Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Hero of 1911

Text Chapter 1045 The asking price after the fiasco

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    This meeting cannot be held!  Even if we don¡¯t talk about Turkey and Egypt, just looking at the geographical location of Crete, we can see that if the German army controls the island, it will be equivalent to creating a safe navigation area between Malta and Crete.  You know, the reason why Britain and the United States are not afraid of a war of attrition in North Africa is because they still control sea power in the Mediterranean.  After Taranto, the Italian fleet basically lost its ability to sail, and Alexandria and Gibraltar could effectively flank the Malta route.

    The war is all about logistics, and Germany and Italy have limited air transport capabilities.  In fact, so far, only Yang Qiu had developed four-engine heavy transport aircraft under the guise of developing the aviation industry before the war, so he was able to produce hundreds or even thousands of long-range transport aircraft in the Persian Gulf campaign.  Even the United States does not mainly use twin-engine C47.  According to the naval strength of Germany and Italy in the Mediterranean, the North African Army can only maintain about 5 armored divisions and 500,000 land troops. However, if there is a safe sea channel, the Italian fleet in the Adriatic Sea can easily support it.  Logistics for 10 to 15 armored divisions.

    my God!

    Rommel¡¯s three armored divisions suppressed the British and Americans in Algiers and Tobruk. If there were 15 just retreat.  "We must hold Crete! Every hour of fighting is absolutely necessary for this war!" Churchill hurried back to the station and appointed the New Zealand Division Commander Fryber, who had participated in the European War and won the Victoria Cross.  As the commander of the garrison, Cunningham also asked Cunningham to gather all warships in the Eastern Mediterranean to reinforce Crete.  Roosevelt also lost his composure because his situation was worse.  He believed that if the Eastern Mediterranean was lost, Churchill would definitely sell the United States.

    You must know that both China and the United States have huge strategic room for maneuver, but Britain alone will die!  Or live!  So to win.  Churchill, an old fox, will definitely agree to all Yang Qiu's conditions, and it is even possible to give the entire Pacific to China.  Once this happens, the United States will inevitably fall into isolation.  All this time, he has been able to give Yang Qiu eye drops repeatedly because of the support of Britain. If Churchill no longer supports him, the United States, which has been involved in the war, will not even be able to withdraw.

    The sudden Battle of Crete became Roosevelt's Achilles' heel.  Under his instructions, Eisenhower, North African Theater Commander Joseph McNerney, and Kimmel took action immediately.  First, let the battleships New York and Texas stationed in Alexandria join Cunningham's fleet.  At the same time, let the Army Air Forces stationed in Cyprus and Egypt regain air supremacy.  With the determination of him and Churchill, at ten o'clock that morning, Cunningham led dozens of warships, including the battleship Malaya, the battleship Avenger, 6 cruisers, and 2 American battleships, in a mighty killing spree.  Toward Crete.  At the same time, a fleet of 770 P40s, F4Fs, Hurricanes, H-6s (early models sold by China to the UK) and B17s also rushed to Cyprus from Egypt and other places to provide protection for the Cretan Army and the British and American Mediterranean Fleets.

    In the early morning of September 5, Stuart once again dispatched 147 BF109Cs and 128 JU87s to protect 150 JU52s and gliders and send the remaining troops of the 7th Airborne Division to the island.  Just as the fleet returned, it encountered a group of British and American fighter jets.  There are more than 300 fighter planes on both sides.  A fierce air battle broke out over the island.  Since the Allied forces in North Africa lacked excellent air superiority fighters such as the "Spitfire" and "Thunderbolt", and the US military pilots lacked experience (the US Army Air Forces stationed in North Africa at that time were basically rookies), in the end the German army lost 27 BF109Cs and shot down 66.  British and American fighter jets and 6 b17 records.  Continue to firmly control the air.  Under their protection, JU52 made a total of 1,400 takeoffs and landings that day, and all the 7th Airborne Division landed on the island.

    Facing the precarious ground war, Britain and the United States dare not give up any hope.  So the next day, fighter jets were sent again to compete for air supremacy. In the end, a total of 517 sorties were dispatched throughout the day.  The German army was also not to be outdone. The 8th Air Force alone dispatched more than 180 BF109Cs.  Even the 52 fw190s of the 11th Air Force as a reserve also participated in the air battle.  The battle was very fierce. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the United Kingdom and the United States had lost 133 fighter jets, 31 reconnaissance aircraft, and 45 bombers, and the Germans also paid the price of 63 shot down.  The serious air losses made the German army panic. With no aircraft available in the Balkans, General Lohr of the 4th Air Force immediately contacted the Italian Air Force in Albania and asked them to send fighter jets to support.

    The battle in the air is not over yet, and Britain and the United States have also suffered heavy losses on the sea.  Although Cunningham and Mountbatten sent a large amount of supplies and ammunition to the troops on the island, facing two German aviation forces with a total of 1,500 aircraft, the disadvantage of lack of air superiority was completely exposed.  While blocking the landing of German motorboats, the American battleships New York and Texas were successively damaged by J87 Stukas and had to return home early for overhaul.  The next day, the Luftwaffe sank two British cruisers and two British and American destroyers in one go. It also violently bombed the seaport facilities on Crete in an attempt to cut off land and sea connections.

    Faced with the unfavorable sea and air situation, Major General FreibergVery anxious.  So they immediately corrected their tactics and adopted the method of defending during the day and concentrating superior forces to attack only one area at night, preparing to take back the airport by relying on the numerical advantage and the difficulty of the Luftwaffe dispatching at night.  Under his command, the Allied forces finally recaptured the Iraclin Airport at three o'clock in the morning on September 6, but three entire regiments were surrounded and annihilated by the Germans.

    After hearing the news, Stuart realized something was wrong, so he immediately asked the Southeast Fleet to set off and escort 8,000 mountain soldiers and heavy equipment to the island.  The German Southeast Fleet is a patchwork fleet with a total of 70 ships and about 200 motorboats. The main combat power is 1 heavy cruiser, 4 destroyers provided by Italy and 2 captured Greek destroyers.  As for motorboats, they cannot carry heavy equipment. The real core of transportation is to imitate China's 33 personnel and vehicle landing craft.  But the German army was also very confused. First, the landing craft needed to be transported to Greece by rail. However, because the railway line was blown up during transportation, only 23 ships arrived.  Moreover, the German logistics department put diesel on the last train, so that the landing craft had not yet been refueled when setting off.

    Until eight o'clock in the evening, Stuart did not wait for diesel and had to let the fleet and motor boats set off, which meant that 7,000 mountain soldiers would land during the day.  At nine o'clock in the morning on September 7, the Southeast Fleet arrived off the coast of Crete.  When they were about to land, they were ambushed by Mountbatten.  A total of 48 ships and motorboats were sunk, and 2,300 mountain soldiers died.  But Mountbatten was not much better. ju87 Stuka told him a truth: never expose the fleet without air superiority.  At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 112 JU87s sent by Stuart discovered Mountbatten's roundabout. Although the British Air Force and Army Aviation tried their best, the battleship Malaya was still seriously damaged by 4 bombs, and another heavy cruiser was lost.  8 ships in it.  In just three days, the British and American Mediterranean fleets lost 3 battleships, 4 cruisers, 5 destroyers, 2 gunboats and 3 submarines, 9 of which were sunk!  Cunningham couldn't hold on anymore.  You must know that there are only 4 battleships and 7 cruisers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Now there is only 1 battleship and 3 cruisers available. If the battle continues, the entire army will be annihilated sooner or later, so he had no choice but to send a telegram to Churchill to request the Chinese Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet and Air Force.  support.

    Yang Qiu did not refuse. The problem is that the Third Fleet (known externally as the Indian Ocean Fleet) is preparing to attack Malacca and Myanmar at the critical moment. Most of the ships are on standby in Chagos. Even if they rush there, it will take six days.  The air force stationed in the Persian Gulf has also transferred many of them to India, and in the end they could only scrape together 32 Thunderbolts and 6 destroyers and frigates to rush to Cyprus.  But it was too late.  23 landing craft and 17 Panzer IV tanks, which had set off five hours late by accident, had already washed up on the shoals of Crete.

    The German Navy originally did not have a dedicated landing craft. It was not until China used a landing craft to force a crossing of Lake Balkhash that Hitler became interested.  So he found Hakan and built three tank landing ships equivalent to the Tianshan class and more than a hundred medium-sized landing craft when preparing for the Sea Lion project.  G?ring almost destroyed the Luftwaffe's fortune in the English Channel, and trouble broke out in Spain, so Hitler had to postpone the Sea Lion project indefinitely.  So these warships have been parked in Kiel Port and rusted, and they didn't think of it until they were about to land on Crete this time.  There are only 17 Panzer IV tanks. If you put them elsewhere, you won¡¯t even get bubbles.  However, the Allied forces on Crete had lost all their heavy equipment in Greece, and the fleet that detoured to South Africa had not arrived, so there were only four Crusader I-type cruise tanks on the island.  Facing the German tanks that possessed both quantity and quality, the four Crusaders were quickly wiped out.  In the evening, the German Southeast Fleet made a comeback. This time they towed three large barges filled with tanks and 88-guns, and transported 28 tanks, 12 88-guns, and 3,500 mountain infantry to the island in one go.

    The balance of victory quickly tipped toward the Germans. Seeing that defeat was certain, Freiberg had no choice but to propose a retreat to preserve his strength.  But Churchill still refused to admit defeat and refused the request to retreat!  This stubbornness ruined the troops. On the fifth day of the war, the total number of German troops on the island had increased to 35,000, and 2,500 Italian paratroopers also arrived soon after.

    Freiberg knew that Crete could no longer be defended. Faced with Churchill's toughness, he had no choice but to seek help from Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Theater.  Wavell dared to be too much. He knew that Freiberg was at the end of his rope, otherwise he would not directly seek help from him. Therefore, regardless of Churchill's random command, he immediately asked Cunningham to mobilize all forces to help the troops on the island retreat.  It was not until the morning of September 10th that Churchill accepted the reality of defeat and ordered a retreat after learning that the Germans had occupied the important Souda Bay in the south.

    But it was too late. Except for the 11,000 soldiers who had withdrawn early from Freiberg, the remaining soldiers surrendered because their retreat was cut off.

    In just five days and five nights of fighting, both sides paid a heavy price.  The British and American coalition forces lost a total of 17 ships, 371 aircraft, more than 6,000 people died in battle, and 30,000 soldiers were captured.  Germany also lost 232 aircraft, 39 ships, and suffered more than 5,600 casualties.  Although the cost was not small, Hitler was overjoyed and immediately ordered all the landing craft at Kiel Port to be sent to Greece to prepare the Balkan garrison for landing on Cyprus.The preparations of Russia and Tš¹rkiye were made, and G?ring immediately strengthened the Cretan air force.  In the end, he accepted Hakan and Redl's suggestions and used domestic production and final assembly at the Adria Shipyard in Italy to build 60 submarines and 20 destroyers for deployment in the Mediterranean.

    "When you meet with the British Foreign Secretary Halifax tonight, you might as well reveal a little bit about our preparations to establish an Asia-Europe isolation zone." Taking the battle report from the front, Yang Qiu knew that the time was ripe, so he immediately called Murong  Han discussed.  "President, do you want Churchill to come forward?" Murong Han had been in the political arena for decades, so he could naturally guess what Yang Qiu was thinking.  Now China and the United States are in a stalemate, refusing to give in to each other, and negotiations are unsustainable. The only way to open the gap is to ask Churchill to step forward.

    Yang Qiu nodded, his eyes shining: "Tell him that China will not border Europe in the future. I can guarantee that all our troops will withdraw from India after the war, and I can also guarantee not to push for territorial referendums in Singapore and Borneo. But you  I want to tell him that we have sacrificed such great interests and of course we should receive some compensation. So I need him to support me, recognize that the Pacific islands controlled by our country are under our trusteeship, incorporate the Anambas Islands into our country¡¯s Natuna City, and then add the Anambas Islands to our country¡¯s Natuna City.  Christmas Island and Coco Islands were sold to our country. Support the independent establishment of independent states in Indonesia and the various ethnic groups in the Southwest Pacific that we promote, support us in referring to the Djibouti model, and integrate the Riau Province and Linga Islands in Sumatra, and the Dahlak Island and Dakhlak Islands off the coast of Eritrea.  The Gulf of Arafali will be independently built to build a military port, and finally we will support our country in hosting the Andaman Islands to ensure our country¡¯s long-term interests in the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and other places".
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report