Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2179 Rubber Army
The arrival of the Third Army has greatly improved the defensive strength of French North Africa, and forced the Italian North African Army to dispatch troops to strengthen the defense in the direction of French North Africa. Graziani brings great pressure.

The Italians' operations in North and East Africa originally had a complete combat plan.

According to the pre-war plan, after the war, Italian North Africa and East Africa will simultaneously attack Egypt, control the Suez Canal, and cut off the connection between Britain and the Far East.

The plan was good, but just when the plan was about to be implemented, the former Governor of Libya and the commander-in-chief of the Italian North African Army Marshal Itano Balbo died suddenly and unexpectedly, which disrupted the Italian plan.

Itano Balbo is the legend who flew to southern Africa alone and almost set a world record.

On June 1940, 6, Itano Balbo's plane was shot down by the anti-aircraft guns of the Italian Navy over the northeast port of Tobruk when returning from a tour, and Itano Balbo was killed on the spot.

Just after the war broke out, the commander-in-chief of the Italian North African Army died in such a strange way. Rudolph Graziani, then the chief of staff of the Italian Army, was urgently ordered to go to Italian North Africa to fight the fire.

Graziani was born in 1882 and began serving in the Italian colony in 1908. He previously served as the commander-in-chief in Libya. During the Second Abyssinian War, Graziani commanded the commander of the Southern Army and was promoted to marshal in 36 years. In 39, he served as the commander of the Italian Continental Army.

As early as in Libya in 1930 and Abyssinia in 1935, Graziani organized and used mechanized combined arms.

Graziani knew about armored forces earlier, earlier than Guderian.

Oddly enough, Graziani doesn't have an outstanding record to back it up.

This fully demonstrates the level of Graziani.

When Graziani came to Italian North Africa, he was very dissatisfied with the preparations of the Italian North African Army.

In Graziani's view, the Italian North African Army lacked training, outdated equipment, and serious hidden dangers in supplies. It simply did not have the ability to fight against the powerful mechanized troops in Southern Africa.

As for the Nile Army led by Weaver——

I'm sorry, although Graziani's ability is not good, but he really didn't take Wei Weier seriously.

Fat Bald doesn't think so.

When Graziani was transferred to North Africa, Southern Africa was not yet at war.

In Fat Bald's view, the weak Nile Army is no match for the Italian North African Army with a total strength of 30.

Just as the Third Army of Southern Africa arrived in Algiers, Fat Bald finally couldn't bear it anymore and ordered Graziani to launch an attack on Egypt immediately, completely defeating the Nile Army, opening up the connection between Italian North Africa and East Africa, and saving the already The precarious Italian East African Army.

Graziani was helpless. On October 10, the Italian North African Army under the command of Graziani officially launched an attack on the Nile Army led by Weaver.

The mobilization of the large army must not be hidden from the eyes of the southern African reconnaissance planes.

After discovering that the armored troops of the North African Legion had left the camp, Arthur and Feng Fu, who had already arrived in Khartoum, proposed to Werwell that if the Nile Army needed it, then the Mediterranean theater with nothing to do, and the Second Army that had been "marching" , can provide help to the Nile Army.

Wei Weier refused without hesitation.

Since entering the war, the southern African army has been very stable——

Steady and outrageous!
If you have to use a derogatory term to describe it, then it has ulterior motives.

As Stoudemire said, whether it is the actions of the Second Army in British East Africa and Italian East Africa, or the actions of the Third Army in French North Africa, it will have a serious impact on the local colonization of Britain, France, and Italy. After the war, it is hard to say whether the colonies of Britain, France, and Italy in Africa can be kept.

Even if it is not annexed by Southern Africa.

If the natives of the colonies took the initiative to resist the British and French colonial forces, then the United Kingdom and France, which had just experienced the world war and suffered serious damage to their strength, would probably not be able to cope.

Compared with its colonies in Africa, the Suez Canal is extremely important to the British government.

Therefore, Wei Weier's attitude is extremely firm.

Even though the strength of the Nile Army was far inferior to that of the Italian North African Army, Weaver firmly rejected the "good intentions" of Arthur and Feng Fu.

Since Wei Weier's attitude is so firm, let's do it!

There is a saying that you are not afraid of opponents who are like gods, but teammates who are like pigs.

This statement is wrong in some specific cases.

Graziani then perfectly played what is called a pig-like opponent.

Werwell is very smart and knows that the Nile Army is not the opponent of the Italian North African Army.

At the same time Werwell was well aware that the Italians did not understand the sordid discord between southern Africa and Britain.

So when Graziani was attacking, Weaver invented a very magical tactic and created a "rubber army".

In this "rubber army", after the rubber tank is deflated, the volume can be packed into a cricket bag.

"Field Cannon" can be stowed in a cookie box.

A two-ton truck is not as big as an ammunition box.

In order to convince Graziani that the Nile Army had been assisted by armored forces in southern Africa, Wervil ordered engineers to create tank tracks and even built a fake road to the south of Sidi Barani, because Graziani's The army is stationed there.

Graziani is not stupid either.

After discovering that the Nile Army had a suspected powerful armored force, Graziani ordered the Air Force to step up its investigation of the Nile Army.

At this time, Wei Weier had people lead a group of camels to move in the desert. The camels dragged a rake behind them, and when they walked, they would stir up dust all over the sky. When viewed from the air, they looked like a huge column of tanks in action.

Graziani then confirmed that on his flank, there was a strong armored force.

On November 11, the Third Army arrived in Algiers, and French North Africa was electrified to join the Free France.

Graziani immediately ordered the troops to stop the offensive and defend against possible attacks from the direction of French North Africa.

Although the strength of French North Africa is not strong, it has great potential.

The headquarters of the French Foreign Legion is in Algiers, French North Africa.

The hundreds of thousands of French colonial servants that Free France has formed may also reinforce French North Africa at any time.

The Nile Army has also received assistance from the Southern African Armored Forces.

For a while, Graziani was really jittery and besieged on all sides.

At this time, the troops sent by Mustache to reinforce Italian North Africa have also been assembled and are ready to go to Italian North Africa for support at any time.

Cunningham, commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, was under great pressure. In order to completely cut off the connection between Italy and North Africa, Cunningham proposed to Arthur and Mike Tolan that he hoped that the Cyprus Squadron could send more warships to strengthen the warship. Control of the central Mediterranean waters.

Arthur and Mike Tolland are in a bind.

The home port of the Cyprus Squadron is more than 1500 kilometers away from the Italian mainland.

After occupying the Dodecanese Islands, even starting from the Dodecanese Islands, it is more than 1000 kilometers to the mainland of Italy.

Alexandria is also more than 1500 kilometers from mainland Italy.

Therefore, it is impossible to completely block the Mediterranean Sea.

Of course, if Britain agrees to lease Malta to the Cyprus Squadron, then the problem can be solved.

Malta is only 80 kilometers from mainland Italy.

The waterway between mainland Italy and Tunisia is also only 280 kilometers away.

If the fleet sailed from Malta, it would be possible to cut off the link between mainland Italy and the Mediterranean.

Cunningham struggled a lot when he received Arthur's reply.

Lease!
It sounds nice, but in fact, most of them are borrowed but never repaid.

But if it is not borrowed, the Cyprus squadron will probably not participate in the war.

Regardless of Cunningham's always confident appearance, in fact, only Cunningham himself knows how much pressure there is.

When the time came to November, all the submarines of the Mediterranean Fleet had been lost.

Although the losses of the Italian Navy were equally heavy, the performance of Italian submarines has been greatly improved after receiving help from Germany.

In order to build more submarines, Italy even slowed down the construction progress of the third and fourth ships of the "Veneto" class battleships.

Cunningham knew that the Cyprus Squadron had submarines, many of them, and they were advanced submarines.

The Cyprus Squadron also has many light cruisers and destroyers. The anti-submarine technology is world-class because of the use of helicopters. If the Cyprus Squadron joins, the crazy actions of Italian Navy submarines will be greatly restrained.

Although there are various advantages.

It's a pity that Cunningham has no decision-making power. In the end, whether Malta is leased to the Cyprus Squadron must be reported to Winston.

Winston was in a good mood all this time.

The Battle of Britain ended with Britain's victory. Although Britain also won a tragic victory, it was a huge boost to the morale of the British army. People began to believe that Britain would win the final victory like the last World War.

After Germany began to implement the "Sea Lion Project", the British Air Force and the Southern African Air Force moved quickly to bombard the port city across the strait and the German ships that were gathering. The Germans' preparations were very difficult. The bombers in Southern Africa , At most, three to four times a day would be dispatched, and tens of thousands of tons of bombs would be tilted on the heads of the Germans.

The situation is good, but the hidden dangers are also growing.

The fuel and aerial bombs used by the Southern African Air Force are all paid for by the British government.

Oil is easy to handle, and with the full supply of Port Elizabeth, the UK can have as much as it wants, as long as it pays.

Aerial bombs are also easy to handle, as much as you need in southern Africa, the key is money.

The crux of the matter is that Britain has no money now—

(End of this chapter)