps in Burma, and the army can only go to India by sea. With the sea transportation capacity of this book, the strength of three divisions and regiments can be projected at a time is the limit. Could it be that the British army in India can't resist even three divisions? Besides, with such a large India, the three divisions of the army need to fight for at least a month before they can get reinforcements from the country, right? ”

It is a shame that the British Empire has fallen to this point, to be honest. Now is not the time to ask for face, Johnson can only tell the truth: "After our army defeated the Italian army in Africa, the German army landed in Africa. Rommel had three armoured divisions with a total strength of about 300,000. The Suez Canal was so important that we had to draw some troops from India. Now that new troops are still being formed, and Yan zhòng lacks equipment, the British Empire needs China's help. If possible, what Britain would most like to see is an alliance between China and Britain, with the Chinese [***] team attacking directly from land. ”

Speaking of which, Johnson still mentions the Sino-British alliance, and does not even mention the entry of Chinese volunteers into India. Abandoning Burma, Britain is already distressed, and letting the Chinese into India is really unacceptable. In short, Johnson received the mission to obtain help from China, and the bottom line is that the Chinese [***] team will not enter India in any form.

"The problem of equipment is easy to solve, we have captured a large number of weapons and ammunition from the Soviet army, and we can provide your country with equipment for three infantry divisions, as well as 200 122 howitzers and 200 T26 tanks. More could have been provided, but a lot of equipment is being repaired and can only be provided to your country one after another. "Fang Jianxiong is rare to be generous this time, there is no matter of mentioning money, this is not a conscience discovery, the main thing is that these equipment are used to fight the capital, anyway, these equipment are given to the British, even if part of it falls into the hands of the army in the future, there will be no ammunition replenishment, and it will soon become scrap metal.

"Thanks to the help of the Chinese political axe, I wonder what the UK will pay for this?" Johnson couldn't believe his ears, this guy who has always only talked about interests, must have forgotten to mention the benefits.

"Please tell Prime Minister Sù Churchill that China has provided all this equipment free of charge. In view of the fact that the [***] team is not ready to start a war in Yuben at the moment, these equipment can be regarded as a little apology. Please rest assured Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the alliance between China, Britain and the United States is the trend of the times, and the free world will inevitably dominate the entire world order. Fang Jianxiong's words, Zhuang Sen was very excited, and after being fooled away, he suddenly thought, can he satisfy the prime minister by replying to the country like this?

Churchill, of course, was not satisfied, but there was nothing he could do. We can only urge Johnson to speed up the pace of contacts with China's diplomatic departments, get the weapons and equipment provided by China as much as possible, and ask Johnson to strive to let China join the alliance within half a year. At the same time, the intelligence services were instructed to figure out what technology China wanted to acquire from Germany. As long as Britain has it, it will be provided to China free of charge, and China must not be allowed to join the German side.

After finishing his work with China, Churchill turned his eyes to Africa. The battlefields in Africa were mainly concentrated in North Africa, with French colonies in North Africa being Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, Italy gaining Libya, and Britain occupying Egypt. This is the pre-war pattern, after the outbreak of World War II, the French army was swept by the German army, the British retreated at home across the English Channel, the British army in Egypt was only 50,000, Mussolini thought that there was an opportunity, so he concentrated 250,000 troops from Libya to Egypt.

I don't want the aggressive Italian army to really fight, and it turns out to be a scum with five combat effectiveness. Let Wavell command the British army and the British and Indian troops to defeat and return, the British army took advantage of the situation to chase and kill, occupied Cyrenaica, and saw that the Italian army was about to be driven into the sea by the British army, Mussolini had to be cheeky to ask Hitler for help.

Originally, Hitler had the intention of sending troops to Africa, but Mussolini did not agree at first, for fear that the German doves would occupy the magpie's nest. I don't want my own army to fight too fashionable, let alone the British army, even the British and Indian armies can't beat it. What a shame on this! You must know that the Italian army is armed to the teeth, and Wavell has only 50,000 Anglo-Indian troops plus 4,500 Sudanese Defense Forces in his hands. Moreover, the British tanks still used local methods to build a few armored vehicles covered with iron sheets, and the cannon only had two antique howitzers.

Therefore, it was really hard for Hitler to have such a pig teammate. Fortunately, Stalin in this time and space did not have the energy to puff his mustache in Romania, and the mustache did not start to clean up his beard first, and he was bent on crossing the sea to destroy Britain. The time and intensity of the Battle of Britain far exceeded parallel histories. Moreover, Germany also pumped oil in Bavaria, proving that the information given by China was accurate. Now President Fang's Italy, the occupier of Libya, which claims to be one of the world's largest oil fields, has sent a distress signal, and Hitler, who had planned to kill Africa to seize oil fields and cut off the Suez Canal, agreed to Mussolini's request. Because there were no Soviet battlefields, Hitler was able to send more troops to Africa. Of course, the mustache did not promise Mussolini in vain, and put forward conditions that embarrassed him: Grazigna was removed from his post and the command of the Italian army in North Africa was handed over to Rommel. Mussolini pinched his nose and accepted!

Rommel was ordered to meet Hitler, and in his office Hitler threw a British magazine to Rommel, pointed to Lieutenant General Richard and O'Connor with a proud smile on the cover of the magazine, and said: "General, please drive him out of Africa for me, I don't want to see his shadow again!" I'll be waiting for your message here. ”

The mustache was crisp, and Rommel did just as neatly a standard military salute before turning away. Rommel, who received the order, immediately flew to North Africa, first overlooking the African land from the air, and found that the Italian army was probably defeated in the harsh climatic conditions of the desert. I can't help but secretly despise this pig teammate, who has been in Libya for so many years, and has not yet adapted to the climate in Africa.

Hitler quickly mobilized troops, the Fifth Light Panzer Division took the lead in landing in Africa, Rommel did not wait for the follow-up troops, he took the Fifth Light Panzer Division and two Italian divisions playing soy sauce, and used suspicious tactics to confuse and scare the British [***] team in Benghazi, stationed in Benghazi was the British Second Panzer Division and the Ninth Australian Division, which was directly frightened by Rommel, and abandoned Banghazi and ran.

Rommel pursued closely, and the British Second Panzer Division could not escape the fate of being completely annihilated, capturing Richard and Lieutenant General O'Connor, who swept through the Italian army. When the captured Richard O'Connor was brought to Rommel, he was unconvinced and asked, "How did the general attack attack without stopping in such a short period of time?" ”

Rommel replied with a smile: "I always attack on the orders of my subordinates!" Non-stop attack! Did you ever think that every machine gun in my men's hands might have the last bullet belt left? ”

O'Connor lowered his proud head, remorseful to himself, if only he could hold on for a few more days. It is a pity that there is no if the outcome of the war, and victory or defeat is victory or defeat. Rommel, who had won the first battle, soon got new troops, and another armored division was transported to Libya, Rommel immediately launched an attack on Tobruk, and Churchill sent an urgent telegram to Wavell: "Defend Tobruk to the death, and never allow the idea of retreating." ”

A month later, Churchill's telegram was the loss of Tobruk and the capture of 33,000 British and Indian troops, including 10 Chinese generals. He was visiting the United States and was consulting with Roosevelt to try to pull China into the water. Roosevelt looked at the telegram when he received it, and blankly handed it to Churchill, which read: "Tobruk surrendered, 25,000 men captured." Churchill was dumbfounded, unable to speak for a long time. It was this telegram that prompted Roosevelt to send American troops to Africa in advance to help the British army fight. For Britain and the United States, it is acceptable to withdraw from Libya, but Egypt must not be lost.

The murderous Rommel was reinforced by an armored division again, and in order to get the oil fields of Libya as much as possible, Hitler spent a lot of money, successively sending three armored divisions and ten infantry divisions to Libya, determined to drive the British across the Suez Canal in one go. Of course, before that, Hitler promoted Rommel to the rank of Field Marshal of Germany!

In a command car 1,500 kilometers away from Berlin, Rommel was hurrying to sleep, he was too tired. A group of his staff members gathered around the radio and listened to a special broadcast from Berlin. The announcer announced in a subdued voice: "Führer headquarters, Führer announces, promotion of Admiral Rommel to German Field Marshal!" ”

The voices of the staff officers cheering around the radio did not wake up the sleeping Rommel, who was also surprised and delighted when he learned the news, and said in a letter to his beloved wife: "To me, being a field marshal is like a dream. ”

In the face of the unstoppable Rommel, Churchill first removed Wavell, who was always against him, and then sent a new general, Auchinleck, to Egypt, hoping that he could block Rommel's fierce attack, and at the same time, the 2nd Armored Division of the US Army also rushed to Egypt, and the division commander Patton had just returned from China and was caught on board during a short vacation.

British intelligence also did a remarkable thing, sending several hitmen ashore with submarines, and then conducting a decapitation operation against Rommel's command! Unfortunately, the British were unlucky, and the well-planned operation was in vain because Rommel was not at the command, and all the intelligence officers involved in the operation were killed, and only 5 German staff officers were killed.

After the failed assassination attempt, Rommel rushed back to the command and, instead of being as angry as he expected, ordered the bodies of all British operatives to be cleaned and photographed, and sent them to Auchinleck, who was playing against him.

Auchinleck thought that he had figured out the details of Rommel, and gathered 75,000 men to launch the "Crusader Operation", the British army took the initiative to attack, and the two armies added up to more than 1,000 tanks, and launched a life-and-death battle in the rolling yellow sand. At the critical moment, Rommel decisively invested in the last reserve of the 15th Panzer Division.

The torrent of steel rushed towards the British position, and in the drizzle, all the tanks should be covered with hatches, and on each open-top car stood an officer straight, the soldiers were loaded with live ammunition, and the tanks were in front of the road, and the cars carried infantry to accompany the attack.

The British were overjoyed by this momentum, came back to their senses and fired fiercely, one officer was hit and fell, and immediately one of them stood up. Every German officer represents an indomitable momentum. (To be continued.) )