In North Africa, in the long yellow sand, the French convoy is slowly moving forward.

On both sides of the dirt road occupied by the French army, there were broken down chariots. The French imitation of the combat vehicle is the same as the imitation of the Americans, with many more settings that make the vehicle more "comfortable", such as a more complex but more effective suspension system, and the result is that the breakdown rate has skyrocketed after arriving in a dusty place like North Africa, and the nest has been in waves after waves.

The French finally understood where Lin Youde was good at hanging when he drove it.

After all, Lin Youde was something that he came up with after summing up the valuable experience of Germany in another time and space, and the German tank suspension shock absorption and stability effect was obvious, and the German armored soldiers did not wear special anti-collision caps, but wore boat-shaped caps -- the result of this comfort was the high failure rate of the suspension system and the difficulty of maintenance.

Lin Youde's tank decisively abandoned stability and pursued reliability, but Lin Youde did not completely copy the design experience of Soviet tanks, and he ordered the development of two types of combat vehicles with relatively large fighting compartments to ensure the efficiency of the members in battle.

All in all, the French threw away the experience that Lin Youde brought from another time and space, and added a lot of ingenious designs to their imitation chariots, and now the front-line French troops have suffered enough.

Corresponding to the poor appearance of the French tank, the magic armor of the French army is also very bad, and too much sand and dust enters the joints and magic circuits of the magic armor, which greatly reduces the performance of the armor.

Fortunately, the opponent was Italians, so the French army was able to continue to advance in this situation.

On September 3, 1941, French troops occupied Leba/Pori, and on this day, British planes taking off Malta attacked French warships anchored off the coast of Tripoli, causing the battleship Jean-Bar to roll 7 degrees to its side, and had to be withdrawn back to Turbia/Nice for urgent repairs, and then returned to mainland France for overhaul.

After the damage to the French navy, the French High Command had to change its original plan to send the Shenji to the battleship, and the two French Shenji moved from Sicily to Tripoli on 7 September.

On 8 September, Malta's British Air Force again attacked supply ships bound for Tripoli from Sicily, sinking five freighters and damaging one escort destroyer.

The sunken ship is said to have carried the banquet costumes of the French goddess and a large number of luxury goods, which made the French goddess of Tripoli furious. Subsequently, the French government formally requested the Mediterranean Theater Command of the Human Renewal Alliance to capture Malta in order to secure the supply lines at sea.

Having just returned from a holiday in Sevastopol, Lin Youde immediately granted the request of the French, and at the same time used his authority to designate German paratroopers to carry out the attack on Malta.

Soon, Scholes' "Special Operations Command" handed over a plan to use gliders to assault Malta. According to the plan, O-chan would destroy the British cruiser detachment at anchor in Malta and deter the island's shore defense forces, after which German paratroopers would take 3,000 gliders and force their landings near the airfield on the west side of Malta to capture the airfield.

Lin Youde read the plan, and after "communicating" with Oh Sauce, he signed and approved it.

After signing, he changed the name of the battle plan from "Plan 5139" to "Torch", which marked the official change of the plan from a paper plan to an implementation plan.

**

On October 1, 1941, Operation Torch began as scheduled.

The first phase of the operation was carried out by the Air Force, and the three air killing groups that had been transferred to Sicily a few weeks ago would be responsible for breaking down all resistance on the island of Malta and clearing the way for the bombers of the two groups.

After the bombers destroy the enemy's ground anti-aircraft fire, the gliders will come in.

The 52nd Air Hunt Group is one of the three fighter groups participating in the war, but compared to the other two groups, the 52nd Group has been formed for a relatively short period of time and has more recruits, so according to the plan, the 52nd Group will be responsible for the airspace where the resistance is expected to be the lowest.

Early in the morning of October 1st, Erich? Hartman got up early in the morning, brushed his teeth and washed his face as soon as he got up, and the noise he made was so loud that it woke up Usain Bolt, who was still sleeping.

"Hey, boy, the war is there, it's not going to run away on its own legs." Bolt said in a playful tone, rubbing his bloodshot eyes vigorously, "Look at you, like a kid in a Scout camp for the first time. You weren't so excited yesterday that you didn't sleep all night, did you? ”

"I'm sorry sir," Hartman looked embarrassed, "but I can't sleep." ”

"The war is there, it won't run away on its own long legs......"

"You've said it once, sir."

"Really?" Bolt patted his head and tried to sober himself up, but the remaining alcohol from last night had made his efforts useless, and he cursed, then relaxed his muscles, and let his half-seated upper body fall back onto the bed.

"You drank too much last night, won't that affect the battle?"

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about, little ghost, it's because you have to fight, you have to drink more, after all, no one can say if you can come back this time."

"It's not that bad with the Sea Fox Force joining this operation, right?" Hartman's tone was slightly apprehensive.

"It's true that the Sea Female Fox will shoot down a lot of enemy planes, but they won't protect you, because they are always flying at high altitude, using their speed to hunt those easy prey, and they won't go out of their way to attack the enemy plane that is biting your tail, unless the enemy plane is in the right position where she is most likely to get it."

As he spoke, Bolt finally sat up, he stared at Hartman, and said word by word: "Remember, in the sky, only height and speed can save you, and no other qiē can protect you as effectively as they do!" ”

"Understood."

Bolt continued to stare at Hartman for several seconds before he looked away and reached for the uniform that should have been placed at the head of the bed, only to find that the uniform and flight jacket were on him after touching for a long time.

Bolt pursed his lips, jumped out of bed to the ground, sat down on Hartmann's lower bunk, and began to put his military boots on his feet, saying to Hartmann as he put them on: "I know you're doing well in the training team, boy, but it's not enough to be a qualified German pilot." When you go to the battlefield, you know that those mock battles are meaningless, I know a guy who has done 2,000 mock battles without a single defeat, and as a result, he was beaten on the Eastern Front and collapsed confidently, and ran to work as a radar guide. So remember the lad, your training doesn't count as bullshit, and if you want to be an ace pilot, you have to go through the war, you know? ”

"Understood, sir."

"Alright, now let's go to the cafeteria and see if we can get something good before the brigade wakes up."

**

After eating, Hartmann followed Bolt to the Operations Briefing Room, a very rudimentary field airfield in Sicily, where the so-called Operations Briefing Room was nothing more than a large military tent. However, the weather in Sicily is nice these days, and the wind is beautiful, so there is no problem with using a tent as a briefing room.

Many pilots had already gathered in the briefing room, and everyone was greeting each other.

"Hey, Bolt, you're still up today." Someone shouted at Bolt.

Bolt glanced at the other party contemptuously and responded, "I can't help that little bit of wine." ”

As he spoke, he found a chair near the edge of the tent and sat down, and Hartman found a random chair next to him.

At this time, the captain of the 52nd Brigade entered the tent, he glanced at the people in the tent, and then threw the roster on the table.

"I think the people should have arrived, and if anyone else didn't arrive, he deserved not to hear the battle briefing, and if he died for this, it would be considered unlucky." As soon as the words fell, there was a commotion among the pilots, and the captain waited for a while for the pilots to quiet down before continuing, "To be honest, I don't know which of you will come back, after all, half of our entire group has white tails (indicating that the pilot is a rookie who is new to battle), but as long as you recruits can survive this battle, you can reduce the white bar on your tail by one." If you can shoot down an enemy plane, then congratulations, you have become a qualified Luftwaffe fighter. ”

After speaking, the captain looked at his watch, and then picked up the combat briefing bound with the roster: "Now I want to report on the latest update of the enemy situation this morning, and I will prick up my ears and listen." ”

**

Twenty minutes later, the bell to inform the pilot to board the plane rang, and the captain waved his hand and ordered: "Okay guys, let's go, destroy the enemy cleanly, and when I come back, I will invite you to a big meal in the brigade restaurant, Italian food is enough!" ”

The pilots gave a jagged echo and rushed out of the tent and towards the plane parked in a tent that served as a hangar.

Hartman hurried over to his landline, and was greeted immediately by the technician in charge of his body.

"I've made this baby as good as it was when it first appeared," the technician said, patting 109's shell vigorously, "and I quietly painted that logo on the edge of the cockpit as you requested." I said, the name on the sign is your girlfriend, right? ”

"Yes, she's my goddess of luck." With that, Hartman climbed into the cockpit and began to check the instruments.

"Radio tests." The voice of Long Bolt came from the headphones, "If you hear it, just say something." ”

"I heard it, it's clear."

"Okay, boy, I'll follow me later. Don't be nervous, you've been bitten off, I'll cover you. ”

"Thank you, I'll cover you if you're bitten."

When Bolt heard Hartman say this, he immediately burst out laughing.

At this time, the technicians gestured to Hartman, and Hartmann immediately gave a thumbs up to indicate that he was ready, so the technician who had just spoken to him came up and pushed Hartman's propeller hard.

The engine groaned a few times, then roared, exhaust fumes spewing out of the smoke vents on the side, Hartman paid attention to the gauges on the panel, and then gave another thumbs up to tell the ground crew that it was normal.

At this time, the fighters on the far left side of the hangar began to slide out of the hangar under their own power.

Soon, the fighters of the entire brigade were lined up in the take-off waiting area, waiting for the take-off signal while warming up the aircraft.

Windsocks flutter atop makeshift towers made of planks and logs on the side of the runway.

Finally, a green flare rose into the sky.