The news of the German attack on the Middle East flew all over the world like wings, and the most fierce reaction was not the big man behind the Middle East. Rather, Turkey, a traditional power in the northern Middle East, played the great sign of "marching into the Middle East and restoring its former glory" than the slogan shouted by Italy, "Let the Mediterranean become the inner lake of the Italian Empire".

However, Turkey has not yet made a move, but the combined forces of Germany and Italy from afar have taken the lead in occupying Egypt. And not long ago, it quickly crossed the Suez Canal, and there is a tendency to monopolize the Middle East...... This is undoubtedly a very intolerable thing for Turkey.

Don't think that Italy is the most famous wallgrass in the history of the world, in fact, Turkey is definitely not far behind in this regard, and it seems that Italy is determined not to let Italy dominate the past. Therefore, even if Italy defected in the two world wars, it can only be called one of the grass in the wall. Turkey's vacillating attitude towards China's arms purchases shows that the country seems to be inherently capricious.

"Of course, this kind of thing can't be left alone. It was on the basis of this character that at the meeting of the Turkish military, the Turkish general at the head glanced at his subordinates, but he did not have a good impression of the German military, especially after the German army entered the Middle East, and the Turkish top brass was deeply disturbed by the expansion of Germany.

Since the Kemal Revolution, Turkey's internal political system was not much stronger than that of the Ottoman governments of the past. But the government succeeded in arousing a strong sense of nationality and discipline among the country's largest number of peasants, so that there was still some dominance in the country - but only God knows how many.

Originally, Turkey's foreign policy was closely related to Greece in the Balkans, but in the process of carving up the Balkans, this good relationship between the two countries was completely shattered by Accardo's ingenious allocation of Balkan interests, and Turkey gave up Greece in exchange for almost all of Greece's territorial dominance.

The Turkish military was exhausted by the ensuing effort to rule the Balkans, and after losing tens of thousands of soldiers, Turkey still did not gain any peace from the chaos of the Balkans. But the Turkish government's emphasis on its traditional sphere of influence is still unprecedented.

After all, according to historical relations, the Turkish Empire had a certain influence on the Middle East, and Germany's advance into the Middle East region was obviously a substantial provocation against Turkey's surrounding sphere of influence. At least on the face of it, Germany had already driven its troops to Turkey's doorstep.

"The Italians and Germans are also all the way, and they are not satisfied with the occupation of Africa, and they come to us to show off their might...... Who do they think they are?" said another Turkish general. After all, Turkey did not exert much effort in several partition battles with the German army, so they have become accustomed to this Axis benefit distribution model in which Germany carries guns and others share the spoils. At this time, they don't remember what they have paid, they are simply angry that they have not received.

Germany's devastating approach to the Middle East has hurt Turkey, and most Turkish military and politicians believe that Turkey should let its forces move south to occupy the rich areas. The argument was unanimous: "Instead of letting the German fools of the losers destroy the entire oil-producing region of the Middle East, let Turkey take its place." ”

Under the influence of this argument, the Turkish army left their positions and began to masse massively to the south. Lacking equipment and supplies, these troops were not prepared for war at all, and were pushed to the front by the officers in such a daze, ready to fight the most powerful enemy in a brutal battle to the death.

Because Turkey was the latest to join the Axis powers, and because Turkey did not contribute much to the Axis powers at all, the arms trade between Turkey and Germany was also the shortest and most perfunctory. In order to learn from the German army, the whole of Turkey purchased German weapons and equipment "in large quantities", and as for how "huge" this amount is, it can only be described by the word "joke".

Turkey purchased a total of 40,000 rifles, 1,000 submachine guns, and 500 old Maxim heavy machine guns from Germany. These guns were about the weapons of an infantry corps of the German army, and they were the infantry weapons of the second-line infantry corps! Of course, this does not include the artillery weapons and other equipment required by this infantry corps.

With the same procurement plan, Turkey bought a total of 30 trucks, 4 armored reconnaissance vehicles and 19 tanks from the Germans. And these 19 tanks, at the request of Turkey, were delivered from the cheapest captured booty in North Africa...... In short, Turkey is actually very "picky" in arms procurement.

One is that Turkey's economic situation is not good, it is not like Romania, which has rich oil resources in exchange for a large amount of German equipment, and it is not like Italy, where the industry is developed and can export some things to Germany. The second is that there are so many things that Turkey needs to buy, so it can't be bought at all.

In a short period of time, new weapons that are changing the landscape of the battlefield have emerged, such as radar systems, anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank guns, large-caliber artillery, armored vehicles and tanks, which are essential for air defense. All of this is completely untouched in Turkey, and it is no problem to sell something, but sellers need a lot of personnel training services and a series of after-sales problems.

The arms manufacturers of the entire Third Reich were working overtime to produce munitions at the front, and who had the time to take care of such a troublesome customer? This was not a post-war sales environment in which there was no market for everything to be built, and the army of their own country was running out of ammunition, so who had the time to develop new customers?

In such a state where the buyer has no money and no heart, and the seller has no time and energy, it is conceivable how many original German weapons and equipment Turkey can get. The ME-109C fighter, Germany's most sought-after export product, was half-sold and half-delivered to Turkey in the best months of relations between Germany and Turkey.

Now everyone should understand why Accardo did not consider Turkey's plans to attack the Soviet Union or the Middle East at all, because in fact Turkey's military power has nothing to look forward to. As soon as the war starts, Turkey's seemingly powerful army will have a problem holding its position, let alone achieving results.

It is a pity that although Accardo has an objective assessment of the Turkish army, the Turks themselves are not so self-aware. At the instigation of countless people, Turkey's top brass finally could not resist the temptation and made up their minds to attack the Middle East.

With food in their pockets and a rifle behind them, 100,000 Turkish soldiers received a few rounds of ammunition and set off for the border area. The combat effectiveness of these soldiers is almost equal to zero in the face of the British and American armies, which have undergone earth-shaking changes.

However, the Turks did not know much about these things, and the idea of several Turkish generals was actually very simple: the enemy was pinned down by the Germans near the Suez Canal, and their army had to deal with some equally poorly equipped Arab forces. With this idea, the Turkish military felt that they had a chance to seize large swathes of Middle Eastern land and, if they were lucky, even the Persian Gulf.

At 6 a.m. sharp, 200,000 Turkish infantry began to cross the Syrian line and attack French Syria, a French colony that had chosen to support the French government in exile after the successful German invasion of France. It is now home to some French colonial troops, as well as 7,000 British troops and 4,000 American soldiers.

Of course, if you include the 80,000 local Syrian troops who have been temporarily armed, these forces barely represent half of the Turkish forces moving south, but if you count the combat effectiveness, these forces are clearly stronger than the Turkish forces.

At least they were much better equipped than the Turkish army: the Americans had 40 obsolete M3 tanks here, and the British kept 70 Matildas, which were useless - although these tanks were indeed more difficult to deal with the Germans, they were more than enough to fight the Turkish troops.

The two sides fought without warning in the border area, and the Turkish army's attempt to quickly break through the Anglo-American line of defense was completely frustrated, and the rudimentary line of defense in Syria made it difficult for the Turkish forces to move an inch, and the American and British forces had an overwhelming advantage in firepower. After losing about 10,000 soldiers, the Turkish forces were forced to stop the full-scale offensive.

Later, American fighters and bombers, who were tortured by the Luftwaffe and did not dare to take off, found their pride on the Turkish front, and they bombed and suppressed the ground targets of the Turkish army, making it a luxury for the Turkish troops to assemble for attack or retreat. In desperation, the Turkish troops finally remembered that there were still 3 German infantry divisions behind them that were kept in the dark, so the Turkish military urgently contacted the German commanders, hoping that they could come forward to save the current situation.

The German commanders were not fools, they were sent all the way to Turkey not to fight, but to contain them. In a real fight, what is the difference between relying on three infantry divisions, which have no heavy firepower and no air superiority, to attack the enemy's carefully arranged plan, and sending them to death? Therefore, the German commander did not agree to the Turkish army's request for assistance in the battle, but only promised that the Turkish army could provide some necessary soldier training assistance.