Imperial Overlord

Far from the rough Atlantic Ocean, Benghazi, an important port on the Mediterranean coast, has finally been put out of the burning fire. . fastest update

The disgraced locals and the disgraced Italian defenders stood helplessly in a daze as they looked at the dilapidated port.

"Extinguished?" Looking at the port building with only a foundation left by the fire, an Italian officer couldn't believe his eyes.

When Benghazi was attacked by the British Air Force, he and his men were still garrisoned in positions outside the city. As a result, they were soon transferred to the city and began to participate in the work of putting out the fire.

It was also fortunate that the port dock was near the sea, and the water pump and other equipment had a good working environment. It was not easy to control the fire.

Because a large number of buildings in Benghazi are made of stone and dirt, and the port is separated from the surrounding buildings by a good street, the fire did not spread to the whole of Benghazi.

Even so, the fire has continued to the present, destroying everything of value in the Italian port.

"There are 400 people missing, and I think some of them are destined to be lost." An Italian officer looked at the burned-to-white port and said with emotion.

Many people were burned to ashes by the exploding oil drums and the detonated ammunition depots. It was a miracle that the bodies could be found under this kind of fire.

There are quite a few civilian corpses around, as well as the corpses of many Italian soldiers... Compared with the losses, these corpses seem so insignificant.

"To rebuild this place, we have to rely on Tobruk... In this case, the slow progress of the project is inevitable." An Italian general with his hands behind his back said painfully, looking at the ruins of the dock that had no use.

To build Benghazi and build it into a port for oil transportation is the plan of the Italians, and it is also an almost irreplaceable plan.

Although Tripoli has a strong loading and unloading capacity, it is too far away from the oil production area to be able to borrow at all. Another port close to the oil zone is the German Sirte.

A little further east than Benghazi is Tobruk, which is just as close and has worse port conditions.

So, even if Benghazi is now completely scrapped, the Italians can only hold their noses and continue to rebuild here because this is their only hope.

"If, I mean... if we ask the Germans to borrow our Sirte, will we speed up the rebuilding of Benghazi?" An Italian officer who followed beside the general suggested.

"How could the Germans lend us the port... They are responsible for the unloading of equipment for the construction of Libyan oil fields, and they are also building port facilities... In this case, if they move the dock to us, it means that they are delaying. Their progress." The Italian general shook his head helplessly.

"What about exchanging with them? For example, give them a port like Tripoli, and we will take Sirte..." The young Italian officer felt that his idea was feasible.

The Italian general sneered and looked at the young officer behind him: "Do you think the Germans are stupid pigs?"

"Uh..." The young Italian officer also felt that compared to Libya's oil, the prosperous part of Tripoli was now less valuable.

So the Germans can't foolishly use the vital Sirte to exchange for an irrelevant so-called large port Tripoli.

What's more, Germany's oil pipeline is about to be connected to Sirte, and the strategic advantage there has become more significant.

"Back then the Germans wanted Benghazi... We were reluctant to give it... As a result, Benghazi is now in ruins, and the Germans' Sirte has become a good place." Thinking about it two months ago, Ribbentrop and Negotiations on the Italian side, the Italian general sighed helplessly.

In this situation, if you want to rebuild Benghazi, you can only rely on the small place of Tobruk... For Italy, their Libyan oil transportation road seems to be destined to be difficult from the beginning.

"The German Navy wants to rent destroyers and patrol boats. Let's try to persuade the leader to agree... At least let the German Navy take on some of our tasks." As the Italian general spoke, he had already reached a place where there was still smoke. of the foundation.

The structure and outer walls of the house originally built here can still be vaguely seen, but now there is only a rough outline left.

Maybe there used to be furniture and the like, but now there's only a blackened patch on the ground, and some slightly raised ashes.

Everything in Benghazi seems to be starting all over again. Looking at the sea in the distance, the old general sighed and said, "It's fine to lease or sell some old destroyers and patrol boats... The point is, we need money to rebuild Benghazi!"

The floating dock in Germany looks powerful and very easy to use, but this thing is actually a steel welded box, which cannot be changed.

Because its main structure is steel, the German side cannot use it on a large scale. After all, this thing needs steel to build, and now every industrial sector in Germany is worried about the lack of steel.

This problem has already been determined. If it is not a last resort, the German side will not easily use this floating dock to expand the port, because the amount of steel consumed is too large.

Another fatal problem also plagues the floating dock, that is, the floating dock is a temporary device, even if it can sit and sink a part, it is still a hollow device floating on the water!

Temporary installations have a time limit. Although in the Mediterranean with less waves, this kind of pier can be used for several months or even a year or two, but after all, this thing has a time limit.

It can only grab precious time for users at the most critical time, but cannot be used as a permanent construction.

Steel will rust, leak and sink... Even if there is support and other aftercare treatments, it can only delay but not prevent such things from happening.

Therefore, the construction of the German pier in Sirte is actually just a time-robbing trick, not a real infrastructure.

Under such circumstances, what the top German executives want to do now is to use the time gained by the floating dock to speed up the construction of Sirte itself.

This is why, after having three floating piers, Sirte's current construction focus has completely shifted to the construction of permanent piers.

It is precisely because Sirte itself cannot be replaced that after Sirte was attacked by the British Mediterranean Fleet, Germany finally moved to build the Mediterranean Navy Fleet.

The British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet elegantly bypassed the main fleet of the Italian Navy, entered the Gulf of Sirte, and attacked Sirte, which deeply stimulated the German executives.

General Cunningham commanded the fleet that attacked Sirte, broke through the Malta blockade without anyone else, and arrived at the port of Gibraltar safely, which made the German side unable to bear it.

Not only worried about Sirte's problems, Li Le and some generals were even worried that they heard the news of the British fleet landing in Malta one morning.

As one of the most important islands in the Mediterranean, Li Le and many German generals believed that the absolute safety of Malta must be guaranteed as much as possible!

There are actually many solutions. The German Navy intends to buy two destroyers from the French Navy, rent more if possible, and is considering whether to salvage a French battleship that was sunk in Alexandria...

At the same time, the German Navy also submitted a message to the Italian side, requesting the purchase or lease of as many naval ships as possible.

Admiral Raedel's plans were ambitious. He intended to establish three separate destroyer fleets in the Mediterranean around Malta and Sirte and Alexandria.

In terms of strength, Malta had the most powerful destroyer fleet and was responsible for facing the pressure of the British fleet from Gibraltar. The destroyer fleet near Sirte was in charge of supporting Malta.

The destroyer fleet in the port of Alexandria is responsible for auxiliary tasks such as **** and demining, and its strength is relatively weak.

Even, Rader once hit the idea of ​​the "Eagle" aircraft carrier being built by the Italian Navy. Of course, this radical idea was rejected by the Italian Navy.

However, the Italian Navy is still willing to sell or rent a few destroyer patrol boats to give the Germans a face~www.wuxiaspot.com~ After all, this is not a core interest, and it is definitely a discussion.

What the Italian general mentioned was actually an effort by Germany to seek leases of naval warships.

In France, in the office building of the Vichy government, the French admiral, General Darlan, who is also the foreign minister of the French government, met the special envoy from the head of state.

"General Darlan! Our country hopes to purchase two second-hand destroyers from the French Navy in the form of purchases." As soon as they met, the German envoy, who had a few words of greetings, said his intentions.

Darlan had also heard about the defeat of the Axis powers in the Mediterranean. While he was shocked by the strength of the British navy, he also saw the strategic victory of the Axis powers.

As the second-in-command of the Vichy government in France, Darlan is of course not a fool. He was able to negotiate between Hitler and Churchill, and save the French navy until the last moment. Of course, he was considered a smart man.

So he knew that tactically, the British navy did gain an advantage, but strategically, Germany, which blocked the Mediterranean side, was the winner of this battle for the Mediterranean.