At the end of December 194o, Marshal Hesman, Chief of Staff of the German Wehrmacht, temporarily handed over his powers in the General Staff to the new First Military Chief Guderian, and then went to Rome to serve as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean German-Italy League. {[([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([([

Because of the promotion of Schletcher and Hessman, Guderian obtained the rank of armored general in the major expansion before the war, which was a very high starting point. Therefore, after the Battle of Poland and the Battle of the Western Front, Guderian was promoted to the rank of marshal. In early December, he became the No. 2 figure of the General Staff of the General Staff.

Another reason why Hessman temporarily handed over the General Staff to Guderian was because he knew that Guderian was a general who dared to argue with his superiors, and he was in charge of the General Staff, which could ensure that the General Staff’s work was not interfered with by Hitler, an outsider.

At this time, the front headquarters under the leadership of the General Staff, in addition to the Mediterranean German-Italy Alliance Command, which was personally presided over by Hessman, also had the Western Front Headquarters responsible for the British local operations and the newly established Southeast Headquarters responsible for the Balkan battlefield, and the Eastern Front Headquarters used to defend the Soviet Union.

The commander-in-chief of the Western Front Headquarters is now served as Marshal Lundstead, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front is currently served as Marshal Brauchic, and the newly established Southeast Front headquarters is handed over to General Halde, who has been unable to open up in Italy.

The southern line headquarters, which Halder previously chaired, was upgraded to the Mediterranean German-Italian coalition headquarters. The first thing Hessman did when he arrived at the Roman Medici Villa (the southern line headquarters station) was to hand over the handover with the somewhat disgraceful General Halder.

"Franz, don't be so depressed," Hessman smiled and patted Halder on the shoulder. "You will have an unprecedented victory in the Balkans, and then you will also command the troops to the Middle East."

Hessmann is confident about Hald's victory in the Balkans.

"Marson," Halder said with a forced smile, "Of course, the Balkans are not a problem, but it is hard to say whether they can enter the Middle East."

"No, we will definitely achieve our strategic goals!" said Hessman, "because I will win in the Mediterranean."

"Marson, don't overestimate the Italians." Halde has now given up on the Italians. "The Italians are not the materials for military wars. I thought the fascist movement could change them, but now it seems completely wrong. These Italians are not only greedy for life and death, but also loose and do not do anything seriously. The most hateful thing is that the Italians like to lie to their own people too much. Mussolini, who is above the top, has no idea what was born below, because everyone does not tell the truth. Therefore, we cannot hold any hope for the Italian army. If conditions permit, I suggest that you use the German team as much as possible instead of the Italian army."

"But our surface fleet cannot enter the Mediterranean," said Hessman, shrugging, "so we still have to rely on the Italian fleet... Franz, how do you think the Italian navy is like? Are they stronger than their 6th Army?"

Halder thought for a while and nodded and said, "The Italian navy and air force are better than the 6th Army, which is certain. But they were not prepared when the war started, so they lost the opportunity to annihilate the British Mediterranean Fleet."

He told Hessman with great concern, "Now the British have strengthened the Mediterranean Fleet. According to the latest information, their Mediterranean Fleet has 8 battleships, 3 aircraft carriers and at least 7 heavy cruisers, and its strength has been greatly enhanced."

"This is a good thing," said Hessman. "The more the British lose in the Mediterranean, the less naval power they can use to defend their homeland in the future!"

Halder shook his head, "But Marshal, how do you do it? The Italian army is composed of liars and cowards, and there are only a very small number of people with noble character. It is very difficult to command them, and you are not an Italian soldier."

Hessman smiled, "This cannot pose a problem for me, because I am better at lying than Italians. They cannot deceive me, but I can deceive the Italians."

...

At the end of 194o, probably no one expected that he was praised by the soldiers of this era as "more outstanding than Moltke" by the German war god Hessman, who was actually a complete liar!

Since guiding the Russian August Revolution in 1918, most of the achievements Hessman has achieved were "deception". Without his help, the Russian Bolsheviks could also come to power, but in fact he did not play any role in the Russian Revolution. The action to recapture the Rhine Region was also risk-free, and Hitler could easily complete it, and the same was true for the subsequent annexation of Bohemia.

And in the Polish Battle and the Western Front where Hessman truly became a "God of War", he was also a liar who stole credit. He just signed his name on the foolproof combat plan prepared by others and said "start".

This Mediterranean Battle is the first time that the "German God of War" Hessman is truly commanding a battle.

And his military command art was first shown in deception... not to deceive Vervier and Cunningham, but also to deceive an honest fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.

"Actually, the situation in North Africa has not completely lost control. The failure of the Italian army is only temporary and the situation can be recovered. In fact, it is beneficial to us to hold a decisive battle in Benghazi area, because the supply port is right next to us, while the British dragged a 1ooo kilometers of logistics line. As long as we get reinforcements from the powerful German armored division, we can annihilate the main force of the British North African army in Benghazi, and then the road to Cairo and Alexandria will be unobstructed..."

In the Palace of Venice, Hessman, who once again saw Mussolini, pretended to be confident, patted his chest and made a promise, and then spoke up for power.

He said: "The key now is that you must fully trust me as the commander-in-chief, give real command and support me in forming a joint headquarters including the best Italian soldiers and Germans."

Mussolini was still a little skeptical when he heard the Haikou that Hesman boasted.

On the one hand, he was very excited about the combat effectiveness of the German armored division. Hessman promised Mussolini when he was Berchtesgaden that he would send two powerful armored divisions and one motorized infantry to form an African army to support Italian allies.

On the other hand, he also knew the strength of the British Navy. Benghazi is a little far from Sicily. If the British Mediterranean fleet is dispatched, it is entirely possible to cut off the traffic between Benghazi and Italy.

"Marson," Mussolini asked with a frown, "How are you going to deal with the British Mediterranean Fleet? It is stronger than the Italian Fleet..."

"The French Navy Volunteer will join us, and the French Richelieu and Jean Bar will be ready in January."

Hessman lied, although the Richelieu and Jean Barr were repaired and outfitted in January 1941. It is hard to say whether the French would let them join the German-Italy coalition, because these sloppy Frenchmen were not sure whether Germany would win.

"Really?" Mussolini is now like a man who fell into a river and was about to be drowned. He refused to let go when he caught a straw, let alone two battleships?

"The French are very smart and know that they should stand on the side of the winner." Hessman smiled. "As long as Germany and Italy can truly unite, and a large number of German 6th Army and air force enter the Mediterranean, and the German and Italian coalition forces win in the Balkans, France will definitely make the right choice."

Hessman continued to draw cakes. He knew that he had to fool Mussolini first if he wanted to defeat the Mediterranean.

He continued: "Even if the French don't want to join, we can win. Because the Luftwaffe and Naval Air Force are strong enough, they will deploy in Italy in large quantities." He paused, took a few photos from his adjutant Schnez and handed them to Mussolini.

Mussolini took the photo and looked at it. It was filled with planes, a type of plane that Mussolini had never seen before.

"This is an F-19O fighter," said Hessman. "This aircraft is equipped with a bm8o1d series air-cooled motor that can reach 2ooo horsepower. Its combat performance is far better than the Folk Zero, and its range is enough to cover from Sicily to Benghazi."

"2ooo horsepower?" Pricolo, chief of staff of the Italian Air Force who accompanied Mussolini to meet Hessman, said in surprise, "You actually have such a great power motive?"

"Admiral, this is actually not the air-cooling motivation for the maximum power in our hands." Hessman said with a smile, "BM8o1 is the dual-row 14-cylinder motivation. We also have the experimental dual-row 18-cylinder BM8o2 motivation, which can stably output high power of oo horsepower. If you want to study, I will immediately ask BM to send a few such motivations."

Hessmann's words are not entirely true. This high-power motivation of 2ooo horsepower must use high-quality aviation gasoline with an octane value of 1oo-1, and must also be temporarily achieved with a boost and injection (water and methanol) when it is turned on, otherwise it will only have 17o horsepower. The octane value of b4 gasoline extracted from coal in Germany is usually only 87. Only by reprocessing with high-quality fuel extracted from petroleum can it be obtained with a 1oo-1 octane value.

Due to the precious oil, this high-octane gasoline cannot be supplied openly, so most of the F-19o is equipped with the motivation of the BM8o1 series with a smaller horsepower (using gasoline with an octane value of 96), with only 16oo horsepower. The F-19o sent to the Mediterranean is also this model of the F-19o, and there are not many (the F-19o has just been put into production now, and there are not many in total). Compared with the latest model of Fire Spitfire, their performance does not have an overwhelming advantage.
Chapter completed!