The War of Resistance: My Expedition, My Country

Chapter 303 Leisure Time

The US troops in Palermo and the British landings in Marsala progressed smoothly. Within a day, they had captured both locations and penetrated over 50 kilometers, severing the transportation links to Trapani in western Sicily. The German-Italian forces defending the area fled before the US and British encirclement. This allowed the Allies to completely occupy the northwest corner of Sicily, gaining nearly 2000 square kilometers. After landing along the Cape of San Marco line, the Chinese troops successively occupied coastal towns such as Sciacca, Menfi, and Ribera, gaining an area 250 kilometers long and 100 kilometers deep. The next day, they joined forces with British troops advancing from Marsala.

As planned, the Germans gradually retreated, essentially abandoning western Sicily and establishing a strong defensive line within the extensive fortified area centered on Caltanissetta. Numerous German aircraft were assembling around Sicily. Thousands of German aircraft were poised at secret airfields in Sardinia, Corsica, and across the Italian peninsula, awaiting the arrival of the main Allied forces. Their plan was ruthless: to concentrate their superior air power to annihilate the main Allied forces at sea.

Weimad and his team, through various calculations, predicted the German army's actions. After the second batch of fleets set off, they suddenly turned around and, under the cover of naval and air fighters, suddenly raided Sardinia, bombarding the German airfields and other facilities on the island. When the Germans and Allied forces were about to land on Sardinia, they turned back and headed for Corsica, making a sudden landing from the Gulf of Piana overnight and landing on the island in one fell swoop. This time, the Allies deployed a large number of airborne troops, especially the airborne divisions and special operations regiments directly under the Chinese Fifth Army Group. They carried out targeted airborne operations and raided the German secret airfield on the island, not only seizing a large amount of strategic materials from the German Air Force, but also almost completely occupying the airfield. Many pilots, exhausted after a day of fighting, were killed or captured in their sleep, and a large number of German aircraft were captured intact.

The Allies' plan was rigorous. They airlifted a large number of troops to various airfields overnight. Together with the airborne troops, they launched offensives everywhere. By dawn, most of Corsica had been captured, with only a few enemy forces remaining in small, isolated pockets. After daybreak, the German resistance forces, realizing their predicament, surrendered.

The Allied forces occupied Corsica overnight. Their meticulous planning and resolute and decisive actions not only disrupted the combat deployment of Germany and Italy, but also tore several huge gaps in the German defense network in and around Italy. The German army had to urgently adjust its deployment, and its original plan to lure and annihilate the Allies in Sicily failed. At the same time, it had to abandon Sardinia, leaving the Italian peninsula and the southern coastline of Viking France completely exposed to the Allied firepower.

Furious, the Führer removed Field Marshal von Bock, commander of Army Group South, from command and replaced him with Field Marshal Walter Model, Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Model rushed to Rome and immediately reorganized the army, redeploying a large number of elite troops from Sicily back to the Italian peninsula. Meanwhile, tensions within Italy were escalating. Mussolini was shot while attending a government meeting, but fortunately, his guard captain bravely rescued him. Consequently, a widespread manhunt for rebels was underway in Italy, ensnaring several senior Italian generals and putting the army on the brink of collapse.

That same month, on the Soviet front, the First and Second Ukrainian Fronts, primarily Chinese, seized much of Ukraine east of the Dnieper River and advanced directly on Kyiv. The First Ukrainian Front and the Don Front (formerly the Southern Front) launched a pincer attack, annihilating the main forces of the German Army Group B, the 6th and 11th Armies, in the Kursk region. This lopsided the situation in the southeastern Soviet Union, forcing the Germans to abandon vast swathes east of the Dnieper River. The situation on the Soviet-Soviet-German front underwent a dramatic shift.

For Germany, a greater crisis is looming. Following Japan's defeat, troops from the Pacific Theater are gradually being transferred to Europe. According to the resolution of the Four-Power Summit, the time is ripe for the opening of a second front. In Britain, the United States and Britain have assembled over two million troops, and the Battle of Normandy, a different time and space, is about to unfold...

The Allied forces were reorganized according to the new theater of operations, and Eisenhower officially assumed the position of Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. By this time, the German-Turkish coalition had completely abandoned Iraq and was using a massive defensive perimeter established in Syria near Turkey to resist the Allied offensive. The US Fifth Army and the British Third Army had both been significantly strengthened. The Fifth Army alone comprised seven corps and boasted 5 troops, while the British Third Army boasted 3. Combined, they were almost as strong as the Chinese Third Army Group. The US Second Army and the British Eighth Army were even more impressive, each reaching over 5 troops. They had been reorganized into army groups and deployed to the British mainland, becoming the primary force in the Battle of Normandy.

After capturing Sicily, Yang Hong's Fifth Army Group received orders to withdraw for rest and recuperation. This seemingly strange move actually had extremely clear political significance. The United States, Britain, and other Western countries believed they were already powerful enough, and many within their ranks did not want the Flower Cultivationists' army to set foot on European soil!

Yang Hong and others secretly laughed. It was just right that the children of the flower-growing families could suffer less damage and, with the subsidies from the beautiful country, leisurely enjoy the scenery of the Mediterranean coast in North Africa.

Kuang Zhengqi also received an order that the Third Army Group should temporarily suspend its attack on the Turkish mainland after capturing Aleppo, because the US and British troops on the eastern front were blocked in Mosul. The US and Britain did not want the Chinese army to be the first to attack the Turkish mainland, so they arbitrarily ordered the Third Army Group to suspend its advance.

Kuang Zhengqi was too lazy to talk to them, so he flew to Tripoli on a special plane to meet Yang Hong, who was relaxing there.

"Second brother, welcome, welcome!"

Seeing Kuang Zhengqi, Yang Hong immediately stepped forward, ready to give him a bear hug. Kuang Zhengqi quickly dodged and said with a look of disgust, "Don't try that on me, I'm not gay!"

Yang Hong was a little embarrassed and pinched his nose and said, "Second brother is a married man now, he looks down on us brothers. The time when we used to stay up late together with our bare chests is probably gone forever."

Kuang Zhengqi said, "Of course. Your sister-in-law is a germaphobe. If she smells the sudden stench coming out of me, she will definitely not be happy with me."

"Hey, Tianxiang, the daughter of the Arab chief, I can't entertain you today."