The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"Marshal!" Qin Chuan said, "The Italians have transferred all their elite troops to North Africa!"

"Yeah!" Raeder responded, and after a while he reacted, looking up at Qin Chuan in surprise: "You mean... the Italian troops in North Africa are elite troops?"

"Yes!" Qin Chuan replied.

"Then the Italian troops in Sicily..."

"Hmm!" Qin Chuan nodded.

To a certain extent, Raeder's strategic deployment was correct. The German Air Force in Tunisia covered the navy in Bizerte from the west, and the Italian Air Force in Sicily covered the navy in the Tyrrhenian Sea from the east. In addition, the Italian Army in Sicily also had a large number of anti-aircraft guns. In addition, the Italians also had a fleet. All of these could make Sicily a barrier between Malta and the Tyrrhenian Sea, so the German Navy was very safe.

But...

The Italian army had poor discipline and low morale, and they did not think that the British army was in a position to land in Sicily, so they did not worry about their airspace at all... You know, when the Italian army attacked Egypt, they were able to leave a gap of tens of kilometers wide in their defense line without being discovered, so it goes without saying what the situation would be in Sicily.

In history, the Italian defenders in the Sicily area even had a ridiculous incident: a damaged Allied fighter plane was forced to land on a small island, and the pilot was ready to surrender to the Italian army on the island, but unexpectedly... the Italian army came to surrender to him in groups, so the pilot set a record for the largest number of prisoners, and also a record for pilots capturing enemy land forces.

Colonel Slain interrupted and said, "Marshal, based on our experience of cooperation with the Italian army, I don't think we can trust the Italians, especially since the Italian army in Sicily is not yet in a state of combat readiness, and we have not established a communication channel with Sicily!"

"But Admiral Garibaldi told me... the British air force cannot penetrate the air defense of Sicily!"

Colonel Slain shook his head and said, "Marshal, you should ask us, not the Italians!"

"Marshal!" At this time, someone reported, "General Adrian reported that a British submarine was found!"

This news made the commander nervous instantly, especially at this time.

"What do the British want to do?" Raeder said unconsciously.

Qin Chuan understood what Raeder meant. The anti-submarine means in this era were very primitive, which was one of the reasons why German submarines could blockade Britain.

Therefore, most of the British submarines that could discover British submarines were those that took the initiative to surface to observe or track the German fleet.

When Raeder asked for details, it was indeed the case.

In this case, the problem seems to be a bit serious. The submarines are tracking the fleet either to find an opportunity for a sneak attack or to grasp the position of the enemy fleet for further large-scale operations.

The former is easy to say, but if it is the latter... Qin Chuan's worries will soon appear.

"No!" Then Raeder shook his head and said, "In such weather, it is difficult for British planes to find targets!"

Raeder was right. It was raining outside, and visibility was very low.

In this case, even if the British army grasped the position of the fleet and even flew over the fleet, it would be difficult for the pilots to launch bomb attacks on the warships on the high-speed fighter planes.

However, at this time, someone whispered, "Marshal, the rain seems to be less!"

Raeder looked out the window and saw that there was even some sunshine in the sky.

"God!" Raeder could no longer remain calm at this time. He immediately ordered: "Immediately order General Adrian to move closer to us!"

After a pause, he ordered again: "Immediately notify General Garibaldi and ask him to strengthen the air defense of Sicily!"

But it actually made little difference whether this was said or not... Garibaldi did convey this to Lieutenant General Guzzoni, the commander of the 6th Army stationed in Sicily, and Lieutenant General Guzzoni also passed the order down, but when it came to the divisions, no one took it seriously.

Because the army would think it was the navy's business, the navy thought it was the air force's business, and the air force thought that someone should give them intelligence in advance before the fighter planes could attack...This was the consequence of the lack of coordination and communication between the navy, army, and air force. Everyone thought that the war would not spread to Sicily so quickly, so they did what they had to do. Even when the British fighter planes crossed Sicily later, the Italians thought they were German planes.

Of course, this is also related to the quality of the Italian army. Although the Italian 6th Army stationed in Sicily is huge, with 9 divisions and 2 brigades, only 4 field divisions have certain combat effectiveness, and the rest are basically militia, which also determines that they cannot effectively intercept the British aircraft.

Montgomery's plan is actually very simple, which is to first annihilate or severely damage the German fleet in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Originally, Montgomery was still worried about the German army because the main force of the German navy was in Algiers and Bizerte.

Algiers is 300 kilometers away from Malta, which is the critical combat radius of British fighter planes (Note: The combat range of Spitfire fighters when equipped is 760 kilometers). More importantly,... To bomb Algiers, you must pass through Tunisia, where the German 27th Air Force is located.

Needless to say, the combat effectiveness of German fighter planes. During this period, although the British army was unstoppable on land, it suffered heavy losses in the air. Especially the German pilot named Marceu, who is said to have shot down more than fifty aircraft on his own. British fighter planes, and this was a record achieved within a month... This caused a psychological shadow on the British pilots.

Therefore, the same problem exists in the Port of Bizerte, which is under the protection of the German 27th Air Force.

Montgomery suddenly found that although he had more fighters and was ready for everything, he was somewhat powerless.

"What are you hesitating about, Monty?" Eisenhower asked: "We can only attack the Port of Bizerte, which blocks our only way!"

"But Ike!" Montgomery replied: "There is a guy among the German pilots. He can shoot down 8 planes in ten minutes and 17 in the same day... and he is in Tunisia!"

Eisenhower nodded: "I have heard of him. Are you worried that our fighters will be attacked by the Luftwaffe and suffer heavy losses when bombing the enemy fleet?"

"Yes!" Montgomery nodded.

At this moment, a staff officer came in with a telegram and reported: "'L27' discovered the German fleet in the Tyrrhenian Sea!"