Chapter 403 Plan

There will be three more updates tomorrow, brothers...Fifth update is not easy. Soldiers have never had five updates in a row, and it has been seven days now! Use your monthly ticket to give me a little more motivation! ^_^

"So!" Rommel said: "You still plan to fight a tunnel defense war in Sicily?"

"You can say that!" Qin Chuan nodded: "The reason why the enemy has not launched an attack until now is that they are accumulating enough strength. So it is conceivable that when they are ready and launch an attack on Sicily, they will definitely It is a thunderous and violent offensive, and only tunnel defense will be meaningful under such an offensive."

"How do you think they will attack?" Hitler asked: "Be specific!"

"First, they will seize air supremacy!" Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said: "They have actually accomplished this. By bombing the Sicilian airport, our army and Italian fighter planes could only withdraw from Sicily."

Hitler and Rommel nodded.

"Secondly, in order to gain more powerful control over the air, they will seize several small islands near Sicily!" Qin Chuan pointed to two points on the map and continued: "For example, Panterella Island, Lampedusa Island, and then build airports on these two islands, which can greatly shorten the combat radius of fighter planes and bombers bombing Sicily, and use it as an advance base to attack Sicily! "

"Again! They will send airborne troops to carry out airborne landings on key points in Sicily!" Qin Chuan pointed to several locations on Sicily and said: "Such as airports, highlands, bridges, etc. This will create conditions for their follow-up troops to quickly break through. !”

"Finally!" Qin Chuan said: "The US Seventh Army will land from the south coast of Sicily and go straight to the north and Palermo, and the British Eighth Army will land from the east coast and attack Messina!"

"How do you know this?" Hitler couldn't help but asked strangely.

Rommel also looked at Qinchuan with the same confusion: "Captain, can you even guess which direction the British and Americans will attack from?"

"This cannot be guessed!" Qin Chuan replied: "The reason why I judged this way is because from landing on the south bank to attacking north or attacking in the direction of Palermo, there are mountains all the way, and most of the ones captured are some little-known small towns. . The terrain in the east is very flat. It does not enter the mountains until Mount Etna at Cape Messina, and there are famous cities along the way... Head of state, general, this battle was commanded and led by the British, What would you do if you were British?"

Rommel couldn't help but said "Oh", nodded and replied: "Of course I will choose an attack route for the British army that is easy and prestigious!"

"Yes!" Hitler agreed: "The British have always spared no effort to pursue interests, and their allies on the battlefield are no exception!"

Then Hitler nodded appreciatively towards Qinchuan: "Excellent analysis, Captain! You made us feel the same way, as if we saw the Allied attack happening right in front of our eyes!"

Qin Chuan couldn't help but secretly feel ashamed. He actually made the judgment after knowing the entire attack process.

"Then..." Rommel frowned: "How will you deploy our troops? The enemy's two armies... either one has the strength to compete with all our troops on the island of West Sicily!"

"Deploy five Italian infantry divisions along the coastline!" Qin Chuan said.

"You are crazy!" Rommel said: "They will abandon their position and escape or surrender as soon as possible!"

"This is exactly what we want!" Qin Chuan replied: "Then, the British and American troops will land smoothly, just as they know... We have deployed most of our troops in Greece, and the defense of Sicily is very empty!"

"You want to use tunnel tactics to stop them?" Rommel frowned: "But you know, tunnel tactics will only bring the two sides into a stalemate, and the longer it takes, the worse it will be for us!"

Rommel is right. This is different from the Gabes Defense Line in Tunisia. Behind the Gabes Defense Line are Tunisia, Algeria and even a transportation line to Europe. These will make the Gabes Defense Line The Tunnel will not stand alone.

But Sicily is an island. Once the British and American troops successfully land and occupy part of it, they can repair or even build enough airports on Sicily, and then the entire island of Sicily will completely lose contact with the outside world... Fighter planes can If the surrounding sea areas are blocked, the soldiers hiding in the tunnels will only starve to death over time.

"I have to remind you, Captain!" Rommel said: "The island is different from the Gabes Defense Line. It is a place surrounded by sea!"

Of course Qin Chuan knew this. In fact, the battles between the Japanese and the U.S. military on the islands in the Pacific had shown such results scene after scene...but it had not happened yet.

"No, General!" Qin Chuan said: "Of course my goal is not to confront the enemy. My goal is to defeat the Allied troops landing on the island!"

"But how can we do it?" Rommel said: "If we only have nine divisions, this is not even half of theirs!"

"We put the main force in the middle!" Qinchuan said: "One armored division plus two mechanized infantry divisions, they build a hidden defense line from Enna to Mount Etna!"

"uh-huh!"

"All three infantry divisions are scattered in various highlands on Sicily to build tunnels!"

"This can only slow down their attack speed!" Rommel shook his head.

"Not just a delay, General!" Qin Chuan said, "We can control their attack!"

"What?"

"In other words, if we want them to be fast, they will be fast, and if we want them to be slow, they will be slow!" Qin Chuan explained.

Rommel seemed to have heard something: "You mean, cut off their connection!"

"Not just cut off their connection, General!" Qin Chuan pointed to the middle part and said: "The US troops attacked Palermo and the north on the left and middle respectively, and the British troops attacked Messina on the right. These three troops should have moved forward in parallel to cover each other's flanks and rear. However, if the British troops on the right and the US troops on the left advance too fast, the US troops in the middle will be blocked in front of the high ground. That is, when the enemies on the left and right attacked the two ports at the fastest speed, we concentrated our forces to launch a sudden counterattack in the middle..."

"In this way, we can hit their rear and even seize their port of Syracuse!"

"Yes!" Qin Chuan replied: "Do you know what this means? Our main force will face the enemy's artillery, engineers, logistics transport soldiers, and if we are lucky, we can also run into their pilots!"