What Rommel was talking about was Qin Chuan’s plan.

Qin Chuan was thinking about a question when the British army attacked the Alexander line: this would not work. The German supply conditions must be improved. Otherwise, if one attack is lucky enough to withstand another attack, there will be the next attack. In the end, the African Legion will still completely collapse due to the huge gap between equipment and military strength like history.

But what can Qin Chuan do?

To change the supply conditions, the island of Malta must be seized, because it lies between Italy and the North African continent.

However, at this time, the German and Italian troops had lost the best time to seize the Island of Malta.

While staring at the map and falling into deep thought, Qin Chuan suddenly realized that it is not necessary to start with Italy to transport materials to North Africa. The terrain of Greece and Italy has one thing in common... Both are long exploring into the Mediterranean.

At this time, Greece had surrendered. That is, under the control of Germany and Italian troops, only Crete was spared because it was an island and the British 14th Infantry Division was stationed... The reason why this island was stationed by the British was because the British army hoped that the Greek army would have more troops to deal with the German and Italian attacks, so they sent an infantry division to defend Crete for Greece, which allowed Greece to transfer the three divisions originally stationed on the island back to Greece to fight against Germany and Italian troops, but this still failed to change the result.

This discovery made Qin Chuan ecstatic because, as Rommel said, once Crete is occupied, the British air force on Malta will be completely lost.

"We can first transport the material located in Sicily through the Strait of Messina to Greece!" Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said: "We can even open a transportation line to Greece, transfer all the materials originally shipped to Italy and Sicily to Greece, and then transfer them to sea at Greek ports and directly to Matru or Alexander!"

"The Island of Malta is more than 800 kilometers away from Crete!" Rommel added: "Or it can be said that it is nearly 800 kilometers away from our route, so they can't do anything!"

This is determined by the range of British fighter jets... The British more advanced "Spray Fire" fighter jets have a range of only 1,000 kilometers, which means that their combat radius is only 500 kilometers, and it is impossible to threaten Crete from Malta Island 800 kilometers away.

"In addition, the same is true for Port Said!" Qin Chuan said: "Port Said is 610 kilometers away from Crete, which is also outside the combat radius of British fighter jets. That is to say... If we can seize Crete, we basically don't have to worry about the British using fighter jets to block our supply line!"

Crete has a very special geographical location. It is located between Port Said and Island of Malta, and it is almost the longest distance of the British fighter jets... If British fighter jets are to be transferred from Port Said to Island of Malta, they usually have to use Crete as the relay station, that is, to refuel in Crete and then fly to Island of Malta.

But if the German army occupied the middle relay station, it is conceivable that it is not just a matter of establishing a supply line, but it will also make it difficult for British fighter jets to mobilize between Port Said and Malta.

The reason why the word "hard" is used is because the British army has other methods of mobilizing, such as using aircraft carriers as relay stations, but it is obviously more dangerous and more complicated than using Crete as relay stations.

This is also one of the reasons why Qin Chuan wanted to transfer British fighter jets to Malta Island... The British must have never expected that the fighter jets would not be able to come back after they arrived at Malta Island.

"So...what troops should we use to attack Crete?" General Strek asked.

"The same troops we call!" Qin Chuan said: "It's just that their target of attacking is not Malta, but Crete!"

General Streck couldn't help but nodded. This was actually a sound attack.

"This is indeed a good idea!" General Streck paused and said, "But I still have a question, how can we prevent British fighter jets from returning to Crete?"

This question is about the point.

As mentioned earlier, the most important thing in the naval battle of island seizure is air supremacy. Although Crete is outside the combat radius of fighter jets in Malta and Port Said, Crete is different under the control of the British army... British fighter jets can fly to Crete airports and land and fight with Crete as the starting point.

"Airborne!" said Rommel.

"Yes, the airborne troops!" Qin Chuan nodded and said, "They are the key. They must control all three airports on Crete at the first time, otherwise..."

Otherwise, there is no need to say the following. As long as there is an airport under the control of the British army, British fighter jets can rush from Malta and Port Said to Crete within two hours, then land, refuel, take off, and then quickly seize air supremacy.

There is no doubt about this.

This does not mean that German fighter jets cannot beat British fighter jets. In fact, German fighter jets always have the upper hand in air combat or even win more with less.

The problem is that the German BF109 fighter jet is famous for its short legs, with a maximum range of only 700 kilometers.

Crete is 300 kilometers away from the African continent, and it is 600 kilometers in one round... By the calculation, it will only take a few minutes to fly over Crete to a few minutes, otherwise it would not have enough fuel to fly back.

This will put a lot of psychological pressure on the pilots, and even if the German pilots are all very skilled, they can only play a role in a few minutes when flying to Crete.

On the contrary, if the German army fully controls the airport, the British army will face this problem.

To be precise, if the German army could control the airport, British fighter jets would not be able to fight over Crete... The British Port of Said was 600 kilometers away from Crete instead of 300 kilometers.

After thinking for a while, Rommel said: "I agree with this combat plan because it can turn us from being completely passive to being completely active, especially to a considerable extent, which will change the contrast of air power to a considerable extent. However, we cannot pin our hopes on the Italians!"

Qin Chuan knew what Rommel meant.

The focus of seizing Crete is to control three airports on the island, and the main force controlling these three airports is the Italian 185 Paratrooper Division... Although this division has the nickname of the "Lightning" Division, the Italian 132nd Armored Division also has a very majestic nickname "Ram".

"But what can we do?" Qin Chuan asked: "We don't have airborne troops!"

The German army actually had airborne troops, but they were all used by Hitler to attack the Soviet Union.
Chapter completed!