Historically, the two fascist countries that launched World War II, Germany and Japan, faced the same crisis before and during the war: the oil crisis.

After the war, countless Japanese right-wingers were depressed and regretted that they did not open up Daqing oil in Daqing in the northeast. He claimed that if the Daqing oil field had been opened up earlier, Japan would not have taken the risk of attacking Pearl Harbor for the sake of oil and provoked the United States.

As for Germany, the oil crisis also plagued Germany in World War II for a long time. Germany, whose shipping was blocked, was able to obtain only two million tons of oil per year from the Proshtina oil fields in Romania during World War II, plus Austria's annual production of 600,000 tons (1.1 million tons after 1944), and there was no safe and stable oil channel. However, in order for Germany to meet the needs of the war, the gap in its oil demand reached more than 10 million tons per year.

Germany had always included Romania's oil reserves as an important part of its preparations for war, as the latter provided at least one-third of Germany's total oil consumption.

Historically, after Britain and France declared war on Germany, they used economic means to grab oil at high prices in Romania.

In order to prevent Romania from turning to Germany, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced a Qiē aid in the event of an invasion of Romania, and gave Romania a loan of 5 million pounds to buy British armaments, and promised to buy 200,000 tons of wheat in return for Romania to give up cooperation with Germany.

Since Romania was strictly neutral and did not want to provoke the great powers, it could only make false promises to London and Berlin, and not offend both. Britain instead began to take advantage of its economic advantages. Induce Romania to move closer to itself in an economic and trade manner. It united with France and was ready to pay Romania $60 million on the condition that it blow up the Romanian oil fields, but Romania refused. Britain instead took advantage of its own capital to control most of Romania's oil exploration rights, importing large quantities of Romanian oil at the beginning of World War II, and raising prices, so that it mainly flowed to other Western countries with relatively abundant foreign exchange. All of Romania's oil stocks were snapped up by the British, who also booked contracts for the second half of the year and the right to supply oil after the contract expired, and rented all the barges and train cars in Romania as much as possible so that they would not be used to sell oil to Germany.

Romania's oil imports plummeted from 70,000 tons in October 1939 to 60,000 tons in November. January 1940. Only 10,000 tonnes of crude oil were imported into Germany. 255,000 tonnes and 106,000 tonnes were sold to the UK and France, respectively. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain even proudly declared in a letter to his sister that "I have a hunch that the war will be over in the spring [of 1940],...... There was no need to defeat them on the battlefield, just to show the Germans whether they could win or not. It is not worth it to continue to become increasingly poor and destitute. ”

British sniping in the field of oil supplies. As a result, the German General Staff had to exercise restraint in drawing up battle plans. In the early days of the war. Due to the rapid decline of Germany's oil reserves from 2.4 million tons to 1.6 million tons, the German army never dared to take the initiative to launch large-scale air battles and bombing against Britain, France, and other countries. Because its fuel stocks were scarce, it was only enough to launch a land offensive on the Western Front.

In his previous life, Lin Han saw a book called "Oil and the World War", a book discussing the oil supply situation of Germany in World War II, and after reading it, he felt that Hitler was simply a crazy gambler even more crazy than Yamamoto 56 in World War II, Germany's incomparably bad oil supply channels and the regional strategic situation worse than Japan, Hitler dared to launch World War II before the armament was completed, challenging the "big gamble" of Britain and France, which was simply crazy to the extreme. The most exaggerated thing is that he actually won this big gamble in the early stage, and it was the kind that won in the most exaggerated way.

Lin Han once spat on Hannah: "Looking closely at the actions of the mustache before 1941, I often have the illusion that Hitler's classmates are actually time-travelers like us. With regard to Germany's terrible armament situation and strategic situation, only a traverser relying on a "historical prophet" would dare to make such a big gamble. ”

Historically, if Germany had not succeeded in blitzing France and defeated France in just one month, as long as the war dragged on for a few more months, Germany would have immediately faced the threat of defeat because of the oil crisis. After taking Western Europe, Germany seized 10 million tons of oil from the strategic reserves of France, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries, which was enough to support its subsequent air war in Britain and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 - even so, in the last month after 1941, Germany's national gasoline reserves were only 791,000 tons, barely enough to meet a month's consumption.

In later generations, many military fans blamed Hitler for transferring the main forces to launch the Battle of Kiev, thereby delaying the launch of the Battle of Moscow, but they ignored a very important "little thing": during the Battle of Kiev, Guderian's tank cluster captured a large oil depot of the megaton level here - remember, this is a gasoline and diesel depot that can be used directly instead of oil that needs to be refined. Before that, the Germans on the Soviet-German front had already severely affected the speed of their attacks because of fuel supply problems. Without this super-large oil depot captured in Kiev, Hitler would not have been able to launch the campaign of Moscow, and he would not have even been able to get enough fuel to transfer his troops under the city of Moscow. After 1942, Germany launched the Battle of Stalingrad, and one of its strategic objectives was to seize Baku's oil fields.

One of Germany's important sources of fuel was coal-fired oil, and after 1943, with the construction of a large number of coal-fired oil plants, at its peak, the factories in its territory could supply nearly five million tons of gasoline a year - this weakness was noticed by Britain and the United States after 1944, when Allied heavy bombers began to bomb Germany's coal-fired oil plants, Germany soon began to face a serious fuel crisis.

In this face, whether it was Hannah, who took the initiative to participate in the "World War II game", or Lin Han, who was forced to participate, knew very well in his heart this fatal weakness of Germany. Lin Han advocated Soviet-German unity, and a large part of the reason was to take this into account. With the Soviet Union at its back, Germany would be able to obtain a stable and secure source of oil supply, and would no longer have to worry about oil supply.

But Lin Han and Hannah, who knew what virtue the USSR was and what kind of people Stalin was. It was also impossible to put all the weight on the Soviet Union, a "dangerous" ally. In addition to the fact that it has historically continued to build indigenous coal-fired oil plants as a precautionary measure, another way for Germany is to open up new sources of oil channels.

Among the Axis powers of World War II, Libya, an Italian colony, was an important oil producer. Since Hitler came to power in 1932, under the direction of Hannah, the German government has joined forces with the German-Italian oil company established by Italy to carry out oil exploration and drilling activities in the Sirte Basin area, more than 100 kilometers south of the Libyan port of Capuga. Hannah, who came from later generations and was well prepared, had in her hands the most detailed latitude and longitude coordinates of the oil wells in the Libby area. It's not difficult to find the best place to mine the well, it's just a matter of digging deep and how to transport the oil out once it's been extracted.

Before World War II, Italy was also a country that needed to import large quantities of oil. The annual import volume is about two million tons or more. For the extraction of oil in Libya. It's also of great interest. The Germans offered to help with oil exploration in Libya, and they were naturally full of interest.

Although Germany and Italy had many dirty grievances on the Austrian question, there were only eternal interests between the countries, and there were no permanent enemies or friends. Mussolini's government has been giving the green light to the German-Italian oil company Oil, a joint venture between Germany and Italy, to explore oil in Libya. Not to mention the early scouting work and capital investment in infrastructure construction. More than two-thirds of the money is funded by Germany. Development of oil fields in Libya. Germany accounted for more than 70 percent of the investment, but the distribution of the profits from oil production was split between the two sides.

At the end of 1932, there were secret negotiations between Germany and Italy to explore oil in Libya. From 1933 onwards, Germany unilaterally financed the construction of supporting infrastructure in the southeastern part of the port of Kapu in Libya. The construction of this foundation project took four years to complete, during which time it cost a lot of money. It was only in June 1937 that drilling began at the selected site, and in September 1937, when the USS Zeppelin was launched, the first oil well began to produce oil, and over the next two months, dozens more wells began to produce oil in the surrounding area.

There are three main reasons why it took four years to drill the first high-yield oil well: First, Libya is a backward desert country, and there are almost no supporting facilities for infrastructure projects in the early stage, so you can only start from scratch. The second is that the early oil drilling technology was not mature enough, and the maximum extraction degree at that time did not exceed 1,800 meters, and it was necessary to wait for the progress of deeper drilling and production technology.

The third reason, however, was that the Germans themselves were deliberately procrastinating.

Before 1936, Germany's national strength was still not enough to completely prevent Italy on the border from swallowing their oil interests in Libya, and Libya itself was a colony of the Italians. In order to allow the Italians to cooperate honestly, the two sides also signed a very fair dividend principle on oil interests, but even so, Germany is still very defensive against Italy, a "noodle" ally. It was not until Germany believed that it had the national strength and military strength to suppress the "dishonest" Italians, and drilled those oil wells in Libya that oil began to produce oil in a short period of time.

Germany did not speed up its oil exploitation in Libya until Italy invaded Ethiopia and the Anglo-French League of Nations imposed an oil embargo (which was not actually an embargo) and needed German support. -- In fact, Mussolini was not an "honest man" either, and Hannah received information that Mussolini had the idea of swallowing up Libya's oil fields as early as the German annexation of Austria, but only gave up this idea after realizing the huge military disparity between Germany and Italy under the strong opposition of the army and air force.

In the process of Libyan oil exploitation, only a traverser like Hannah dared to carry out early infrastructure construction years in advance without a single oil well being drilled.

By the time Germany annexed the Sudetenland in 1938, the newly developed Libyan oil fields were producing more than 250,000 tons of oil per month, and new wells were being drilled. The German-Italian oil company, which has Hannah providing specific well coordinates, drills a dozen wells accurately, and the production capacity of Libyan oil fields is rising rapidly every month. Even if you estimate it from the most conservative point of view, after 1938. From the Libyan oil fields alone, Germany and Italy can obtain more than four million tons of oil a year. This is a considerable number, considering that before World War II, Italy's annual oil demand was only about 1.8 million tons.

The development of Libyan oil fields has greatly helped solve the problem of a single source of German oil. Neither Hannah nor Linhan wanted to stake Germany's oil security entirely on the basis of the Soviet Union's commitment to the covenant and guarantee of Romania's permanent neutrality. Another important aspect of developing Libya's oil fields is that there is more leverage in negotiations with the Soviet Union – but this is only one more leverage.

Although Libya's oil is good, the biggest problem is still security: it is surrounded by British and French colonies. Once the war starts, it is very likely to be attacked by Britain and France. The development of Libyan oil fields by Linhan and Hannah was only intended to provide Germany with an additional oil channel. Both of them actually knew that this passage was not safe. The only thing that can be done. It was to use this passage to allow Germany to hoard as many strategic reserves of oil as possible before the war.

After 1938, with the concessions of Britain and France on the Czech question, and Germany's stronger voice in Europe. Italy, which had previously thought about a little bit of bad intentions. Now in front of Germany. I also began to be more and more honest. In March 1938, after Germany bloodlessly annexed the Sudetenland region of the Czech Republic, the Italian side even quietly threw "wink" at Germany. Privately, I would like to discuss the topic of "alliance" with him.

However, Hannah and Lin Han, who are well aware of the attributes of Italy's "pig teammates", are conflicted about the hot faces that Italy took the initiative to send to the door, and they only feel that it is not a sticker, nor is it a refusal.

The Italian army's clumsy appearance in World War II has always been a topic of conversation and laughter among military fans in later generations. Although Lin Han and Hannah, who are well aware of the "real" history of World War II, both think that the combat effectiveness of the Italian army is somewhat overly hacked - compared to the Italian army, its air force and navy are very good in World War II, especially the navy, which is enough to mock the German navy in the Mediterranean.

As for the army, many Italian troops in North Africa actually have a striking appearance. For example, during the famous Battle of El Alamein, when Rommel's German army robbed the Italians of transportation and fled, if it were not for his Italian allies still fighting the front line, where would it be the turn of this desert fox to escape. One of the reasons for the failure of the Italian Army's combat effectiveness is that there is no money and poor equipment, and the other reason is the problem of poor geographical disparity due to the scattered nature of the Italians.

In Italy, the industrialization process in some parts of the north is relatively high, and here is Mussolini's "basic plate", and the Italian soldiers recruited here are relatively good in terms of fighting spirit and combat effectiveness on the battlefield. As for the central and southern regions, they are mainly agricultural, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers recruited here is very worrying. In the absence of the "political commissar" as a weapon of mass destruction, the most timid soldier is often the key to determining the strongest combat strength of an army. The "face" of the Italian Army was mainly held back by the soldiers recruited in the central and southern regions.

After March 1938, as the Libyan oil fields began to produce oil one after another, Italy's attitude towards Germany, after reaping huge oil benefits, also became subtle, and the attitude of Britain and France towards Italy also became delicate.

Britain and France began to woo Italy, imagining that they would be in World War I, pulling Italy to the side of the British and French chariots.

In order to curry favor with Italy, Britain and France even lifted the sanctions and embargo imposed on Italy for the invasion of Ethiopia.

Under such circumstances, although Hannah believed in her heart that Italy's "neutrality" was the most beneficial to Germany, she did not have to make a corresponding "friendly" response in the face of Italy's initiative to "show goodwill", so as not to really push Italy to the side of Britain and France.

Hannah told Lin Han about his troubles, and Lin Han thought about it and came up with an idea: pull the tiger skin of the Soviet Union over and fake the tiger.

So in Mussolini's secret talks, Hannah deliberately hinted at the rumors that the Soviet-German alliance had been secretly formed, so as to increase her deterrence and political bargaining chips.

With the support of the tiger skin of the "ally" of the Soviet Union, the Italians, who were still a little wavering, became more "submissive" in front of Germany. Although I don't know what the attitude of this country that likes to change its face like speculation will be in the future, as long as the Soviet Union's attitude towards Germany does not change 180 degrees, at least in the early days of the war on the Western Front, the Italians will not throw themselves on the side of Britain and France, and as long as Britain and France do not take the initiative to turn around and blow up the oil fields in Libya, Germany will still be able to obtain a steady stream of oil through Italy to reduce its excessive dependence on Romanian and Soviet oil.

Although he refused to sign a formal "alliance" agreement with Italy, in order to appease this "noodle brother" who likes to ride the wall and cause trouble, during the secret talks, Adolf . Hannah told Mussolini that Germany was willing to provide Italy with the latest DB601 engine technology and even sell the complete manufacturing technology of the new fighter jet, and was also willing to provide Italy with the first steam turbine and boiler equipment to improve the power system of its warships at a very low cost.

It was the nature of the Italians to ride on the wall, and Mussolini certainly could not ask for Germany's practice of asking for Italian neutrality to give great benefits. After 1938, Italy began to curry favor with Britain, France and Germany, and with the profit from Libyan oil production, the year was also prosperous. Italy's poor domestic economic environment has also begun to improve after receiving a blood transfusion of Libyan oil. (To be continued......)