Chapter 244: Africa Strategy
There is no accident that another US air raid on Hawaii failed, and even the top of the United States did not know what happened to the four super air fortresses that went to Hawaii.
Until the scheduled time for return had not yet appeared, radio communication was silent, and the U.S. Air Force could only announce this dismal result.
It's not that the Americans don't work hard, it's that the enemy is not only mysterious, but also powerful.
For this reason, the United States also had to give up its immediate retaliation against Hawaii, and its patience at the moment was also for better revenge in the future.
And the retaliation of the United States will inevitably lead to more counterattacks.
The second air raid on the West Coast of the United States was earlier than originally planned and on a much larger scale.
In the second air raid of the Strategic Air Force of the Red Guard Corps, a full 600 bombers were dispatched to bomb all the industrial cities on the west coast of the United States.
Thousands of tons of bombs fell on the west coast of the United States without money, causing huge losses to the United States.
And this is just the beginning, in the next half a month, at least two air raids a day, each air raid is aimed at the western industry of the United States, although it cannot be accurately bombed, but it cannot stand the daily patronage, and the scale of the bombing is not small.
In half a month, the industrial capacity of the West Coast of the United States has dropped by 40 percent, and if the bombing is carried out for another month, the industry of the West Coast of the United States will suffer a fatal blow.
In this regard, the US government can only choose to move all the industries in the western region to the central region, otherwise it will not be able to stand the huge US family base if it continues to be bombed like this.
The bombing of the American homeland is definitely a strong agent for the Axis powers, and the strong American industrial capacity is not a small pressure on the Axis powers.
Now it seems that the United States cannot bring much change to the Allies, and even the United States itself is within the scope of the attack.
Hitler was the happiest, constantly touting his relationship with this new ally, and in his contacts with Fan Yize, he also repeatedly proposed that the two sides should strengthen cooperation.
The Germans were in for a treat, especially on the Atlantic battlefield, where a large number of merchant ships were sunk every day, and the number of merchant ships sunk every day exceeded the shipbuilding capacity of all the Allied countries.
This was a signal to the happiest European allies, which meant that Britain might soon have to surrender because of the blockade of the seas.
After German high-altitude bombing and naval blockade, the situation on the British Isles is getting worse every day.
In this regard, the German spies gave Britain no more than half a year at the latest, and it would face a situation of complete lack of food.
This makes it difficult for Germany to make a more obvious breakthrough on the eastern front at present, but the situation that Britain is about to hold on to on the western front is very likely to completely establish Germany's strong advantage in Europe.
On the German Eastern Front, the Battle of Stalingrad was beginning, and the Germans were expected to completely capture Stalingrad within a month, and then march on Moscow in full.
Although the United States' entry into the war made Germany feel tremendous pressure, Fan Yize's action made the United States unable to take care of Europe for a while and could not fully support the European battlefield.
This was the most direct support to Germany, and Hitler also spoke highly of his new allies, and according to the agreement, he handed over a large number of gold and diamonds collected in Europe and Africa to the Red Guard.
It was a business between the two sides, and the Germans were more than happy to pay for the plundered wealth as a strong foreign aid hired by the Germans for their excellent performance on the battlefield.
In Italy, on the periphery of a secretly built Luftwaffe base, dense guards and protection forces isolated the area around the airport for more than ten kilometers.
Inside the airport, groups of German troops, which are a fully organized armored division in Germany, and tens of thousands of German soldiers have been training here for two or three months, and all kinds of weapons and equipment have arrived at this airport.
Around the airport, a large number of armored vehicles and tanks are parked, all of which have all additional equipment disassembled, and the tanks do not carry weapons and ammunition, so as to reduce the weight of the tanks themselves as much as possible.
Today, most of the German soldiers, having finished their training program, assembled on the side of the runway at the airport, fully armed.
At eight o'clock in the morning, Rommel, who had come from Berlin, appeared at the airport.
This armored division assembled at the airport was also the 7th Panzer Division under Rommel, a strong force of the German Army.
Approaching half past eight, Rommel looked up at the sky, and in the distant sky, a group of huge transport planes flew densely.
Under the guidance of the ground tower, huge transport planes landed on the airfield.
A full 500 transport planes almost filled the airport, which had expanded tenfold.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the first German soldiers lined up to board the plane.
At the tail of the transport plane, the huge hatch opens, and you can see that inside the hatch, there are rows of neat seats, and the wide cabin is divided into two layers, which can carry more than 200 fully armed soldiers at one time.
The German soldiers who walked into the plane in a row, neatly seated, an airplane, can transport two companies of soldiers and weapons and ammunition at one time.
Among the first batch of transport planes, 60 transport planes directly loaded all the soldiers of the 7th Armored Division onto the planes at one time.
Leaving a large number of logistics soldiers, they began to cooperate with the crew of the transport plane, and loaded various artillery armored vehicles, weapons and ammunition into other transport aircraft in an orderly manner.
The whole work lasted until the evening of the same day.
Rommel never left the airport for a whole day, watching his armored divisions gradually load into these huge transport planes.
It was very shocking, if it wasn't for what he saw with his own eyes, Rommel would never have imagined that a fully formed armored division could actually be delivered by air transport.
According to past combat experience, the first batch of troops to arrive in Africa during this military operation was at most two battalions, and it would take two or three months for the rest of the troops to completely arrive in Africa.
And at this moment, the entire Seventh Panzer Division, in just two days, will be able to reach Africa directly.
And in these two days, the actual transportation time is less than three hours, and the rest of the time is in the loading and unloading process.
In order to welcome the arrival of the German Army, the Italian Afrika Korps has built a large enough temporary airfield in Africa.
It has to be said that during this day, Rommel refreshed his understanding of the war, and also fully understood how terrible the combat capability of this mercenary army, which the Führer called the strongest ally, had.
The mechanized army is fighting logistics, transportation and efficiency.
Tens of tons of tanks can fit into an airplane, is there anything more efficient than that?
It was only today that Rommel learned that war could still be like this.
In the group of transport planes, a colonel came to Rommel, gave a military salute, and said: "General Rommel, in two hours, the group will be ready to take off." ”
"Thank you for your assistance." Rommel also returned a military salute and thanked him.
"General Rommel is gracious, and here, on behalf of the Strategic Transport Wing, I wish the General a successful victory in the African theater." The colonel smiled slightly and said.
"You have an air force wing, you can transport one of my armored divisions to Africa at one time, and I believe that in the African battlefield, I will not have any worries." Rommel said solemnly.
"It is your head of state who has the courage and vision to cooperate with our leaders, and as a friendly force, we will meet your operational needs." The colonel said.
"The mystery of your army, the outside world has a lot of discussions, I don't know how many people in Germany are curious, I see it today, this is extraordinary, but also makes me feel what is called small, the sky is so vast." Rommel sighed.
"General Miao." The colonel said as he spoke. In his front pocket, he took out a folded piece of ginger and handed it to Rommel.
Rommel took it suspiciously, opened it and saw that it was a transaction agreement, which also had the autograph and seal of the German Führer Hitler.
"Fifty transport aircraft, included in the operational sequence of the 7th Panzer Division?" Rommel said with some surprise.
"Yes, when we get to Africa, our fifty transport planes will serve General Rommel for a long time." The colonel nodded, and continued: "And the general will soon be promoted, because the head of your country has already planned to form an army group in Africa, and I believe that with the general's talent, he will soon become the German field marshal." ”
Rommel had not heard a single word about this, and there was not the slightest news of this among the military.
Seeing Rommel's doubts, the colonel stepped forward and whispered: "Libya is rich in oil. ”
With a simple sentence, Rommel's eyes flashed with a flash of enlightenment, and he suddenly understood that this trip to Africa seemed to be not only to help the Italian army defeat the Allies, but also to have other tasks.
That's just a matter of fifty transport planes.
"Our second batch of transport tasks is an SS armored regiment, as well as a large number of oil extraction equipment and related personnel, and the oil exploration work and tasks have been completed." The colonel said.
Rommel was not an ordinary person, and when he heard these words, he immediately asked: "I wonder what price our Führer paid?" ”
Germany has not explored for any oil in Libya, and there are no rumors about oil in Libya.
"I don't know, that's our leader and your Führer." The colonel shook his head and said.
Rommel did not continue to ask questions, but he knew very well that the price paid by Germany would definitely not be cheap.
Because what Germany wants most now is oil, and if it can really extract Libyan oil, it is too important for Germany.
Next, the two talked a lot about logistics and transportation, and no longer touched the military secrets of the two sides.
Since there were fifty transport aircraft, Rommel also wanted to know the various performance data of these transport aircraft as soon as possible.
The Djinn transport aircraft, a rather remarkable transport aircraft, at least Rommel believes that Germany is currently completely unable to build a strategic transport aircraft with such amazing performance.
Two hours later, the group of strategic transport planes, taking off on time, flew towards the African continent under the cover of night.
Three hours later, the transport planes landed smoothly on the field airfield in the night, and in just three hours, a fierce German Army armored division secretly appeared in the Italian Afrika Korps.
Fan Yize, who was far away in the Pacific Ocean, received the news as soon as possible and ordered the transport wing to stay in Europe directly without returning.
Aside from the Atlantic Theater, this will be the last time Fan Yize will help Germany.
Whether the Germans can grasp and cherish the help to Germany this time, Fan Yize will not interfere again.
Several large oil fields in Libya have been told to the Germans, and they have also sent a large strategic transport force, if the Germans can't even protect these oil fields, it is better to go home early and pick up the children.
Of course, with this last help, Fan Yize also got a lot of things he needed.
Cooperation with Germany is not gratuitous, there is already a global strategic layout, and then you can easily earn a little military spending, and the big countries all play like this.
In fact, it was also the Germans who were not angry, and the German Barbarossa Plan, Fan Yize had provided a lot of help to Germany, but Germany still made some mistakes, which led to the Battle of Stalingrad, which still broke out according to the original historical trajectory.
This made Fan Yize a little helpless, so he took out the oil from Libya, and it happened that the Germans, with Italy's request for help, also intended to enter Africa.
The mustache was also a bold man, and immediately mobilized Rommel's 7th Panzer Division to Africa, and began to plan to further strengthen the military presence in Africa, protect the Libyan oil fields, and expand the German military presence in Africa.
When the Germans exploited Libyan oil on a large scale, it was believed that the Allies would not be able to sit still, and the Allies, who had not yet been able to counterattack Europe, would inevitably use Africa as the main battlefield.
This is what Fan Yize wants, the more Germany strengthens its military presence in Africa, the larger the size of the troops sent by the Allies to Africa.
Therefore, when Germany went to Africa, Fan Yize was so active, and he wished that Germany would send hundreds of thousands of troops to Africa as soon as possible.
At the time of the arrival of the German 7th Panzer Division in Europe, the offensive of the Red Guard Corps in South America also began.
The Panama Canal, an important hub for U.S. Atlantic and Pacific communications, is the U.S. Navy's most critical maritime line of communication.
Cutting the Panama Canal is equivalent to cutting off a leg of the US Navy.
The Red Guard Corps, which had already settled in the Isabela Islands, had built a huge temporary airfield and an amphibious landing fleet that had quietly arrived on the banks of the Panama Canal.
The combat machine of the Red Guard Corps was running rapidly, and the joint landing operation of multiple arms of the armed forces once again showed its grandeur.
In the sky over Panama at night, the transport plane dropped a large number of scattered flowers, and the unsuspecting Panamanian army and the American garrison were still asleep.