Chapter 401 Sicily (5th Update, Please Give Me a Monthly Ticket)

Of course, Qin Chuan could not reveal this flaw because Qin Chuan should not know the date of birth of "Major Martin" unless Ronner and others sent spies to verify it.

But this not only takes time, but is also unnecessary, because the two points raised by Qin Chuan are enough to overthrow the entire conspiracy.

Suddenly, Hitler exploded.

"Idiot!" Hitler threw the document into the air fiercely: "Idiot, ignorant fool... In the face of such a big flaw, my Military Intelligence Agency knew nothing about it, and a person who had never had any espionage experience Captain, I can find them in a few minutes! Are these my eyes and ears? God, I would rather be blind and deaf!"

Hitler was so angry that he walked back and forth in front of Ronan and Canaris with his hands behind his back. However, Luo and Canaris were so frightened that they did not dare to make a sound and stood upright to let Hitler scold them.

After scolding for a while, Hitler shouted: "Get out of here, out of my sight, and stay with your so-called investigation and the documents that should all be reduced to ashes!"

General Canaris and Colonel Ronan hurriedly saluted and fled.

Hitler took a few more steps, and then his face quickly changed. He said to Qin Chuan politely: "I'm sorry, my general and captain, you are right, we were all deceived by the hateful British! "

Then he nodded towards Qin Chuan: "Captain, you are excellent! Even better than I thought. Just as General Rommel praised, you are worthy of the name of 'legend' and the warrior of the empire. Now, can I Understand why the Afrika Korps can always defeat the enemy in adversity. We have the best generals and soldiers. You are invincible and we are fearless!”

"Yes, Your Excellency the Head of State!"

"Now!" Hitler walked to the desk with great excitement, and then spread out the map with a bang: "Now that we have seen through the British trap, it is our turn to plan carefully!"

As he spoke, Hitler stared at the map and folded his hands, lost in thought, and saw no movement for a long time.

Qin Chuan looked at Rommel in confusion... Didn't he say, "Let's plan it carefully"? Why was Hitler thinking alone? !

Rommel shook his head slightly and signaled Qin Chuan to wait patiently.

"My general!" After a while, Hitler asked: "Do you have any ideas? I want to hear your plan!"

"Your Majesty the Führer!" Rommel replied: "We have two infantry divisions in Sicily, but I think this is far from enough. We need at least three armored divisions, three infantry divisions, and two mechanized infantry divisions to reinforce Sicily. , and there is an airborne division as a reserve!"

Seeing that Hitler was in a dilemma, Rommel explained: "The reason is that although there are 200,000 Italian troops stationed on Sicily, their combat effectiveness is too poor and we cannot count on them. On the other hand, the Allies may invest 200,000 people and a large number of aircraft and ships are attacking Sicily. We need at least nine divisions to stop their attack!"

Hitler nodded wordlessly.

If it were at other times, he would have presented facts to Rommel, reasoned and compared data, and even hoped that Rommel could defeat the enemy with "iron will".

However, after knowing that there was oil in North Africa and after confirming that the Allied target was Sicily, he no longer dared to say these words easily.

After a while, Hitler said: "I can transfer three armored divisions and one mechanized infantry division from France, and three infantry divisions from Germany! In addition, the 36th Mechanized Infantry Division in North Africa and the Italian 'Lightning Division' !”

Rommel nodded reluctantly, because two of the divisions belonged to the Afrika Korps, so in fact Hitler's reinforcements only had seven divisions.

But Rommel also knew that the war situation on the Eastern Front was now tense. On the other hand, there were rumors that the Allies were about to land in France, so it was not easy to have seven divisions as reinforcements.

After a pause, Rommel pointed to the map and said: "Sicily is roughly in the shape of a triangle. The three corners of the triangle are large ports, namely the Port of Messina, the Port of Palermo and the Port of Syracuse. There are ten ports on the island. A small and medium-sized airport. I think...the Allies will attack from both sides of the Port of Syracuse!"

Hitler nodded in agreement.

This much is obvious.

First of all, when attacking islands, you must first attack ports and airports, because only they can transport strategic supplies quickly and in batches. This is especially true of large ports, which can not only allow large transport ships to dock and quickly bring large quantities of troops and supplies. , and can also unload large equipment such as tanks, cars, etc., which cannot be done at the airport.

Therefore, if the Allies wanted to launch an attack with as many as 200,000 people, they would definitely need to occupy a large port. Otherwise, even if they put 200,000 people into Sicily, they would not be able to provide enough supplies and ammunition for the battle.

Secondly, among the three large ports in Sicily:

The Port of Palermo is located at the other end of the Tunisian Strait. If the British army wants to attack, they must pass through the Tunisian Strait, which is almost impossible.

The Port of Messina is within the Strait of Messina. If you want to attack this port, you must enter the narrow Strait of Messina. Not only is this unrealistic, but it will also be attacked by Italian troops on both sides of the strait...Messina The narrowest point of the strait is only 3.2 kilometers. Although the Italian army's combat effectiveness is inferior, it can still fire artillery to block the strait.

So, the British army had only one choice, which was the port of Syracuse near the direction of Malta.

Moreover, in order to deploy its forces, the British army would also land on the two sides with the port of Syracuse as the origin. In this way, on the one hand, it could be used as a supply base after the port of Syracuse was captured, and on the other hand, the troops would not be crowded together and unable to exert their combat effectiveness.

"I plan to build fortifications and arrange firepower along the coast to prevent the Allied landing!" Rommel said: "That is, with the port of Syracuse as the center, an infantry division will be stationed for defense, and if it cannot be defended, the port equipment will be blown up. Two infantry divisions will be arranged on each wing to build defenses along the coastline with the Italian army... an armored division will be arranged behind the defense line to assist in defense, two mechanized infantry divisions will be responsible for protecting the airport on the island and clearing the enemy's airborne troops, and an armored division and an airborne division will be used as reserves!"

This is Rommel's usual defensive tactic... infantry will be used to build a defense line on the front line, and armored divisions will be used for mobile defense on the second line.

However, Qin Chuan knew that this would not work on Sicily.