The Horn of Africa in northeast Africa controls the entrance to the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, and its strategic location is very important. Most of this region now belongs to Italian East Africa, and Italian East African territories include Italian Somalia, Eritrea and the entire Abyssinia.
Mussolini had no intention of intervening in the war between Germany and Britain and France, but in April 1940, he changed his attitude.
Italy's participation in the war has put the Italian East African territory under unprecedented military pressure.
The British lost India and most of the Middle East, and more than 1.2 million colonial troops were concentrated in North Africa's Egypt, Sudan, Kenya and Tanganyika, which were only 300,000 East African legions and
The 250,000 Italians in the North African Legion could not compete with.
In desperation, the Italians finally agreed to the Republican army enter his East African colony and help them defend the territory of the Italian Kingdom.
After entering North Africa, the Republican Army and the Italians quickly occupied British and French Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. Since these two enclaves were always within the range of the Republican Army's attack, the British only released them in this area.
With three battalions of guarding forces, not to mention the French, who had only one battalion of troops in Djibouti, the Republican army easily occupied this area.
The transport fleet full of Republican soldiers left the heavily guarded port of Aden and sailed to the port of Djibouti, French Somaliland, across the Gulf of Aden. Under the burning sunlight at the end of May, the temperature in the cabin was very high, and many soldiers were
Crowded on the deck and enjoy the sea breeze as much as possible.
The storm at the sea was not very big, but there were still some army officers and soldiers who were seasick, and the cabin was filled with the dizzying and slight scent of vomit.
Fang Minghao stood on the bridge of the Dihua air defense cruiser. This was his first time as chief of staff of a joint combat force. The entire fleet consisted of 23 transport ships and 2 cruisers and 8 destroyers.
, the 179th Division is being transported to the African coast.
The whole of Africa is a strange continent to the Chinese. Except for the fleet led by Zheng He hundreds of years ago that had conquered some places here, the Chinese's understanding of Africa is limited to those written by some Westerners in modern times.
The text materials in the book. Most Chinese people only learned from the textbook that this is a territory of elephants and lions. The residents of the mainland are uncivilized blacks. In addition, Western colonization has been crazy and barbaric about Africa.
The fate of the black slaves was even more miserable than that of the Chinese workers who were sold to the West.
In addition, I also know that the entire Central and South Africa is rich in gold and diamonds.
What is in North Africa? The endless desert, the Arabs and blacks living in poverty, and the few white colonists, why do we go to that kind of place to fight? Many people don’t understand.
Lieutenant General Cavalerro, the commander of the Italian army stationed in Somaliland, made a special trip to Djibouti Port to welcome the arrival of the Republican army. With the cooperation of the Italians, the 7th Marine Division had completely controlled the Bebery in British Somaliland.
La Port and Djibouti Port. The Sixtieth Army became the first army unit to set foot on African land. The headquarters believes that the army officers and soldiers formed in the Xihai Province may be more adapted to the hot desert climate of North Africa.
"The Italian army is all equipped like this?" General Zhang Yian said to Fang Minghao after inspecting the Italian army. He seemed very disappointed. An Italian infantry division in Port Bebera had almost no heavy equipment, and he also carried a vehicle.
Insufficient, and there are only a dozen tanks weighing less than 10 tons.
"Yes, sir!" Fang Minghao said: "They need to re-equip and train before they can be put into the battlefield."
"Damn it, if this is the case, we will not be able to join the battle within half a year." Zhang Yian said.
"This possibility is very high. The British are not very morale now and lack the spirit of proactive attack. We still have time." Fang Minghao said, "It will cost us a lot to re-arm and train the 300,000 Italian and East Africa people.
With energy, we can't draw enough troops to take down the Suez Canal in one fell swoop."
"Why do you dare to declare war on the British in this situation?" Zhang Yian turned his head and asked Carvalero.
"We don't want this, but the Prime Minister has no choice. The Germans have threatened Italy several times, and Britain and France have also regarded us as enemies." Cavalero said, "Think about the fate of the Denmark and Norwegians, and want to
How difficult it is to remain neutral. Mr. Mussolini did not want to be like the Norwegians, so he could only stand on the side of the Germans, and we could not resist the German attack."
"Then aren't you afraid of the British?" said Zhang Yian.
"We can withstand only the British, and the Germans can cross the border at any time," said Carvarero.
The Republic and Italy reached an agreement that the two countries will jointly form a new coalition in East Africa. The Republican Army will send three armies to form a Sino-Italian coalition with nearly 300,000 Italian East African colonial troops. The highest commander of the coalition is the governor of Italy East Africa.
and Duke of Field Marshal Aosta.
Among the nearly 300,000 troops in Italy and East Africa, there are only 110,000 Italians, and they are also colonial troops recruited from the local area. They want to equip and train such a backward colonial imperial army into a force that can adapt to modern combat.
The coalition command was quickly established, and Zhang Yian became the deputy commander-in-chief of the coalition. Fang Minghao was appointed as the chief of staff of the coalition because of his close ties with the Italian military. This arrangement is easier to coordinate the relationship between the two sides.
After carefully understanding the situation of the Italian army in East Africa, Zhang Yian and Fang Minghao listed more than a dozen pages of equipment list to the country, including 1,600 tanks, 1,200 armored vehicles, 900 various types of artillery and 3,000 transport vehicles.
.They need to form 6 armored divisions for the Italians. Only in this way can these colonial imperial troops have certain combat capabilities. As for aviation, the Italians only have more than 300 old aircraft, and currently only air support can be provided by the Republican army.
.
The Republican Army has now begun to re-engineer the Type 39 tank with a weight of more than 45 tons and a 56-caliber 105mm cannon, which can provide a part of the replaced Type 28 tanks to the Italian Army.
Italians invested tens of billions of miles in Italy, and the traffic conditions here are the best among the colonies of all countries. The Italians built a link from Addis Ababa, the capital of Abysia, to French Sobarilan Djibouti.
The railway line of the port, after the 60th Republic Army of the Republican Army landed in the port of Djibouti, it began to move towards Addis Ababa along the railway.
At the Aisha Station in the small town on the border, a train full of Republicans' latest Type 39 tanks was docking on the platform to add coal and water. General Linaqi, who accompanied Zhang Yian on inspection, stared at these things on the platform.
The latest s75/39 tank equipped by the Italian armored forces is nearly twice as big as the behemoth, with a look of envy in his eyes.
"General, when can we use tanks like you?" he still couldn't help asking.
"I think it will happen soon. As long as your prime minister is willing to pay for you." Zhang Yian thought for a while and said, "It's not that we won't give it to you, the problem is that your boss is unwilling to pay for you. I want to blame Mussoli for blame."