"What?" Hearing this, Montgomery couldn't help but exclaim: "You mean you took the port of Palermo?" ”

"Yes!" Barton was pleased with Montgomery's reaction. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"How is this possible?" Montgomery asked: "Palermo is more than a hundred kilometers from the Gulf of Geira, and your troops can get lost and occupy Palermo?" ”

"yes!" Barton continued to pretend to be confused: "I also think it's strange, these bastards, they are completely misguided!" ”

At first, Montgomery was just a pity that Palermo, the tempting "peach", was snatched away by the Americans, but Montgomery, although narrow-minded and eager to chase fame and fortune, was not a fool, after hearing the news, Montgomery was depressed and angry, and soon thought of a more serious question: if Palermo was occupied by the American army, what should the Germans do?

Montgomery couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat when he thought about it, and the Germans had only one way to go, and that was to turn to the war and defend the port of Messina, and the British army was advancing all the way to the port of Messina.

Thinking of this, Montgomery couldn't hold back any longer, and he immediately made a phone call to Pattona and said in a commanding tone: "General, I think we must give up the port of Palermo!" ”

"Give up the port of Palermo?!" Patton didn't expect Montgomery to say such shameless words, how could he take the enemy's port and give up on his own initiative.

But Patton knew that the British were dominant at this time, and as a soldier, he did not dare to contradict Montgomery too much, so although he was angry, he still pretended to be calm and asked: "Why?" Checkmate! I want to know why! ”

"We can't reinforce and hold Palermo!" Montgomery had already come up with an excuse: "There is only one way for your troops to stay in Palermo!" And it can disrupt our overall plans! ”

"So......" Patton asked rhetorically, "will my troops survive if they abandon Palermo?" ”

Without waiting for Montgomery to reply, Barton continued: "I think the opposite is true, General! Abandoning Palermo is a dead end, because they can defend Palermo, and we can form a two-sided attack on the German and Italian armies, as long as our offensive is fierce enough, it is entirely possible that the German and Italian armies will collapse before taking Palermo. Conversely, if Palermo is abandoned, where do you let these troops go? Can't you jump into the sea to survive? ”

Patton's words obviously make sense, Palermo is easy to defend and difficult to attack, as I said before, it is surrounded by the sea on both sides and landed on both sides, and the defenders only need to defend on both sides, as for the sea...... The German and Italian forces basically did not have the capability of amphibious landing warfare, and they could only bomb them with warships at most.

On the contrary, it was Montgomery's "abandonment of Palermo" that really wanted to kill this force.

Of course, Montgomery was not unaware of this military common sense, and he said this entirely in the interests of the British army.

"I said ......," said Montgomery, "and it would disrupt our whole plan and cause unexpected danger to the rest of the troops!" ”

Patton couldn't help but smile, and said in his heart that this "other troops" refers to the British army!

But of course, Patton would not say this, and he knew that there would be no point in arguing with Montgomery like this, because the question of strategy and tactics itself cannot be verified, and any excuse will form a situation of "the public says that the public is justified and the mother is reasonable", just as Montgomery had previously denied the plan to land directly in Palermo.

So Barton simply threw the problem to Montgomery.

"Okay!" Barton replied, "I can give this order, but I can't guarantee that those fellows will obey my orders!" ”

"What do you mean by that?" Montgomery said, "They are your subordinates, how can they disobey your orders!" ”

"Strictly speaking, they're not my men, General!" Patton replied, "They are French!" ”

"The French? It's actually the French army? Montgomery was surprised by this answer, because the French army was almost always an army that he had not planned, or he could say that he did not take the French army seriously at all.

"Yes!" Patton replied: "The 1st Division of the 3rd Army of the Zoaf Corps!" ”

"Then you can give an order to General Juan!" Montgomery said.

"It's a pity, I'm afraid that General Zhu An won't be able to play a role?"

"What? Why?! Montgomery asked almost through gritted teeth, believing that Patton, General Juan, and others had deliberately disobeyed orders.

"Because ......," replied Patton, "the one who commanded this division was actually the Chinese major general, you know, he wouldn't obey anyone's orders!" ”

Hearing this, Montgomery couldn't help but open his mouth for a long time and couldn't close it, and after a while, he slammed the microphone and scolded: "Fuck, it's that Zhang Chi again!" ”

Scolding and scolding, Montgomery had to calm himself down and analyze the current situation.

First of all, he was sure that it was indeed as Patton had said, that it was impossible to withdraw the French division that had attacked Palermo...... This is not only because Montgomery knew that this was a "conspiracy" deliberately planned by the United States and France, but also because he had gotten along with Zhang Chi and knew Zhang Chi's personality.

On the other hand, Montgomery knew in his heart that the order to abandon Palermo was too much, and it was like letting someone else eat a duck in their stomach and then vomit it.

Montgomery could only hope that the Germans would not shift the front, otherwise it would undoubtedly be a nightmare for the British.

Zhang Chi led the French army to suddenly seize Palermo, which can be said to be "one stone stirred up a thousand waves".

The commander-in-chief of the German forces in Sicily, Kesselring, was also stunned when he heard the news.

Then Kesselring scolded: "These damned Italians, the German soldiers fought valiantly on the front line, but they gave up our rear supply bases and retreats to the enemy!" They only need to hold on for one day, as long as they ...... We would be able to send a reinforcement from Italy, a German force, so that we could hold Palermo without question, and our air force could provide reinforcements! But these stupid pigs...... More than 20,000 people surrendered in just twenty minutes in front of less than half the number of enemies! Unthinkable! ”

"Marshal!" The staff officer asked, "What should we do now?" ”

That's what Kesselring needs to think about, and it's urgent.

Any hesitation was fatal for the Germans, as the ports to which the Germans could withdraw were about to fall into the hands of the enemy.