"Hersman, Hersman, Hersman" Outside Rome's Gate of Constantine, countless Italians shouted the surname of Field Marshal Ludwig von Heinsberg Hersmann and saluted the open-top car in which he was travelling with his wife, Chloe, and the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ziano.
"Ah, we are now passing through the Gate of Constantine, from which many of the most famous generals of the Roman Empire entered the city when they returned triumphantly.
I think the citizens of Rome at that time must have welcomed their heroes in the same way. ” Count Ziano spoke fluent German to compliment Hersmann, and he also organized a grand welcome ceremony for Hersmann's visit.
However, Hersman didn't seem to be very happy, and his brows furrowed slightly after getting off the plane.
He didn't pay any attention to Ziano and didn't look at the Italian crowd on either side of the road.
Having just given birth to Hersmann's sixth child, a boy, Chloe, who goes by the name Carl, is busy playing round.
"I think the citizens of Rome will soon be outside the gates of Constantine, welcoming the Italian warriors who have returned triumphantly from the battlefields of North Africa." ” "Something like this isn't going to happen anytime soon" Hersmann abruptly interrupted his wife's words, and he said angrily: "If Italy is not willing to listen to General Halder's advice and is not willing to allow the German army to join the Mediterranean theater, then Italy will soon have difficulties in North Africa and the Mediterranean" As in history, Italian leaders were reluctant to intervene in the Mediterranean and North African theaters.
Although he reluctantly agreed to the German army to set up a headquarters on the Southern Front in Rome when he entered the war.
But after France's surrender, Mussolini changed his mind, believing that Italy could win the North African and Mediterranean theaters without the involvement of the Germans.
Field Marshal Hersmann had now hurried from Berlin to negotiate a joint operation with Mussolini.
Count Ziano, who greeted him at the train station, told Hersmann that Italy had the right to win and did not need German help at all.
"Well, but it's impossible," said Count Ziano with a smile, "Marshal Graziani was Marshal Balbo in chief of the Italian army in North Africa at the outbreak of war, but the air marshal was killed on June 28 by his own anti-aircraft artillery with 250,000 troops, while the British had only 40,000 men at most in North Africa."
"It's 360,000 with the British 7th Armored Division and the 4th Indian Division of the British Commonwealth and some direct units."
Hersman said to the Count of Ziano in a warning tone, "Soon there will be an Australian division to Egypt, and Marshal Graziani will have to deal with 50,000 very strong British troops." ” "Marshal, you include the Indian troops," Count Ziano still smiled, apparently in a good mood that might have something to do with Balbo's death.
"Those Indians don't have much fighting."
The British 7th Armoured Division was certainly a capable force, and it was the elite of the British who had been transferred to Egypt from mainland China before the outbreak of World War II, including the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 6th Royal Tank Regiment.
The troops transferred from Australia, where the convicts had been exiled, were generally more capable of fighting, and the Anzac was notoriously strong in combat effectiveness, having already made a name for itself in the First World War.
The 4th Indian Division of the British Commonwealth is taken for granted as a weak brigade, but in fact there are many Gurkha mercenaries in this Indian division, they are professional mercenaries, they have undergone the strictest training, and they are restrained by cruel discipline, they are the fist troops of the British army, and they have made the Germans suffer in the last world war, how can the loose Italians beat them However, it was not the Italian war operations that were going to be launched in North Africa that really annoyed Hersmann and hurried from Berlin, so he didn't care that Mussolini was beaten all over the ground by the British in North Africa, even if Mussolini had to go to Greece to find himself boring as in history, Hersman didn't care.
If the Italians did not suffer a little, how could they listen to Germany and obediently join the European Community?
Mussolini was still fantasizing about the Roman Empire What really annoyed Hersmann was that Mussolini ignored the admonition put forward by General Halder, which was actually Hirschmann's opinion, and ignored the fact that Malta, an important stronghold blocked at the gate of the Strait of Tness, was cute in North Africa, East Africa and Greece, and it didn't matter the overall situation to lose hundreds of thousands of soldiers who could eat but not fight, anyway, Hersman was not in a hurry to fight Moscow.
But selling cuteness in Malta is going to be a bad thing.
However, if Malta is operated by the British as a sea fortress and an unsinkable aircraft carrier as it has historically been, then the Mediterranean theater will fall into a complete passivity, and it will be very difficult to get it back in the future.
Therefore, Hersmann learned that Mussolini had rejected Halder's proposal and was unwilling to send the "precious" Italian Army to capture Malta, nor did he want the German airborne troops to be dispatched.
He and his wife Chloe immediately ended their leave early and rushed directly to Rome from Berchtesgaden at the foot of the Obersalzburg mountains.
Regarding the visit of Field Marshal Hersmann, Chief of the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht, Mussolini, who thought he was the new Caesar of the Roman Empire, did not dare to slack off, and not only asked his son-in-law Ziano to arrange a greeting, but also personally hosted a banquet in the Venetian Palace.
The Italian dictator, who looked very short in his heightened shoes, wore a short-sleeved summer military uniform today, and took his historical lover Clara Betassi, who was to be shot to death, and warmly hugged Hersmann outside the Venetian Palace, kissed Chloe's finger, and then politely invited the Hersmanns into a palatial living room.
"Sir," said Hersmann, who did not go around the bush with Mussolini, as he began the meeting, "I have come from Berchtesgaden to tell you the fact that the war has not yet been won, that we may still lose, and that defeat would be devastating for both the German and Italian countries, and that we must do everything possible to nip in the bud any cause of defeat."
In my opinion, Malta is one such thing thing that could lead to the failure of our business.
In May, when Italy entered the war, there were only 1 battalion of defenders and a small number of aircraft, which was very easy to capture.
And once the island of Malta is seized, the strait will be completely blocked, the connection between Alexandria and Gibraltar will be severed, the British Mediterranean fleet will be reduced to the sea east of Malta, and the logistical transport lines of the Italian North African cluster will be foolproof. ” Hearing Hersmann's words, Mussolini first exhaled softly, he had thought that Hersmann had come to ask for guilt because of the conquest that Italy was about to launch in Greece.
At the previous Geneva Conference, Hitler had refused to assign Bosnia and Croatia to Italy, and had reversed himself by not handing Algeria to Italy.
This was unpleasant to Mussolini, and Germany did not seem to see Italy as an ally of the same rank.
Moreover, Hersmann's proposal to establish a joint meeting of the Germans, Japanese and Italian chiefs of staff also made Mussolini feel that Germany had already thought itself the hegemon of Europe.
Therefore, he also wanted to play a few victories that could be compared to the Battle of France and Poland to increase the value of Italy.
So he started the idea of a militarily weak Greece, hoping to use a blitzkrieg to establish authority for Italy, and he did not want Germany to participate, and wanted the Italian army to do the work alone.
So the military operation to invade Greece was carried out in complete secrecy with Germany.
However, Mussolini also knew that it would be difficult to hide the "Italian secrecy" from Germany, but at the beginning of the preparations for the invasion of Greece, the German Field Marshal Hersmann flew over in a hurry, which surprised him.
Now that he knew that Hersmann had come for Malta, Mussolini did not know what to say for a while, and pondered for a moment before he spoke: "The terrain of Malta is very dangerous, it is a steep and rocky island, and it is very difficult to land.
But we've completely paralyzed the island with bombers, and it's no longer a threat. ” "No, Malta is still a threat."
Hersman shook his head and said, "The British will not give up there, there is the heart of the Mediterranean."
As long as Malta was in the hands of the British, the passage of Italian North Africa for the transport of troops and supplies would not be open, and the Italian Navy would be at a great disadvantage in the face of the British Mediterranean fleet.
The Wehrmacht General Staff therefore recommended the launch of the Maltese Campaign, the capture of Malta and the heavy damage to the British Mediterranean Fleet reinforcing Malta.
If you can't draw troops, then it's up to us to take Malta as soon as possible."
"Marshal," Mussolini asked, looking at Hersmann, "do you think that our operations in North Africa will last a long time?"
"Yes, Leader."
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"If you insist that our Panzer Division go to North Africa to help in the war, then the war in North Africa will not be so easy to win," Hersman said.
Therefore, Malta is a matter of the whole situation and must be seized as soon as possible.
The security of the logistics line of hundreds of thousands of Italian troops will be at stake there, which cannot be ignored" Mussolini was also a little undecided by Hersmann's words, in fact, the Italian Navy had long suggested the capture of Malta.
But the Italian Army considered it unnecessary and difficult to capture, while the Italian Air Force believed that Malta could be paralyzed by bombing.
So Mussolini, a layman, listened to the advice of the Air Force, but now great military strategists such as Marshal Hersmann came and strongly recommended the capture of Malta.
Seeing that Mussolini was still hesitant, Hersmann gritted his teeth and said: "The main combat mission of the Malta campaign was carried out by the Luftwaffe and naval aviation, and the Italian navy cooperated, and the two sides carried out joint operations.
After the capture of Malta, it was placed under Italian control.
In addition, Germany provided 200,000 tons of heavy oil and 10 sets of maritime radars to the Italian Navy at one time. ” t1706231537: