Sitting in the office of the capital of Accardo, it seems that the battlefields filled with gunpowder are far away from you, and here are the world's finest works of art, the crystallization of all human civilizations. The paintings of famous artists are hung on the walls, and the medieval knights' armor randomly placed in the corner of the living room are all real and precious antiques.

"My Führer!" Gascoll was asked to sit down by Accardo, so he sat respectfully across from Accardo, who seemed to be holding a small meeting, with Prime Minister Dominis, who succeeded Augustus, and Ribbentrop, the Imperial Foreign Minister, in his office: "Forty minutes ago, the 'Leapfrog Operation' in North Africa officially began. ”

Accardo listened to Gascol's report and nodded, which was kind of a reaction to Gascol. Then he looked at Ribbentrop and said, "You are in charge of foreign affairs, what do you think about this matter?"

The Leap was planned by the Führer and Dominis, many other dignitaries and military generals, with the aim of strengthening Italy's resolve to fight the war with a single campaign. Accardo and Dominis still hope that they can resolve their differences within the Axis powers, rather than reacting to pick up the mess after a complete reversal.

"My Führer. I do not know where the mobilization of Marshal Garibaldi has been, so I can only analyze the current situation. "Ribbentrop was a diplomatic genius, and his thorough analysis of international relations and the situation was an important help to Hitler in another time and space, in which he was also the strongest diplomat in Accardo's Foreign Office.

He thought for a moment and then continued to Accardo: "I have heard that the Americans have been active around the King of Italy and the Mussolini regime, and they want the powerful Axis powers to split internally, which is more in line with the interests of the United States to fish in troubled waters in the Middle East. Italy is clearly biased towards the United States, and they believe that it is in Italy's long-term interest to be on the safe side. Moreover, in some of the occupied territories, the Führer had already begun to carry out cultural reforms, which did cause a certain amount of panic among the Axis allies. The Italian diplomatic envoy had met with me, and he hoped to get from you the bottom line of the Third Reich's territorial claims. ”

In the past hundred years, there have been wars in Europe one after another, but everyone has a reasonable bottom line, that is, it is a war of "knights". After a war is fought, reparations are surrendered, some border territories are ceded, colonies and foreign policy are compromised, and peace can be ushered in.

But in the end, the war changed, and Germany was engaged in a war of permanent occupation and resource integration, which made all countries feel the seriousness of the situation. There was still the possibility of turning the book before, but this time Germany did not intend to give the defeated countries any chance: the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg had been clearly assigned to the Third Reich, the occupied areas of France and Britain had completely become German territory, and even regions such as Poland, Norway, Ukraine, and Belarus would join the arms of the Third Reich as a federation in the future.

So the German occupation put pressure on Italy, and of the remaining independent countries in Europe, Romania and Vichy France, and Britain in the north, bowed to Germany, but Italy was the only one who was independent - and this existence was now not honest, and often fantasized about getting out of the war with the enemy.

"Only people who do not advance and retreat together with the Third Reich will worry about the threat of the Third Reich!" After hearing Ribbentrop's words, Dominis snorted coldly and said sarcastically: "That guy Mussolini is basically playing the abacus of being a wall-to-wall grass, of course he is afraid that we will settle accounts with him." ”

That's true, but after all, the ties between Germany and Italy are very deep, and if it is only because of some news that is not on the table, it will not be worth the loss to turn against Italy. Ribbentrop didn't pay attention to Dominis's interruption, but continued to say to Accardo: "But this time, we and Garibaldi made the first move to kick off the attack on the Middle East, presumably Mussolini will hesitate for a while." After all...... He also wants a part of the benefits of the Middle East oil fields. ”

Accardo's main purpose in launching this war in North Africa was to systematically delay Mussolini's vacillation. As long as Italy did not make any mess when the German front was tight, then it would be easy to clean it up after Germany turned over on the Eastern Front.

The entire battle for the Suez Canal was actually waged for such a strategic purpose. Just in case, Rommel even threw the Italian units in the Afrika Korps with a more ambiguous position to the front line, preparing to brutally consume these soldiers to avoid any chaos in these troops when Italy rebelled.

Accardo waved his hand and motioned for Ribbentrop to stop speaking, then he smiled and pointed at Gascoll, and then said: "The reason why the African campaign was allowed to start is because Marshal Garibaldi made it clear last month that he would be on our side. That's why the battle for the Suez Canal will be approved and the 'Crossing Operation' will officially begin. ”

This campaign was not so much to drive away the Anglo-American forces in the Middle East as to strengthen Mussolini's position. Fortunately, Germany was almost self-sufficient in fuel consumption in North Africa, which undoubtedly gave Rommel a lot of options and made it possible for Germany to fight on two fronts.

"That being the case, then my Führer. I know what to do next. Ribbentrop nodded, understanding Accardo's plan. His next diplomatic strategy was to paralyze Mussolini and delay Italy's withdrawal from the war as much as possible.

......

The embankment of the Suez Canal was already almost covered with the corpses of Italian soldiers. Although the U.S. positions had been bombarded by German artillery and air force, the entire Suez Canal defense line was still there, and the U.S. army's counterattack was still very strong.

Another assault boat rushed onto the riverbank, and a dozen Italian soldiers jumped out of the assault boat in a hail of bullets, carrying their guns to find the bunker made of corpses and dodge the bullets fired from the opposite side. They were not the first Italian soldiers to climb the riverbank, as more than 200 Italian soldiers were already firing back in the vicinity.

Removing his eyes from the artillery mirror, Rommel was very satisfied with his surprise attack tactics, he proudly pointed in the direction of the front line, and gave an order to some staff officers and officers around him to continue the attack: "It's almost time, put in reserves and start attacking." ”

A staff officer grabbed the field phone next to him, and after a few seconds of silence, he began to give the battle order: "...... Is it General Frederick? The marshal has given the order to attack, and you can get moving. ”

On the other side of the phone, the voice of General Frederick, the commander of the 7th Infantry Corps and the infantry general of the Afrika Korps, came: "Yes! I am Frederick, I understand, the offensive will begin immediately!"

Less than thirty seconds after the end of the communication, some hidden points of fire began to join the artillery battle on the German artillery positions, and the dense artillery fire was twice as large as before, and the Afrika Korps shells poured into the American positions as if they did not want money.

For a time, the forward positions of the Americans were full of explosions and fires, and hundreds of artillery pieces were concentrated and used by Rommel, forming an overwhelming fire superiority over the American defensive positions at the crossing site.

Rommel once emphasized in his book "Infantry Attack": "No matter how small the caliber of the weapon is, no matter how small the number of weapons, always support the infantry attack with firepower." "Now that Germany has more weapons in caliber and number of weapons than its opponents, Rommel emphasized the tactics of concentrated firepower, which allowed him to have a terrifying density of firepower in some areas.

Just as the American soldiers were huddled in their trenches, praying that the nightmare would soon pass, on the other side of the Suez Canal, the German infantry launched a second wave of river crossings. Each assault boat was covered by machine-gun fire, and the Germans on the opposite bank even pushed 20 88-mm cannons directly to the river bank with mules, horses and manpower.

Under the cover of machine guns and artillery fire, German sappers quickly built improvised bunkers along the canal with sandbags. And the Luftwaffe's 88-mm anti-aircraft artillery was pushed to the front line, and after some scrambling, these cannons became the support fire of the Germans crossing the river.

The terrible anti-aircraft weapon became a superweapon for destroying civil fortifications, and the 88 mm anti-aircraft gun, with its high rate of fire and muzzle velocity, was a breeze to deal with fixed pillboxes. In a minute, the German air defense could pour more than 15 shells on the target, which was enough to beat the target into a sieve.

Although it is impossible to use a power-assisted reloading device for flat fire, the rate of fire is still more than 10 rounds per minute, and this cannon is born in anti-aircraft combat, but it shows unparalleled power when firing at flat targets.

Soon German sappers began to build pontoon bridges under the cover of these anti-aircraft guns, and the German infantry crossing the river were desperately expanding their forward positions from the bridgeheads built by Italian cannon fodder. When more than 1,000 Germans successfully crossed the river, all the American defenders seemed to realize that their canal defenses might not be able to hold it.

"Retreat!" With an order, the American soldiers began to retreat in a planned way to the second line of defense.