"Okay, when will the Germans be able to fight?" Mussolini agreed without thinking. He preferred to cede some of his interests and entrust the war to the more professional German army, rather than trust his generals. He invaded France, and he ran into a bloody outlet, and he invaded Africa, and he almost drove people into the sea, and now he invaded the Balkans, slower than the Turks, and no one would trust such an unruly group of men.

"Italy needs 200,000 barrels of fuel, including aviation-grade fuel for aircraft and ordinary fuel for German armored forces. As soon as this oil is in place, then the Germans will attack immediately. Accardo replied to his ally with a smile.

Mussolini looked at Accardo, and finally asked uncertainly: "My Führer, don't you need time to mobilize your troops?

Arcado laughed: "Actually, this is the case, in the northern part of the Balkans, there is a German army group that has just been formed is training, this army group was actually just formed 15 days ago, and it was formed by transferring part of Klug's F Army and some new recruits. The commander of the army group is called Herman Hawke, and you will know him in a short time. ”

"Recruit?" Mussolini really didn't know how to express his feelings, depressed, or worried? He originally thought that Accardo was deliberately deceiving him and seeking more benefits for Italy. However, when he learned that this group army was a newly formed group army, he became worried again -- whether this army could work or not? He knew that the elite units of the German army could indeed be said to be the invincible force of a hundred battle divisions, but the recruits were counted separately, and the recruits of each family were almost the same, and there was no shortage of recruits in Italy, because most of the Italian troops were recruits.

"My Führer, the new army group, will this General Hawke do it, will this army group work or not?" asked Mussolini, frowning. This was his primary concern, and he had to secure Italy's interests in the Balkans. Otherwise, such a thing as ceding the colony will definitely outweigh the losses.

Mussolini's calculation was very clear: the interests of North Africa that he ceded were actually only scratching the surface, and some of them were originally French colonies, but Italy took advantage of the fire to loot a lot when France surrendered to Germany - these colonies are certainly not comparable to the places that can be bordered by Italy, and the colonies will eventually become territories that do not belong to them, and the bordering Balkans will become an integral part of Italy in the future.

That's why Mussolini was willing to use the African colonies in exchange for a large area of land in the Balkans, and this deal was definitely a sure deal, but only if he could really conquer this territory.

"Don't worry!" Accardo nodded and said: "If Italy can't get the place originally demarcated, then the colonies in North Africa and the 400,000 troops can be left out of the Third Reich." However, it is better to get the oil in hand as much as possible, after all, we are not responsible for the consequences of the delay on the Italian side. ”

General Hawke was not Mussolini's nameless, this German expert in armored warfare was very good in the First World War in France, but at that time his troops were equipped with outdated No. 3 tanks, responsible for covering the flanks of Rommel and Guderian, so his reputation was not obvious.

His armored forces suffered the heaviest losses in the French campaign, but the results were the most mediocre. But it has been unanimously praised by everyone. Field Marshal Brauchitsch praised him as "a Prussian soldier", and the then chief of staff, General Bock, also described him as "an invaluable expert in tank warfare".

Because his troops were responsible for dealing with the British and French tank forces at that time, and only the No. 3 tank was slightly behind, it caused heavy losses to the tank troops he led. On the other hand, he accompanied Guderian and Rommel all the way to Dunkirk despite heavy losses, but did not hold back a little, and this courage and perseverance are definitely commendable.

Therefore, after the First World War in France, he rose to prominence, was promoted from major general to lieutenant general, and because he encircled the largest encirclement in the Eastern Front, he completely annihilated a total of 170,000 people in the three southernmost armies of the Soviet Union, and was promoted to general, and was finally transferred to the commander-in-chief of the German Army Group J, responsible for the full command of the German army's operations in the Balkans.

What Accardo and Mussolini said was true, Army Group J was indeed a newly formed army, and most of its troops were replenished recruits. However, these recruits have been trained in France for two whole months, and they have been training all the way east, so their combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the recruits directly replenished by Germany to the front-line troops on the Eastern Front.

The troops drawn from General Kluger's Army Group F were even more impressive, including the famous SS 10th Panzer Division, and three relatively elite infantry mechanized divisions, which formed the core of Army J: the 8th Panzer Army and the 8th Mechanized Infantry Corps. Therefore, purely in terms of combat effectiveness, the German army, which is about to attack the Balkans, is definitely not low in combat quality.

At present, the German army has a total of 12 army groups, large and small in size, but the establishment is one level, from A to L. Depending on where they are stationed, the combat missions and the number of troops they are responsible for are also different. In addition, the German army has three quasi-army groups in preparation, only the army group structure, the current number of which does not exceed 20,000, namely the N Army formed by General Quchler, the O Army formed by General Reichenau, and the M Army that Accardo is preparing for Manstein's command.

In the far west, Army Group C, renamed from most of the original Army Group A with additional recruits, was commanded by General Loeb, who was responsible for the defense of the British Isles.

It was followed by Army B in France, formerly known as Army B that occupied France, but it replaced many additional troops and expanded its establishment, and its commander was General Keitel, who was responsible for the defense of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other regions.

On German soil, the newest Army Group A was being reorganized, commanded by Field Marshal Rundstedt, who had just returned from England, the second marshal of the Army, and the personal reward that Accardo had promised to take the British mainland to Lundstedt. At the moment this is also the only army group in the German army under the command of a field marshal.

Army I was the most dispersed, deployed in Denmark and Norway, with its headquarters in the southernmost part of Norway. The commander was General Kleist. This army group was responsible for ensuring the supply of high-quality Norwegian iron ore to the German army.

On the territory of Poland and in the Ukrainian rear, Army Group H was responsible for the logistical protection of the entire German army, and the commander was the calm General Weix. This army group, which did not have many heavy weapons, was mainly responsible for exterminating the partisans in Poland and ensuring the absolute security of the German rear transport routes.

On the battlefields of the Eastern Front, General Modell's Army Group D, General Liszt's Army Group E, General Kluger's Army Group F, General Guderian's Army Group G were deployed in turn. These armies were by far the main battle corps of the German army, so they were relatively numerous, and these four armies together accounted for almost half of the total number of German troops, about 3 million people. Guderian's Army Group G had the smallest number, with only 350,000 men, while Liszt's Army Group E had the largest number, with about 1.1 million infantry.

In North Africa, Rommel's Afrika Korps had two army groups, but their numbers were not large, with Army Group L having only about 130,000 men, and Schellner's Army Group K having a larger number, almost 210,000. This was mainly due to the fact that the North African region was too logistically reple, and the Axis powers could only feed so many German troops there at best.

The remaining Army Group J, which was to attack the Balkans under the command of Hawke, was also small in number, only about 200,000. According to the plan, this unit was to be assigned to Rommel Moderation and become part of the German Mediterranean Corps.

According to the future plan of the German army, all German armies were to be divided into 5 clusters as the highest units for the launch of large-scale campaigns. The plan, which would begin after the end of the winter battle with the Soviet Union, would take a year to reorganize all the German forces and eventually improve the combat effectiveness of the German front-line troops. The plan of the Supreme Command was to stabilize the Eastern Front in the winter of 1938 and use Ukraine as a barrier to withstand the Soviet counteroffensive. In 1939, Ukraine and Belarus were pushed to turn to Germany, weakening the Soviet Union, and then in 1940 they began to counterattack on all fronts, implementing the Neo-Barbarossa Plan, and starting the final battle of the Soviet-German war.

By that time, there would be as many as 2 million friendly units cooperating with the Germans, and the total would exceed 7 million if the Germans themselves were included. This figure is about the same as the total number of front-line combat units that the Soviet Union could mobilize, and the odds of victory are close to 70% based on the assessment of the German army's armament and combat effectiveness.

Accardo's plan was that once the United States began a counteroffensive in the Pacific theater, Germany would also start fighting on the Eastern Front at about the same time. In this way, at about the same time that the United States dealt with Japan, Germany could knock the Soviet Union out of the game. The bipolar world began again, only this time with Germany and the United States.

"In that case, then I will return to Rome and deliver all the oil to General Hawke!" Mussolini saw that Accardo was so sure that he had no choice but to continue to hypnotize himself and convince himself of the myth of German invincibility. Now the combat effectiveness of the German army is his mental drug, and as long as you think about it, you will feel that you are extremely powerful.

"Okay, I'm not going to send it, I have an important military meeting to attend in a few minutes. Accardo smiled and said, "I hope that the next time we meet again, it will be in the Balkans in Italy." ”

"Good! in the Balkans of Italy!" Mussolini replied with a smile as excited as if he were bloody, "Goodbye, my Führer." ”

"Goodbye! Mr. Leader. After saying that, Accardo talked to Manstein about the details of the bombing of the Crimea, and it seemed that the chief of the general staff of the empire did not seem to be willing to send the Italian leader in the house.

Anna had no choice but to avoid the embarrassment, and seemed to be very aggrieved.

Mussolini, of course, was more aggrieved, but there were words of suffering. Who made his army not the legions of Roman times?-

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