"At the moment our second airborne landing is going very well, blocking the other side's way back to Rome. But the army was not able to encircle the opponent, they abandoned their original plan and were withdrawing to the Naples area. The opinion of the General Staff was that the other side was going to withdraw from Italy by sea. The Kaiser ordered the Air Force and Army to wipe out the American and French forces. A staff officer said. I have to say that this Air Force staff officer spoke very artistically, and he was simply a copy of Germany that had been defeated and defeated repeatedly! The air force miscalculated the direction of the opponent's retreat, and threw the paratroopers in the wrong position, so that he said that he had blocked the opponent's original plan! This is not only faultless, but also meritorious. And even if there is a problem, the army does not cover the opponent, and it has little to do with the air force. Of course, none of this is the point. The focus is on what's later! How to fulfill the orders given by the Kaiser!

"This war has been a bit bumpy for the Air Force." Richthofen waved his hand to let the staff officer down, and he was left alone in deep thought. Since the beginning of the war, the Luftwaffe has had its glory in bombing Florence and its defeat in Naples. However, all the way to the present, the performance of the Air Force is not bad, especially after cooperating with the Army to completely encircle and annihilate the US and French Army on the front line of Ancona, the top management is very satisfied. The war is coming to an end, and there will not be many opportunities for the air force to perform, and the last time is probably the retreat of the enemy army in Naples. This will be the last battle fought by the Germans. The long war of attrition was equally unbearable for the Allies, and the top brass had begun to think about how to get a decent ending.

If nothing else. Richthofen was fully confident that together with the Army, Naples would become the last graveyard of the Franco-American army. But now the situation has changed, and China and the Entente have concentrated most of their naval forces like crazy to enter the Mediterranean to rescue the lone army in Italy! This makes the already clear situation confusing! The German top brass are a little unsure of what the other party means! What is this for? Is it a complete showdown? However, after careful analysis, it is not like it, the First China and the Entente did not need to fight for Italy. The second is that although the navies of the four countries have made great moves, the actions of the army and air force are the opposite, and the army has begun to shrink and withdraw, while the number of remaining shore-based air forces has only remained stable and has not increased.

"The other side wants to cover the withdrawal of the army from Italy, and they want to get a decent ending!" Eventually, the Count of Spee pointed out the other party's intentions in a meeting. Let everyone present wipe a cold sweat. The heart that jumped to the throat fell back into the chest. However, the Kaiser obviously did not want the other side to leave like this, what he needed was an all-round victory to declare to the world that Germany was strong! So he hoped that the German armies could send the American and French forces to prisoner of war camps as the end of this war!

The Kaiser is the supreme being of the Empire. But this time it didn't work very well. Field Marshal Hipper, who was the head of the German Navy, said that the German Navy was helpless in the face of the combined fleet of the five powers. It was directly stated that it would be difficult to carry out the Kaiser's orders. At most, only a few submarines can be sent. Despite the fact that he said it, this behavior still made the Kaiser very dissatisfied. The removal of the old marshal is a foregone conclusion, and it is only a matter of time before it remains. The German Navy could not get involved, so it was left to the Army and Air Force.

"Because of the threat of the enemy's carrier-based aircraft and naval guns, it will be difficult for us to strike targets within 30 kilometers of the coastline. No matter how strong the army artillery is, it cannot be compared with the naval artillery. And the other side only needs to defend against this one point, Napoli. So they can concentrate their forces. So the only way is for the Air Force to disperse the opposing fleet, and then our land forces will do the rest. Otherwise, there is no other way. Hindenburg said this at the meeting. …

"We gnaw bones, you eat meat? That's a good calculation! The corners of Richthofen's mouth twitched. But what the other party said is indeed the truth. The decisive factor in being able to crack the can of Naples is still the Air Force! But thinking about the scale of the other party's 12 aircraft carriers, Richthofen has no bottom in his heart! This new force of the multi-air force is not easy to deal with!

Although Richthofen was born in the Air Force, he also had a certain understanding of naval aviation, and the biggest advantage of aircraft carrier formations was mobility, while the biggest problem was continuity and combat power maintenance. Because of the limitations of the platform, and then the number of spare bombs is very small, the same 100 aircraft. Relying on the flight volume of land airfields and aircraft carriers, the flight volume is completely different from the same grade. As for the maintenance of combat power? Sometimes a single bomb can deprive an aircraft carrier of its aviation capabilities, which is indirectly equivalent to destroying dozens of aircraft. This problem does not exist at land-based airports, where a hole in the runway is blown up and filled directly with soil!

So the Luftwaffe wanted to win. So how to resist the first wave of the opponent's attack is very important! He didn't believe that the other commander had such a powerful force in his hands, but only for defense! They will definitely bomb the front-line troops and transport lines of the German Army, as well as the airfields of the Air Force! This will have a huge impact on the deployment of the Luftwaffe. Thinking about the last time the Lancers went on an expedition to Naples, Richthofen felt a chill down his spine! So before the consumption of the opponent's air defense, the idea of launching a massive air attack on the fleet was decisively abandoned.

Richthofen's idea was simple: to allow the German Army to advance rapidly and at the same time establish a large number of field airfields on the front line. The standards of these airports do not need to be high, as long as they can take off and land fighter jets. The five-nation fleet bombed the land forces. The fighters at these airfields are responsible for depleting the opponent's combat power when the opponent's carrier-based aircraft stock drops to a certain level. Then the Luftwaffe could consider launching a major attack at the right time to inflict heavy damage, or at least be able to force the Five fleets to withdraw from Naples. Thus clearing the last obstacle of the German Army's encirclement and annihilation of the enemy army. Richthofen was a little excited at the thought of his huge victory over the elite of the navies of five countries.

However, the Luftwaffe front-line commanders still disputed Richthofen's idea, and the biggest problem was how to ensure the efficiency of the attack ship. Faced with a huge fleet of hundreds of ships of various kinds and thousands of aircraft, the Luftwaffe really had the feeling that a tiger eating a hedgehog had nowhere to eat. Moreover, the attack of German twin-engine bombers was not very efficient because they could only bomb in shallow dives or horizontally. And if you use torpedo machines, in a hurry, where can you find so many aviation torpedoes? If everything flies from the Baal Peninsula to the target area, then how can coordination work? The last Luftwaffe air raid on Naples brought people back, but this time the opponent is stronger, and the target of the bombing is still a battleship with strong anti-aircraft fire and high-speed maneuverability, so it will be more difficult! Therefore, many front-line commanders have reservations about this. Moreover, the Luftwaffe was also very tired at this time, and how to transfer enough pilots with experience in sea attacks was a problem.

"Our first task is to encircle and annihilate the United States and France, to accomplish this task does not necessarily have to repel or force the opposing fleet, we can completely target the ports around Naples, use aircraft to lay mines and bomb shore facilities, as long as the other side's transport ships cannot transport these soldiers, then the victorious side is us, why do we have to fight to the death with the opposing fleet at sea?" The Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, Lieutenant General Kesselring, made a compromise opinion. And his opinion was supported by many, after all, it was much easier to attack an unprotected transport ship than to storm a fleet. …

"Another thing to note is that now that we have concentrated our air force in central Italy, will the British and China Airlines in the north have the spare strength to go south to support? How much does the Italian Air Force keep in Sicily? Should we launch air strikes on Sicily from North Africa and the Balkans at the same time? If part of the opposing aircraft goes to Sicily for replenishment, then the sustained combat capability of the opposing aircraft carrier will be greatly enhanced. Coupled with the support of land-based aviation, our combat environment will be very bad. ”

"What I mean is to strike first, to strike at the ports and airfields around Naples and Sicily, before the arrival of the opposing fleet, day and night. Don't worry about the energy of the pilots, the logistics of the French have to ensure the needs of the fleet and evacuation, the preparation time will be relatively long, and the beginning of our confrontation with the other side will definitely be a struggle for air supremacy, and the bomber forces can use this time to correct, and when the other side is weak, we will give them a fatal blow! Kesselring laid out his plans.

"The first goal, to prevent the withdrawal of the opposing army, and the second goal, to attack the opposing fleet." Richthofen eventually accepted his men's proposal. Set the campaign objective a little lower. and expressed his willingness to recommend Kesselring as commander-in-chief of the front. This time, Kesselring will command the forces of four air corps (less than the number of troops) to participate in the battle of Naples, and the scale can be called unprecedented! Moreover, in order to ensure victory in this battle, Richthofen also cheekily demanded that the top brass negotiate with Austria-Hungary in order to completely put the Allied air force under the control of a single command and concentrate superior forces against the opponent.

Moreover, in order to prevent the other side's sea transportation as much as possible, Richthofen also demanded that the submarine forces of the German Navy in the Mediterranean Sea could enter the western Mediterranean in advance and standby. And for this request, the German Navy agreed. So far, Richthofen and the Luftwaffe have finally agreed on the objectives of the next phase of the operation! It's time to get ready for action!

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