Iron Cross

"A big killer?" Many people in the venue were stunned.

Hoffman laughed: "Just as the Anglo-Saxons are good at shipbuilding and often invent all kinds of incredible warships, the German nation is good at casting cannons. We are not only good at casting cannons but also good at dealing with those so-called indestructible fortifications. The Liege Fortress in the last war, the Maginot Line and the Sevastopol Fortress in this war were all defeated by us. There is no strong fortress in the world that the German nation cannot conquer. Now it is Gibraltar's turn to accept it. It’s a test to see whether the British are better at building or the Germans are better at forging cannons.”

There are two types of killer weapons in Hoffman's mouth. The first type is the K5 train gun currently owned by Germany, with a total number of 16. This 280mm caliber train gun can hit the longest distance without using rocket extended-range projectiles. To 57 kilometers away (the accuracy of the extended-range projectiles is not ideal), the power is enough to bombard most of Gibraltar's defenses. Now these train guns are being mobilized one after another and are about to cross the German-Italian border. They will be based on Spain's attitude. Decide whether to take the rail network to Spain or start by sea to the port of Ceuta.

In addition to K5, two 800mm caliber train guns (Gustav and Dora) are also in the process of intense disassembly and preparation. Hoffman hopes that they will not be needed because transportation, assembly and use are too difficult. Trouble is, an artillery requires thousands of people to serve it in order to be of normal value. This involves a lot of energy and engineering and technical personnel. Now for Germany, every technical talent is very valuable. But if he encounters a target that K5 really can't deal with, he doesn't mind pulling out this 7 million mark toy and using it again.

"After the Battle of Malta, it is expected that it will take 2-3 weeks to prepare. Then these giant artillery will be transported over and fired at the Fortress of Gibraltar." Hoffman confidently told everyone, "Don't worry, I will not take away precious battleships. To take risks.”

The German High Command evaluated the Battle of Gibraltar and believed that such a strong fortress could not be captured with saturation bombing and naval guns alone. However, it was fully confident after using train guns. The maximum caliber of the artillery in the Gibraltar fortification group was 233mm, and the effective range was not More than 35 kilometers, be it Dora or K5, the high-precision range is more than 40 kilometers, and they can completely carry out artillery bombardment in an orderly manner beyond the opponent's range.

The only thing that needs to be worried about is train gun air defense. Now it is not a problem: Gibraltar has only one airport, and although the number of aircraft is unknown, it is probably not too many. The location of the airport is completely fixed and can be easily destroyed. It is under the full suppression of the German army. What is more advantageous is that the British do not have any other available military bases within the combat radius of Gibraltar aircraft. Even if Spain does not cooperate, the German army can still use it. Any French African colonial airport can ensure effective air superiority.

In Hoffman's eyes, Gibraltar is just like a large Malta. There is nothing to fear. The reason why it is boasted as the most impregnable fortress in the world is because the British have sea control and the Royal Navy can attack any force that wants to move Gibraltar unscrupulously. Now the Axis The combined naval power has completely overwhelmed Great Britain. The remaining strength of the Royal Navy will never dare to come. If it comes, it will be met with death. Even reinforcement warships may not dare to enter the German air defense circle, not to mention that Hoffman has given Churchill An even more troublesome tsunami plan was prepared - one even more lethal than Gibraltar.

"Let us wish the German artillery a successful start together!"

The first meeting of the three-nation summit broke up quickly. Mussolini was eager to communicate the explosive news he heard today to Franco, while Hoffman also declined the invitation to the night event because he was tired from the trip.

"Sir, it seems that the situation in Europe is far more complicated than we imagined." Tsukahara Er43 asked Horikichi, "Do you think the Spaniards will submit?"

"It's hard to say that Europeans' ideas are usually incompatible with ours, but I don't care about this. As long as the German head of state wants to fight, he will definitely find a way." Horikichi suddenly changed the topic to other aspects, "I decided to complete my visit to Italy. Later, we will take all officers above the major general level who have no combat missions to go to Germany.”

"Are you investigating the 1 billion mark purchase case?"

"That's not entirely the case. I want them to take a look at Germany's production and economic layout, and see how the German army handles logistics and supplies - the imperial military has thought too little about this aspect, and the navy has some knowledge of the international situation and In line with the modern trend, the Army's Malu are full of bushido spirit and have no idea of ​​the importance of production, logistics and supply. Only Deputy Chief Ishihara has a clear mind, but he alone cannot change much. "

"The Ishihara faction is now very popular, and I don't know how many pairs of eyes are staring at him..." Chief of Staff Kusaka Renichi sighed, "I heard that some people have criticized him for making too many concessions to the navy."

Horikichi smiled bitterly and said: "We must keep these top army officials who are willing to cooperate with the navy, not only because they can achieve unity between the sea and the land, but more importantly, it is more beneficial to the empire. Some methods can be flexible, and in some cases We said that the army would not listen, but the Germans would listen to some of them - are foreign monks easy to chant sutras, so it is urgent to introduce German submarine officers and army officers to brainwash those red deer - different countries in Germany and Italy If both of us can cooperate sincerely, can’t we, as imperial soldiers, do it?”

"That means we have to transfer 50 naval officers." Kusaka Renji said with some distress.

"Don't be reluctant. Yamamoto and I have the same attitude on this point. Just select from the existing fleet - give priority to young and excellent officers with good foreign language skills, and arrange more aircraft carrier officers."

Tsukahara Jishizo sighed: "Okay, since the commander has made up his mind, I will arrange the aircraft carrier officers, but I can only give 20 at most."

"20 is fine, Kusaka is responsible for transferring the remaining 30."

The mutual dispatch of officers is the second major agreement after the barter transaction between the two sides. Both sides will send 50 colonels and lieutenants to carry out equal exchanges. Germany is in urgent need of Japan's experienced naval officers, and Japan is very interested in German army officers and submarine backbones, especially armored officers - otherwise it will be a big problem if a bunch of tanks are shipped back without anyone understanding combat command. At this point, the army needed the navy. The navy had different opinions on whether to bear this cost. Yamamoto Isoroku obviously supported it, but the military command system had different opinions. Both sides kicked the ball to the Combined Fleet. Hori Teikichi also supported it, but he needed to convince his subordinates - the ones who were transferred were all backbones on the ship.

In Italy these two days, Hori Teikichi and other Japanese senior officials have visited various types of Italian industries, especially heavy industries and military industries, under the leadership of the ostentatious Mussolini. After the effective transformation of the German side, the level of Italian industry has been fully improved. Hori Teikichi has been the chairman of a company and has a deeper understanding of production and manufacturing than other senior officers. He can obviously feel that Italian workers are not as hardworking as Japanese workers, but their technical level, equipment capabilities and production efficiency are incomparable to Japan. At least in Italy, important equipment factories have fully realized standardized operations - parts are completely interchangeable, and there is no need to rely too much on the skills of skilled workers like Japan. This is very critical for rapidly expanding production while ensuring quality.

He saw many German engineers guiding technical details and optimizing and adjusting the operation process on site. What impressed him most was that after the integration of the Axis of Germany and Italy, many equipments of Italy and Germany began to be unified. For example, rifles, Axis countries including Italy began to replace German Mauser 98K, and Italian arsenals were doing their best to produce 7.92mm bullets - all production lines were moved from Germany, and the ammunition in Italy had been cleared one after another.

Only then did he understand why there were a lot of Italian weapons in the infantry light weapons delivered to him by the Germans. This batch of arms was part of the Japan-Germany trade. Germany first delivered it to Japan and Japan sold it. He knew that the domestic arms export to China had reached a peak, and now it was called insufficient inventory. After the export of this batch of remaining German arms, the army would first pick up the best part, and then resell it to China or Siam to make a lot of net profit - the German side gave a very favorable selling price. At first, he thought they were all foreign weapons captured by Germany, but now he realized that there were also old goods replaced by Italy.

"What is your Mauser company producing?"

"They are concentrating on producing thin-shell ammunition and new rifles with higher technical requirements. The 20mm machine gun ammunition sold to your country is all thin-shell ammunition."

The new rifles include STG43 assault rifles and G43 semi-automatic rifles. Germany did not intend to hide them from Japan, and it could not hide them. These weapons have begun to be equipped on the Eastern Front. Speer ambitiously stated that he would basically complete the replacement within 2 years. The Japanese were also quite excited after seeing the new rifles, but after inquiring about the ammunition consumption, they could only sigh-if Japan also used such rifles, the weak logistics supply would probably collapse first. The thin-shell bullets made the Japanese sigh even more. After being equipped with German machine guns, the carrier-based aircraft pilots flying Bf-219 said that it was 2-3 times stronger than domestic machine gun ammunition. After asking the major arsenals, the reply was that it was difficult to produce domestically, so all had to be imported.

When he learned that Germany had moved all important equipment such as the Bf-109 and the No. 3 tank chassis production lines to Italy, he was extremely surprised. Now he finally understood why the Italians were willing to hand over the command of the navy and air force to the Germans, because Germany had really benefited Italy. Hori Teikichi was considering whether he could move some production lines to Japan. Apart from anything else, the batch of machine tools alone gave him a lot of ideas.