As Reinhard's superficial brother, Mussolini finally fell ill.
Yes, I am angry.
When he returned to Italy, he first received the entire war compensation of 40 francs from Germany.
Then, Reinhard sent someone to notify Italy to go to Oran Port as soon as possible to claim the French abandoned ships.
In addition, after getting the news and knowing that they were about to be "claimed" by Italian troops, Congo and other colonies that tended to favor Free France quickly turned to Governor Bélante of Algeria, and they were considered to have joined Vichy France.
As a famous French anti-Italian hero, Berante used 5 divisions to counterattack 32 Italian divisions in the Alps, directly rejecting Italy's colonial claim to France.
Now Berante has more than 5 divisions under his command.
Not to mention that Vichy France had become a member of the Allies and was in the same camp as Italy.
If Mussolini didn't mind letting his generals challenge the famous French general Berante, he would certainly have the opportunity to send troops to "claim" him.
However, this time we can no longer send only a "measly" 32 divisions.
As for how many people to send, Mussolini himself could not say clearly.
Therefore, Mr. Leader, who was still looking happy when he got off the plane, was admitted to the most famous San Giovanni Hospital in urban Italy the next day for treatment.
According to insiders, Mussolini was so angry that his face was blue, and when he was sent to the hospital, he was so angry that he lost consciousness.
The next day, when Mussolini woke up, the first thing he did when he got up was to fight a battle that would impress the whole world and the Germans, and re-establish Italy and his personal prestige in the world.
After much deliberation, Mussolini identified this opponent as the former superpower and the British Empire that was now being pressed step by step by Germany.
"We can no longer just follow Germany and be a lackey." Although his lower body was still covered with the white quilt on the hospital bed, Mussolini did not behave like a patient now.
He said ambitiously: "There will no longer be a place for small countries in Europe tomorrow. Therefore, if the Kingdom of Italy wants to regain its right to speak in the international arena, it must launch a large-scale military operation that attracts the world's attention as soon as possible."
"
Everyone didn't understand whether Mussolini regained his consciousness after waking up, or whether he was even more stupid while sleeping?
What kind of tricks does he want to achieve in this huge military operation?!
However, before everyone could speak to dissuade, Mussolini went on his own and issued the first order when he woke up: "As a leader, I order you to quickly change the deployment of the Italian troops stationed in Libya.
The previous defensive posture has been changed to offensive. The British are nothing to worry about anymore, and now is the best time for us to eliminate them!"
"Balbo." Mussolini suddenly called out the name of his personal friend.
As the governor of Italy's Libyan colony, Italo Balbo spent seven years transforming Libya from a backward colony into a model for Italian provinces, known as Italy's fourth coast.
This time, Mussolini was so angry that Reinhardt was so angry that he was admitted to San Giovanni Hospital. Balbo also rushed back to Rome, the capital of Italy, from Libya overnight to see the leader.
But Balbo didn't expect that when he came back, he would be immediately embarked on such a big task.
"Leader, do you have any instructions?" Hearing Mussolini call his name, Balbo probably guessed that the Libyan army would probably let himself, the governor of Libya, command the attack on the British army.
So, he took advantage of the situation and took two steps forward, walking towards the bedside of the hospital bed where Mussolini was leaning.
"This decisive battle in North Africa will be left to you." Mussolini said to Balbo with unprecedented confidence: "Capture Egypt for me and seize control of the Suez Canal."
After saying that, Mussolini snorted coldly and said: "This time, I will not give the benefits of Suez to that bastard Reinhardt. When the time comes, he will beg me enough."
In fact, in order to dominate Africa and plunder the British colonies there, Mussolini assembled a large number of troops in Africa as early as the beginning of this year.
Land outside the homeland.
There was no reason why Mussolini was not confident this time. After all, Italy already had about 220,000 troops stationed along the coast of North Africa.
In Tripolitania, the Italian Army deployed 6 regular divisions and 2 militia divisions.
In Planiga, the Italian Army also deployed 2 regular divisions and 2 militia divisions.
In addition, Italy also has a large number of scattered border defense forces in North Africa, equivalent to about three divisions.
In other words, the total force Balbo could deploy in North Africa totaled 15 divisions.
But the British were different. According to the intelligence provided by Reinhardt's instructions to the German Gestapo, and verified by information from Italy's own intelligence department, the total number of British troops in Egypt was only about 50,000.
Among them were the entire strength of the British 7th Armored Division, two-thirds of the 4th Indian Division, one-third of the New Zealand Division, in addition to 14 British battalions and 2 Royal Artillery regiments.
In addition, the British troops to defend Egypt's western border and maintain Egypt's internal security will also be deployed among the above-mentioned troops.
Therefore, the British actually had less than 45,000 troops that could be mobilized in the North African battlefield, and could only rely on a small number of troops.
Moreover, the Italian Air Force has far more aircraft deployed in North Africa than the British Royal Air Force has in North Africa.
The situation of the British army in North Africa has become increasingly difficult. The threat from Kassala is extending to Kashangmu in the west, and panic pervades Kenya.
The British feared that the Italian expeditionary force would march 400 miles south from Abyssinia, towards the Tana River and Nairobi, and invade British Somalia.
However, all these worries are trivial compared with the Italian armed invasion of Egypt.
Obviously, as long as Churchill's intelligence department was not paralyzed, they would have discovered that Italy was preparing to invade Egypt on the largest scale.
Not long ago, Mussolini blatantly and continuously deployed troops to the east of Egypt and built a wide road along the coast, starting from the main Italian base in Tripoli, passing through Tripolitania and Cyrenaica to Egypt
's border.
The transportation of arms and supplies along this road has been very busy in recent months.
Moreover, along this road, Italy has slowly assembled and deployed an army of 70,000 to 80,000 people with some modern equipment at the end near the Egyptian border.
Mussolini thought that if his mighty army with modern equipment could continue to advance eastward, victory would definitely belong to Italy.
If it could gain access to the fertile areas of the delta, it would be a sure bet to conquer Egypt.
Faced with this situation, Mussolini believed that the opportunity could not be missed and forced his subordinates to take action quickly.
However, Italian Army Chief of Staff Graziani was reluctant to take action. They knew the equipment and morale of the Italian African troops very well, so they dissuaded Mussolini and said: "This is simply heading towards failure. Fighting in the desert is inevitable.
It will quickly and completely lead to a disaster!"
This makes sense. Not only the Italian garrison in North Africa, but also the entire Italian Army has outdated equipment and only a few anti-tank weapons.
Especially in North Africa, the Italian army there had almost no artillery, very little motorized transportation, and very little gasoline reserves.
To defeat the British army in North Africa, relying solely on large numbers may not necessarily lead to victory...
