At the end of December 1940, Field Marshal Hersmann, Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, temporarily handed over his functions in the General Staff to the new First Quartermaster Guderian, and then left for Rome to become Commander-in-Chief of the German-Italian forces in the Mediterranean.

Because of the promotion of Schleicher and Hersmann, Guderian received the rank of general of the armored corps in the great expansion of the army before the war, which was a very high starting point. So after the Polish campaign and the Western Front, Guderian rose to the rank of marshal. At the beginning of December, he also became the number two person in the Great General Staff, the First Quartermaster General.

And there is another reason why Hersmann temporarily handed over the Great General Staff to Guderian is because he knows that Guderian is a general who dares to quarrel with his superiors, and he can ensure that the work of the General Staff will not be interfered with by Hitler, a layman.

At this time, under the leadership of the Great General Staff, in addition to the German-Italian Mediterranean Command chaired by Hersmann himself, there were also the headquarters of the Western Front, which was responsible for operations against the British mainland, the newly established Southeast Headquarters for the Balkan theater, and the headquarters of the Eastern Front, which was used to defend against the Soviet Union.

The commander-in-chief of the headquarters of the Western Front was now Field Marshal Rundstead, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front was currently Field Marshal Brauchitsch, and the newly established headquarters of the South-Eastern Front was handed over to General Halder, who had been unable to open up the situation in Italy.

The headquarters of the Southern Front, which Halder had previously presided over, was upgraded to the General Headquarters of the German-Italian Forces in the Mediterranean. The first thing Hersmann did when he arrived at the Medici Villa in Rome (where the headquarters of the Southern Front was located) was to hand over to the somewhat gray General Halder.

"Franz, don't be so downcast," Hersmann smiled and patted Halder on the shoulder, "You're going to have an unprecedented victory in the Balkans, and then you're going to command the troops into the Middle East." ”

Hersmann was completely sure of Halder's victory in the Balkans.

"Marshal," said Halder, smiling reluctantly, "the Balkans are certainly not a problem, but it is difficult to say whether they will be able to enter the Middle East. ”

"No, we will definitely achieve our strategic goals!" "Because I'm going to win in the Mediterranean." ”

"Marshal, don't overestimate the Italians." Halder is now completely dead to the Italians, "The Italians are not at all soldiers to fight, I thought that the fascist movement could change them, but now it seems completely wrong." These Italians are not only greedy for life and afraid of death, but also loose and sloppy, do not take anything seriously, and the most hateful thing is that Italians are too fond of lying to their own people. Mussolini, high above, had no idea what was going on below, because all of them did not tell the truth. So we can't hope for the Italian army, and if conditions allow, I advise you to fight with the German army instead of the Italian army as much as possible. ”

"But our surface fleet can't get into the Mediterranean," said Hersmann, shrugging, "so we'll have to rely on the Italian fleet...... Franz, what do you think of the Italian navy? Is it a little stronger than their army? ”

Halder thought for a moment, nodded and said, "Italy's navy and air force are better than the army, that's for sure. But they were not prepared for the war, so much so that they lost the opportunity to annihilate the British Mediterranean fleet. ”

"Now the British have strengthened the Mediterranean Fleet," he told Hirschman with great concern, and according to the latest intelligence, their Mediterranean Fleet has grown considerably with 8 battleships, 3 aircraft carriers, and at least 7 heavy cruisers. ”

"This is a good thing," said Hersman, "and the more the British lose in the Mediterranean, the less naval power they will have to defend their homeland in the future!" ”

Halder shook his head, "But Marshal, how are you going to do it?" The Italian army was made up of crooks and cowards, with only a handful of people of high character. It is very difficult to command them, and besides, you are not yet an Italian soldier. ”

Hersman smiled, "It doesn't bother me, because I'm better at lying than the Italians, they can't fool me, but I can fool the Italians." ”

……

At the end of 1940, probably no one thought that Hesmann, the German god of war who was praised by the soldiers of this era as "more outstanding than Moltke", was actually a complete liar!

Since directing the August Revolution in Russia in 1918, Hersmann has achieved most of his achievements by "deception". The Russian Bolsheviks could have come to power without his help, and in fact he did not play any role in the Russian Revolution. The reconquest of the Rhine was also risk-free, and could have been easily accomplished without him by Hitler, as was the subsequent annexation of Bohemia.

And in the Polish campaign and the Western Front campaign, when Hersman really became the "god of war", he was also a liar who stole credit. He just signed his name on the foolproof battle plan prepared by others and said "start".

This Mediterranean campaign was the first time that the "German god of war" Hersmann was really commanding a campaign.

And his art of military command is still first displayed in deception...... Not to lie to Wavell and Cunningham, but to lie to Benito, an honest fascist leader. Mussolini.

"Prime Minister, the situation in North Africa is not completely out of control, the defeat of the Italian army is only temporary, and the situation can be reversed. In fact, a decisive battle in the Benghazi area was advantageous to us, because the supply port was close by, while the British dragged 1,000 kilometers of logistics lines. With reinforcements from a powerful German panzer division, we would be able to annihilate the main forces of the British army in North Africa in Benghazi, and then the road to Cairo and Alexandria would be unimpeded......"

In the Venetian Palace, Hersmann, who saw Mussolini again, pretended to be confident, patted his chest and made a package ticket, and then opened his mouth to ask for power.

"The key now is that you have to trust me as commander-in-chief, to give me real command, to support me in forming a combined command that includes the best Italian and German soldiers," he said. ”

Mussolini listened to Hersmann's boasts, but he was still a little skeptical.

On the one hand, he was looking forward to the combat effectiveness of the German Panzer Divisions - Hersmann had promised Mussolini when he was in Berchtesgaden that he would send two powerful Panzer Divisions and one motorized infantry to form the African Army to support the Italian allies.

On the other hand, he also knew how powerful the British Navy was. Benghazi is a little bit of a distance from Sicily, and if the British Mediterranean Fleet were to be dispatched, it would be entirely possible to cut off Benghazi from mainland Italy.

"Marshal," Mussolini asked with a frown, "what are you going to do against the British Mediterranean Fleet?" It's stronger than the Italian fleet......"

"The French naval volunteers will join us, the French Richelieu and Jean. The Barr will be ready in January. ”

Hersman lied, Richelieu and Jean. The Barr would be repaired and outfitted in January 1941. But it is difficult to say whether the French will let them join the German-Italian coalition, because the slick French are not yet sure whether Germany will win.

"Really?" Mussolini is now like a man who fell into a river and was about to drown, grabbing a straw and refusing to let go, let alone two battleships?

"The French are smart and know that they should be on the side of the winners." "As long as Germany and Italy are truly united, with a large number of German and air forces in the Mediterranean, and with the victory of the German-Italian forces in the Balkans, France will make the right choice." ”

Hesmann continued to paint the pie, knowing that if he wanted to win the Mediterranean, he would first have to fool Mussolini.

He continued: "Even if the French don't want to join, we can win." Because the Luftwaffe and naval aviation were strong enough, they would be deployed in large numbers to Italy. He paused, took a few photographs from his aide-de-camp Schnetz, and handed them to Mussolini.

Mussolini took the picture and looked at it, and it was all airplanes, a kind of plane that Mussolini had not seen before.

"This is an FW-190 fighter," Hersman said, "with air-cooled engines from the BMW801D series that can reach 2,000 horsepower." Its combat performance far exceeds that of the Fokker Zero, and the range is also sufficient to cover from Sicily to Benghazi. ”

"2,000 hp?" Pricolo, the chief of staff of the Italian Air Force, who accompanied Mussolini to meet Hersmann, was surprised, "You guys have such a powerful engine?" ”

"Admiral, in fact, this is not the most powerful air-cooled engine we have in our hands." "The BMW 801 is a two-row 14-cylinder engine, and we also have an experimental two-row 18-cylinder BMW 802 engine, which can consistently produce 2,300 hp. If you want to study it, I'll ask BMW to send a few of these engines right away. ”

Hersmann's words weren't entirely true, the 2,000 hp engine had to run on high-quality aviation gasoline with an octane rating of 100-130, and it had to be supercharged and injected (water and methanol) to reach a short 2,000 hp output, otherwise it would have been 1,700 hp. In Germany, B4 gasoline from coal usually has an octane rating of only 87. Aviation gasoline with a 100-130 octane rating can only be obtained by reprocessing high-quality fuel refined from petroleum.

Due to the preciousness of oil, this high-octane gasoline cannot be supplied openly, so most of the Fw-190 is equipped with a smaller-horsepower BMW801C series engine (using 96-octane gasoline), which has only 1600 hp. It was also this model of the Fw-190 that was sent to the Mediterranean, and there were not many of them (the Fw-190 had just been put into production now, and there were not many of them), and they did not have an overwhelming advantage in performance over the latest Spitfire.

Looking at Mussolini and Pricolo, who were surprised and delighted, Hersmann said with great certainty: "As long as this Fw-190 is put in, the Mediterranean sky belongs to us." That's why I'm sure I'll win! He looked at Mussolini, "Prime Minister, can you trust me completely now?" (To be continued.) )