Six Hundred and One Big Pit

The German army suddenly appeared in the Balkan Peninsula, and as soon as it appeared, it fired a long-lost gun. The Air Force's 400 fighter jets have achieved a sky-defying advantage in the sky. Now that the P-40 and Zero fighter jets are in service in large numbers, the main German fw-190d fighter jets can no longer completely crush their opponents in terms of performance. However, in several countries on the Balkan Peninsula, the air force construction really cannot keep up with the trend of the world.

Except that the Greek Air Force is equipped with 11 improved p-40 aircraft, the fighter jets of the rest of the Balkan countries are mostly at the same level as the Polish Air Force. Facing the vicious Luftwaffe, one can imagine how much it can do.

17 hours, this is the time for the Luftwaffe fighter group under the command of Catherine to completely destroy the air forces of several Balkan countries. The 300 enemy planes achieved almost nothing except for the German pilots. In fact, the Balkan Air Force shot down German fighter jets and the crash rate was not as high as that of the German army.

In the afternoon of the same day, the German Stuka 2 attack aircraft began to crush the ground under the cover of fighter jets, and the lagging Stuka also joined the massacre lineup. The strategic air force appeared in groups on Crete and bombed the British military facilities on the island. Within 24 hours, the entire Balkans were under the wings of the German eagle.

Under the command of General Hawke, the 8th Mechanized Infantry Corps advanced as fast as it was in France. In many places they even received a warm welcome. The local Serbs regard the German army as liberators, and they are willing to join the leadership of the Iron Axis and share the fruits of victory brought about by the war.

Even Hawk himself could not believe that the war was going so smoothly. The frontal Yugoslav troops were about to collapse due to the heavy casualties. According to battlefield experience, the speed of advancing 25 kilometers per day must not be considered slow. In fact, the Yugoslav troops on the front of the German army have been almost exhausted by the Italian army, so the German army took advantage of it. However, in the eyes of Mussolini, who did not know the truth, it was the Italian army that had not been defeated for two days. It crashed in 4 hours.

The local culture is extremely complicated, so wherever they go, some places even throw flowers to the German soldiers entering the city, and many people can't wait to hang the swastika flag of the German Third Reich. But it is a pity that this place will soon be handed over to Italy, and Germany lacks interest in these non-strategic areas.

The good times didn't last long. After passing through some pro-German and pro-Italian areas in the border area, the resistance began to become stronger. The Germans had to bypass the city and use their best field encirclement tactics to annihilate the Greek troops and troops who came to reinforce them first. Yugoslav troops. The cities behind them were surrounded by Italian infantry and German infantry, and began endless bombardment.

The Balkan Peninsula is undoubtedly of incomparable importance to the North African strategy of the German and Italian forces. Once the Balkans are occupied, deploying the navy and air force on the island of Crete will not only connect with Turkey and become a back-to-back border ally, but also move forward the transportation line from Italy to North Africa, and place it in the Balkans from Crete to Egypt Come up this route,

The distance has been shortened by almost double, and the route is safer.

Once the Balkans become the new supply base of the German army, the Romanian oil fields will be completely at ease, Germany's strategic depth will be further expanded, and military operations in North Africa will receive more support. Rommel's African Army will receive doubled supplies, and there will be problems with whether the Allied forces can hold the Suez Canal, let alone hold such a vast area as Egypt.

If Alexandria in Egypt is lost, the supplies of the British and American troops in the territory will collapse even more, and the oil in the Middle East will become the possession of the Axis powers. At that time, the resources controlled by Akado will exceed that of the United States. However, the United States has huge production capacity but will fall into production difficulties due to lack of raw materials.

Of course, all of this is just a deduction, and things are not completely acting in a one-man show according to the German script. Neither the United States nor the United Kingdom will just watch the Germans gain their own advantages in the Middle East. They are unwilling to give up the oil interests in the Middle East, and they don't even want to share a part of it with Germany.

The British army is also making the final dying struggle. They don't want to see their Middle East eventually become a German occupied area. Therefore, about 20 British Indian divisions are heading to the Middle East, hoping to rush to Egypt to stabilize the situation before the chaos in the Balkans ends. The combat capability of these Indian divisions is not high, but the victory is that they have sufficient personnel. The British army armed the army of nearly 350,000 people with many outdated weapons in the local inventory. Some vintage howitzers are even produced from 1898, behemoths produced 40 years ago.

In order to defend the Middle East, the United States even discussed with the Chinese special envoy the issue of the Chinese Expeditionary Force going to the Middle East. The U.S. government is even willing to take 0.5% of the local oil share as an exchange condition for China to send troops. However, since China has never sent troops to such a far-flung area in modern history, and the logistics supply of the United States cannot be guaranteed, this exciting plan eventually fell through.

Another thing that made this plan go nowhere is that because of the collapse of the US Navy and the Japanese invasion of Australia, the supply line between the US and China across half the world was broken, and the Chinese expeditionary troops in Myanmar were in Myanmar due to lack of ammunition and equipment. The territory was defeated and forced to return to China.

The Japanese army was prospering on the Pacific battlefield, and even some members of the United States already felt that Japan had won the war. If the United States wanted to avoid greater losses, it could only choose the right time to withdraw from the war. Because now the U.S. government and opposition are united in a common hatred, and the people are calling for a decisive battle with Japan. Therefore, the top U.S. officials who doubt that the war will fail only dare to complain in private, which is far from rising to the level of the will of Congress.

In this case, the United States mobilized 40 divisions of the Home Guard to prepare for a possible Japanese landing force. At Roosevelt's insistence, 4 divisions of elite American troops were sent to the Middle East, even including 300 newly produced M4 Sherman tanks. Roosevelt hoped to strengthen Patton's forces and win the North African War to stabilize the situation.

On this point, Roosevelt and several senior military generals have serious differences. Both Nimitz, the commander of the Pacific Fleet of the U.S. Navy, and General Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied Forces, hope that the United States will take the lead in launching a counterattack in the Pacific Ocean, while Roosevelt personally thinks that the United States should take the lead. Solve the North African battlefield.

In the end, the American generals won, and they sent most of the American soldiers to the Pacific Ocean to defend the islands, delaying Japan's attack time. But Roosevelt could only help Patton win 4 divisions of American soldiers within his ability. It's just that the tanks have been reduced to 200, and there are only 110 aircraft. Compared with the strengthening of Germany's North African forces during the same period, these troops can only barely maintain that's all.

However, on the other hand, there is news that makes Americans a little depressed. The implementation of Australia's withdrawal is not complete. In fact, everyone knows that it is a very difficult order for Australian troops to abandon their homeland and retreat back to the United States. Those local troops will never abandon their homeland.

Various problems did arise during the implementation of the order to abandon Australia. The biggest problem is that young and strong soldiers are unwilling to abandon their families. The United States had no choice but to use all the ships it could find to transport Australian family members to South America and the United States in order to mobilize the Australian army to leave.

But until the end, there were still 4 divisions of the Australian army staying on the mainland. They refused to board the ship and retreat, but picked up the heavy weapons dropped by the American soldiers and drove in the opposite direction. There, they were determined to fight the invaders to the death. Meanwhile, across from them, the Japanese were plodding eastward through the desert, hoping to find the rich Australian cities for their new assault.

Throughout July, it was almost good news for the Japanese. After the Japanese navy completely wiped out the US Pacific Fleet, after more than ten days of cruising, the cover infantry took control of the entire island system in Southeast Asia. The Japanese army found the lack of oil resources, and the strategic situation was good.

The base camp is drawing up an offensive plan to land on Oahu Island. Once Oahu Island is captured, Yamamoto Fifty-Six believes that the United States will obediently go back to the negotiating table and seek peace with Japan in humiliation. In this way, Japan's biggest gamble will end in victory, and Japan will become a new generation of Asia-Pacific hegemon.

The Japanese flag has covered Northeast China, North China, and the entire southern coastal area. As well as Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in Southeast Asia, as well as the northwestern part of Australia. From the perspective of Japanese high-level officials, the war will end within the next three months. Once the United States withdraws from the war, Japan will have the opportunity to turn around and teach China a lesson.

But the fantasies of these superior officials did not change the personal experience of the Japanese officers and soldiers at the grassroots level. In the desert of Australia, the troops of the seven Japanese divisions were overwhelmed by the huge territory. The base camp in Tokyo asked for support, not because they encountered stubborn resistance, but because they really had no troops to deploy on the long front.

As the Japanese frontline commander, General Ogawa repeatedly groaned in his heart with infinite grievances: For the Japanese army, it is impossible not to fight Australia, but for the soldiers of the Japanese army, Australia, which has a vast territory and boundless territory, It can definitely be regarded as a big hole that cannot be filled.