After listening to Ink Wash's explanation of the Han army's recent battle plan, Rommel suddenly realized that his North African armored corps had also become a decoy and a smokescreen for the grand coalition army's earth-shattering operation.

However, Rommel was not unhappy about being used this time, compared with this earth-shattering operation planned by the General Staff of the Han Army, the operation of his three armored divisions in Benghazi really only deserved to be called a smokescreen.

For this operation, Jiang Yunzhi, chief of the general staff of the Imperial Army, mobilized a total of three airborne corps, two mechanized infantry corps, and one armored corps, which were only the main attack troops, and there were four corps of nearly 500,000 people responsible for containing and repelling.

If we add the navy and air force to cooperate with the troops, the big alliance will invest a total of more than one million troops in this campaign.

Compared with several other super-large battles in World War II, the total number of participants in this campaign is not the largest, but the number of mechanized troops, especially airborne troops, is absolutely unprecedented.

The campaign, which was designed to seize control of northwestern Egypt and the Suez Canal, was named "Thunder". Taken from the thunderous blow to the empire on which the sun never sets.

From the landing of the Yanzhou Corps in the Middle East and the Coastal Corps to the aid of Somaliland, the General Staff can already be laying out for the "Thunder".

The feint attack on Damascus, and even His Majesty's failure to remind the mustache again to beware of the North African landing of the multinational forces, was nothing more than an attempt to empty the Egyptian garrison.

Just as Rommel was starting the Battle of Benghazi, Jiang Yunzhi had already ordered the troops of the Guards Corps who had participated in the battle to start moving.

Xiao Guoxing's capture of the Gulf of Aqaba, Jordan's only outlet to the sea, played a huge role at this time, and a large number of supplies were transported to the port of Aqaba by sea.

Two more divisions of the 3rd Guards Panzer Army also landed on the Sinai Peninsula to join up with the 9th Division. The 9th Division, with the cooperation of the Palestinian Jewish armed Haganah, had just captured the holy city of Jerusalem, formed a horn with Amman, blocked the possible reinforcement of the British army in Damascus to the Sinai Peninsula, and relieved the worries of attacking the Egyptian troops in the north.

The Guards Panzer Corps, the invincible Iron Knights face the flat Sinai Desert and the plains of the Aris River, their roaring engines and long gun barrels show that they can't wait, and the Mammoth and Tiger tanks are ready to open their hideous jaws and devour all enemies who dare to stand in their way.

The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Airborne Corps of the Guards had a total of six paratrooper divisions and three army aviation divisions, and for this thunderous operation, Jiang Yunzhi took out all the paratroopers and most of the army aviation forces in his hands.

Two of the other five army divisions of the empire also participated in the war in southern Libya, and it can be said that the elite of the Han Imperial Army was exhausted only for this Suez Canal, which connected Europe and Asia.

His Majesty has ordered that, if this operation is not successful, the Northern Fleet will make a detour to the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic, and the Army will abandon North Africa in favor of South Africa and the territory of West Africa.

Strategically speaking, this is relatively safe, but in the minds of His Majesty and General Chiang, if such a strategy is implemented, it will be a little unwilling. It took more than half a year just to make a detour, not to mention that the army would attack all the way through West Africa, and the time required was unknown.

In order to achieve the goal of defeating Britain in 1942, "in the first half of the year, the Mediterranean must be cleared!" ”

Faced with the conclusion of the deduction of the total parameters: once the attack does not go well or a certain link is blocked, the paratroopers will inevitably suffer heavy casualties. His Majesty still gave the order to start the "Thunder" plan.

"One will make ten thousand bones dry!" Ending the war as soon as possible is precisely to usher in peace as soon as possible.

The Tasrcha Oasis in central Libya is one of the few densely populated areas in central Libya. Imperial General Hans led more than 300,000 Allied troops, including the Coast Corps, the Fourth Army of the South Seas, and the Sixth Guards Infantry Army of Ink and Wash, and would face a multinational force with high morale of nearly 600,000 at the risk of a great victory. Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the multinational force, threatened to fight Africa in the Jufra Desert.

In fact, this statement is quite reliable, General Eisenhower is not Patton, he is not an arrogant person. But in Africa, in the absence of Germany and Italy to reinforce Africa, it is not a lie that the collision of these two armies will determine the belonging of Africa.

Alexandria in Egypt is home to the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet, and Cairo and the Suez Canal are less likely to fail. Montgomery was not carried away by victory after defeating his old rival Rommel, and when the British Eighth Army was deployed, only Egyptian colonial troops and an Indian division remained in Egypt. Although the main force of the Han army in Africa has been in Libya against the main force of the multinational force, but the Han army's long-range projection capability should not be underestimated, Eisenhower also agreed with Montgomery's opinion, sent troops back to reinforcements, strengthen Egypt's defensive forces, after all, in the Middle East, the Han army still has a military force that cannot be ignored.

Thinking of the Middle East, Eisenhower suddenly had a bad feeling: Where did the Han Kingdom get so many troops? in Siberia there are one and a half million; in Hawaii there are hundreds of thousands; There are hundreds of thousands in the Middle East, and in Africa ...... "No, the troops in the Middle East were transferred from Japan!" So, how many troops does the Han army still have on the mainland? Where are the main forces of their most elite Guards? ”

"The Great Han Guard?" Omar Bradley, the chief of staff next to him, was a little confused by the commander's questioning. "Opposite us there is a Guards Infantry Army, the Sixth Army, and in the Middle East, there is also a Aircraft Infantry Army, well...... It was the Fourth Army, and there was also an armored 9th Division, which was subordinate to the Third Army. Other...... In the Far East there was also one of their Guards Panzer Corps, the 1st Army. Fortunately, the Han people did not have the idea of using the Guards Legion intensively, otherwise, it would have been an invincible division. ”

Bradley, who was known to Marshall, was of course a qualified chief of staff, and he knew the deployment of the Han army well.

"What about the other Guards units? Isn't the Han army known as the Million Guards? Eisenhower was still struggling with that.

Bradley shrugged, "Dear Ike, the Han Army's intelligence is not so easy to get. Moreover, the Guards, of course, there must be some guards to guard the capital of the Han Kingdom, and even their palace! For the specific deployment of that place, I'm afraid you have to go to their corps commander or chief of general staff, or you should be able to ask the Han Emperor! ”

This is typical American humor, but Eisenhower was horrified when he heard it. Maps...... Map of the Mediterranean! ”

The commander, who had always been very calm, was so moved, and the staff officers of the headquarters also panicked, and hurriedly found a military map, a map of the Mediterranean Sea and the surrounding area without any artificial markings.

frowned, but Eisenhower didn't say anything, the multinational force was fighting in the interior of Africa, and it was understandable that the staff officers did not pay much attention to the Middle East theater.

But Bradley saw the commander's frowning brow, a good chief of staff, of course knew what the commander needed, not to mention that they were still classmates.

The chief of staff found a red pencil and quickly marked the deployment of the Han army in the Middle East and Northeast Africa on the map.

Eisenhower nodded with satisfaction, and his respect for Marshall, the chief of the General Staff, was raised a little. Compared to those politicians, only the old man knew best what an army needed.

"Omar, in the Middle East, the only Guards infantry and armored division of the Han army did not go to attack Damascus, but to the Sinai Peninsula. At the same time, on other battlefields, except for the armored corps in the Far East and the infantry corps opposite us, we did not find the numbers of other Han Guards, what about the three helicopter divisions? This suggests...... Maybe you have the misfortune to say it! ”

"Ike, you mean...... The guards of the Han State are going to concentrate on fighting? Bradley's face was full of disbelief, "Then isn't their target ......?"

Eisenhower flattened his mouth and smiled bitterly, "It's not going to be, it should have been gathered!" Remind Montgomery that the British army should be on higher alert! ”

"Mention ...... Awake? That's it? ”

"Omar, is there anything else we can do? The Han army opposite us has two helicopter divisions and a large number of air force planes ready to support us, and if we turn around and retreat now, it will definitely lead to a catastrophic rout! Eisenhower spread his hands out, "We don't have any power to support our allies!" ”

"And the navy! In Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean, and in the UK, we have a huge fleet of seventeen aircraft carriers! Bradley was not reconciled to the occupation of the Suez Canal by the Han army.

"Well, maybe the Navy can help, but the other consequence of that is that we risk losing the ship we got home...... Let the big names in London decide! ”

A telegram from the command of the multinational forces in Africa caused an uproar in London. It does not matter whether Eisenhower's judgment is accurate or not, what matters is how many more defensive troops were there in Egypt, in Alexandria and in Cairo, in the Sinai Peninsula?

Sinai, three Egyptian divisions, one Indian division.

Alexandria, a brigade of Royal Marines.

Cairo, two Egyptian divisions, one royal special service.

In the Canal Zone, there were more than 60,000 Anglo-Indian troops and Egyptian canal garrisons.

This is all the defending forces around the Suez Canal. Montgomery's Eighth Army, which was closest to Alexandria, was still 700 kilometers away in Benghazi. While the joint chiefs of staff of the multinational forces were still struggling with whether to send naval support at the risk of being bombed, the latest news came from the Suez Canal garrison that they had been attacked by the Han army.

"The Han army is going to repeat the landing operation in Japan! They are going to parachute into the Canal Zone! Admiral Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, immediately voiced his judgment.

No one doubted Marshall's judgment, not including Marshal Dudley Pound, the British Admiralty-Chancellor, with whom he had been arguing a moment earlier. Because then, air raid sirens were sounded at all airports in northeastern Egypt. The air forces of the Great Alliance, including Japan and the Kingdom of Judah, dispatched more than 2,000 bombers, accompanied by more than 1,000 Wyvern and Goblin fighters, and carried out large-scale bombing of the garrison positions on both sides of the canal and the military airfields in Egypt.

Before the bombers returned, 1,700 Tyrannosaurus Rex and 1,200 cavalry transport planes carried two divisions of the Airborne 7th Army, escorted by 600 Flying Dragon fighters, and began to parachute into the north and south on both sides of the Suez Canal.

Operation "Thunder" begins!