Chapter 429 Irony

The reason why so many troops were needed on this route was that the British army relied on the port of Syracuse to land a large number of troops, equipment and supplies (80,000 people) in a few days. Of course, it would take a considerable amount of troops to entangle them.

The other route to deal with the US 3rd Division was only one airborne regiment and one regiment of the 52nd Mechanized Infantry Division.

The other troops, namely the Goering Armored Division and the 52nd Mechanized Infantry Division, were short of one regiment, and the 1st Infantry Regiment chased the US troops straight to the south.

On the other side, Patton was shocked when he received the news that the 1st Infantry Division's defense line was broken by the German army.

"How did it happen?" Patton asked on the phone.

"We've been fooled, General!" Allen said, "You're right. Their main force is in Enna. They have a large number of tanks, or to be exact, an entire armored division. There are at least two divisions of troops in addition. We simply can't stop their attack!"

Patton hurriedly ordered the 45th Infantry Division and the 2nd Armored Division, which had just landed on the beach: "Build fortifications on the beach immediately. The Germans are coming. There are three divisions, including an armored division!"

But Patton still had no confidence in this, because the 60 tanks of the 2nd Armored Division had already reinforced Enna, and now all of them were in danger of death. There were only 30 tanks that had just been unloaded on the entire beach, and most of them were "General Grant" tanks.

As soon as he put down the phone, Eisenhower called.

"What's going on, Joe?" Eisenhower was furious on the phone: "The British rear was attacked, and I heard that the 1st Infantry Division's defense line was broken by the enemy..."

"I should ask you this, Ike!" Patton was furious. Although Eisenhower was his long-time friend, Patton still shouted angrily into the phone: "I told you, I have been warning you, and that British "military genius"... The main force of the Germans is in Enna, in Enna! But you never took my words seriously! Now, you ask me what's going on? God, what should I say?"

"The main force of the Germans is in Enna?"

"Of course!" Patton replied: "They have three divisions in total, including an armored division... They just broke through the defense line of the 1st Infantry Division. I told you that the Germans in Enna are different. It's not that the 1st Infantry Division is not strong enough, but because the main force of the Germans is there..."

Before he finished speaking, Eisenhower on the other end of the phone hung up.

General Patton cursed "Fuck you!" and then slammed the phone down on the stand.

Eisenhower didn't mean to hang up Patton, but he knew that this was not the time to hold him accountable or listen to Patton's complaints. He immediately found Montgomery after hanging up the phone.

"We've been fooled!" Eisenhower's first words when he saw Montgomery were: "The main force of the Germans is in Enna!"

Montgomery turned around and replied slowly: "Ike, we discussed this issue..."

"They have broken through our defense line!" Eisenhower said: "The defense line of the 1st Infantry Division has been broken by them, and they saw the German armored division with their own eyes!"

"What?" Montgomery was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth for a long time.

"We were fooled, understand?!" Eisenhower knocked on the table with his fist: "We were fooled, the German armored division is in Enna, and they have two more divisions. Their strength is much greater than we thought!"

"No, that photo..."

"That photo was intentionally shown to us by the Germans!" Eisenhower interrupted Montgomery: "The first photo we took was probably real. In order to cover up this mistake, the Germans burned a fake tank to confuse us, and we were easily fooled by them!"

Montgomery's face turned pale when he heard this.

This is an irony. After the British MI5 took great pains to set up a "Mincemeat Plan" to fool the Germans, the Germans used a plan similar to the "Mincemeat Plan" to fool the British.

Of course, the German deception plan is different from the "Mincemeat Plan" in terms of situation, but its essence is very similar:

The British "Mincemeat Plan" is that Britain used an overly obvious attack on Sicily to cover up its strategic purpose of attacking Sicily.

The German deception plan is to cover up the truth that its main force is in Enna by exposing its main force in Enna too obviously.

Then, Montgomery thought of a point...If what Eisenhower said is true, that is, the Germans have much more troops than imagined, then it is very likely that the "Mincemeat Plan" has not succeeded from the beginning.

Not only did it not succeed, but the "Mincemeat Plan" was even used by the Germans. In other words, Sicily was a trap from the beginning, a trap for the British and American coalition forces.

Thinking of this, Montgomery looked at Eisenhower in surprise, then looked at the map and asked, "Do you know where they are now?"

"No, of course not!" Eisenhower replied, "I only know that their main force is chasing the 1st Infantry Division!"

"Siracusa!" Montgomery stared at the map for a while and said, "Their target must be Syracuse!"

"No, I think their target is the Port of Trapa!" Eisenhower said.

The Port of Trapa is the small port that the US military captured and is using.

"Ike!" Montgomery said, "Their target is obviously Syracuse, because there are a lot of supplies there, but the supplies in Trapa are not like that!"

"Oh, really?" Eisenhower said, "But I think that's why Trapa is their main target!"

"Why do you think so?" Montgomery asked.

"Because we are short of supplies, they may wipe us all out on the beachhead!" Eisenhower said angrily, "And all this is because of your damn plan. You only allocated us a small port in the plan. Now on the Trapa beach, we only have 30 tanks, only 30... and they have to use these 30 tanks to resist a German armored division!"

"Ike, listen to me..." Montgomery wanted to explain something, but was interrupted by Eisenhower.

"No!" Eisenhower said, "There is no room for discussion. I am an American. When the American army is in danger, I should first consider the American army! So..."

There is no need to say more about the following words.