The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Mussolini couldn't help but become furious when he saw this telegram. He didn't understand the situation at all and he replied strongly: "No, Libya is Italian territory. I will never let the British set foot on this land, not at all." No...if the German army cannot protect its security, the tenacious Italian army will!"

Mussolini seemed to have forgotten that the British troops had fought all the way to Tripoli a few months ago, but this was not surprising. Italians always lived in their own imaginations, and they always had a mysterious confidence in themselves, just like back then. They thought they could easily defeat the British army and occupy the entire Egypt.

Hitler ignored Mussolini. He just sent a telegram to Rommel: "You did a good job, my general. Let the British be proud for a while! In addition, sometimes you don't need to consider the Italians." The idea, do you understand?”

Rommel couldn't help but be overjoyed... This was also Rommel's sadness. Although he was Hitler's favorite general, he rarely received Hitler's support on the battlefield. For example, Hitler repeatedly ordered Rommel to stop attacking, and refused Rommel again and again. Rommel's request for reinforcements and so on made Rommel feel a little psychologically depressed.

Rommel once joked to his staff: "The Führer and I are like two opposite strategists. Whatever I want, the Führer will oppose!"

But for the first time, Hitler would support Rommel in this matter, which made Rommel completely put down the stone hanging in his heart.

Then he carefully savored Hitler's words: "You don't need to consider what the Italians think!"

Rommel soon understood the meaning of this sentence, so while leading his troops to retreat, he spread the word: "Germany supports Libyan independence, but Italy is unwilling to do so!"

On the surface, this seems to have little effect, because Libyan people do not have much sense of independence, and many of them do not even have the concept of a country.

But the Libyan colonial army under the command of Italy was different. Because they were a group of troops and had participated in battles on various battlefields. The more they fought, the more they learned. They had a vague desire to establish their own country, but Due to Italy's control, they did not dare to take any action. At this time, they were overjoyed when they heard that Germany supported their independence. All the troops responded by breaking away from the Italian army and expressed their willingness to follow the German army.

This also includes the Italian "Lightning Division".

As mentioned before, most of the Italian "Lightning Division" are indigenous Berbers from Libya. The news that the Germans supported Libyan independence reached Algeria that night... In fact, it was Colonel Slain who deliberately spread the news.

Then the Italian "Lightning Division" took control of the Italian officers commanding them that night and sent someone to contact Colonel Slain.

Mussolini couldn't help but burst into rages after hearing this. However, with the powerful enemies of Britain and the United States in front of him and the riots in Libya behind him, Mussolini did not dare to do anything to the Germans. In the end, he could only make a promise to Libya. : "If it can help Italy defeat the Allies, then allow Libya to become independent!"

This moment was like a shot in the arm for the Libyan colonial army.

More importantly, Italy, the colonizer, and Libya, the colonized country, originally had a quasi-hostile relationship, but now they have instantly become comrades on the same front.

At this time, Qin Chuan was standing on the battleship "Dunkirk" with Colonel Slain.

The two were invited by Redel to come to the warship to test the new artillery shells.

"We meet again, Lieutenant!" Of course Conrad was indispensable for such an occasion. He excitedly said to Qin Chuan: "We produced this kind of fuze based on your idea... It uses the bullet shell as the antenna, and the fuze contains A vacuum tube radio wave transmitter emits radio waves of 180 to 220 MHz when powered on, and then...you know!"

Reidel asked: "Have you verified the reliability of this kind of artillery shell?"

"Of course!" Conrad replied: "This is simply a pioneering work. It can at least increase the hit rate several times!"

"Then let's try it!" said Redl.

Of course, the experiment did not use a target drone... There were no drones in this era.

Therefore, we can only conduct experiments with a few fishing boats the size of airplanes at different distances on the sea.

This experiment is feasible because what is to be tested is the self-destruction function of the shell and not others.

In order to make the experiment as accurate as possible, Redel also made these fishing boats sail automatically at sea... This is easy to do, just press the accelerator with a heavy object to keep it running.

"Get ready!" With the order, the gunner loaded the shells for the twin 130MM secondary guns.

Then with a burst of mechanical sound, the naval gun aimed its muzzle at one of the fishing boats.

With a "fire", the naval gun fired two shells towards the target...but the shells completely missed the target and exploded more than a hundred meters in front of the fishing boat.

"Marshal!" Conrad laughed: "You need to get a better gunner, otherwise you will be wasting the shells... These shells will only detonate automatically, I did not say they will automatically find the target!"

The officers burst into laughter.

Reidel frowned in embarrassment, and then winked at the staff officer.

The staff officer understood and quickly replaced the gunners.

In fact, this is understandable. The navy needs time to become familiar with the guns of French warships.

"Ready, let go!"

This time the gunner was reliable. Two shells accurately hit the fishing boat and exploded, and then several more shells blew up the fishing boats farther and closer.

"Gentlemen!" Conrad explained: "This may not seem like a big deal, just destroying a few fishing boats. But please note that the anti-aircraft artillery shells we used did not have a delay adjustment on the fuse, which means that The shell will automatically explode according to the distance of the target. Otherwise... the shell should explode before hitting the fishing boat or after passing through the fishing boat! "

The surroundings soon burst into applause. As the navy, of course they knew the importance of this kind of artillery shell in air defense.

Leidel held Qin Chuan's hand excitedly and said, "Lieutenant, you have successfully convinced me. Now, I am very interested in your defense plan. It is necessary for us to further discuss the detailed plan!"

Conrad interjected at this time: "Marshal, I have to remind you that we only produce this kind of fuze for 130MM artillery shells. The reason is that we cannot further reduce the size for the time being, and at the same time, we cannot afford the cost of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns!"

"That's enough!" Reidel replied: "I hope you can provide us with these shells as soon as possible, the more the better!"

Redl is right, only 130MM shells are enough, because more of the 130MM caliber high and flat dual-purpose guns on warships... For example, the "Dunkirk" battleship has 12 quadruple guns and 4 double guns. This kind of secondary gun is installed.