"Listen to it all, and say it again, don't stay on the beach when you get ashore, everyone rush forward with me, and build a line of defense on the spot when you reach the coastal road." Second Lieutenant Doyle held on to the stiffeners on the side of the landing craft and shouted loudly to the soldiers on the same boat.

"Understood, sir." The soldiers replied in unison.

"I don't want to see a farce on the beaches of Sicily happen in front of my eyes again, you know what I mean."

"Understood, sir." This time, the soldiers' answers were a little messy, with some laughter interspersed.

"Good, last three minutes to prepare." The second lieutenant freed his hand and raised his wrist to look at the time.

"Don't take it lightly just because there is no enemy defense on the coast, I don't want to see a comrade die in this place." Doyle looked up at the sky overhead, the sky was cloudless, the warm sun was shining on the turquoise sea, the landing craft roared and swayed, the bow and side of the ship splashed the soldiers' clothes with splashes, and the wind filled the air with a slightly fishy smell of seawater.

There was no machine-gun fire or artillery fire, and the sight of the Italian fishing village on the coast was so peaceful and quiet that it was impossible to believe that a war was going on here.

The first wave of landing craft was rapidly approaching the beach, and a red column of smoke suddenly rose on the beach, signaling the assault team that had landed covertly twelve hours earlier, and the red smoke indicated that the advance team had completed its mission, and the two adjacent fishing villages of Anzino and Nettuno were already under the control of the Germans.

"These guys are obviously showing us off, and it looks like there won't be a fight this time. But we could not get carried away and, as soon as we went ashore, we set up machine-gun positions on both sides of the road as planned. Doyle turned around and put the pistol back in its holster.

At this time, there was a screech of engines in the air, and four Mercedes-Schmidt 109s lined up in a fingertip formation, passing over the head of the landing craft from a height of more than 100 meters, and the fighters swayed their wings a few times in front of the infantry, and then flew quickly in the direction of the beach. This was an air force unit that had taken off from Sardinia to support, and in addition to providing air cover for the fighter group, the landing force was supported by air fire from a medium bomber wing on the island if needed.

Second Lieutenant Doyle stepped on two boxes of grenades and leaned over the side of the ship, holding a red signal flag aloft in his hand.

"The company commander saw the signal, and he was waving to us." The platoon deputy said with a telescope.

"Alright, let's wade ashore, remember what I said earlier, pack our gear with us, and check each other when we disembark." Second Lieutenant Doyle jumped off the cartridge box and reached for the side of the ship.

At this time, Anzio was not the resort of the future, it was still just an ordinary Italian fishing village, the size of the village was not large, there were only about 300 inhabitants in the village, because of the lack of fuel and the blockade of the French navy, the fishing boats could only dock in the port for most of the week. The fishermen lost their daily livelihoods, and many of them fled to Rome with their families to try their luck.

The seabed near Anzio was flat, and the Germans chose a 3.5-kilometer-long coast from Anzio to Nettuno as the landing zone, because the two fishing villages were originally built with a row of shallow docks, and when the German engineering units were reinforced on the original basis, they could fully meet the needs of the landing force in the initial stage.

The French Navy also hauled several floating docks from Marseille, which could be used to unload some heavy equipment after they were fixed on the shore, such as a French B1-bis tank company that came to join in the fun.

The French were satisfied with the performance of this tank in the war and were preparing to resume the production of this expensive equipment, and it is said that the French Army planned to sign a purchase order with Schneider for seventy B1-bis types to rebuild the 1st and 2nd Reserve Panzer Divisions, which had been heavily damaged by the Germans in the European war.

These two units fought very tenaciously in the early stages of the war, inflicting considerable casualties on the German light armored units, and the firepower of the German tanks No. 1, 2, and 3 at that time could only be regarded as scratching the itch for these thick-armored behemoths.

However, the rigid command of the French command left the tanks exhausted on the entire front, and the Germans soon discovered and destroyed the French logistics supply units, and in the face of the rapid interspersed blitzkrieg of the German army, the formation of the French armored division was scattered, and these heavy tanks, after running out of fuel drops, either became the target of the German Stuka and heavy artillery, or fell into the hands of the German infantry after running out of ammunition and food.

The topic is further away, let's look at the German landing force, this time the German army is still engaged in the Afrika Korps that was the main force at the time of the landing in Sicily, and Germany's return to Africa has become inevitable, and no one dares to stop the footsteps of the apostle of God. The British needed the help of the Germans to maintain the lines of communication between Europe and Asia, and of course they had to pay some compensation for this, and the German colonies were divided among the European countries, and now it was time to return these lands to their masters, and the British were ready to return the lands of German East Africa first, where the German flag would be re-erected.

The German Afrika Corps currently has two infantry divisions, the 26th and 31st Infantry Divisions, and these two regular infantry divisions are nothing special, except that they will be motorized and reorganized when they arrive in Africa.

For the time being, the armored units of the African Army have only been incorporated into the 21st Panzer Regiment, which was just formed in January this year, and was reorganized from the 7th and 35th Reserve Panzer Battalions of the Wehrmacht. Therefore, for the time being, this armored regiment was incorporated into the African Army system.

This is a brand-new tank regiment, with 229 tanks of various types, because of the late formation, so the main model of the unit is the Czech-made 38T-E/F tank, the number is as many as 121, and this regiment also has 31 No. 4 initial type, which is enough to cope with the attack of the enemy's heavy tanks, as for the remaining 75 vehicles, all of them are light tanks such as No. 1 and No. 2, that is, a group of fast and crispy skin. Some of the German armored units are changing their equipment, but the 21st Panzer Regiment is obviously out of turn for the time being.

Two platoons of 38T tanks from the first battalion and two companies of the 21st Armored Regiment were finally sent to the dock in Anzio by barges by naval engineers before lunch.

The German Navy is working with Britain and France to design a series of general-purpose landing ships that, if successful, will become a joint naval vessel of Britain, Germany and France, which is a considerable deal.

"You can't go from there, it's this way, it's going in this direction." A gendarme, standing on the track shoe of the tank, pointed to the map in the commander's hand and said aloud.

"I can read the map, sergeant, you see I've already drawn the march on it."

"No, no, no, you don't understand what I mean, Mr. Lieutenant, you still have to take a detour, the French blocked the road ahead."

"French?" The German lieutenant's eyes widened.

"The French," the gendarme shrugged.

"Well, the French ... So which way do I go? The lieutenant reached out and covered his forehead.

"This way." The gendarmes pointed a fork in the road.

"Over here? Well, thank you, sergeant. The lieutenant nodded to the gendarmes in thanks, then leaned on the hatch of the conning tower, turned and stretched out his hand to signal to the tank commander in the rear car.

"That direction! We're going to take a detour. The captain said as he pressed the throat intercom.

"I wish you a safe journey and see you in Rome." The gendarmerie sergeant jumped out of the tank and stood on the side of the road to salute the company commander.

"Thank you, we'll see you in Rome!" The lieutenant bowed his head and returned a military salute, then waved his arm forward with great momentum. "Tank, forward!". (To be continued.) )