The French army has always had a tradition of riots. The commander-in-chief was put on the fire every minute, which is a very dangerous position.
Giraud originally parachuted into the Free French Army and had no foundation in the Free French Army. Now he has offended a large number of French generals. Why would Giraud be so anxious? If he doesn't make some achievements, de Gaulle will not have to say anything.
The generals of the Free French Army will directly evacuate the Giraud.
It was precisely because Roosevelt was worried about Giraud's control over the Free French Army that he took the initiative to approach Winston and requested that the British army also participate in the Allied operations in Sicily.
Winston was unhappy because of the independent attack in Greece in southern Africa. Roosevelt's invitation came at the right time, and the two hit it off.
So Giraud was tragic.
Although Free France has two "Richelieu" ships, Britain has a more powerful Mediterranean fleet, which can provide better fire cover and logistical support for the landing Allied forces.
The Eighth Army led by Montgomery had just won the North African Campaign and was in high morale.
Patton's rectification of the US military has also been completed. No one expected that what American soldiers were most worried about was not squatting in a dark room, but being fined.
When Patton took over the Second Army, it suffered heavy losses and low morale. Some people were lying in the hospital pretending to be ill, some applied to return home to visit relatives, and some American soldiers even refused to carry out orders from their superiors and preferred to go to court-martial.
Patton was furious because of this. He used many methods to rectify military discipline in the US military, and finally found that fines were the most effective.
Beware, in 1943, the monthly salary of American recruits was only about $50.
Patton fined officers and soldiers who made mistakes $25 each time, equivalent to half a month's salary of a new recruit.
The United States is indeed money-oriented. Patton found the Achilles' heel of the American soldiers, and the military discipline of the Second Army improved rapidly.
With the participation of the British Eighth Army, the victory rate was greatly improved. Roosevelt and Winston's requirements for the campaign were also constantly increasing. Initially, they only hoped to land in Sicily and open up the third battlefield in Europe. Within just one month, the campaign was completed.
The goal was adjusted from occupying the entire island of Sicily to defeating Italy and forcing Italy to withdraw from the war.
This made the operational staff who made the plan very busy.
In February, long before the Casablanca Conference, the US military staff formulated a combat plan code-named "Wineglass."
During the Casablanca Conference, the "Wineglass" plan was canceled because Roosevelt's demands were not fully met.
Then Giraud and Roosevelt reached an agreement, and the U.S. military staff formulated a new plan, codenamed "Knocking the Board."
Before the "knock-on-the-board" plan could be perfected, the British Eighth Army joined.
So the plan changed again, this time it was a "musket".
This is not the end yet. With the continued recommendation of the southern African army in Greece, the plan for the US military to participate in the war continues to be modified.
"Sedition", "Brimstone", "Pillar", "Giant 1", "Giant 2". By March 11, the Fifth Army of Southern Africa dispatched paratroopers to successfully implement an airborne landing at Thermopylae in Greece. Roosevelt once again asked the staff to
Revise the battle plan.
The southern African paratroopers raided Thermopylae, completely cutting off the retreat of the Italian defenders in southern Greece. 45,000 Italian troops surrendered. So far, more than 100,000 of the 120,000 Italian defenders in Greece have been wiped out, leaving only two in the northern mountains.
There are three infantry divisions, and they are not even full of troops.
The United States and the United Kingdom also have paratroopers, but in previous plans, no paratroopers participated.
This goes back to the Battle of Crete, when the German army used paratroopers to land on a large scale, resulting in heavy losses. Since then, countries have been very cautious about the use of paratroopers.
Since the end of the Brazilian Civil War, the United States has regarded southern Africa as its biggest opponent.
What southern Africa does not have, the United States must have.
What southern Africa can do, the United States must do better.
So when the southern African paratroopers showed off their skills in Greece, how could the American paratroopers not go to war?
So the US military staff revised the plan again, not only sending paratroopers to fight, but also the main force.
This of course has a lot to do with the situation in Sicily.
Since two years ago, the Italian army has had problems with its oil supply. Due to the lack of oil, the navy's combat effectiveness has been greatly affected, and it is unable to protect Italy's coastline.
The Italians had no choice but to lay mines intensively at major ports. If they sent troop transports to carry out landing operations, it was expected that there would be heavy casualties, so paratrooper airdrops became the best option.
This is already the ninth version of the combat plan made by the US military staff, code-named "Avalanche."
What brought tears to the eyes of the US military staff was that the "Avalanche" plan was finally recognized by the campaign command.
It is worth mentioning that, in order to better coordinate operations, the British and American troops bypassed the Allied North Africa Command and established a joint campaign command. The commander-in-chief, Eisenhower, and the deputy commanders were the British Alexander and Free Law respectively.
Giro of the Army.
It was already late April, and the Casablanca Conference had long ended. The Fifth Army commanded by Arthur had recovered all of Greece and liberated Albania. In nearly two months of fighting, the Italian army lost about 200,000 people.
, 350 tanks, 1,200 artillery pieces, nearly 3,000 trucks, and a large number of other military supplies.
Compared with these, the more important significance of recovering Greece is the blow to the morale of the Axis powers. So far, Italy has lost the territories of other countries it has occupied since the outbreak of the war. Southern Africa has firmly smashed a nail into the Balkan Peninsula through Greece, which has a strong impact on the morale of the Axis powers.
The Axis countries formed a strong deterrent and strongly supported the Russian battlefield.
The Casablanca Conference was still fruitful. All countries unified their thinking and determined that the war would end with the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy, and Japan. At the same time, southern Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Free France promised to increase assistance to Russia through various means.
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After the liberation of Greece, the bearded man took the initiative to send congratulatory telegrams to all the leaders of the allied countries for the first time.
The telegram to Rock was somewhat sincere.
The telegrams to Roosevelt, Winston, and de Gaulle were even more humiliating.
Now Southern Africa has delivered on its promise.
Next it was the turn of Britain and the United States, as well as Free France.
Only then did Giraud find out with embarrassment that paratroopers played the leading role in the "Avalanche" plan.
The Free French Army had no paratroopers.
Fortunately, there is a glider.
In 1943, paratroopers carried out airborne landings by parachuting or by riding a glider. The glider needed to be towed by a transport aircraft. When the transport aircraft towed the glider to fly over the target, the glider, which had no power of its own, would use the air to
The buoyancy and inertia complete the landing.
To put it bluntly, whether you can successfully land in a glider depends largely on luck.
The trouble doesn't stop there.
In the "Avalanche" plan, a total of about 150,000 troops participated. Although the total number was not large, they came from the United States, Britain and Free France. Coordination was a big problem.
Patton, the commander of the American army, had conflicts with Montgomery, the commander of the British army. At the same time, they both looked down upon Giraud, who had been captured by the Germans in the Battle of France.
It is normal for the British to look down on the French.
Why do Americans look down on the French?
There are still signs on the doors of restaurants in Paris that say "Americans and dogs are not allowed".
The conflict between Patton and Montgomery mainly stemmed from the North African campaign that had just ended.
The U.S. Second Army suffered heavy losses in the North African Campaign. Although the commander of the Second Army at the time was not Patton, this was enough to make Montgomery arrogant in front of Patton.
What's the matter, no matter how strong the industrial strength of the United States is, we still have to rely on the British to win.
And can the industrial capacity of the United States be any stronger than that of southern Africa?
Stop saying anything, Americans are all scum.
In the "Avalanche" plan, the Eighth Army led by Montgomery was the main force.
The American troops led by Patton and the Free French Army led by Giraud acted as auxiliaries to cooperate with the British army.
Patton was very dissatisfied with this.
However, the wily Eisenhower agreed with Montgomery's request.
The U.S. military came from afar and fell into disarray for the first time they participated in the war.
This time they are crossing the Mediterranean again and fighting on the Italian mainland. The US military is not familiar with the situation in Sicily. It has not yet investigated how many Italian troops are stationed in Sicily. The weather, hydrology, and terrain are not well understood, and the German army can send reinforcements at any time.
, these are all hidden dangers.
Since Montgomery was willing to show off, Eisenhower was eager for the British army to take the lead.
Patton was not stupid either. Montgomery was willing to be the vanguard, and Patton was happy to take advantage of the situation behind him. The fact that the Italian army in North Africa was weak and incompetent did not mean that the Italian army had no will when fighting on its homeland.
In short, amid all the turmoil, on May 7, the British, American, and French coalition forces officially launched the landing operation on Sicily.
At this time, two full months had passed since Roosevelt issued the combat order.
In the early morning of May 7, a large combined fleet including two "Richelieu" launched a fierce bombardment on Pantelleria Island between Sicily and Tunisia.
The combined fleet consists of a total of 117 battleships, including 8 battleships and three aircraft carriers. Its combat effectiveness is second to none in the Mediterranean.
The Italian navy did not dare to go to war at all and allowed the combined fleet to bombard Pantelleria indiscriminately.
The shelling lasted for three hours.
When the bombardment stopped, the entire Pantelleria Island was shrouded in smoke, and the combined fleet used a total of 15,000 tons of artillery shells and bombs.
Pantelleria covers an area of 83 square kilometers, and an average of 180 tons of bombs were dropped per square kilometer.
After razing Pantelleria to the ground, the Combined Fleet continued to advance north. The British Eighth Army landed in eastern Sicily from Passino to Syracuse as planned, occupied the area, and headed towards Catania.
and Messina launched an attack.
To Patton's relief, the landing of the British Eighth Army was met with tenacious sniping by the Italian defenders. The landing did not go smoothly. The beachhead was not successfully established for a whole day. The heavy cruiser "Bullwell" of the British Mediterranean Fleet
It was also secretly attacked and sunk by an Italian Navy submarine. In addition, the transport ship "Benjamin" and two other destroyers hit mines and sank.
The battle was not going well, and Montgomery became furious. The 1st Airborne Brigade of the British 1st Airborne Division, nicknamed the "Red Devil", quickly dispatched a total of 2,500 officers and soldiers on gliders towed by 137 C47 transport aircraft, preparing to attack the Pendergolan Bridge in eastern Sicily.
An airborne landing was carried out nearby.
This was the first time that the British 1st Airborne Division officially participated in the war.
As mentioned above, the British army was not familiar with the weather conditions in Sicily.
The first brigade encountered strong windy weather during its airborne landing.
The gliders, which had no power of their own and relied entirely on air buoyancy to glide, failed to reach their target successfully. 69 gliders crashed directly into the sea, killing 600 officers and soldiers.
The remaining gliders also failed to land accurately over the target, most of them seriously deviated from the target, and the paratroopers who successfully landed failed to assemble smoothly.
What no one expected was that accidents would happen one after another.
Just before the British 1st Airborne Division carried out the airborne landing, the German 7th Airborne Division, nicknamed the "Green Devil", had just arrived at the Pendegoland Bridge. They also failed to complete the assembly, and the British transport planes flew over the Pendegoland Bridge.
British transport planes look similar to bombers.
The Germans thought that British bombers had received accurate information and were going to carry out precision bombing against the German 7th Airborne Division.
Then something embarrassing happened.
Neither the British troops who landed nor the German troops who arrived before realized that the "friendly troops" around them were enemies.
Under a bridge tunnel, the German troops who arrived earlier thought that the British troops who arrived later were friendly troops, and took the initiative to make room for the British troops.
"Brother, lend me a fire——" A German paratrooper took the initiative to greet the British soldiers beside him.
"Wow, brother, your German is really good, are you German?" The British soldier took the initiative to take out his lighter.
"Otherwise, what do you think? Wow, brother, your lighter is so beautiful. Where did you get it?" The German paratrooper was very envious. A beautiful lighter is a rare trophy in the war.
"It was issued, you didn't?" The British soldier had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter.
"Is it issued? Which unit are you from?" The German paratrooper was confused and subconsciously held the dagger at his waist.
"First Parachute Division -" British soldiers are proud of themselves. As long as "No. 1" is displayed in any branch of the military, their status will always be very special.
The German paratrooper did not hesitate and stabbed him directly in the darkness.
"Mom Fuck, what the hell are you doing?" the injured British soldier wailed loudly.
"Brothers, they are damn British -" the German paratroopers howled and threw themselves at the next British soldier.
At this time, other German paratroopers and British soldiers woke up from a dream. In the darkness, there were killing sounds everywhere in the bridge cave. Curses, howls, and screams came one after another. A British soldier took out his pistol and fired continuously, and the gunfire was abnormal in the darkness.
Gorgeous, reflecting the ferocious, crazy, cruel, violent and bloody faces, like demons crawling out of hell, just like their nicknames, "Red Devil" and "Green Devil".
Germany does not have the organization "First Airborne Division".
After the Battle of Crete, the German 7th Airborne Division was reorganized into the Hunter Army. Although it was still called the Airborne Division, it was actually a standard infantry.
