Chapter 280 Tunisia

Because Crete had already caused dissatisfaction among the Italians, Rommel did not dare to rush to declare Libya's independence. After all, there was no need to rush.

But sometimes it was not important to declare or not, because the German army did the same in Egypt and Greece, so the Libyans also took it for granted that Germany would support Libya's independence. Many of them even guessed that Germany did not do so because of the Italian army.

These policies of the German army quickly gained the support of the people, including Egypt, Greece, and even Libyans and people from other countries.

This support was multifaceted, and the most important thing was that the German army easily organized a militia.

In fact, this militia was not organized by the German army...

The one on Crete was Colonel Dennis, and the one in Egypt was General Shreve.

With the support of Germany, they obtained a large amount of equipment, and at the same time, these troops armed with patriotic ideas were not short of people, so they only needed to distribute rifles and quickly grew stronger.

Of course, the combat effectiveness of this unit is not satisfactory, especially General Shreve's Egyptian army. After the guns were distributed, armed robbery and internal fighting soon occurred. As mentioned before... There are always countless tribes in Africa, and the interests of the tribes are always greater than the interests of the country, which makes it difficult for them to be organized together to move towards the same goal.

But this is not a big deal for Rommel, because his goal is not to let these troops defeat the British... These troops certainly cannot defeat the British. What he wants is to provoke the hatred of the local natives against the British and intensify their conflicts.

Then Rommel received intelligence from General Shreve: "A large number of American troops landed in Port Said!"

General Shreve even provided detailed unit numbers: "US 10th Air Group, 1st Armored Division, 503rd Airborne Regiment", in addition to the British 1st Airborne Division transferred from the UK.

This was the result of Churchill's efforts. He flew to Washington to discuss with Roosevelt the day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and reached a consensus with Roosevelt that the African battlefield was superior to the China-India-Burma battlefield. So the US military transferred all the US 10th Air Group, which was originally located in India to support the Chinese Expeditionary Force, to North Africa.

In this way, the British army undoubtedly had overwhelming forces in North Africa.

Rommel, holding the intelligence, raised his eyebrows and said to the staff: "Interesting, the situation is developing exactly as the 'legendary sergeant' said, just as he saw it! "

The staff officer knew what Rommel meant. The British obviously did not send a large number of fighter planes and paratroopers to break through the Alexandria Line, but to parachute into Algeria.

Rommel did not think much about it and forwarded the information to Hitler.

Hitler was stunned when he saw the telegram. He walked back and forth anxiously in front of the headquarters, then waved his fist and cursed: "This is what those Japanese idiots did. Look at them, what did they do at this critical moment? ”

It is no wonder that Hitler was so angry. Hitler actually hoped that Japan would not launch a full-scale attack on China and would join the German army in attacking the Soviet Union, but Japan was frightened by the Soviet Union in the Battle of Nomonhan and did not do so.

That would be fine, but Japan had to provoke the United States at this time... Hitler was a person who had gone through the First World War. He always thought that one of the reasons why Germany failed in the First World War was the United States' participation in the war.

So what Hitler hoped most was that the United States would always watch from the side. Even if it secretly helped the Allies, it could be tolerated, but Japan disrupted Hitler's overall plan.

From this perspective, the Japanese are indeed like what later generations have evaluated them to be... …is a giant in tactics but a dwarf in strategy.

Of course, Japan had its own reasons for launching the war.

For example, the United States imposed a fuel ban on Japan, and Japan only had a half-year fuel reserve.

But the problem is that Japan's opponent is China. At that time, China had few tanks, let alone fuel. Japan had the conditions to consider the overall situation of the Axis powers and slow down the attack on Pearl Harbor... Japan only wanted to occupy the entire territory of China as soon as possible and get out of this quagmire.

Of course, although he was angry, Hitler had no way to deal with this reality. He thought about it and sent a telegram to Rommel: "No matter what method is used, the Alexander Line must be defended!"

"Dear Führer!" Rommel replied: "I don't know if you have noticed that the British airborne troops are likely to be aimed at Algeria? "

Hearing this, Hitler was stunned, and when he looked at Algeria, he opened his mouth for a long time and couldn't close it... Hitler was very clear that the French were pretending to obey but actually disobeying, so the Allied forces could take Algeria without any effort, and the African Corps would soon collapse.

"How do I need to support you, General!" Hitler asked helplessly, because he knew that in this situation, the African Corps led by Rommel could not avoid the final failure even if they had three heads and six arms.

"It's obvious!" Rommel said: "We must take the lead to control Algeria, Mr. Fuhrer!"

Hitler agreed with this: "I will arrange it!"

So Hitler hurriedly transferred the two infantry regiments stationed in France: the 36th Infantry Regiment and the 155th Infantry Regiment to Africa to prepare for the occupation of Algeria. He even sent part of the 200th Infantry Regiment in Italy to rush to Tripoli and stage a scene. The drama of occupying Tunisia.

This scene was started by a German fighter plane... The German fighter plane made an emergency landing at the Tunisian airport on the pretext of malfunction, and then a battalion of German troops entered Tunisia on the pretext of protecting the confidentiality of the fighter plane. Then more and more German troops poured into Tunisia like a tide and disarmed the French colonial army.

The French Vichy government immediately protested against Hitler.

Hitler replied to Pétain: "Dear President, we have reason to believe that the British will land or airborne in Algeria. Since Algeria is related to the life and death of the Afrika Korps, we hope to enter Algeria and defend together with the French army! "

Pétain was not a fool. He refused at the first opportunity: "Dear Head of State, we have the ability to defend our territory, not only that... the German army entering Tunisia and disarming the French army is a violation of the armistice treaty we signed. I I believe the head of state will handle this properly!”

Hitler ignored Petain's words at all. Who would take a puppet government seriously?

It's just that it is difficult for the German army to enter Libya because there is a Matre defense line in front of them.