The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"General Guzzoni!" Rommel couldn't bear it anymore: "I don't care what you think, or how much advantage the Italian army has. After you Italians are defeated, you can surrender to the Allies and save your lives." , but sorry, we Germans are different. So, why do you think I would be stupid enough to put the lives of a hundred thousand German soldiers in your hands? We all know that this will not only make this war a disaster? Any consequences! How stupid do I have to be to do this?”

The translator was stunned, wondering whether he should translate these words to Lieutenant General Guzzoni.

Rommel ordered: "Translate according to the original words!"

"Yes, General!" the translator said, telling Lieutenant General Guzzoni exactly what Rommel said word for word.

Lieutenant General Guzzoni's face became very ugly. Before he finished listening, he stood up and said, "That's enough. If this is the case, there is no need for us to continue to cooperate!"

With that said, he turned around and left the office.

Of course, the guards would not let him leave easily, so the two raised their hands to stop Lieutenant General Guzzoni.

"What do you mean?" Lieutenant General Guzzoni asked.

"General Guzzoni!" Rommel said: "You have to understand that the meeting you participated in today is highly confidential. If you don't plan to cooperate, there will be no problem... I will contact Prime Minister Mussolini and ask him to cancel it. Your duties. At the same time, you must stay under our custody until the end of this battle!"

"You can't do this!" Lieutenant General Guzzoni said angrily: "We are allies, you have no right to do this!"

"You can try it!" Rommel said.

After a pause and looking at Lieutenant General Guzzoni with a look of fear in his eyes, Rommel continued: "Either you choose to become a prisoner, or you continue to be your lieutenant general. Tell me your choice!"

Guzzoni had no choice but to sit back in his seat dejectedly.

But even so, Lieutenant General Zoni still refused to show weakness: "I will not agree to a plan that harms the interests of the Italian army! If you want my soldiers to become cannon fodder, this is impossible!"

"Don't worry, Lieutenant General!" Rommel replied: "In fact, I never think that Italian soldiers can become cannon fodder!"

The implication is that Italian soldiers are not qualified to be cannon fodder, because they will flee into the enemy's trenches as soon as possible.

This is indeed the case, especially in the Battle of Sicily, the vulnerability of the Italian army reached an outrageous level.

The ensuing war also proved this.

Three days after the meeting, the Allied forces launched a fierce air attack on Panterella Island near Sicily... As Qin Chuan said before, the Allied forces needed a place to serve as the Allied forces' forward base.

The bombing lasted for three full days, and all the island's defenses, transportation and communication equipment were destroyed. On the second day of the bombing, the British cruiser "Orion" and the destroyers "Chevalier" and "Trubridge" also participated in the bombing.

In just a few days, the Allied forces launched 5,285 attacks on Panterella Island, pouring more than 6,200 tons of artillery shells and bombs.

But in fact, all this was a waste. The 11,000 nominal Italian troops stationed on the island had actually hoisted the white flag long ago. However, the Allied artillery fire was too fierce and the smoke in the sky made it impossible for the pilots to see the white flag.

Therefore, when the Allied forces organized a large-scale landing of tens of thousands of people on Panterelia Island on the third day, they found that there was no resistance at all... They were all misled by Montgomery, thinking that this would be an arduous battle. , but in fact only one soldier was injured in this battle... This soldier was bitten by a mule after landing on the island.

Then an even more incredible event happened: after capturing the island of Panterella, the Allied forces prepared to attack another island: Lampedusa.

However, when Eisenhower and Montgomery were discussing how to launch an attack on the island, a correspondent reported to the two: "General, we have captured Lampedusa!"

"What? How is this possible?" Eisenhower couldn't help but asked in surprise: "We haven't even ordered an attack. Which audacious force disobeyed orders and occupied this island?"

"General!" the correspondent replied: "Not a troop, but a pilot!"

It turned out that a pilot flew a plane to bomb Sicily. He was unable to make an emergency landing on Lampedusa due to plane malfunction. He had originally planned to surrender to the Italian army on the island, but he did not expect... several people on the island. Hundreds of Italian troops lined up to surrender to him.

"That's good news, isn't it?" Montgomery said.

Eisenhower glanced at Montgomery.

Although Eisenhower didn't say anything, he was thinking in his heart... Montgomery's estimate of this battle may be wrong. They should attack Messina as Patton planned, because the facts proved that the Italian army was invincible. Attack and capture Messina can end the battle in the shortest time.

Of course, now that the plan has been made and is in progress, it is too late to say anything. Eisenhower can only continue to fight this war according to Montgomery's plan.

Then, the Allies built airports and accumulated supplies on these two islands. At the same time, they also sent aircraft carriers with a fleet to Crete... This was to cooperate with the "Mincemeat Plan" and make the Germans think that the Allies The army's bombing of Sicily and even the capture of two islands as forward bases were still feints.

A week later, the airport on Banterella Island was completed, and the strategic supplies were sufficient for the Allied forces to launch a large-scale military operation, so the Allied forces decided to launch a landing operation on Sicily.

The overall combat plan is that Vice Admiral Hewitt of the U.S. Navy will direct the Near West Task Force to transport three infantry divisions of the U.S. 7th Army commanded by Patton to land in southern Sicily; Vice Admiral Ramsey of the British Navy will command the eastern part. The task force transported 4 infantry divisions and 1 infantry brigade from the British 8th Army commanded by Montgomery to land in the southeast of the island.

There are also two airborne divisions (the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and the British 1st Airborne Division), which carry out airdrops before and after landing... before landing, they airborne to seize favorable terrain to assist the landing, and after landing, they carry out airdrops deep into the enemy's defenses to assist. The landing force advanced rapidly.

There is nothing wrong with this in itself. Airborne troops should indeed do this in amphibious landing operations, just like the German army attacked Crete.

The problem is that this is the first time the Allies have used airborne troops on a large scale to fight, and there are two troops, British and American.

What's worse is that under such circumstances, the Allied forces actually chose to carry out airborne landings before dawn.