"Since the British occupied Gibraltar during the Spanish War in 1704, after nearly 250 years of hard work, this place has become a strong defense fortress city, with a total of surface and underground fortifications constructed with reinforced concrete.
The third floor, with fortresses, barracks, tightly-defended naval bases and two large military airports, forming a complete and tight fortress defense system. In addition, the main force of the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet is also concentrated there, and at first the entire fortress was about
More than 6,000 defense forces, but the British have increased their troops there to about 30,000." In the coalition command in Catania, Major General Simon, director of the Italian Navy Intelligence Agency, is introducing to the senior generals present.
According to the situation, most of the information here was provided by Admiral Arenas, the director of the German Intelligence Agency, who has maintained a good personal relationship with Prime Minister Franco, which has led to the German Intelligence Agency
Able to arrange a large number of intelligence personnel in Spain.
"For such a strong fortress, without large caliber siege cannons, it is absolutely impossible to shake it!" Admiral Kafliani said after listening to the report, "The navy is absolutely impossible to break into the port from the front of the sea.
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"We have transported forty-eight 203mm siege cannons from China, and twenty-two large-caliber mortar cannons, which can fully penetrate concrete fortifications up to two meters thick. In addition, flame spray is used for concrete permanent fortifications.
The equipment is also a good choice. Our troops are equipped with 150 fire-breathing tanks, and each infantry company is also equipped with three individual flamethrowers." Fang Minghao was introducing the preparations of the Republican Army.
These large-caliber siege heavy artillery were originally made by the Republican Army to attack the Lushun Fortress, but after capturing the Japanese mainland, the 500,000 Kwantung Army guarding Lushun and Dalian finally chose to surrender. These heavy artillery had not been used several times.
, "In addition, we will also equip the same number of flamethrowers for the Marine Division of your army according to our organization."
Spain experienced a large-scale civil war for several years before the war, and the domestic livelihood was withered. Franco wanted to personally recover Gibraltar, but he was powerless. As for the current situation, it was extremely wise to maintain neutrality.
The choice.
Hitler had been encouraging Franco to join the Allies. At the end of 1941, Hitler and Franco had a meeting in the small town of Andei on the French border. The German head of state was domineering and demanding that the Spaniards join the war as soon as possible, with an arrogant attitude.
Franco believed that following the Germans would not get any benefits. In principle, the smart dictator agreed to join the Allies, but then raised a lot of difficulties. The Spaniards lacked weapons and equipment, and even food.
, Costume, Franco proposed that he could only join the battle group after re-arming the Spanish army.
Admiral Juan Bigon, chief of staff of the Spanish Army, gave the Germans a list of the supplies they needed, including two thousand combat aircraft, one thousand five hundred tanks, and even two hundred
Ten thousand tons of food. This made Hitler, who was troubled by supplies, suddenly lost his mind and finally returned home in disgrace.
Major Kochick entered the Sino-Italian coalition command as a liaison officer. The intelligence officer of the German Intelligence Agency in Spain had formulated the "Phoenix Plan" to attack Gibraltar. The combat plan of the Sino-Italian coalition is coming according to this plan.
Major Kauchik has drawn a detailed military map of Gibraltar and is quite familiar with the British's defense.
In order to retaliate against the Soviet Union, Russia, which supported the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, the highest ruler decided to send a "Blue Division" to fight against the Soviet Union. However, he declared that it was "non-believer" against Britain, the United States and other countries, and the Spanish army only fought against Russia.
The British also tried their best to win over Spain. If the Spaniards joined the agreement, then a certain place in the Gibraltar Navy would be threatened and the US and British forces would not be able to fight with all their strength in North Africa smoothly.
The scheduled combat date will arrive soon.
On January 26, 1942, it was light raining in the sky, and the Port of Catania was just a busy scene. Lieutenant General Yang Tinggang, commander of the 4th Army of the Republican Marine Corps, boarded the flagship "Songshan" of Navy General Wei Zihao.
After the fleet formed on the sea surface of the Gulf of Catania, it began to sail south in a mighty manner. 38 transport ships loaded with 31,000 official names and fully equipped supplies of the 7th Landing Division were carried in the Fourth Fleet of the Republican Navy and Italy.
Under the protection of 52 escort warships of the First Navy Cruiser Fleet, it sailed to the Iberian Peninsula.
At the same time, the 1st Italian Marine Division also boarded the ship in Messina. They will land in Malaga with the Republican Army under the command of General Kafriyani. The 9th Marine Corps
The 11th Division was on standby in Palermo and Cagliari, and they will set out in three days as the second wave of landing troops.
The voyage from Catania to Gibraltar is less than a thousand nautical miles, and the entire fleet is traveling in the Mediterranean at a speed of about 15 knots, and the entire voyage is about two days. Is it not necessary to keep the entire operation of the China-Italy coalition forces absolutely confidential?
It is possible, but before the operation, the coalition forces carried out large-scale bombings on Algiers and Oran, which seemed to be a landing in some place in Algeria, which confused the US-British coalition forces in North Africa and did not know about the coalition forces.
Where will the target of the attack be chosen?
Worried about the British submarines, the fleet made several major maneuvers on the channel and finally headed along the Mariari Islands to the coast of Spain. This deception was quite successful, and the fleet avoided the surveillance and interception of the British submarine forces until it was
The next day, near dusk, the fleet was discovered by a cruise British destroyer when it was sailing through the sea area near Almeria.
The HJ39D-type sea search radar equipped by the Republican Navy has been greatly improved due to the use of the latest transistors, and its performance has been greatly improved, and its work is very stable, and it can be turned on for three consecutive days.
The Ganzhou cruiser located in front of the right side of the fleet first discovered the target, and the Fuzhou destroyer also reported that it was found radar signals.
"Sir! A high-speed water surface target was found on the front right, with a distance of 46." In the combat room of the flagship "Songshan", the communications officer reported the latest situation to General Wei Zihao.
"It should not be the Spanish. Franco has transferred all the ships in this sea area and ordered the "Ganzhou" to take two destroyers over and take a look!" said the navy general after thinking for a moment.
The entire fleet sounded the combat alarm. After receiving the order, the Ganzhou ships took the two destroyers "Fuzhou" and "Jian" and "Jian" to accelerate, left the formation, and headed at high speed toward the direction where the target was discovered. According to the Navy Information
The information provided by the department shows that the radar technology equipped on the British Royal Navy is lagging behind the Republican Navy. The detection distance of the sea search warning radar equipped by the Royal Navy is about 20 nautical miles, and the current Republican Navy
The detection range of the equipped HJ39d type sea search radar has reached nearly 30 nautical miles.
At this time, all the crew members on the Ganzhou City who were taking off quickly ran to their location after hearing the alarm. The standard displacement of this ship was 9,600 tons, but it was only equipped with four triple-mounted 127mm high-level dual-purpose
The four main turrets of the air defense cruiser of the cannon began to slowly turn to the direction where the target was discovered.
Although the sight on the sea is not very good, for the two speed warships facing each other, the distance between more than 30 nautical miles is only more than ten minutes, and both sides will appear in the other's sight.
"Discover the target, position 206, distance 22!" At this time, the Ganzhou lookouts had already found two faint smoke columns on the sea.