Chapter 1038

Lutjans thought too much. This is a tragic fact.

After a brief thought, he thought that the allied fleet would retreat to the north. After all, there was the shortest way to their home. He felt that in order to confuse him, his opponent would directly adopt the most unlikely retreat route, which was the best answer he thought from the enemy's point of view.

But who would have thought that the crafty Dudley pound directly used the most naive retreat route to avoid his elaborate pursuit. After all the fleet advanced and sent out carrier based aircraft to search, lutjans found nothing. It happened that a German patrol plane reported what he wanted to know most about the situation ahead.

"We don't see any enemy fleet passing by. We don't even see any trace of it. There are very few British fleets passing by here, and if there are, we will find them easily The returning butcher plane reported what they had seen and heard, so lutjans knew that he had been cheated.

It is very difficult to find the enemy's fleet in a vast ocean, especially when lutjans did not dare to leave the Strait of gibraltarian too far. His other task is to blockade the channel and deal with the possible Italian fleet. So after he chose the wrong direction at first, he was doomed to lose the big fish of the allies.

He patted the chart table with his palm in chagrin, and then reluctantly gave the order to return to gibraltarian: "return! When you meet the Italian Navy, help me take a good breath! Damn it, who's in charge of this alliance warship team, not that old fox, Dudley pound? "

This time, the U.S. military has made a complete mess. In order to get rid of the slow transportation fleet as soon as possible, the fleet with tens of thousands of U.S. troops can only go all the way south along the coastline, and even refuse to go to their hometown. They have to be complemented in South Africa or South America, and then around a big circle.

However, the main force of the British fleet, which was relatively fast, was running towards the southwest. After they got rid of the German fleet, all of them really took a long breath. At least they were not completely annihilated by the German army at sea, and the fire was preserved after all.

There are more than 27o Sherman tanks in the transport fleet. Unfortunately, the number of US troops is not as large as it was originally planned. There are only about 40000 U.S. troops in the two divisions, including some necessary logistic support personnel and a Canadian Light Infantry Division, which adds up to just over 60000.

After careful consideration, the more than 60000 allied forces will eventually be sent to India, and then we will study whether these forces are going to the Middle East or to attack Japan in Southeast Asia. All in all, these poor wretches will be drifting on the sea for a long time, and can only rely on Africa's unreliable logistics to support them.

However, compared with Italy's current situation, their luck has been very good. Had it not been for the fact that the Germans were busy putting as much of Italy's legacy as possible into their own pockets, they would have pursued the Allied ocean fleet.

Just when general Dudley pound was sweating and the German Navy's carrier plane was flying under its tusks, the Italian Mediterranean main fleet was about to reach the Strait of gibraltarian. This fleet is not a patchwork of goods, but the real Italian Navy main fleet!

Because of various problems, the Roman battleship is now stationed in Alexandria, so it is not in this fleet, but the rest of the Italian battleships have been pulled out. Including the Veneto, who had been a partner with the German army, and the gaffer.

Only four battleships were launched by the Italians, which was much worse than the situation when they supported the German army. If you add the heavy cruiser, the Italians will have paid enough money this time, and it can be regarded as a real war of letting go.

If we take into account the fact that the heavy guns on the German fort of gibraltarian all point to the direction of blockade of the Strait, if the Italian Navy comes near and pounces with heavy guns, it can really cause great trouble to the Germans. At least after two rounds of shelling, it is a question whether the German army can turn its muzzle to fight back.

Inside the turret of the Italian Navy battleship Veneto, several loaders were looking at their gunners with strange eyes. They had just received an order to load the shells, and then they were ordered to point their guns at the fort of gibraltarian. This order was too strange for them, so the atmosphere in the whole turret suddenly became heavy.

"Are you kidding? Bombardment of Fort gibraltarian? That's the German garrison! If we fire now, aren't we attacking our allies? " An Italian soldier, already in a life jacket, looks at his officer and then at the cannons that have been loaded with shells.

"That's right. This time we went out to sea, we had no idea. At that time, I thought we were going to the Suez Canal to bombard the allies. Now let's bombard the fort of gibraltarian. Isn't the Admiral crazy?" Another soldier complained reluctantly. It's not that he didn't want to carry out the order of shelling, but that the order was too weird.

The officer in charge of the project also had a helpless face. When he received the order, he had the same idea. Moreover, he thought further than his subordinates. His family was in northern Italy. If the Germans started attacking Italy in a rage, wouldn't his hometown become a war zone?

"I said, no, the cannons of No.1 turret didn't ring." a slightly clever soldier responded. At this time, everyone showed up and gave the order for a long time. However, another turret they were close to on this warship didn't fire. The order was cancelled! I'm the vice captain! Now I take over the captain's command. He's crazy! He wants to die, but we don't want to be buried with him! " In the communication channel, the voice of the vice captain came: "cancel the order to fire! My God! German planes The order to fire was not carried out by the Italians, and even some warships were not loaded at all. After seeing the German planes appear over the fleet, all the Italian Navy warships are flying white flags. Unfortunately, the German army did not cancel the bombing, but dropped a bomb on the Italian warship which did not fire at all. Unfortunately, the old battleship Caesar's chimneys were half blown away. It was only German that saw the white sheets and flags hanging all over the ship. The Italians did not get angry because of the bombing. Instead, they sent telegrams over and over again, asking the German troops to board the warship“ Come on! Send the message again! My God! I saw the Caesar hit! These idiots! Don't you see our white flag? Damn it The current fleet commander, the vice captain of the Veneto battleship, looked at the captain who had been tied to the chair and said, "it's all you bastard! Mussolini made a fool of himself“ It's too late! It's all over! The Germans will sink you. If you fight back, there is still a chance of winning! " Mussolini's confidant, who was tied to the chair, cried out. There was a little pride in his eyes, because he felt that his mission should have been completed. At least the Germans are attacking the fleet now. In a short time, in order to protect themselves, the Italian fleet will also fire back. In this way, the whole situation will be out of control. Unfortunately, at this time, the German voice appeared on the radio, they asked the whole fleet to leave immediately, return to the port in southern Italy, and then surrender to marshal Garibaldi who was waiting for them there. This requirement made the whole fleet feel relieved that they did not have to surrender to the German army in humiliation, and they did not have to hand over the warships of their motherland to the German army. It was a good deal anyway, so the Italian fleet began to turn without a minute's delay. After all, lutjans failed to annihilate any fleet in gibraltarian. Because he went in the wrong direction, he eventually led to a sea battle and turned into a multinational naval parade. The navies of Britain, the United States, Germany and Italy almost launched the largest naval battle in human history here, but only dropped one bomb and it ended hastily. The Italian fleet, which did not carry out Mussolini's crazy decision, then returned to the southern Italian seaport, where it was accepted by Garibaldi. The two latest battleships were directly allocated to the German Navy to form a new Mediterranean axis joint fleet, which is responsible for the axis naval operations in the whole Mediterranean Theater. Most of the rest of the warships eventually belonged to this fleet. The difference is that about 10000 German navies stationed in these warships completely controlled the Italian sea power. Mussolini's influence on the Italian fleet was completely eliminated, and a new axis power at sea was controlled by the German army. If you add in a few French naval warships, the maritime forces of the axis powers seem to have passed the hostile Atlantic Fleet of the allies. Without considering the difficulty of command, it may even change the offensive and defensive situation in the Atlantic Ocean. And there is good news enough to make the axis excited. As long as Libya's oil production starts to rise, the problem of oil shortage that has plagued the axis countries will be greatly alleviated. Those terrible butcher bombers and these fuel consuming warships can finally go out without fear【 For the latest update address of this book, please visit yunlai.com to get the latest chapters of this book//