Iron Sonata of World War II

Although the Hs-123 dive bomber developed by Henschel is far less well-known in later generations than its successor "Stuka" dive bomber, this biplane bomber, which was supposed to be a transitional model, has achieved great success in the historical plane. Unimaginable success, whether in the Spanish Civil War or later on the Eastern Front, the combat performance of this bomber has never disappointed, so that even after the "Stuka" was in service, the Luftwaffe still It relies heavily on the long-discontinued Hs-123 bomber.

Even until 1943, Luftwaffe Marshal Richthofen tried to ask Henschel to resume the production of this model to supplement combat losses, and he also claimed that the aircraft was as important to the Luftwaffe as air and bread.It was only because Henschel's production capacity was close to saturation at that time, and the original Hs-123 production line had long been dismantled, and the production equipment was also used for other purposes. Marshal Richthofen's plan to resume production of the Hs-123 bomber was not planned. can achieve.

As a relatively early model in the development history of the dive bomber, the Hs-123 still uses the biplane design. The absolute performance of the Hs-[-] was naturally not advanced during World War II. This type of bomber can maintain a high attendance rate even in a simple front-line airport, and the good low-speed flight performance of the biplane allows the pilot to aim at the target more carefully during the dive process, which is very beneficial for improving bombing accuracy.

Helena, who has always been pragmatic in equipment development, will naturally not reject this model with remarkable performance as a transition, so the Henkel company in this plane developed the Hs-123 bomber even earlier than the historical plane. , Germany's newly formed dive bomber force also uses Hs-123 as its main model at this stage, so the members of the aviation volunteer team sent to Ethiopia are very familiar with the performance of this bomber.

Although Helena exerted a profound influence on the development of the German aviation industry in this plane, the Hs-123 dive bomber in this plane maintains a very similar appearance to the model of the same name in the historical plane, including the spindle-shaped machine with an all-metal semi-monocoque structure. Body, stubby BMW nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine, rear three-point fixed landing gear with streamlined fairing, and elliptical twin wings connected by wide and flat flared brackets.

The Hs-123 bomber in this plane has not completely reproduced the history. The biggest difference between it and the model of the same name in history is that it adopts a fully enclosed cockpit and a fork-shaped belly hanger that can be expanded.Among them, the closed cockpit was originally an improvement measure that Henschel planned to add to the subsequent improvement of this model, and the expandable fork-shaped belly hanger is mainly for pushing the bomb away from the aircraft when the aircraft drops bombs at a large angle. body to prevent the bomb from hitting the front spinning propeller.It is said that because the Hs-123 in the historical plane did not use this special pylon design, it could only use small bombs on the wing pylons when conducting large-angle dive bombing, but the belly pylon with the strongest carrying capacity It can only be used to mount auxiliary fuel tanks, while the Hs-123 bomber on this plane adopts the pylon design that was first adopted on the "Stuka" in advance, which can be regarded as correcting the performance defect of the historical Hs-123 in advance. .

Because the design of double wings and fixed landing gear increases a lot of resistance, even if it is equipped with a BMW-960K engine with a maximum power of 132 horsepower, the maximum speed of the Hs-123 bomber on this plane can only reach 360 kilometers per hour. Hour.Although the speed and maneuverability are far inferior to the Fiat CR.32 fighters equipped by the Italians, but because the German Aviation Volunteers have more powerful BF-108A2 fighters that continue to control the field, it is difficult to find Fiat fighters in the sky of Ethiopia. Therefore, the newly arrived dive bomber wing faced a fairly clean airspace, which also made the pilots flying the Hs-123 dive bombers eager to try after being surprised.

In fact, during this period, the German pilots with the best grades tended to give priority to the bomber unit rather than the fighter unit. In the historical plane, the astonishing bombing accuracy of the "Stuka" bomber in the blitzkrieg was not only the performance of the aircraft itself, but also the bomber pilot himself. High combat literacy is also inseparable.

However, these proud elite pilots can only watch helplessly for the past few months as their brothers flying fighter jets achieve success in Ethiopia. Some of them have even crossed the threshold of killing five planes and become real ace pilots , but I can only practice bomb-throwing movements day after day in China, and it would be a lie to say that I don't envy it.And now the Bomber Wing finally got the chance to gain experience. Just thinking about it makes people so excited that they can't sleep. A bright future awaits them in the waiting Luftwaffe.

In fact, before the Battle of Tempion started, the first few bomber squadrons that arrived earlier had already put pressure on the Italian army.Although the previously deployed BF-108A2 made the Italian fighters afraid to face each other, the BF-108A2, as an air superiority fighter, did not directly attack the Italian ground troops very frequently. German pilots sometimes hang two to four 50kg small bombs under the wings to warm the Italian ground troops before going out, but the BF-108A2’s ground-mounting capability is not strong after all, and the throwing accuracy of the commonly used shallow dive attack is also relatively high. Therefore, although the Italian ground troops cursed at such frequent harassment, the actual damage caused was still within the range of the Italian army.

However, since the Hs-123 dive bombers began to station in Ethiopia, although due to factors such as fighter planes and personnel needing to adapt to the new environment, the scale of the German Air Volunteer Team's attack is not very large, and the frequency of the attack is not very intensive, but the Italian ground forces are still It is obvious that the threat from the top of the head has suddenly increased.

The most dazzling achievement in the German Air Volunteer Team is a newcomer named Hans Ulrich Rudel who has just completed domestic training. In the past month, he has destroyed at least the Italian army There are 13 military vehicles and 4 tanks. If the transfer of spare parts and ammunition in the early stage did not affect his attack frequency, this number would probably be even higher.According to Rudel's comrades-in-arms, he can throw bombs into the pickle jar. Although this statement is a bit exaggerated, this Rudel did hit an Italian army with a 250kg bomb in a certain attack. The CV33 ultra-light tank on the move restored the 3.2-ton Douding Chariot to its spare parts state.

When the equipment and personnel of the Hs-123 dive bomber wing arrived and the running-in was basically completed, the German Aviation Volunteer Team also ushered in the largest-scale mission since they set foot on the land of East Africa, because the largest-scale mission since the outbreak of the Italian-Egyptian War The battle of the Great War was fought near the Tempion Mountains.Both sides have bet heavily on this battle, especially Upper Italy cannot bear the consequences of the failure of the battle. The moment to decide the fate of Ethiopia, an East African country, has arrived.

"The Magical Ambition of the Elf Queen" written by book friend "Storm Assault Meow", the last elf queen traveled through the parallel world with the relics of her ancestors under the tide of the times, stood on a higher perspective, and nailed the historical trajectory to her place in the required position.

The current pictures in this book are all drawn by book friend "Storm Assault Meow", and everyone is welcome to support her new book.

Chapter 316 Fate Changed

Marshal Badoglio, commander-in-chief of the Italian Army in East Africa, has concentrated a considerable amount of technical equipment in the area as of early May in order to destroy Ethiopia's defense line on the edge of the Tempion Mountains, including more than 280 artillery pieces and more than 170 aircraft of various types. A small fighter plane can launch a general attack only when the troops are deployed in place.However, what caught Marshal Badoglio a little by surprise was that it was the Ethiopians who launched the attack first.On May 5, Ethiopian Army Minister Mulujita led an army of more than 3 troops, and suddenly launched a massive attack from Tempion and Endeta, causing more than 20 Italian troops caught off guard in the area to fall into the encirclement of the Egyptian army. .

You must know that since the war between Italy and Ethiopia, the overall situation has been Italian attack and defense. Although the Egyptian army has also carried out counterattacks in many parts, the scale of the troops participating in the attack is relatively limited, so Marshal Badoglio did not even think about it before. Never before has Ethiopia dared to organize such a large-scale attack.Although Marshal Badoglio didn't have many brilliant achievements to show off in the past, he had experienced such a big battle as the Caporetto battle after all. After calming down a little, he realized that the Egyptian army's active attack was a heavy blow to himself. The opportunity of the Egyptian army, so he asked the besieged Italian army to build fortifications near the city of Abiadi to hold back the Egyptian army, and at the same time sent 4 of the most elite black shirts to reinforce, preparing to cut off the retreat of the Egyptian army and supply lines.

Marshal Badoglio's idea is actually quite good, because although the attacking Egyptian army has a large number of books, a considerable proportion lacks sufficient military training, and because of the lack of heavy artillery, its offensive capabilities are relatively limited.The besieged Italian army only needs to hold on for a few days, and the elite black shirts can rush to reinforcements. After all, it is much more cost-effective to eliminate the Egyptian army with superior firepower in the field than to deal with the Egyptian army in the Tempion Mountains.In the historical plane, Marshal Badoglio's battle plan was indeed a great success. Not only did he successfully rescue the divided and surrounded Italian army, but he also caused Ethiopia to pay a heavy loss of more than 4 people killed in battle. A successful breakthrough in the Tempion area paved the way.

After the Marshal Badoglio on the real plane was attacked by the Egyptian army suddenly and fiercely, he quickly and logically made the same response as the historical plane.However, if the plan to let the besieged Italian army stick to it and send elite troops to intercept the Egyptian army's retreat is to be successful, it must be based on the premise that Ethiopia's offensive ability is weak and it cannot stop the reinforcements of the nearby Italian army. In the previous plane, this The premise is undoubtedly true, but Marshal Badoglio in this plane obviously underestimated the variable of the German Air Volunteer Team. Although a wing composed of hundreds of dive bombers may not be able to directly kill many Italian troops, it can While helping the Egyptian army attack the fortifications that the besieged Italian army hastily built, it also delays the surrounding Italian army's reinforcements to the area for a certain period of time, and this seemingly small variable factor is actually enough to leverage the entire battle. to go.

Marshal Badoglio's misjudgment was not accidental. Although Julio Duhet's "Empty Power" has already been reprinted for the third time, the great value of air power in war has not yet been recognized in actual combat. Fully tested, even though the German Aviation Volunteer Team has caused a lot of losses to the Italian army, its combat method is still dominated by small formations of hunting and harassment, which is far from enough to change the balance of ground forces. Although Marshal Doglio felt that the German planes were a huge trouble, he didn't realize that these planes could directly affect the outcome of a large-scale battle. After all, in his decades of military career, no plane had ever become a An example of a decisive factor in the outcome of a battle.

When the violent gunfire woke up the ancient Tempion Mountains from its slumber, the German aviation volunteer team also completed the preparations for the attack. Hundreds of fighter jets and dive bombers taxied and took off from the airstrips of several temporary airports , flying towards the battlefield to the north with a murderous look.Those Hs-123 dive bombers not only carried a fat 250 kg high-explosive aerial bomb on their belly, but also had four 50 kg small bombs on the hanging points under each wing, which is also the standard Hs-123 bomber. For the ground attack configuration, the matrix formed by dropping five bombs at the same time can take into account the killing power and the killing range well.

Rudel, who has gradually emerged on the Ethiopian battlefield, is also included in this attack. It is completely accidental that this super ace in the historical plane can come to Ethiopia, because he was not considered a top student when he first entered the dive bomber unit. On the contrary It was the existence of the crane tail of the entire squadron, and even the training assessment was passed at the last moment. This made Rudel's squadron leader very disappointed with him, and even wanted to recommend this poor guy to the reconnaissance aircraft unit. Replace Rudel with a pilot with better assessment results.However, before the squadron leader put this plan into practice, their squadron received an order to immediately take off the Luftwaffe uniform and go to Ethiopia to participate in the war in the name of volunteers sent by the Aviation Club. Del, the oil bottle of the whole squadron, went to Ethiopia.

Rudel's fate in this plane has obviously undergone many changes. The earlier recovery time of the Luftwaffe made him an Air Force pilot earlier, and the sudden outbreak of the Ethiopian War gave him an early chance to actually fight.In the historical plane, Rudel was successfully kicked into the reconnaissance aircraft unit by his squadron leader, so he spent soy sauce in the years before the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, otherwise his already perverted record might still rise Space.Now as Rudel stands out on the battlefield, his squadron leader has forgotten the scolding he once gave Rudel to the sky. Rudel only took one month to change from the oil bottle of the whole squadron to the whole squadron Sometimes the results on the training field cannot be completely linked to the record, because in the ever-changing battlefield, in addition to the skills assessed in the training field, the ability to respond to emergencies, the ability to judge situations, and even the mysterious sixth sense may all affect you. Pilot combat play.

Rudel's squadron was not far from the front line. Less than 20 minutes after the bomber formation took off, the majestic Tempion Mountains had already appeared in the pilot's field of vision.

Chapter 317 Falling from the Sky

Although it was quite common to use aircraft to attack enemy ground forces as early as the last world war, the effect of using aircraft to attack the ground was not ideal. This was certainly due to the limitation of the flight performance of the aircraft itself at that time, but another important The reason was that aircraft at that time were generally not equipped with radio communication equipment, so it was difficult to establish an effective communication mechanism with ground forces.However, with the advancement of radio technology and the reduction of the size and weight of radio stations, there are no obvious technical obstacles to the airborne radio stations after the 30s, and the Hs-123 dive bomber was equipped with radio stations earlier. Ground attack aircraft.

However, the problem of air-ground coordination is not as simple as installing radios for bombers. In the historical plane, Germany's air-ground coordination mechanism was gradually improved through practice from the Spanish Civil War to the French Campaign.At the beginning, the dive bombers of the Luftwaffe identified the enemy by drawing front lines on the map before taking off. However, in fierce wars, the front lines of the exchange of fire between the two sides are constantly changing. Can't keep up with the rhythm of the war.

In order to improve the real-time nature of air-ground information exchange, Germany began to try to let the ground troops directly communicate with the bombers through the radio. However, they soon discovered that because the army and the air force are two independent services, even direct calls often have similar cockroaches. Duck told the situation, but due to poor information exchange, there were repeated situations where air support was not timely or friendly troops were bombed by mistake.And the Army and the Air Force will blame each other when such problems arise: the Army usually blames the Air Force pilots for not being able to understand human language, and the Air Force usually blames the Army liaison officers for not being able to speak human language.

The solution the Germans finally figured out was that the Air Force Signal Corps would send liaison teams to each ground unit, with UHF radios, to work with the Army units.When Army units encountered strong enemy firepower or difficult artillery positions, the liaison teams sent by the Air Force used radio to guide the bombers to the target.Since the Air Force Signal Corps and the bomber pilots have worked together for a long time, naturally there will be no division of arms when communicating with the bomber pilots.

Later, Germany also directly absorbed some dive bomber pilots into the contact group, and regularly rotated with the pilots who were flying dive bombers in the sky.These pilots are very familiar with the attack method of the dive bomber, which makes the guidance of the dive bomber by the Air Force Liaison Group more efficient.Under the influence of Helena, the air-ground coordination tactics of Germany on this plane were obviously formed earlier than on the previous plane, and this Battle of Tempion can be used as an excellent place to test this tactics in actual combat. There are a dozen or so air-ground liaison teams like this in the Ethiopian army responsible for the offensive, which can basically guarantee the ground guidance for each dive bomber squadron.

When Rudel's dive bomber squadron was about to enter the battlefield, his squadron leader had just assigned tasks to the whole squadron by radio according to ground guidance, and then the air formation composed of twelve Hs-123 dive bombers quickly disbanded. , divided into four three-machine formations and rushed towards their respective targets.Because of his amazing performance in combat before, Rudel has now become the leader of the three-aircraft formation. The target of their attack this time is an artillery position of the Italian army in the encirclement of the Egyptian army, where several Ansaldos are deployed. The 105mm howitzer produced, this field gun imitating the French Schneider M1913, has a range of more than 12 kilometers, which has brought a lot of trouble to the Egyptian army lacking long-range artillery fire.

According to the general orientation given by the squadron leader when assigning tasks, the three-aircraft formation led by Rudel quickly discovered the artillery position that was spewing firepower, and the Italians on the ground also quickly discovered them. Several anti-aircraft machine guns The position began to spit fire at them, but for the formation flying above 2500 meters, such a thin and weak air defense force obviously cannot pose a threat.There was a simple bunker made of sand in front of the artillery positions in Italy, so Rudel did not dive directly with the nose of the aircraft, but made a half-roll while passing over the artillery positions, and then accelerated the aircraft to reverse from the opposite direction Down, this will not only avoid the cover of the bunker, but also quickly establish a dive route with a steep slope.

Rudel glanced at the scale slashes on the windshield at the front right of the cockpit to determine the dive angle of the plane. When one of these scale slashes is parallel to the horizon, it means that the plane's dive angle is equal to the reading on the scale .When the scale reading of the dive angle points to 70 degrees, Rudel stabilizes the joystick to control the aircraft to enter the accelerated dive phase.At this time, the back of the seat behind Rudel felt an obvious push back due to the acceleration, and the whole earth seemed to rush towards him. However, Rudel obviously enjoyed this thrilling feeling very much. The waves of sound stimulated his crazy secretion of adrenaline, which lifted the spirit of Rudel, who had loved adventure since he was a child.

However, for the Italians on the ground, the feeling at this time was not very good. The roar of the German bomber engine was compressed by the Doppler effect, and in their ears it became a kind of shocking sound like a chainsaw. A sharp, convulsive growl.Many Italian soldiers abandoned their battle positions and began to flee around like headless chickens looking for places to hide.Rudel's dive speed exceeded 400 kilometers per hour in an instant, and the response of the bomber's elevator began to become heavier due to the increase in speed, so Rudel had to use the ailerons to make final fine-tuning of the aiming point.

Rudel did not press the bomb release button until the red warning light on the altimeter was on. The fork under the belly of the aircraft instantly opened and pushed the round bomb away from the aircraft body. The four bombs under the wings also dropped from the pylons almost simultaneously. Freed, a matrix of one large, four small and five bombs roared towards the target.

At the same time, Rudel also pulled the joystick back with all his strength, and the huge overload when the bomber pulled up pressed Rudel hard on the seat.Although the dive speed of the Hs-123 is not as fast as the Stuka, so the peak overload when pulling up is not as high as the Stuka, but the ischemia caused by the blood flowing to the legs still makes Rudel feel that the scene in front of him is a bit blurred , but his hand was still holding the joystick tightly, until the plane almost brushed the scalp of the Italian below and pulled it up again, Rudel's vision became clear again, and behind him was a series of huge Explosion.

At this time, the other two planes in the three-machine formation also followed Rudel's footsteps and filed down, accurately sending the mounted bombs to the Italian artillery positions.After the last plane in the formation successfully pulled up, Rudel glanced back at the Italian artillery position that was still showing off its might just now. There were only three huge craters and a series of small craters surrounding the three large craters.Only the twisted gun barrels, crooked gun mounts, scattered parts, and unextinguished flames at the edge of the pit can show that a platoon of Italian artillery once existed here...

No. [-] "Fox" tank drawn by book friends

The No. 200 "Fox" tank drawn by book friends.Compared with the No. 360 "Weasel" tank, a pair of road wheels were added to make the car body longer and wider. The engine changed from the 6 horsepower inline four-cylinder of the No. 48 tank to a 75 horsepower V-shaped [-]-cylinder, but the transmission is exactly the same as the No. [-] tank. , the larger turret is equipped with a [-]mm main gun with a diameter of [-] times.

This picture was drawn by the book friend "Storm Assault Meow", thank you very much.

No. [-] "Jackal" tank drawn by book friends

The No. 60 "Jackal" tank drawn by book friends.The turret of the No. 75 tank adopts casting technology on a larger scale, and the body structure is simplified to a box shape with vertical sides.The biggest highlight of the walking system is that the transmission adopts double-sided planetary transmission and steering device and disc spring suspension. Compared with the No. 60 tank, the firepower is slightly upgraded to a 90mm gun with a diameter of [-] times, but the potential for upgrading to a [-]mm gun with a diameter of [-] times is retained.

This picture was drawn by the book friend "Storm Assault Meow", thank you very much.

Chapter 318 I'll accept it

The fierce air strikes of the German Air Volunteer Team made the besieged Italian army feel more pressure. Their temporary fortifications could not resist these threats from overhead. In the midst of it, the time it can continue to exist will begin to count down.At the same time, Ethiopian Army Minister Mulujita also commanded 20 Egyptian troops to launch a fierce attack on the besieged Italian army without hesitation. The sheer political significance involved is enough to get Ethiopia going all out.

Marshal Badoglio, the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army in East Africa, turned livid with the increasingly urgent telegrams for help from the besieged Italian Army. Therefore, while strictly ordering the [-] black-shirted troops to speed up and detour to the rear of the Egyptian army, he also asked the surrounding Italian troops to immediately approach the city of Abiadi, where the besieged Italian army was located, with all their strength.However, the execution of Marshal Badoglio's order was not smooth. The Ethiopian side used all means including laying minefields along the way, sending small groups of troops to harass, pollute drinking water sources, etc., to delay the actions of the Italian army.

Air interception on the battlefield is the job of the dive bombers, and the dive bombers of the German Aviation Volunteer Team naturally have an unshirkable responsibility in delaying the reinforcements of the Italian army.During the days following the Battle of Tempion, each squadron of the dive bomber wing averaged more than three sorties per day.As for Rudel, a combat madman, he almost lived in the cockpit of the plane. He never left the flight seat even for meals and naps. He carried out up to seven lift-offs on the first day of the battle, often landing As soon as the rear ground support completed the refueling and loading of bombs for the bomber, it immediately proceeded to the next lift-off.His comrade-in-arms even half-joked Di said: If the Hs-123 bomber hadn't designed a toilet, his combat boots might not have touched the ground all day.

Although the number of Italian soldiers who died directly in the air strikes of the German Aviation Volunteer Team was actually not very large, such high-intensity air interdiction still showed unparalleled battlefield value.German dive bombers not only directly attacked the advancing Italian troops, but also frequently visited the Italian army's transportation hubs, material supply bases, and transport convoys.

The most interesting battle ever happened was when a Hs-123 bomber on the way back suddenly found several Italian trucks on the mountain road. Although the bomber had run out of ammunition in the mission just now, the The pilot still wanted to tease the Italians, and swooped down directly from the Italian convoy. As a result, an Italian truck heard the roar from above, and both of them rushed down the hillside because of a collision with the vehicle in front of them in a panic. The German pilot, who fell on all fours and looked confused, almost forgot to pull up the nose in time.

During this period, the Italian Air Force did not think of countermeasures. On the contrary, in the past few days, the Italian Air Force has changed its passive attitude of avoiding wars for several months. They disregard the performance of their Fiat CR.32 fighter jets and German BF-108A2 fighter jets. Even the Caproni Ca.101 bomber, which is rarely seen on weekdays, began to appear frequently in the sky above the battlefield, braving the interception of the German Aviation Volunteer Team and the ground air defense firepower. Bomb the Egyptian army.

However, these efforts of the Italian Air Force are doomed to be in vain. They lost 37 Fiat CR.32 fighter jets and 9 Caproni Ca.101 bombers in just a few days. one third.However, it is still difficult to stop the continuous shrinking of the encirclement. Now the Italian troops in the encirclement send a request for help to the reinforcements who are still struggling on the way. Begging.However, the replies received always made the Italian army in the encirclement feel colder and colder.

The German Air Volunteer Team lost two BF-108A fighter jets and five Hs-123 dive bombers. The loss figure could have been smaller.However, once the fighter jets in charge of escorting the dive bomber formation discovered a mixed formation composed of Italian bombers and fighter jets, the fighter pilots who were eager to win suddenly forgot their duties, and they all threw down the dive while the bomber planes that were helping them rushed over to snatch it. head.As a result, this unlucky formation of three dive bombers happened to collide with the formation of Italian Fiat CR.32 fighter jets that came to intercept them, so the Fiat CR.32 fighter jets, which had been hammered to doubt their lives since the start of the war, finally had a good time. After eating dumplings, when the BF-108A fighter jets came back after realizing that something bad happened, two of the three Hs-123 bomber formations had been shot down, and the two bomber pilots hanging under the parachutes were still pointing The sky shouted curses, and at this time the Italian fighters who had just picked up the leaks had turned into a few small black dots and disappeared over the mountains.

However, these unhappiness could not affect the outcome of the battle after all. The Italian army in the encirclement lost all their outer positions on the fourth day of the siege. Although Marshal Badoglio almost exhausted all the cards he could play this time, However, it still failed to prevent the remaining [-] Italian troops in the encirclement from raising the white flag to the Egyptian army after learning that the reinforcements were hopeless.Although there was a call in the Egyptian army to recover Makare, the capital of Tigray State, the Ethiopian Army Minister Mulujita who commanded the battle finally retreated to the Tempion Mountains defense line on the advice of the German adviser.On the one hand, this is because the Egyptian army suffered heavy casualties in this battle, and on the other hand, because the Italian army's early failure was due to the sudden counterattack of the Egyptian army by surprise, plus the German Air Volunteer Team's all-out ground support and support. The battlefield is interdicted, but the German Aviation Volunteer Team has only deployed a mere dive bomber wing in Ethiopia. Neither the number of pilots nor the reserves of fuel and ammunition can continue to insist on such an intensive attack, so it is good for Ethiopia. Is the most sensible choice.

But in any case, the Battle of Tempion was a victory for the Egyptian army that is enough to go down in history, not only because the battle cost the Italian army at least 4000 people killed and more than 15000 people captured.It is also because most of these Italian troops were wiped out in an organized manner. Although the cumulative casualties of the Italian army were not small before, due to the cautiousness of Marshal Badoglio's predecessor, General Bono, the Egyptian army has never been organized. The opportunity to eliminate even regiment-level units of the Italian army, and this time at least two divisions of the Italian army have been erased from the designation, the psychological shock effect of this is not the same as those sporadic battles, and what Helena needs is exactly This is the psychological shock effect.

Chapter 319 The Lila Crash

When the news of the defeat of the Italian army in Ethiopia was spread all over the world through communication cables and radio waves, the collapse of the lira exchange rate was inevitable.In fact, Italy’s balance of payments situation had seriously deteriorated long before the start of the Battle of Tempion. The reason why this bad situation did not cause the lira exchange rate to plummet immediately was because a considerable number of international investors believed at that time that even if the Italian army Previously, the progress in Ethiopia was not smooth, but Italy is an industrial country that can barely rank among the great powers after all. The economic difficulties caused by consumption and international sanctions are expected to be gradually reversed.

It is precisely this expectation that Rome will eventually win the war that balances market concerns about its economic situation, which prevents the lira from collapsing early.However, this delicate long-short balance is destined to be extremely fragile. This is because the increasingly serious economic situation in Italy is an objective fact that anyone with a discerning eye can see, and this fact will not change in the short term; It's just some investors' expectations for the future. Since it is an expectation, there is potential uncertainty. After all, no one can guarantee that this expectation will be fulfilled in the future.

In other words, investors who are bearish on the lira now base their judgments on established facts, while investors who are bullish on the lira base their judgments on uncertain expectations. So as long as the expectation of Italy's victory reverses, Almost all lira longs in the market will evaporate in an instant, and short liras without a counterpart will be invincible.The biggest loss of Italy in the Battle of Tempion this time is that market expectations were reversed due to the defeat of the Italian army. Now the international market generally no longer believes that Italy can win this war.

The performance of the Italian lira after the battle of Tempion can be described as an avalanche, because Helena and her allies had tried to attack the lira exchange rate many times before. Seriousness, still trying to use the method of selling foreign exchange reserves to deal with sudden exchange rate fluctuations, but in the face of the panic that broke out in the entire market, it is obviously a drop in the bucket. The dying Italian central bank finally chose to lie down and play dead, because they really have no better coping strategy than playing dead.As a result, within a few days, the exchange rate of the lira against the U.S. dollar broke through the two integer marks of 20 and 30 consecutively, and there was no sign of stopping the decline and rebounding at all.

After the news of the defeat at the Battle of Tempion reached Rome, the Italian capital, Mussolini had not left his prime minister's residence for several days.Every night since the start of the Italian-Egyptian War, the dictator has to move the Italian flag on the huge map in his office according to the front-line battle reports, so as to follow up the progress of the Italian army in Ethiopia. Commanding armies is not really very good, but this activity undoubtedly gave Mussolini the satisfaction of commanding thousands of troops.But after nearly [-] Italian troops were surrounded and annihilated in the Tempion area, he no longer had any interest in carrying out this activity.Almost all senior generals in the Italian army now tell him that it is almost impossible for the Italian army to completely win this war in a short period of time.

The author has something to say: I am too late to come back today, I can only update so much, I am very sorry.

3 Chapter Twenty Armistice Negotiations

Mussolini, who was ashen-faced, had not had time to recover from the shadow of the Battle of Tempion, but was once again devastated by the news of the collapse of the lira in the international exchange rate market. An embarrassing failure, but the cruel reality before him now is: the Italian economy has indeed been pushed to the brink by this protracted war.In order to support the hundreds of thousands of expeditionary troops to attack Ethiopia, Italy’s finances have spent more than [-] billion lire in the past half a year. What’s more serious is that with the outbreak of the currency crisis, the last gold and gold in the Italian treasury The foreign exchange reserves are also close to depletion. Because of the lack of enough imported raw materials, more and more domestic industrial enterprises have begun to be underutilized. The decline in industrial production capacity has weakened the purchasing power of the Italian currency, which in turn has intensified The depreciation trend of the lira exchange rate.

With the serious deterioration of the domestic economic situation and the sharp rise in prices, large-scale protests broke out in many cities in Italy, and rumors that the Mussolini cabinet might collapse began to appear on the streets of Rome.The desperate financial officials told Mussolini that if Italy's war in Ethiopia continued, they would be forced to resign collectively.At this time, the only thing the furious Mussolini could do was to curse his subordinates for being weak and incompetent with all the rude words he could think of, but this obviously did not help to solve the predicament he faced.When the fatigue after the rage completely overwhelmed Mussolini, the aggressive fascist leader had to calm down painfully, and began to seriously consider how to end this catastrophic war for Italy , because he knows that if the war is not ended in time under the current situation, then the next thing that should end is his Mussolini rule in Italy.

It is said that when Mussolini led more than 3 fascist party members into Rome and was appointed prime minister by King Emmanuel III of Italy, few observers believed that this cabinet, which only occupied one-fifth of the parliamentary seats, could be in power for a long time.The important reason why Mussolini was able to quickly consolidate power was that the Italian economy did achieve rapid growth in the early days of his administration, and the social order that had collapsed due to the trauma of the war gradually stabilized.According to the revised economic statistics after the war, Italy’s per capita GDP in 1935 increased by 1921% compared with that in 28. Considering the impact of the economic crisis during this period, this economic report card is relatively good in the world during the same period. Of course, here we are The premise of saying "good" is not to consider Italy's base level which is close to the bottom among the great powers.

In addition to these achievements in economic development, the Mussolini cabinet also made some achievements in rebuilding social order.Not only has it supercharged the gangster power represented by the mafia that has long been entrenched in southern Italy by forceful means, it has also partially reversed the procrastination and inefficiency in the Italian public sector.At that time, there was a phenomenon known as "double hat" in the public sector in Italy, which meant that many clerks had two hats, one of which was usually worn when going out, and the other hat was hung in the office all the year round until they went out. retire.The magical function of this hat hanging in the office is to let the clerks take turns to dodge. If someone comes to find a certain clerk and he happens to be out, his colleagues will point to the hat and say that he just has something to go away temporarily. It's in this building anyway, and you see his hat is still hanging there, so come back tomorrow if you can't find him.And after Mussolini came to power, he began to vigorously rectify the phenomenon of "double hats", so that some citizens in Italy joked at that time: "Whether you like Mussolini or not, at least he can make the train leave on time."

All in all, the reason why Mussolini was able to govern for a long time in Italy mainly relied on his achievements in developing the economy and improving social governance, rather than relying on slogans such as building a new Roman Empire, although those slogans can attract some ethnic groups. radical youth, but after all, it is too illusory for a larger number of ordinary Italians.If it is said that although the failure of the previous Battle of Tempion shattered the dream of the new Roman Empire described by Mussolini, it has not yet reached the level of threatening Mussolini's ruling position, then the current economic situation in Italy, both internally and externally, can be justified. It has reached the point where Mussolini's ruling foundation has been shaken.

At this time, Germany is just using the name of the upcoming 1936 Olympic Games to issue a diplomatic initiative to the international community that according to the historical tradition of ancient Greece, countries should have a sacred truce during the Olympic Games.Although Mussolini gritted his teeth with hatred for Germany's secret support for Ethiopia, he really dared not accept the olive branch of peace offered by Germany.Because if Italy continues to fight hard in Ethiopia, I am afraid that the downfall of Mussolini's cabinet will really enter the countdown, so in the face of Germany's Olympic truce proposal, Mussolini finally agreed to truce negotiations timidly.Although the German side initially suggested that Berlin be the venue for the negotiations, because Italy believed that Germany's position on this matter was not neutral, the parties decided to set the venue for the talks in Brussels, the capital of Belgium after a few rounds of wrangling. Representatives from other countries also attended the meeting.

At the beginning, the Italian representatives were still thinking about saving some face on the negotiating table. They demanded that Ethiopia must recognize that the Varvar region was owned by Italy. After all, the fuse of this war was the Varvar incident. As long as Ethiopia is willing to cede the Varvar region , Italy can even declare its own victory with the cheek, so the Italian representative even declared that if Ethiopia does not agree to Italy's request, Italy will withdraw from this negotiation, and will continue to increase troops to East Africa until Ethiopia is completely wiped off the world map go.

However, the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is not one of those African chiefs who are completely ignorant of the world situation. He is very clear about the weakness of Italy concealed under the tough diplomatic rhetoric, not to mention the German diplomats. Will continue to support Ethiopia's anti-colonial war until the final victory.The Ethiopian representative not only verbally rejected all of Italy's conditions, but also demanded that Italy pay at least 5000 million lire to Ethiopia as compensation for the aggression while completely withdrawing from every inch of Ethiopian territory.Although in Helena's view, Ethiopia's asking price is not high, it may be because the indemnity incident exposed Italy's scars in the Italian-Egyptian War in 1895, so the Italian representative who was so angry that he was angry Leave the negotiating table collectively.

However, now is really not the time for the Italian representative to play petty temper. The Italian economy is bleeding every day.International sanctions have hit Italy’s export trade hard. Without export trade, Italy cannot obtain foreign exchange and gold. Without foreign exchange and gold, it cannot obtain important resources such as coal, oil, and iron ore from the outside world. Without these resources, the Italian economy cannot survive. Once the operation is resumed, the currency crisis will intensify. At that time, if there is a truce, Italy will probably be stripped of its pants by international speculative capital.So on the third day after the Italian representative left the meeting, they seemed to have finally settled their position, so they changed their faces and urgently asked to restart the negotiation. After all, Italy is now the party that is desperate for help.

Chapter 321 Signing the Treaty

Italy finally gritted its teeth and agreed to most of the conditions proposed by Ethiopia, including the withdrawal of all Italian armed forces stationed in Ethiopia, recognizing that Ethiopia has complete territorial sovereignty over the Varvar area, and in addition to paying Ethiopia. 5000 million Italian lire to make up for the economic losses of the Egyptian side in this war.Other countries at the meeting pledged to lift economic sanctions on Italy after the country withdraws its troops.

Italy's surrender was not only because of the urgent need to solve domestic economic problems, and it really did not have the capital to continue wasting in the quagmire of Ethiopia, but also because the four European powers, Britain, France, Germany and the Soviet Union, were urging Italy to withdraw from Ethiopia.Of course, the specific motives of these four countries are different: Britain does not want Italy’s expansion in East Africa to damage its influence in this region; France hopes that Italy can help itself contain Germany after withdrawing from Ethiopia; After harvesting the lira, it is necessary to implement its own political interests in this matter; the Soviet Union does not have much personal interest in the Ethiopian issue, but as the leader of the Third International, the anti-colonial struggle against Asian and African countries is at least Verbal support is mandatory.

Poor Italy originally hoped that other countries participating in the meeting could say a few good words for themselves because they are also European countries. Unexpectedly, although the representatives of Britain, France, Germany and the Soviet Union had their own ghosts, they urged Italy to withdraw its troops. The attitude was unprecedentedly consistent, and Italy had to submit obediently under internal and external pressure. 40 years ago, in 1896, Italy signed the "Addis Ababa Treaty" with Ethiopia to pay 1000 million Italian lire indemnity because of its disastrous defeat in the first Italian-Egyptian war; and 40 years later, in 1936, Italy again because After the disastrous defeat in the second Italian-Egyptian war, and under the witness of the representatives of Britain, France, Germany and the Soviet Union, the "Brussels Treaty" was signed with Ethiopia for an indemnity of 5000 million Italian lire. The bitter mood of the Italian representative at this time can be imagined.

The second Italian-Egyptian war, which lasted for more than half a year, came to an end in Brussels in this way, but the enthusiasm for this matter among the melon-eaters obviously did not dissipate so easily.For example, when the British media with a talent for political humor reported Italy’s defeat in the first Italian-Egyptian War 40 years ago, it ridiculed that Italy was the first European country to sign an unequal treaty with an African country as a defeated country. This time, they slightly modified the wording of the year, saying that Italy was the first European country to sign unequal treaties with African countries twice as a defeated country.

What's more interesting is that this time, both left-wing internationalists and right-wing nationalists mostly praised Germany's role in the Ethiopian issue. Among them, the former believed that Germany's support for Ethiopia defended international justice, while the latter believed that This time, Germany took revenge on Italy, the treacherous and anti-bone cub, and finally vented its anger for its failure in the last war.In short, except for the Italians who are frowning for their own failures, no matter what country they come from, whether they are left-wing or right-wing, the other people who eat melons are basically happy to see Italy’s deflation in Ethiopia. The political contradictions in Europe are becoming increasingly acute. At the moment, this is really a very rare harmonious scene.

However, at this time, Italy, which is devastated, has no time to pay attention to the above-mentioned groups. Although the international community has lifted economic sanctions on Italy, it is obviously not easy to restore the economy that has been hit hard by the war and the currency crisis.Fortunately, at this time, France, known as usury imperialism, took the initiative to extend an olive branch to Italy. In order to let Italy, the new recruit, play the role of balancing Germany, France certainly cannot sit back and watch Italy's economy collapse, so France sent a diplomatic envoy to Musso Rini proposed that France can help Italy get out of its economic difficulties by providing loans to Italy, but the condition for France to do so is that Italy must sign a new alliance treaty with France, which means that Italy must formally join the French-led alliance system.

Accepting the terms of the French will obviously cause Italy to lose the opportunity to be a European power, both economically and politically. It will become a small follower of France.When Italy joined the Triple Alliance led by Germany and Austria, it slickly added many exemption clauses to the treaty: for example, when Britain attacked Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy could not undertake the obligation to assist Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Italy could remain neutral while Russia attacked Austria-Hungary.It is precisely because of the existence of these exemption clauses that Italy was able to rebound successfully when the First World War broke out, and the French, who are well aware of Italy's double-faced virtue, obviously did not want to give Italy a chance to return this time. At the moment of the crisis, France is determined to completely pull this slippery boy into its own chariot.

According to the alliance treaty given by the French, whether France is attacked by a third country or takes the initiative to declare war on a third country, Italy has the obligation to assist France, and only when Italy is actively attacked, France has the obligation to assist Italy.Such a treaty is obviously very unfair to Italy.But now Mussolini obviously has no better choice, so he knows that the loan from France is sugar-coated, and he has to accept the French conditions at this time.

With the help of loans provided by France, the exchange rate of the Italian lira has finally begun to stop the decline in the past few days. Due to the recovery of energy and ore imports, Italy's domestic industrial production has also begun to recover. However, at this time, the "Peace Fund" led German capital has already profited more than 10 billion US dollars from the lira's plunge, and has withdrawn from the lira's international exchange rate battlefield with satisfaction.

Chapter 322 Who Gains

As the war between Italy and Ethiopia finally settled, the countries participating in the game began to sit down and take stock of their own successes and failures in the Italian-Ethiopian War. Helena believed that although the Italian-Ethiopian War took place in the distant East African plateau, In fact, this war also changed the balance of power among European countries in a silent way.

Italy, which almost lost all its underpants, was obviously the most damaged. They spent more than tens of billions of lire in the war quagmire in East Africa, but not only did not gain anything, but almost collapsed their fragile economy.The active performance of the Mussolini cabinet in international affairs after it came to power, once made the nationalists in Italy rejoice, mistakenly thinking that today's Italy is no longer the weakest power in the past, but this time in the Italian-Egyptian war The severe beatings they suffered told them clearly: Although Italy under the rule of the Fascist Party looked glamorous on the surface, the Fascist Party actually just put a gorgeous robe on Italy, and the clothes wrapped under it were still That weak body could not support the ambitions of the new Roman Empire.

As long as we look at the statistical data of the historical plane, it is not difficult to find that although Italy's industrial output value has increased in the 1860 years from 1938 to 78, its share in the world's total industrial output value has only increased slightly from 2.5%. to 2.8%.That is to say, Italy's industrial growth rate in the past 78 years can only barely catch up with the world average level. Compared with other countries in the world, Italy's relative industrial strength has not changed significantly in the past 78 years, which affects the changes in Italy's international status. The key factor is not the growth of Italy's internal industrial strength, but the ebb and flow of other major international powers.

Whenever the international balance of power becomes relatively fragile, the importance of Italy in international politics will rise and even become the target of various forces competing to win over, because under the premise that the international balance of power is fragile, no matter how weak Italy's national power is , adding either side may also upset the fragile balance of power, just as when a balance swings from side to side, placing the lightest weight on one side can determine the direction of the balance swing.

Therefore, in Helena's eyes, Italy's mistakes in the field of national strategy have never been specific technical issues, but more fundamental cognitive issues.The question that Italian policy makers have never figured out is whether the improvement of Italy's international status is due to the growth of its own internal national strength, or to the temporary fragility of the international balance of power.

This cognitive bias leads to the fact that when Italy’s international status improves due to changes in the external environment, Italian policymakers simply cannot understand that this temporary increase in international status is actually passive and exogenous. As a result, Italy's policymakers are neither able to accurately assess their own real national power level, nor can they make full use of these rare historical opportunities.

Whenever Italy is wooed by various forces, Italian decision makers are always blinded by the vain international status. Instead of considering whether Italy's real national strength is worthy of such a status, they stubbornly believe that Italy Italy's international status can still be higher, and when this period of historical opportunity passes, Italy's international status will be restored to its original shape. At this time, the huge gap between ideals and reality will stimulate Italian nationalists to pursue a more divorced country Practical goals, such as Mussolini's blueprint for the expansion of a new Roman Empire.Italy will leave countless jokes in the history of the world, so that it was ridiculed by Bismarck as having a huge appetite but a mouth full of bad teeth. The root cause is this cognitive error of its decision makers.

As for Britain and France, they are not dissatisfied with the outcome of the Italian-Egyptian war. Some British and French politicians even believe that their country has taken advantage of the Italian-Egyptian war.

Among them, Britain felt that it blocked Italy's expansion ambitions in East Africa without taking action personally, and consolidated the dominance of the British Empire in East African affairs. As for the expansion of Germany's influence in Ethiopia, the British believed that there was no need to worry too much. After all, Germany Contact with Ethiopia must be through the British colonies in the region. Even if Germany threatens Britain's interests in the region in the future, the British Empire can close the passage to Ethiopia from Germany at any time.

France regards Italy's defection as a huge diplomatic victory. They believe that the Italian-Egyptian war forced Italy to seek economic assistance from France to ease the immediate economic difficulties. opportunity.And with the official entry of Italy, which was still at the top of the world, the French finally completed the construction of the encirclement network against Germany that they had dreamed of for many years. This encouraged many French politicians who were worried about Germany's resurgence.

What surprised the French the most was that Italy's final refuge was largely due to Germany's assistance. If it hadn't been for Germany's support for Ethiopia, the conflict between Germany and Italy had intensified and eventually detonated Italy's currency crisis.If France wants to bring the insatiable Mussolini on board, it will undoubtedly need to pay more than it is now.And now Germany is almost taking the initiative to push Italy into the arms of France. It is tantamount to Germany helping France to tighten the fence surrounding itself, so that many people in France, from the official to the private sector, are secretly laughing at the Germans in this matter. stupidity.

Of course, the above are just the views of the British and French on this matter. From Helena's perspective, the biggest beneficiary in the Italian-Egyptian War is undoubtedly Germany.

Chapter 323 Multilateral Profit