Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2353 Red Devil and Green Devil

The French army has always had a tradition of riots, and the commander-in-chief was put on fire every minute, which was a very dangerous position.

Giro was originally parachuted into the Free French Army. He has no foundation in the Free French Army. Now he has offended a large number of French generals. Why is Jiro in such a hurry? The generals of the Free French Army will directly lift Girod up.

It was precisely because Roosevelt was worried about Giro's control over the Free French Army that he approached Winston and asked the British army to also participate in the Allied operations in Sicily.

Winston was upset because Southern Africa launched an attack alone in Greece. Roosevelt's invitation came at the right time, and the two hit it off.

So Jiro was in tragedy.

Although Free France has two "Richelieus", Britain has a more powerful Mediterranean fleet, which can provide better fire cover and logistical support for the landing Allied forces.

Montgomery's Eighth Army had just won the North African campaign and its morale was high.

Patton's rectification of the U.S. military has also been completed. No one thought that what the U.S. soldiers are most worried about is not squatting in a dark room, but fines.

When Patton took over the Second Army, the Second Army suffered heavy losses and its morale was low. Some people lay in the hospital and pretended to be sick, some applied to return home to visit their relatives, and some American soldiers even refused to carry out orders from their superiors, preferring to go to military courts.

Patton was furious because of this. He adopted many methods to rectify the military discipline of the US military, and finally found that fines were the most effective.

Beware in 1943, American recruits were paid around $50 a month.

Patton fined those officers and soldiers who made mistakes $25 each time, equivalent to half a month's salary for recruits.

The United States is indeed money first, and Patton has found the culprit of American soldiers, and the military discipline of the Second Army has improved rapidly.

With the participation of the British Eighth Army, the winning rate has been greatly improved, and Roosevelt and Winston's requirements for the campaign are also constantly increasing. At first, they only hoped to land in Sicily and open up the third European battlefield. In just one month, the campaign The goal was adjusted from occupying the whole of Sicily to defeating Italy and forcing Italy to withdraw from the war.

This can be too busy to make plans for the combat staff.

In February, well before the Casablanca meeting, U.S. military staffs drew up a battle plan, code-named Blackjack.

During the Casablanca meeting, the "Blackjack" project was canceled because Roosevelt's demands were not fully met.

Then Giroux and Roosevelt came to an agreement, and the U.S. military staff formulated a new plan, code-named "Knocking the Board."

The "knocking board" plan has not yet been perfected, and the British Eighth Army has joined.

So the plan changed again, this time with "smooth guns."

This is not the end, with the continuous recommendation of the southern African army in Greece, the plan of the US military staff is still being revised.

"Seditor", "Brimstone", "Pillar", "Giant 1", "Giant 2", until March 3th, the Fifth Army in Southern Africa dispatched paratroopers to successfully airborne at Thermopylae, Greece. Roosevelt once again asked the staff Modify the battle plan.

Southern African paratroopers raided Thermopylae, completely cutting off the retreat of the Italian defenders in southern Greece. 4.5 Italian troops raised their hands and surrendered. So far, more than 12 of the 10 Italian defenders in Greece have been wiped out, leaving only two soldiers in the northern mountainous area. infantry divisions, and none of them were full.

The United States and the United Kingdom also have paratroopers, but in the previous plan, there were no paratroopers involved.

This goes back to the Battle of Crete, when the German army used paratroopers on a large scale and suffered heavy losses. Since then, countries have been very cautious about the use of paratroopers.

Since the end of the Brazilian Civil War, the United States has regarded southern Africa as its biggest opponent.

What Southern Africa does not have, the United States must have.

What Southern Africa can do, the United States must do better.

So the southern African paratroopers showed their talents in Greece, how could the American paratroopers not fight.

So the U.S. military staff revised the plan again, not only sending paratroopers to fight, but also the main force.

This of course also has a lot to do with the situation in Sicily.

Since two years ago, the fuel supply of the Italian army has started to have problems. Due to the lack of fuel, the navy's combat effectiveness has been greatly affected, and it is simply unable to protect the Italian coastline.

The Italians had no choice but to lay mines intensively in major ports. If troop carriers were sent to carry out landing operations, it was expected that there would be heavy casualties, so paratroopers airborne became the best option.

This is already the ninth version of the combat plan made by the US military staff, code-named "Avalanche".

What brought tears to the eyes of the US military staff was that the "Avalanche" plan was finally approved by the campaign headquarters.

It is worth mentioning that, in order to better coordinate operations, the British and U.S. troops bypassed the Allied North African Command and formed a joint campaign command. Commander-in-chief Eisenhower, deputy commanders were Alexander of the United Kingdom and Liberty Law Army of Giro.

It was already late April at this time, the Casablanca Conference had already ended, and the Fifth Army commanded by Arthur had recovered all of Greece and liberated Albania. During the nearly two-month battle, the Italian army lost about 20 people , 350 tanks, 1200 artillery pieces, nearly 3000 trucks, and a large number of other military supplies.

Compared with these, the more important significance of recovering Greece lies in the blow to the morale of the Axis powers. So far, Italy has lost the territories occupied by other countries since the outbreak of the war. Southern Africa has firmly smashed a nail in the Balkan Peninsula through Greece. The Axis countries formed a strong deterrent and strongly supported the Russian battlefield.

The Casablanca conference was still fruitful. The countries unified their thinking and determined that the war would end with the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy, and Japan. At the same time, southern Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Free France promised to increase aid to Russia in various ways .

After the recovery of Greece, the bearded man took the initiative to send congratulatory telegrams to the leaders of all the allied countries for the first time.

The telegram to Rock was somewhat sincere.

The telegrams to Roosevelt and Winston, and de Gaulle, were more humiliating.

Now Southern Africa has delivered on its promise.

Next came the turn of Great Britain and the United States, and Free France.

It was only at this time that Ji Luo found out embarrassingly that the paratroopers played the leading role in the "Avalanche" plan.

The Free French had no paratroopers.

Fortunately, there is a glider.

In 1943, paratroopers carried out airborne methods, one was parachuting, and the other was airborne by taking a glider. This glider needed to be towed by a transport plane. The buoyancy and inertia complete the landing.

To put it bluntly, whether you can successfully land on a glider depends mostly on luck.

The trouble doesn't stop there.

In the "Avalanche" plan, a total of about 15 troops participated. Although the total number is not large, they come from the United States, Britain, and Free France. Coordination is a big problem.

Patton, the commander of the American army, had conflicts with Montgomery, the commander of the British army. At the same time, they both looked down on Giraud, who had been captured by the Germans in the French campaign.

It is normal for the British to look down on the French.

Why do Americans look down on the French?
Parisian restaurants still have "No Americans and Dogs Allowed" signs on their doors.

The conflict between Patton and Montgomery mainly stemmed from the just-concluded North African campaign.

The US Second Army suffered heavy losses in the North African campaign. Although Patton was not the commander of the Second Army at the time, this was enough to make Montgomery proud in front of Patton.

What's the matter, no matter how strong your American industrial strength is, you still have to rely on us British to win.

And can your industrial capabilities in the United States be stronger than those in southern Africa?

Don't say anything, Americans are scumbags.

In the "Avalanche" plan, the Eighth Army led by Montgomery was the main force.

The U.S. Army led by Patton, and the Free French Army led by Giraud, played an auxiliary role to cooperate with the British Army.

Barton was very dissatisfied with this.

But the wily Eisenhower agreed with Montgomery's request.

The U.S. military came from afar, and the first time they participated in the war, they fell into the sand.

This time, they crossed the Mediterranean Sea and fought in Italy. The U.S. military is not familiar with the situation in Sicily. It has not yet investigated how many Italian troops are stationed in Sicily. The weather, hydrology, and terrain are not well understood, and the German army can send reinforcements at any time. , these are all hidden dangers.

Since Montgomery was willing to show off, Eisenhower was eager for the British to take the lead.

Patton was not stupid. Montgomery was willing to be the vanguard, and Patton was happy to take advantage of the latter. The weakness of the Italian army in North Africa did not mean that the Italian army had no will when fighting on the mainland.

In short, amidst the turmoil, on May 5, the British, American, and French coalition forces officially launched a landing operation on Sicily.

At this time, two full months had passed since Roosevelt issued the combat order.

In the early morning of May 5, a large combined fleet including two "Richelieu" launched a heavy shelling on the island of Pantelleria between Sicily and Tunisia.

The combined fleet consists of 117 warships, including 8 battleships and three aircraft carriers, and its combat effectiveness is second to none in the Mediterranean.

The Italian navy did not dare to fight at all, allowing the combined fleet to bombard Pantelleria indiscriminately.

The shelling lasted three hours.

When the shelling stopped, the entire island of Pantelleria was shrouded in smoke, and the combined fleet used a total of 1.5 tons of shells and bombs.

Pantelleria covers an area of ​​83 square kilometers, with an average of 180 tons of bombs dropped per square kilometer.

After razing Pantelleria to the ground, the Combined Fleet continued to advance northward. The British Eighth Army landed on the line from Pacino to Syracuse in eastern Sicily as planned, occupied the area, and headed towards Catania. and Messina to attack.

Patton was relieved that the landing of the British Eighth Army was sniped tenaciously by the Italian defenders. The landing went very badly and failed to establish a beachhead all day. It was also attacked and sunk by a submarine of the Italian Navy. In addition, the transport ship "Benjamin" and two other destroyers were hit by mines and sank.

The battle was not going well, and Montgomery was furious. The 2500st Airborne Brigade of the British 137st Airborne Division, nicknamed the "Red Devil", was dispatched quickly. A total of 47 officers and soldiers were prepared to fly on the Pendergolan Bridge in eastern Sicily in glider towed by [-] C[-] transport aircraft. Airborne nearby.

This was the first official engagement of the British [-]st Airborne Division.

As mentioned above, the British army is not familiar with the weather conditions in Sicily.

During the airborne process of the first brigade, it happened to be windy.

The glider, which had no power by itself and relied entirely on air buoyancy to glide, failed to reach the target smoothly. 69 gliders fell directly into the sea, and 600 officers and soldiers died.

The rest of the gliders also failed to land accurately over the target, most of them were seriously off target, and the paratroopers who successfully landed failed to assemble smoothly.

Unexpectedly, accidents followed one after another.

Just before the British [-]st Airborne Division airborne, the German [-]th Airborne Division, nicknamed the "Green Devil", had just arrived at the Pendergolan Bridge. They also failed to complete the assembly, and the British transport plane flew over the Pendergolan Bridge.

British transport aircraft, similar in appearance to bombers.

The German army thought that the British bombers had obtained accurate information and wanted to carry out precise bombing of the German Seventh Airborne Division.

Then something embarrassing happened.

Neither the British troops who landed nor the German troops who arrived before realized that the "friendly troops" around them were enemies.

Under a bridge hole, the German troops who arrived earlier thought that the British troops who arrived later were friendly troops, and took the initiative to give up a place for the British troops.

"Brother, borrow a fire—" A German paratrooper greeted the British soldiers around him.

"Wow, brother, your German is really good, are you a German?" The British soldier took out his lighter.

"Otherwise, what do you think? Wow, brother, your lighter is so beautiful, where did you get it?" The German paratroopers were very envious. A beautiful lighter is a rare trophy in war.

"Sent it, didn't you?" The British soldier didn't realize the seriousness of the matter.

"Sent it? Which unit are you from?" The German paratrooper was confused, subconsciously holding the dagger at his waist.

"The First Paratrooper Division—" British soldiers are proud. As long as there is "No. [-]" in any branch, the status is always very special.

The German paratroopers did not hesitate, and stabbed directly in the dark.

"Mommy Falk, what the hell are you doing?" the wounded British soldier wailed loudly.

"Hands on guys, they're bloody British—" howled the German paratroopers, pounced on the next British GI.

At this time, other German paratroopers and British soldiers woke up like a dream. There were killing sounds in the bridge hole in the darkness, screams, screams and screams one after another. A British soldier took out his pistol and fired continuously. Gorgeous, reflecting hideous, crazy, cruel, tyrannical and bloody faces, like demons crawling out of hell, just like their nicknames, "Red Devil" and "Green Devil".

Germany does not have the establishment of the "First Airborne Division".

After the Battle of Crete, the German [-]th Airborne Division was reorganized into the Jaeger Army. Although it still bears the name of the Airborne Division, it is actually a standard infantry.

(End of this chapter)