Barton was vehemently opposed to Zhang Chi's insistence on Palermo. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

But as Patton knew, his opposition had no effect, and even Zhang Chi did not even reply to the telegram.

After firing fire, Patton had no choice but to compromise: "Okay, since you want to hold on, then tell me your defense plan, so that I can also let the air power fight together!" ”

"I don't have any plans!" Zhang Chi replied: "My plan is to hold on and fight!" ”

This made Barton angry again, but at the same time, he knew that this Chinese major general would not be so simple...... According to Patton's study of Zhang Chi, Patton believes that one of the most prominent characteristics of this Chinese major general is that he can always exchange the greatest result for the least cost on the battlefield.

This is the greatest possible victory on the battlefield, but in terms of human nature, it is not willing to sacrifice too many subordinates.

Therefore, Patton believed that it was impossible for this Chinese major general to allow a division of tens of thousands of subordinates to be trapped and die in Palermo.

But Barton thought left and right, and couldn't think of any way for Zhang Chi to get out of trouble.

"What the hell is this Chinese thinking?" Barton looked at Palermo on the map and fell into deep thought.

Of course, Zhang Chi's plan will not be as simple as he said, but it is inconvenient to say more at this time, otherwise the news will easily reach the British, and then Montgomery will sabotage the plan...... And for the British to do this, it seems simple, they just need to find an excuse to give an order.

At this point, Zhang Chi's enemies did not seem to be Germans or Italians, but the English and Montgomery.

This is, the piercing whistle of the air defense siren suddenly came from outside the command headquarters, and then Kukyi ran in and said to Zhang Chi: "General, it's a German bomber!" ”

"Hmm!" Zhang Chi nodded.

The German bombers arrived later than expected, and Zhang Chi thought that the Germans should have moved when the French captured Palermo.

What Zhang Chi didn't know was that the Germans really wanted to do this, but they were opposed by the Italian commander, General Guzzoni.

The reason is simple, Palermo is an Italian city and an important port in Italy, where many Italians live.

"We don't even know where to bomb!" Guzoni said to Kesselring: "Bombing the port? We even need those facilities to get out. Bombing warehouses? Hell knows if the enemy has moved supplies, and it's full of dwellings. Bombing barracks? As far as I know, the barracks have been used as prisoner camps by the French, and they are full of surrendered Italian soldiers! ”

Kesselring also had a headache about it.

He was not worried about the Italians, but he could not clearly define the target of the bombing, and such a bombing would probably not achieve the desired effect or even be counterproductive...... What would the Italians think if they knew that the Germans had dropped bombs on their heads without any scruples?

This is a very sensitive issue, and the relationship between Germany and Italy is already in danger at this time, and Kesselring does not dare to take this risk easily.

Therefore, it was not until the German generals arrived in Palermo and launched an attack that Kesselring ordered the bombing, and the bombing was limited to the French fortifications on the outskirts.

It is conceivable that such a bombing will not have much effect, because Zhang Chi is placing the main forces inside the city of Palermo......

Of course Zhang Chi will do this, because this is a city of Italians, and there are Italian people everywhere, and these Italians can be said to have been "kidnapped" by the French army in disguise.

The Germans may not need to take care of the Italian people, but if they are chaotic, it will also affect the German-Italian alliance.

With such good conditions to take advantage of, why not use it?

Therefore, from the very beginning, the loose defensive policy was "street fighting", and the defensive line outside the city was only a buffer zone for the French army to prepare.

So when the Germans bombed Palermo, the soldiers of the Zoaf Corps even learned how to use captured tanks in the barracks......

For these tanks, Zhang Chi only planned to use the German tanks No. 3 and No. 4.

This is not only because of the poor quality and backward performance of the Italian tanks...... In fact, if it is only because of this, it is not necessary, after all, no matter how bad the tank is on the battlefield, if it is used in the right place, it is also a nightmare for the enemy's infantry.

The main reason was that the French army did not have so many tank crews.

The French army also had tanks before, and there were quite a few of them, more than a hundred, but this tank unit had been completely wiped out by the time they attacked the Marais Line...... Although the tanks were gone, the tank crews of a regiment that had been trained remained, and a considerable part of them were assigned to the 1st Division as drivers to drive jeeps.

Although this is indeed a bit overkill, it is also a matter of no choice, at this time Algeria is still a relatively backward place, and there are very few soldiers who can drive, so they can only use trained tank crews to make up the numbers.

I didn't expect that it was a mistake now, and if they were brought to Palermo, they could go back to their old jobs and drive tanks, all they had to do was to familiarize themselves with the operation of German tanks and do some adaptive training.

Of course, the tanks trained in such a short period of time still could not compete with the German Panzer Division, especially the famous Goering Panzer Division...... Zhang Chi didn't intend to do this at all.

An hour after the bombing by German fighters, Italian warships joined the bombardment.

It's just that this kind of bombing by Italian warships is not so much a bombardment as a "solidarity", because their shells rarely hit even the suburbs, and most of them hit no man's land more than ten kilometers away from Palermo.

Zhang Chi guessed that the reason why the Italian warships did this was to show the Germans on the one hand...... Under pressure from the German army, they always had to fire a few shells, but these shells could not hit their own people, so they carried out "precision bombing" on the no-man's land.

On the other hand, they were doing it for the people of Palermo and the Italian army around them, and they were telling everyone in a different way...... Italian warships were already attacking Palermo, reassuring them that the final victory would definitely belong to Italy.

But this propaganda was obviously not very effective, because even ordinary people could see that the shells were 108,000 miles away from Palermo.

In fact, it should be said that it was counterproductive.

Because this is actually telling everyone that the Italian Navy has no determination to fight the Allies...... As mentioned before, the Italians were unwilling to fight on their own soil to devastate their country.