Chapter 62: Changes (Part 1)
The raids in North China in March 1940 taught the Japanese army a profound lesson. Busy with maintaining law and order in the occupied areas and clearing out anti-Japanese armed forces behind enemy lines, the invading Japanese army was temporarily unable to continue to maintain pressure on the front battlefield, while the Chinese side was also licking its previous wounds. As a result, a rare calm appeared on the Chinese battlefield for a while.
However, the world situation is constantly evolving.
On April 9, 1940, Germany launched Operation Wesselühl, heading north to attack Denmark and Norway.
German Propaganda Minister Goebbels claimed that this was to prevent Britain and France from occupying Norway, a originally neutral country, first, thereby cutting off Germany's import of minerals from Sweden. However, the real purpose was to use Norway as a springboard to occupy the Faroe Islands and Iceland, thereby threatening Britain's flank.
The British, who saw through the German plot, sent their navy to successfully blockade Norway's coastal ports, landed in Norway and initially forced the German army to retreat to the Norwegian hinterland.
However, the British army was unable to eliminate the main force of the German army that invaded Norway. In addition, the war on the Western Front broke out and the war was unfavorable to Britain and France. Therefore, the British army was eventually forced to retreat.
In June 1940, Norway was occupied by Germany.
The Norwegian campaign was still going on, but the war on the Western Front had already begun.
On May 10, 1940, the German army adopted a modified Schlieffen Plan (Manstein Plan), divided all its main forces into three army groups A, B, and C, bypassed the Maginot Line and invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France.
On May 13, German Army Group A entered France through the Ardennes region where France's defense was weak as intended by Manstein. The Allied forces were completely unable to organize effective resistance in the Ardennes Mountains due to the German surprise attack.
The German tank division crossed the Meuse River and captured Sedan, a strategic city in southern France on May 13. At the same time, the German Army Group B, with the support of airborne troops, invaded the Netherlands and Belgium to attract and contain the main forces of the British and French Allied Forces in the Belgian plains, allowing Army Group A to more smoothly pass through the flank of the main forces of the British and French Allied Forces near northern France to form the large encirclement planned by Manstein.
By May 19 the German armored divisions were within 50 miles of the English Channel.
On May 24, the German armored forces were approaching the northern French port of Dunkirk, but at this time they received an order from Hitler to stop advancing.
This order later proved to be a fatal mistake.
The surrounded Allied forces took the opportunity to begin implementing a retreat plan called "Operation Dynamo", which was the famous Dunkirk evacuation in the history of world wars.
The British government mobilized a mixed fleet of 850 ships of various types, power engines, and sizes to cross the sea and concentrate in Dunkirk. The first batch of soldiers began to be evacuated on May 27. By June 4, more than 330,000 people had successfully escaped, including 230,000 from the British Expeditionary Force, thus preserving the manpower for the counterattack against Germany.
However, although this retreat saved Britain from the tragedy of total annihilation, it also resulted in the loss of a large amount of supplies and weapons and equipment, and the morale of the British army also fell into low territory.
At the same time as Germany invaded France, Italy, which had been sitting on the fence in the war, could no longer resist the desire to seize the fruits of victory and joined the war.
In fact, as early as May 21, 1939, when the two fascist countries of Germany and Italy signed the so-called "Pact of Steel", Mussolini emphasized to Hitler that peace in Europe should be maintained at least until the end of 1942, and Hitler, who was good at changing the situation, readily agreed at the time.
Mussolini's desire for peace was indeed sincere for two reasons: first, Italy launched an aggressive war against Ethiopia (then called Abyssinia) in 1935, which ended only in 1936.
In 1936, it participated in the Spanish Civil War, which ended in 1939, and then invaded Albania in April of the same year.
After years of fighting, we have suffered heavy losses, so we really need to rest.
Second, Mussolini knew that his adaptability skills would only be put to use when crises continued to occur and peace was not hopeless.
For example, at the Munich Conference in 1938, Mussolini was cheerful and cheerful , and seemed to be more prominent than anyone else, as if he was playing the role of a leader.
If a war really breaks out, Italy will naturally become insignificant because of its inferior strength.
So when Hitler decided to go to war in August 1939, Mussolini reacted with a mixture of disappointment and anger.
After consulting with his son-in-law (Foreign Minister) Ciano, he decided to tell Hitler frankly that Italy was not yet fully prepared and could not take military action, and that its support for Germany could only be limited to political and economic aspects.
Hitler was not at all surprised by Mussolini's statement. He only made three requests to Italy: first, Italian newspapers and radio should support Germany as much as possible; second, bluff as much as possible to tie down the British and French troops; third, provide the manpower needed for German industry and agriculture.
Therefore, just as when World War I broke out, although Italy was an ally of Germany, it did not temporarily participate in the war.
This is a wise decision for Italy. Since it knows it is not well prepared, it should not take risks.
It is not only safe but also beneficial to prepare while waiting and making further decisions when the favorable opportunity comes.
For Germany, there is no disadvantage and it may even be more advantageous.
There was a popular joke in Germany before the war: "If war breaks out, Italy is better off staying neutral, so that it can perhaps tie down 10 enemy divisions. If it joins the enemy, Germany can defeat it with only 5 divisions. But if it joins the German side, Germany will have to use 20 divisions to protect it."
This prediction unfortunately came true. If Italy had maintained a benign neutrality, its contribution to Germany would have been far greater than if it had participated in the war.
The Balkans and the Mediterranean would be peaceful, so Germany could concentrate on its decisive operations.
But unfortunately, Mussolini failed to persevere to the end, and on June 10, 1940, Italy finally declared war on France.
Seeing that the German army was advancing like a hot knife through butter and victory was imminent, Mussolini felt that if he did not join the war at this time, he would lose the opportunity to share the fruits of victory. Therefore, although France expressed its willingness to give up some colonies, he was still rejected.
But it was not until 10 days later that Italian troops slowly began to attack the southern border of France, and were then easily repelled by the weak French defenders.
Fortunately, a truce agreement had been signed between Germany and France at this time, so Italy took advantage of the opportunity and became the winner.
After France surrendered, Britain continued to fight against Germany, so Hitler began to plan the "Sea Lion" plan.
Due to the defeat on the European continent, the British lost almost all of their army equipment and their air force only had one or two hundred fighter planes left. The troops in the colonies had to be withdrawn to defend their homeland, which gave Mussolini a new opportunity.
Although a series of wars against Abyssinia, Albania and France exposed the incompetence of the Italian Army , Mussolini believed that Italy's navy and air force were still capable enough to dominate the Mediterranean. Therefore, he could take advantage of the imminent destruction of the British Empire to restore the glory of the former Roman Empire and establish a new Roman Empire around the Mediterranean.
To this end, Mussolini quickly ordered an attack on Malta, British Somaliland, Kenya, Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
On July 4, 1940, two Italian brigades, under the cover of artillery, aircraft and tanks, suddenly attacked the Sudanese town of Kasari.
The Italian army participating in this battle consisted of more than 8,000 people, including 1,500 Eritrean mercenaries, while the hostile Sudanese soldiers commanded by British officers numbered only 400. However, the result was unexpected.
The British army did not engage in a firefight with the Italian army in the city. Instead, they moved the battlefield outside the city, using trucks loaded with machine guns to fire and attack the Italian army, and then quickly retreated.
In the end, the Italian army suffered more than 500 casualties before capturing Kassala, while the British army only lost 12 soldiers and 7 vehicles.
The Battle of Casali was just the beginning of the Italians' poor performance.
On August 4, the Italian army attacked British Somaliland. More than 30,000 Italian troops attacked the British army, which had less than one-tenth of its strength. Not only did they fail to destroy it, they couldn't even defeat it. They only forced the enemy to retreat.
The British army then received reinforcements from India and turned from defense to offense, thus changing the situation in East Africa.
On September 8, Italian troops, plagued by a lack of transport, poorly trained officers, and inadequate supporting weapons, began to invade Egypt at the urging of Rome.
In response to the slow Italian attack, General Archibald Wavell, who commanded the British army, led the British troops stationed in Egypt to fight and retreat, and soon retreated from the border to before Mersa Matruh.
On September 16, Italian troops advanced to Maktila, about 80 mi (130 km) west of Mersa Matruh, where they halted due to supply problems.
Despite Mussolini's urging to continue the advance, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Governor-General of Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian Forces in North Africa, ordered his troops to dig trenches around Sidi Barrani and to reinforce the established forward camps; other troops were also placed behind the main force.
Targeting the scattered Italian camps, the British planned a five-day limited offensive, Operation Compass, preparing to attack these defensive camps one by one in order to delay the Italian offensive.
On December 9, about 39,000 British troops launched an attack. Facing them, the Italian army had a total of 10 divisions, about six times the strength of the British army.
However, as soon as the battle started, the British army was shocked to find that the seemingly powerful Italians were actually vulnerable. Often, the Italian army was ready to retreat just as the battle began.
In this case, "Operation Compass" was expanded into a real counterattack.
By February 1941, the British army had not only recovered the entire territory of Egypt, but also crossed the border between Egypt and Libya and occupied the important town of Badia and the fortress of Tobruk.
The fleeing Italian troops were also intercepted at Bidav Gate by the British 7th Armoured Division, which had crossed the Western Desert.
At the Battle of Bidavre Gate, the remnants of the Italian army surrendered, and in just 10 weeks the Allies advanced into Cyrenaica and destroyed the Italian Tenth Army, taking over 130,000 prisoners in the fighting.
