Since 1943, the world situation has undergone great changes. Regardless of the situation on the Eastern battlefield, we will only talk about the Third Reich.

Rommel, the Desert Fox, was driven out of North Africa and returned to Western Europe in despair to build the Atlantic Barrier.

The troops of the Third Reich withdrew from the island of Great Britain, and the Western Front switched from active attack to passive defense.

On the Eastern Front battlefield, after millions of Chinese troops arrived in Eastern Europe, the enemy launched a massive counterattack.

The Third Reich gave up supporting the fertile North Caucasus, the First Armored Army was almost completely wiped out, and the elite 6th Army of Army Group South was surrounded in Stalingrad.

The enemy's counterattack was comprehensive, all fronts were somewhat passive, and the battle situation was very tense.

There is no hope of turning defeat into victory for the time being, and some voices of doubt have begun to appear in the country.

At such a moment, Mustache, as the supreme commander, must stand up, and he once again used his gift of speech.

On June 27, Mustache gave a speech to 2,000 newly graduated army officers and three newly formed divisions at the Berlin Barracks.

His speeches were broadcast live to thousands of households throughout the Third Reich.

The speech venue was crowded, and the mood of the officers and soldiers was high.

During his speech, Mustache was full of emotion, his voice was ups and downs, and his body movements were very rich. He constantly stirred up the emotions of the soldiers in the audience and made them shout long live.

At the end of his speech, Mustache said the classic words:

"I want to stand on the highest place on earth and shout to the whole world:

stand at attention!"

This sentence completely ignited the atmosphere at the speech venue. People performed Nazi salutes over and over again, and various flags were waving.

The self-confident, bright and far-sighted head of state is back again.

It took only one speech for Mustache to silence the voices of doubt in the country, and most people returned to their busy work, acting as an inconspicuous little screw in the war machine.

Social sentiment is high, production enthusiasm is strong, and everything seems to be moving in a good direction.

But all this is an illusion, and the illusion is destined to be broken.

The mustache slapped me in the face very quickly, in the early morning of June 28.

He is used to working until early morning and then sleeping until noon.

The same goes for June 28th.

Just when the mustache was complacent about his speech during the day and rewarded himself with a glass of red wine that he had treasured for a long time, bad news came one after another.

"Führer, we have just received a report from the defenders of Sicily. The Allied forces on the Western Front are preparing to land on Sicily, and the operation time is tonight!"

Chief of Staff Keitel broke out in cold sweat on his forehead.

Mustache was holding the red wine glass and fell into a sluggish state. The thing happened too fast and he hadn't fully reacted yet.

"Is the information accurate?"

"Thousands of enemy aircraft and warships have left ***!"

"Wow!"

The red wine glass fell to the ground and shattered, and the red liquid slowly spread out, looking like a ferocious human face.

Mustache rushed to the battle map in two or three steps, shook his head and said loudly:

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"The Allied forces' target is definitely not Sicily, but Greece. This is fake. It must be a smoke bomb they actively released. Don't be fooled!"

While talking, Reich Marshal Göring, Navy Marshal Dönitz, and Head of the Chancellery Bormann also came to the conference room.

Chief of Staff Keitel glanced at everyone and said again:

"Führer, the intelligence has been confirmed. The enemy's operation is codenamed Husky. The target is Sicily. The airborne troops will land soon!"

"We were deceived. They will never land from Greece!"

He had just delivered an inspiring speech during the day, but before he could reward himself, he heard such bad news. Mustache's body shook a few times.

The intelligence department of the Third Reich had previously intercepted some intelligence, which showed that the Allied landing site was Greece.

Mustache transferred some troops originally deployed in Sicily to Greece.

He remembered that he had received a report just one day ago that two enemy aircraft carriers were in the waters outside Greece and seemed to be ready to support the landing force at any time.

"Could it be that everything I heard and saw was false?"

"This is impossible, absolutely impossible!"

In fact, the intelligence collected by the Third Reich was deliberately leaked by the Allies.

The Allies also painstakingly prepared a "meat plan" for this purpose.

The purpose was to make the enemy think that the Allied landing point was in Greece and relax the defense in the direction of Sicily.

Now it seems that the meat filling plan is very successful.

"Ahhhh..."

The mustache banged on the table and roared that he wanted to send the head of the intelligence department to see God.

The most important thing at the moment is not to hold people accountable, but to adjust their deployment in a timely manner to prevent the enemy from landing on Sicily.

Mussolini, his loyal ally, is already having a hard time at home. If the Allied forces successfully land on Sicily, it is likely that Mussolini will step down and Italy will surrender.

In that case the situation would be too bad.

At three o'clock in the morning, Mustache finally received an accurate report from the Sicilian defenders:

"About two divisions of Allied paratroopers have landed in Sicily. The battle has begun. Requesting reinforcements!"

It is definitely too late to mobilize troops from Greece. At the moment, we can only hope that Mussolini can provide support to Sicily.

Mustache personally talked to him on the phone and finally brought in some "reinforcements".

After a sleepless night, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the hazy morning light appeared.

There is an hour time difference between Berlin and Moscow. At 5 o'clock in the direction of Stalingrad, it is already 6 o'clock in the morning, and the sky is bright.

Mustache, who had not slept, was a little irritable. He was like a bull that was about to become angry. Any hint of red would make it go berserk immediately.

At 5:30 Berlin time, Marshal Paulus, who was in the Stalingrad encirclement, personally sent a telegram to the Führer:

"The 6th Army decided to surrender to the Chinese Western Expeditionary Army in front of them at noon today!"

When the telegram was sent to the High Command, the first person to see the content was Chief of Staff Keitel.

Keitel's jaw almost dropped to the ground in shock.

Goering and others noticed something strange about him, and they all came over to read the contents of the telegram.

For a time, needles could be heard in the Supreme Command.

Mustache seemed to have a premonition of something, so he grabbed the telegram and read it quickly.

In the first 10 seconds, his face was very calm, but soon, Mustache's chest rose and fell violently.

"The head of state..."

"The head of state..."

"The head of state..."

Keitel, Goering, and Dönitz all spoke at the same time, wanting to comfort the Führer and stop him from getting angry.

But before they could speak, the head of state roared hysterically.

The hysterical appearance of the head of state was somewhat similar to the way he looked when he was giving a hearty speech on the stage, with a ferocious expression and rich body movements.

With spittle flying, the Führer denounced Paulus.

He gave Paulus everything, so why was he ungrateful and betrayed the Third Reich?

The hysterical roar spread far away, and when a hurried staff officer came to the door, he braked and stopped.

The staff officer looked at the telegram in his hand and hesitated whether to knock on the door or not.

"Bang!"

It seemed like a red wine bottle had hit the wall, and the staff officer saw red liquid flowing to his feet.

He looked at the telegram in his hand again and mustered up the courage to knock on the door.

"Dong dong dong..."

Suddenly the hysterical roar of the head of state could no longer be heard. The staff officer's heart beat violently and he swallowed his saliva involuntarily.

Finally, the door opened.

The staff officer pretended not to see the mess in the room, went straight to Chief of Staff Keitel, and handed over the telegram with both hands.

After sending the telegram, he turned around neatly and closed the door thoughtfully.

Others cast curious and questioning glances at the staff officer, but the staff officer did not dare to say anything.

In the room, Chief of Staff Kate's hands began to tremble violently.

As a member of a large family, he has received the best military and cultural education since he was a child. Most of the time, he is calm when things change, but today he has already lost his temper twice.

The head of state was breathing heavily, and others were also looking at Keitel's expression.

Everyone had a bad premonition in their hearts.

Very bad!

I don’t know how long it took, but in the unprecedented tense and depressing atmosphere, the hoarse and dry voice of Chief of Staff Keitel sounded:

"On the eastern front battlefield, the enemy surrounded the troops of the 11th Army and the 2nd Armored Army on the east bank of the Don River."

"Marshal Manstein and General Guderian are also in the encirclement!"

[Author's digression]: The climax is coming, please vote.
Chapter completed!