USSR 1941

  Chapter 870 Amphibious Landing Ship

   "No no..." John shook his head immediately: "Maybe you don't understand the war situation in Africa, Comrade Shulka, we have done this before!"

   "Have you ever done this?" Shulka asked back.

   "I mean...we've done something about it!" John replied, but didn't say anything more.

  John was unwilling to say, so Shulka stopped asking, because it was probably a military secret.

  But in fact Shulka knew it.

  The British did land in Africa from the island of Malta, but their purpose was not to cut off or attack the German supply line, but to assassinate Rommel...

   This was an operation in November last year. At that time, the British army was chased by Rommel in a hurry, and they launched an operation code-named "Fin" under the emergency.

  The reason why it is named "Fin" is because the means of transportation for this operation is a submarine... The British army used a small submarine to transport 48 special forces members to Africa to try to assassinate Rommel.

   But this operation failed.

   The reason for the failure is that the British did not do a good job of intelligence work...Rommel stayed in Italy during that time, even 16 days in Italy but the British didn't know it at all.

  At the same time, the British still lack a little luck. According to intelligence, Rommel will return from Italy the next day. As long as the British raid is delayed by one day, even if it is only one day, the commando may succeed and rewrite history.

   But the reality is so cruel.

   As a result, the commando killed three logistics officers and a soldier at the cost of annihilating the entire army (only two escaped), and blew up another fuel depot.

  Unbeknownst to Shulka, this wasn't really a military secret to John, since it had been happening for months and the Germans had been briefed about it.

  The reason why John didn't say it was because it was a disgrace to the British intelligence agency... This operation was a failure caused by a complete intelligence error, which is not allowed by the old intelligence country of the United Kingdom.

   But this does not affect Shulka's analysis.

   "But I think..." Shulka said: "Even if you have had similar operations, it was only a small-scale operation!"

   "Of course!" John nodded and said, "Landing in Africa is very difficult. This is not only because of insufficient landing conditions and difficult landing operations, but also because supplies cannot be guaranteed!"

Speaking of John, he pointed to the map and said: "Although we have air supremacy near the island of Malta, this air supremacy is very limited. Moreover, our fleet and air force patrol the sea almost around the clock and fight against German and Italian air forces and warships. Blocking their sea lines of communication, if we put them into a landing operation, we will be unable to block sea traffic, which may outweigh the gain!"

   Shulka understood what John said.

  Maritime transportation is the big head. A small transport ship full of supplies from Italy to Africa can fill at least dozens of cars.

  If the British army abandons the naval blockade and puts the navy and air force into the battle to land in Africa, it is likely that a large number of troops will be lost in exchange for an increase in African supplies.

At the same time, the landing operation is still a big pit: once the landing is successful, it means that the British navy must continuously transport supplies to the coastline, and the air force must protect the transport ship at all times, which almost means the end of the British army's blockade of sea lanes. It also lost its strategic significance.

  From this point of view, Shulka's suggestion is really not a good suggestion. Not only is it not a good suggestion, it can even be said to be a bad move.

but…

"I'm not talking about you stopping the blockade of the sea lines!" Shulka said. "I mean, block the sea lines and strike the German land lines! You know, John, the Germans The Chinese concentrated almost all the elite troops in Egypt to attack the Alamein defense line, which even included the Italian troops, and those who stayed behind to protect the supply line were old and weak soldiers, and they were almost defeated in one blow!"

"I know, Shulka!" John shook his head distressedly: "We all know, but we only have that little force and equipment, we can't block the enemy's sea lines of communication and land in Africa to attack their land lines of communication at the same time! If it could be done, we would have done it!"

  The British are indeed short of supplies and troops on the island of Malta, especially fighter planes.

The reason is that the German and Italian armies have never given up bombing the island of Malta, even if the German army shifted its strategic focus to the direction of the Soviet Union... Malta island is a poisonous thorn stuck in its communication line, and they always want to use this poisonous thorn Thorn removal.

   "No, you can do it!" Shulka said confidently.

   "What?" John didn't understand what Shulka meant.

   "You can do it!" Shulka said: "All you need is an amphibious landing ship!"

John couldn't help being taken aback, then almost jumped up, and exclaimed excitedly: "That's right, Comrade Shulka! Amphibious landing ship, amphibious landing ship... why didn't I think of this? If we ask, the Soviet side will definitely Will help us, right?"

   "I'm not sure!" Shulka didn't dare to speak too much: "However, I can't think of a reason for them to refuse, because if Britain loses the war and completely withdraws from Africa, it will not benefit the Soviet Union at all!"

   Not only is there no benefit, but it will also be attacked from both sides and threaten the Baku oil field.

"Yes, of course!" John said while walking back and forth excitedly: "And the amphibious landing ship is not considered high-tech equipment, they will definitely agree! I am so stupid, I didn't expect that we could ask the Soviet Union for an amphibious landing ship , with amphibious landing craft... we don't need much navy and air force at all, we can directly transport equipment, ammunition and supplies to the coast of Africa!"

   Speaking of this, John stopped, turned his head and asked: "What is the range of the amphibious landing ship? And the speed, can it span 300 kilometers?"

   "No, it can't!" Shulka replied: "Its speed at sea is 10 kilometers per hour, and it can only travel more than 100 kilometers at sea with full fuel! It can reach a speed of 90 kilometers per hour on land!"

  John's face changed, and he said, "That is to say, we need a transport ship to transport the amphibious landing ship to the offshore? At least a hundred kilometers away!"

  Although this has saved many intermediate steps, it still requires a lot of transport ships.

   Shulka smiled and said, "No, you don't need to do that!"

   "So..." John didn't understand what Shulka meant.

   "You only need to stop a few supply ships at a hundred kilometers away!" Shulka said: "I mean, when the amphibious landing ships arrive here, you can provide them with fuel!"

  (end of this chapter)