On December 9, 1940, the British army launched a counterattack code-named "Operation Compass" in North Africa.

The British counterattack was initiated in the early morning of the morning of the 9th. In fact, the victory and defeat were basically decided by the early morning of the 9th. A brigade of the 7th Armored Division of the British defeated the Italian armored forces, the Maletti battle cluster. However, Marshal Hessman, who was far away in Toxson, theoretically did not know the result of the battle. At this time, he had just gotten up and was having breakfast with his wife Chloe, a few young children, and his eldest son Rudolph Hessman, who was on vacation.

Chloe prepared breakfast personally, fried sausages and fried eggs with bread, and a cup of coffee. When Hessman was halfway through, his adjutant Schnez brought him the latest Italian 10th Army, which was built on the Egyptian front. This was what Hessman ordered Schnez to get after he learned that the British army had started attacking last night.

Hessman did not take the preparation table into his hands, but just said one word. "Read."

"His marshal, according to the situation at the Southern Line Headquarters, the Italian 10th Army currently has four armies and one army cluster. Among them, the 20th Army is under the jurisdiction of the 21st Army of the 60th Infantry Division, the 21st Army of the 60th Infantry Division, the 22nd Army of the 63rd Infantry Division, the 4th Blackshirt Division, the 61st Infantry Division, the 64th Infantry Division, the 1st, the 2nd Libyan Colonial Division and the Maletti Combat Cluster. The total strength of the Italian army is about 150,000, of which the Maletti Combat Cluster is a mechanized unit with 70 tanks."

"There are 150,000 people," Hessman asked again, chewing a piece of pork sausage, "So how many enemies are there?"

"The 7th Armored Division of the United Kingdom and the 4th Indian Division," Schnez said. "The 6th Australian Division arrived in Egypt in November, but there is information that they are still in Alexandria."

"The two divisions have launched an attack on 10 divisions, it's amazing." Hessman picked up the coffee cup, took a sip, and then looked at his eldest son, Rudolph, who had just been promoted to lieutenant and also became the squadron leader.

"Rudolph, it seems that your vacation is about to end early."

"End early?" Chloe frowned slightly when he heard this, "Dear, the situation is not that serious, right? There are 150,000 Italians!"

She didn't feel sorry for her son. As a German noble woman with 18 generations of ancestors, she was a knight and officer, Chloe knew very well what kind of life her husband and son would have.

But these days she was busy with her son's lifelong affairs. Rudolph was the heir to the Marquis of Heinsberg. According to the inheritance rules of European aristocrats, a woman from a noble family must be chosen as her wife. If she intermarries with the common people, Rudolph will lose the right to inheritance, but a young and beautiful and noble lady is not easy to find. Moreover, Rudolph and the other party can meet each other, so Chloe took advantage of his son's vacation to arrange for him to attend several dance parties in the noble family, but now there seems to be no result.

Hessman smiled apologetically at his wife and said, "Although we have several times the advantage in military strength, our Italian friends will still mess up the matter. I think they are likely to be defeated now."

"Father, I've only been fighting for a few hours now?" Rudolph interrupted while eating a poached egg.

"Hours are enough to win a defeat, and the Italians are very efficient in this regard," said Hessman. "Then it's time for us Germans to go! Rudolph, this war depends on you and your people. You are now real carrier-based pilots. Are you ready?"

"Of course I'm ready!" Rudolph answered very affirmatively, "I was originally a pilot on the aircraft carrier, and now I've just answered the original position."

Lieutenant Rudolph Hessman and his team members have finally boarded the aircraft carrier again. The fighter squadron led by Rudolph was incorporated into the 9th Hybrid Team of HNA in August.

The so-called "HNA Hybrid Brigade" is a carrier-based aircraft unit on an aircraft carrier. Before August, the German Navy had only eight mixed brigades. The 1st mixed brigade belonged to the USS Seedlitz, the 2nd mixed brigade belonged to the aircraft carrier "Secette", the 3rd mixed brigade belonged to the aircraft carrier "Earl Zeppelin", the 4th mixed brigade belonged to the Zeppelin II, the 5th mixed brigade belonged to the USS Bremen, the 6th mixed brigade belonged to the USS Europa, the 7th mixed brigade belonged to the USS Potsdam, and the 8th mixed brigade belonged to the USS Alsace. All one mixed brigade corresponds to one aircraft carrier.

Among them, the 1st and 2nd Mixed Brigades have been launched on the ship to undertake combat missions. Rudolph Hessman and his good friend Novotney were originally fighter pilots of the 2nd Mixed Brigades. The 3rd to 8th Mixed Brigades are still in training and have not yet formed combat effectiveness.

As for the 9th Mixed Brigade, it is a temporary unit, and the aircraft carrier is Italy's "Eagle" aircraft carrier. In addition, there is also a 10th Mixed Brigade, which was also formed in August, and the brigade corresponds to the Italian "Seed Eagle" aircraft carrier.

The reason for this is that during the battles on July 8, 9 and 10, the Italian Navy's carrier-based aircraft pilots were completely lost, and the 50 was proved to be completely useless. As a last resort, Germany could only send carrier-based aircraft pilots to the ship. The Italian Air Force had no carrier-based aircraft pilots, and was unwilling to accept the command of the navy.

In addition, the carrier-based aircraft on the two Italian aircraft carriers were replaced by the German Folk Zero and Folk 99, each with two squadrons, a total of 48 ship-based aircraft, and 45 reserve aircraft.

Rudolf Hesman and Walter Nowotney were born as carrier-based pilots and had very good results. Hesman had already shot down 5 aircraft, while Novotney shot down 8 enemy aircraft, so he became the squadron leader of the 1st and 2nd Fighter Squadrons under the 9th Mixed Brigade.

Looking at his confident son, Hessman smiled and nodded. In his plan, the focus of the Mediterranean battlefield was not North Africa, but on the sea in the Eastern Mediterranean!

Only when a naval battle achieves a decisive victory can a truly decisive victory be achieved on land.

General Halde, commander-in-chief of the German southern line, rushed to the Venetian Palace at around 10 a.m. on December 9. Mussolini's secretary called him. Halde had known that the British army had launched a counterattack on the Egyptian front and guessed that the situation was not very good. This was something anyone could guess!

Since the Italian army in East Africa occupied British Somalia in August, Hald has never heard of the Italian army winning the battle. First, it had a large army of 290,000 troops, including 90,000 Italians and 200,000 black sorghum were defeated in Sudan, and was blocked by the Indian 5th Division, which was far less than their number.

Then there was a strange pause in the attack on Egypt. More than 100,000 troops advanced for only three days and stationed in the desert of Egypt without being strongly blocked by the British army. It was incredible to Halde! Because the British were very close to their supply port and were very easy to obtain reinforcement supplies. The Italians' supply port was far away in Benghazi, nearly 1,000 kilometers away from the front line. Moreover, the number of Italians was several times higher than that of the British. There were more than 100,000 people and 1,000 kilometers of land supply line, which was completely unimaginable. Therefore, when the Italians stopped in September, they immediately made suggestions: either attack immediately or withdraw to Libya.

The Italian General Staff's disposal shocked him even more. He ignored the army in the desert. Instead, he sent troops to invade Greece when the logistics supply was already very tight. Therefore, he had to misappropriate supplies that originally supplied North Africa.

As a result, more than 100,000 Italian troops in the North African desert confronted the enemy for more than two months, eroding their sharpness and physical strength. The invasion of Greece turned into a complete disaster!

This morning, Halder knew that the British army had launched a counterattack in Egypt, and immediately estimated that the Italians would defeat the war again. But when he saw a "Caesar" who looked like an ant on a hot pan, he knew that the situation might be worse than he thought.

"General," Mussolini, whose eyes were red, seemed to have not been sleeping all night, immediately said, "Marson Graziani reported that our army in Egypt is facing a fierce attack that has never been seen in history!"

Halde was almost amused by Mussolini's words. Could the British offensive launched in Egypt be compared with Germany's attack on France and Belgium?

Then Mussolini told Hald a speechless news, "The British have attacked the West Demalani, which is actually near the 4th Division of India, and our defense line is about to be broken. Our armored cluster was also defeated. The British tanks were too powerful. Our tanks were no match for them at all. General Maletti's commander of the Marshal Maletti's cluster was killed and the entire cluster was defeated. Now our flanks were completely exposed. Marshal Graziani requested to retreat. General, what should you do? Should we retreat?"
Chapter completed!