The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Montgomery knew very well that once the German army entered Catania, the British army would be in a very embarrassing situation.

This embarrassment comes from two aspects.

On the one hand, it is public opinion... After the liberation of Catania, the British actively provided various assistance to Catania, such as medical treatment and rescue for injured people, and food relief for the people. Administrative officials entered Catania to implement management.

This measure was first implemented by the US military. In order to improve its international image and gain more support from local people, the US recruited industrial, economic, transportation and other management talents in the military, so that they After capturing a certain city, these talents can be used to reasonably manage the city and restore the city to normal order as soon as possible.

This is one of the reasons why Montgomery deliberately allowed the US military to capture the unknown town... From the perspective of British interests, of course, the image of the United States cannot be greatly improved and surpassed that of the United Kingdom.

Therefore, Montgomery followed the example of the United States and recruited some management talents to govern Catania.

Of course, propaganda work also had to keep up, and there were even war reporters from various countries following up in Catania.

If Catania was occupied by the German army and even journalists fell into the hands of the German army, how would it be explained in terms of public opinion?

The other aspect is the military aspect.

If the Germans occupied Catania, would they fight or not?

Fighting will inevitably involve bombing, and the target of bombing must be civilian houses.

If we don't fight, we will have to let the German army control the transportation line!

At that time, the British army may have only one choice, and that is to send troops into the city to start street fighting with the enemy.

But Montgomery certainly knew what that meant.

"Order the Australian 6th Infantry Division to reinforce Catania immediately!" Montgomery ordered.

The Australian 6th Infantry Division has a lot of experience in street fighting in North Africa, so it is most suitable for them to perform this task.

"Yes, General!" Degan Gang responded and conveyed the order.

But things did not go well. Twenty minutes later, Degangan came to Montgomery with a telegram and reported: "General, Major General Joshua telegraphed that the Australian 6th Infantry Division was blocked and cannot be withdrawn for a while!"

"What kind of blockade?" Montgomery asked: "We have occupied all important places along the way!"

"But we did not occupy every tunnel, General!" Degungan replied: "There are still jungles, and many Germans are hiding in them! Only now have they come out to lay mines, blow up bridges, and sneak attack our troops on the highlands. There are even some Several highlands have been taken back by the Germans!"

"It's a tunnel again!" Montgomery gritted his teeth.

He had already suffered a loss on the Gabes defense line. He thought that because of the success of the "Meat Mince Plan", the Germans in Sicily were not prepared for this. Unexpectedly, this headache for Montgomery appeared again.

Of course, because the German army is short of troops on the front line of Mount Etna, the British army is not unable to move down, but the speed will be delayed.

However, this is the purpose of the German army...to delay the British army's reinforcement of Catania, so that the German troops can occupy Catania first.

"Paratrooper brigade!" Montgomery then ordered: "Send the paratrooper brigade up immediately!"

Only one of the two brigades of the British 1st Airborne Division was dispatched, and another brigade was on standby in Malta as a reserve.

"But, General!" said De Guangan, "it is night!"

Degangan said this because the previous airborne landing to Sicily did not go smoothly... In fact, it should be said that it was an extreme failure.

"Catania is a plain!" Montgomery said: "There will be no problem in parachuting or air landing there!"

"Yes, General!"

As a result, a parachute group and an airborne group took off from the Malta airport.

This time, Montgomery greeted both the British and American fleets, saying that a fleet of transport planes would fly over at around 11:10...Montgomery had been frightened by the accidental damage to the fleet by the warship last time, or It can also be said that lessons have been learned.

On the other hand, Montgomery also contacted the defenders of Catania and told them not to accidentally injure friendly forces.

However, what Montgomery did not expect was that his move actually helped the German army a small favor.

What a coincidence is that the Italian "Lightning Division" taking off from Tunisia also happened to fly over the US fleet at this time... The US fleet took it for granted that it was the British airborne troops that Montgomery said were going to reinforce a certain place. So there was no shooting.

Then the "Lightning Division" transport plane flew over Catania. The Catania garrison also thought it was the British 1st Airborne Division. Not only did they not use anti-aircraft guns to counterattack, they also did not directly parachute on the city of Catanis. The Italian army took any precautions.

Colonel Will, the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the British 70th Infantry Division stationed in Catania, just complained when he saw the parachutes in the sky: "Didn't they say they airborne outside the city? Why did they change to Parachute in the city? Don’t they know it’s dangerous?”

Colonel Will is right. There are many buildings in the city that are fatal to paratroopers, such as pointed roofs, ropes for drying clothes, bamboos towering into the sky, etc. Even a tall house may be dangerous, because When parachuting, it will hit the wall directly.

In addition, airborne landing in the city is inconvenient for the gathering of troops, especially now it is still night.

Therefore, the correct way to parachute reinforcements should be to parachute in an open area outside the city, and then march to the city after gathering.

Airborne directly into the city is generally only used when making a surprise attack on the enemy, because it will catch the enemy off guard. If there are troops outside the city to cooperate, it can also be used to attack from both inside and outside.

The staff officer replied to Colonel Will at this time: "Colonel, you have to know that it is night now, and we have not turned on the lights. It is difficult for them to tell which is inside the city and which is outside the city in the air!"

Colonel Will said "Oh" and nodded, and then ordered: "Prepare the car and ask the car soldiers to pick them up. It seems they will be in a little trouble!"

Colonel Will was thinking about the "British paratroopers" who might be injured. Colonel Will even asked people to wake up the medical soldiers to get ready.

But soon, Colonel Will discovered that something was wrong, because gunshots rang out in Catania shortly after the paratroopers landed.

"What's going on?" Colonel Will asked, "Why did you shoot?"

"Colonel!" A communications soldier panted and ran to Colonel Will and reported: "Italians... they are Italian paratroopers!"