Rise of Australia

Chapter 900 Annexation of Libya

The Italian Air Force's tail-cutting tactics were effective. The remaining air force effectively delayed the pursuit of the British and French air forces, buying enough time for the main force of the air force to retreat.

The remaining two aircraft squadrons had about 70 aircraft. Faced with the encirclement of hundreds of British and French aircraft, the outcome is needless to say.

After desperately hitting several British and French aircraft, these more than 70 Italian aircraft were quickly wiped out by the British and French air forces.

Looking at the retreating figure of the Italian Air Force, the British Air Force commander issued a very bold order, that is, to continue the pursuit.

In fact, the British and French air forces had an absolute advantage at this time.

One thing that cannot be ignored is the fuel tank capacity of the fighter jet. After a long battle, the Italian Air Force not only used up all its ammunition reserves, but also consumed most of the fuel in the fuel tanks.

If they cannot return home in time, even if they can escape the pursuit of British and French aircraft, they will eventually have to crash because they run out of fuel.

The British and French naturally understand this, and based on the principle of beating the drowned dog, they will naturally try to hurt the Italians as much as they can inflict any trauma on the Italian Air Force.

Of course, there is another point, which is to exact revenge on the Italians.

Although the Italian air strike was unsuccessful, it effectively destroyed the British air defense positions on the island of Malta and caused certain casualties to the British army.

As the world's most powerful country, the British Empire will definitely want to take revenge, and now is a good opportunity.

Sicily is only more than 90 kilometers away from Malta. With the plane traveling at full speed, it only takes more than 20 minutes to arrive.

The purpose of the British and French air forces is also very obvious, that is, on the premise of chasing Italian aircraft, they can air raid Sicily as much as possible to regain some face.

Of course, chasing the Italian aircraft must be the first priority. But if they can't catch up with the Italian Air Force, they can only vent their anger on the important facilities and troops on Sicily.

Anyway, there are many military airports in Sicily. If you attack these military airports, you might be able to blow up some Italian fighter jets by chance.

The pursuit started from Valletta on the island of Malta to Siracusa in Sicily, then to Catania, Messina, and finally even to Reggio in Calabria.

Although the Italian air force was not completely wiped out, the pursuit along the way still allowed Britain and France to destroy at least hundreds of Italian aircraft.

More importantly, on the way back, the British and French air forces jointly bombed many cities in Sicily, including Mosina, Cataria, Syracuse and Palermo.

This air raid on Italy caused heavy losses. A total of nearly 200 aircraft were lost before and after, and many cities in Sicily were also attacked by British and French air raids.

What's even more terrible is that the 2000 paratroopers who were previously dropped on the island of Malta faced an entire division of British troops plus a large number of British and French aircraft, and the outcome was already doomed.

Looking back at the losses on the British and French sides, only a little over 100 aircraft were destroyed, and a considerable number of them were forced to sacrifice for evacuation when they were previously at a numerical disadvantage.

The UK's biggest loss should be Malta's ground facilities. Although Italy did not bomb Malta's military airports, it also launched a large-scale bombing of Malta's military stations and naval bases.

Although the British Air Force also responded in kind, it will take at least half a month to repair the military facilities on the island of Malta.

However, the results of this air strike are good news for Britain and France. After the Italian Air Force suffered heavy losses, it completely eliminated their hope of supporting Libya.

After this air strike, Britain and France both stepped up their attacks on Libya, leaving Italy helpless.

With an army of more than 100 million attacking the Italian colonial army of only 60, the advantage naturally lies with Britain, France and Australia.

Especially after the failure of the Italian Air Force, Britain and France have gradually gained control of Libya's air superiority, which has played a decisive role in the Libyan offensive.

We have to admit that with the development of the war to this day, the three armed forces of the sea, land and air force have their own roles, and none of them can be missing.

On the small battlefield in Libya, Britain, France and Australia have completely crushed the land, sea and air forces. This actually determines the outcome of this war. Italy is definitely the loser.

With the help of the Australasian army, the British army captured Tobruk in eastern Libya in just one week and captured more than 10 Italian troops.

This battle also allowed Britain and France to thoroughly see the combat effectiveness of the Italian army. If both sides fight with all their might, perhaps the Italian army's combat effectiveness is not weak.

But unfortunately, the Italian Army's will is not that tenacious, and their desire for victory in the war is not that intense.

In the attack on Tobruk, most of the Italian troops always resisted symbolically for a period of time. After several parties suffered heavy casualties, they basically surrendered decisively.

The surrender of part of the Italian colonial army also affected the situation in Tobruk, which ultimately allowed the British army to capture the city in just a week.

But at this time, there was also a thorny problem waiting to be solved by the British, which was how to deal with the more than 100,000 Italian army prisoners. After all, both sides are major powers, and the most basic Geneva Conventions must still be observed.

In the end, the British decided to transport more than 100,000 Italian prisoners to the eastern port of Matruh and show them to the Egyptians.

After promising to provide these Italian prisoners with the prisoner treatment required by the Geneva Convention, these Italian soldiers did not have any objections and agreed to go to Matruh Port, which surprised the British army.

This was the first time that the British had seen such captives being slaughtered by others. During World War I and the German-Austrian war, prisoners from these two countries often broke out in resistance, but this gave the British a headache for a long time.

After the capture of Tobruk, eastern Libya became a blank space. The British army marched unscrupulously deeper, and the Italian colonial armies wherever they passed were frightened and either collapsed or surrendered.

On the other side, the French offense also achieved good results.

Although the Italian regular army is stationed in Tripoli, the combat effectiveness of the Italian regular army is not very good, at least now it cannot compare with the French army.

Especially after understanding that they could no longer receive any domestic assistance, the Italian army seemed to look away and was not obsessed with resisting the French attack.

The Italian army, which could barely block the French attack, seemed to change overnight and turned into an indigenous army with even worse combat effectiveness.

Because of this, France successfully captured Tripoli after more than ten days of siege.

Of course, the French naturally have to face the same problem as the British, and that is how to deal with Italian prisoners.

As the largest city in the Libyan colony, Tripoli also has the largest number of Italian troops stationed.

There are 15 Italian regular troops and 20 colonial troops here. The Italian troops captured by the French alone total close to 25.

Compared with the British decision to move prisoners and keep them in custody, the French's method was simpler and more crude, that is, to keep them in place and send more than 100,000 troops to maintain order.

Like the British, the French gradually relaxed after discovering that the Italian prisoners showed no resistance, and did not treat the Italian prisoners too harshly.

The capture of two important cities in succession also meant that Italy's Libyan colony was in danger.

With the advancement of armored forces, Britain and France finally fully occupied the Libyan colony before the end of September, and replaced all cities in the Libyan colony with their own flags.

After losing the Libyan colony, Italy, a great power, became somewhat unworthy of its name.

These two colonies in Africa are Italy's only colonies. After losing them all, it also means that Italy has become a powerful country like Germany, which only has its own homeland.

But the German mainland is already very strong, but the Italian mainland is not as strong as imagined.

Italy is a country with obvious differences between north and south. Northern Italy's industry is relatively strong and its economy is relatively more developed. Southern Italy's agriculture is stronger, but its industry and economy lag behind that of the north.

Precisely because of such a huge gap between the north and the south, there is also discrimination between north and south Italy, and the discrimination is quite intense.

You know, the history of the unification of Italy is not long, and even full calculations only lasted more than 60 years.

Italy was formed by the merger of two main countries in the north and south, the Kingdom of Sardinia, Piedmont and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and also annexed other Italian countries on the peninsula.

This also means that Italy is not as stable as it appears. After losing two colonies in succession, the local problems will become more serious, and Italy's strength will become weaker and weaker.

After occupying Libya, Britain and France did not stop their actions.

Because in Europe, Germany's attack on Paris continues. Although with the help of British and Australasian troops, the French temporarily resisted the German attack, this was only temporary after all.

If the pressure on the French could not be relieved elsewhere, sooner or later Paris would be captured by the Germans.

The plan chosen by the British to relieve the pressure on the French was actually to start with Italy, the weakest country in the German-Italian alliance.

At the new Allied Conference, the British formally proposed a plan to open a Balkan battlefield.

At present, Italy has suffered certain setbacks and lost more than 80 troops. With the help of the Balkan countries, it can basically hold back the Italian army and reduce the pressure on France in the south.

Even if Italy loses ground in the Balkan battlefield, in order to protect its allies, the Germans will definitely send troops to help Italy, which will naturally ease the pressure on the French.

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(End of this chapter)