The Rise of the Third Reich

The Spanish Marshal Francisco Franco, who was a little short and fat, with regular features, a gentle appearance and a Hitler-style mustache, visited Rome.

After Germany and Italy won the Mediterranean Campaign, the Spanish dictator believed that Germany and Italy would be the winners of the world war. Because it was not the British Army that was defeated in the Mediterranean, but the British Royal Navy, which had not suffered a major setback in hundreds of years.

The British Royal Navy lost not only four battleships (including a Free French battleship) and an aircraft carrier, but also the control of the entire Mediterranean.

And Germany and Italy got not only the Mediterranean, but also the oil-rich Middle East! Although the British destroyed the oil fields in Iran and Iraq, Franco already knew that the oil companies in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium were now participating in the repair and expansion of the Middle East oil fields with great enthusiasm - in the face of the industrial strength of the whole of Europe, the destruction of the British was not a problem at all, and it was only a matter of time for the Germans to obtain a large amount of oil from there.

Moreover, Germany could get more than just oil from the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt has been an important grain-producing area since ancient times and is rich in cotton. Syria and Iraq also have rich land. The Sinai Peninsula is rich in manganese ore and has been developed to a certain extent. There are also three important rare metals such as cobalt, lead and zinc. Turkey and Iran are simply two huge warehouses of non-ferrous metal resources, with extremely rich reserves of boron, chromium, iron, copper, manganese and bauxite.

With sufficient oil and non-ferrous metals, Germany's war machine will become more sharp, and the failure of the British Empire will be inevitable. Although the powerful America on the other side is increasingly showing signs of being pro-British and participating in the war. But so far, the United States has not carried out large-scale military mobilization. The most likely prospect now is that before the United States' war potential is transformed into military strength, the British mainland will be occupied by Germany! At that time, the United States will lose its springboard for attacking the European continent. No matter how strong their military strength is, it is impossible to send troops directly from America to land on the European continent.

After the prospects of the war seemed to be determined, Franco expressed his willingness to participate in the war to Ribbentrop, who was visiting Madrid, and also made a huge request for aid. After visiting Berlin and getting Hitler's promise of aid, Franco came to Italy accompanied by Ribbentrop.

He came to Italy for two purposes: one was to discuss the conditions for joining the war with Mussolini - to ask Italy for more aid; the other was to discuss the issue of recovering the Gibraltar Peninsula with Hessmann.

After Mussolini cordially exchanged views, the two dictators of Spain and Italy, as well as Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, came to the Medici Villa, where the headquarters of the German-Italian Allied Forces in the Mediterranean were located.

"Marshal, our country experienced terrible turmoil and civil war in the 1930s. Although order has been restored now, the foundation of stability is very weak and it is difficult to withstand a long and large-scale war. Therefore, we hope that the battle of the Gibraltar Peninsula can be quickly resolved."

Franco said to Hessmann in fluent French that he was a professionally trained Spanish Army elite, graduated from the best Toledo Army School in Spain, and studied at the French Military Academy in the 1920s, so he could speak very good French. Both Hessmann and Mussolini could speak French. Hessmann was also an elite of the German Army and had received strict military training since childhood. At that time, Germany regarded France as its number one imaginary enemy, so there were French classes in the military academy. Therefore, in order to facilitate communication, Franco spoke to Hessmann in French. Mussolini's French was not very good, but his son-in-law, Count Ciano, could speak fluent French and acted as an interpreter on the spot.

"I also agree to a quick victory," Hessmann said, "I hope to seize the Gibraltar Peninsula within 2-3 weeks after Spain officially declares war on Britain."

"2-3 weeks?" Franco asked in surprise, "How can you do it?"

This timetable was obviously beyond Franco's expectations. He felt that being able to seize the Gibraltar Peninsula in a few months was already a quick victory.

"Of course we need to make full preparations." Hessman looked at Franco and asked, "Marshal, Spain is not in a hurry to declare war on Britain, right?"

"No hurry, of course not."

"Then declare war later, so that it will be convenient for us to deploy around the Gibraltar Peninsula. First of all, we need to build airports. We need to deploy a large number of combat aircraft in Seville and Galicia. This is the key to victory. The experience of Mediterranean operations tells us that the concentrated use of powerful shore-based aviation can cause a fatal blow to the enemy's surface fleet. In this regard, we and Italy have a great advantage."

The several months of Mediterranean operations have trained the Italian Air Force, and now they have entered the state. Most of the S.M.79 aircraft have been converted into torpedo bombers.

And another three-engine aircraft, the Z.1007 medium bomber, which has the same superior performance as the S.M.79, has also begun to take on the task of attacking enemy surface ships. Although this aircraft only conducts horizontal bombing (it can actually also carry torpedoes), it has a high speed and a large bomb load, so it is also a great threat to surface ships.

In addition, the Italian Air Force also obtained a number of Fokker Zero fighters (and obtained production licenses) and He-115 seaplanes, forming their own escort fighter units and maritime reconnaissance aircraft units.

The most significant change is in the use of tactics. Now the Italian Air Force has learned the ability to concentrate on using bombers and torpedo bombers to attack enemy surface fleets.

At the same time, the German naval aviation also began to eliminate the He-115 torpedo bombers with unsatisfactory performance after the Mediterranean Campaign, and converted them back to seaplanes to undertake reconnaissance missions. It was replaced by the Italian humpback aircraft S.M.79 "Sparrowhawk". The Fokker Company exchanged the Fokker Zero production license for the S.M.79 production license, and also equipped the S.M.79 "Sparrowhawk" with an air-cooled engine from Siemens with superior performance (in this time and space in the 1940s, Germany There are two companies that produce air-cooled engines), which further improves the performance of the "Sparrowhawk".

In addition, technical exchanges between Germany and Japan have brought new improvements to German naval aviation. Two Japanese "Meteor" carrier-based dive bombers were sent to Germany in early April and subsequently conducted test flights. As a result, this Japanese aircraft received extremely high praise and is considered to have performance as good as the Ju87. It is also a carrier-based aircraft and is an ideal model to replace the Fokker 99. The only shortcoming is that the "Comet" carrier-based dive bomber's landing speed is too fast and is very prone to accidents. Therefore, Fokker engineers proposed to use a 14-cylinder air-cooled engine to replace the liquid-cooled engine of the "Comet" aircraft to increase resistance and reduce the speed of the aircraft when landing.

The new plan has been approved by the German Naval Aviation and has been named "Fokker 100". It is ready to be mass-produced to replace the Fokker 99 after the modification design is completed.

"Secondly, we need to strengthen the railway in Seville close to Gibraltar." Hersman continued to talk about his plans.

"Reinforce the railway?"

Hersman nodded: "Yes, this is to facilitate the transportation and deployment of train guns and overweight mortars. These super cannons will be a weapon used to attack the Fortress of Gibraltar. Because the terrain of the Fortress of Gibraltar is difficult and the fortifications are extremely strong , and also deployed a large number of shore guns and anti-aircraft artillery. It is not cost-effective to use surface ships to shoot at them, and it is difficult to achieve ideal results with aircraft bombing. Therefore, I plan to mobilize super artillery and use large-caliber artillery to completely destroy them. Defense of Gibraltar!"

The layout of Gibraltar's forts is very tricky. If they are not blocked by the Windmill Terrace and the Europa Terrace, or they can simply hollow out a section of the mountain and stuff the cannon inside, it will be difficult to hit.

Moreover, there are a lot of coastal defense artillery. Although the caliber is not very large and the performance is somewhat outdated, it is still unwise to use precious battleships to shoot against them - battleships are actually expensive things and are not easy to shoot. But it is easy to break, and once it is broken, it will take a while to repair it.

"We now have four very powerful super cannons," Hersman said in a very proud tone. "They are the 420mm-caliber 'Big Bertha' howitzer, the 283mm-caliber K5 train gun, and the 600mm-caliber 'Karl' Mortar guns, 800mm caliber 'Gustav' and 'Dora' super heavy train guns!"

Franco and Mussolini simultaneously exclaimed upon hearing the caliber of the cannon.

"The 800mm cannon must be the most powerful weapon in the world," Mussolini said. "With such a cannon, the Fortress of Gibraltar will definitely be reduced to ruins within two weeks."

Franco nodded and said: "This puts me at ease. I will definitely order the Spanish railway department to fully cooperate and complete the railway reinforcement project as soon as possible."

Among these giant guns, the K5, "Gustav" and "Dora" are all train guns. Although they can be disassembled during transportation, they must be assembled during combat and sometimes have to be moved on the front line. Therefore The railroad must be strengthened.

Hersman continued: "In addition, we also need to build fortifications to house the Carl mortars and Big Bertha howitzers in La Linea and Algeciras near the Gibraltar Peninsula. We also need to evacuate the residents there. "

"Build fortifications and evacuate residents?" Franco frowned, "There will be a lot of movement, right? The British will find out."

Hirschman shrugged and smiled sarcastically: "Let them find out. The Battle of Gibraltar doesn't require any secrecy at all. I want to see how Churchill plans to save the most important fortress of the British Empire."