Compared with the British army's various defeats on the battlefield, the US army's offense was smooth sailing.

When the US military was advancing forward, not only did not encounter any enemy blockade, but even did not even have many landmines expected, which made the US military advance forward on average 30 kilometers per day.

The reason why it is only 30 kilometers is because Italy is a country with mountains, hills, rivers and lakes. Mountains and hills account for 80% of the country.

Such terrain is obviously not suitable for mechanized troops to advance, especially when the German army retreated, blasted roads and bridges.

However, what the US military didn't know was that a large part of the reason why their march was so smooth was because Hitler was still undecided.

At this time, Hitler faced two choices: to withdraw his troops from Italy to defend the northern Alps, or not to control Italy as much as possible.

If Hitler had no hesitation before this, he would have let Kesselin's army withdraw from Italy, and Rommel's group B was ready to cover their retreat in the Alps.

Because the situation was so dangerous for the German army, Kesseling's A-Group Army had only six divisions, and these six divisions had all fought in Sicily and were seriously short of units, and there were pitifully few tanks.

The enemy the German army had to face was the British and American allied forces with a large number of soldiers and a large number of generals and sufficient supplies... Their troops even reached more than 400,000, which had a five-to-one advantage over the German army.

In particular, the German army had another hidden danger, that is, the Italian army could surrender at any time and point the gun at the Germans.

This is also one of the reasons why Hitler sent Rommel to lead the B Army into the Alps... Once the Italian army surrenders, it will cut off the retreat route of the A Army to return to Germany from the middle. At that time, the A Army will only be surrounded and annihilated in southern Italy.

Despite this, the situation of the Group A Army is still extremely worrying, because there is still a gap of more than 200 kilometers between the Group A Army and the Group B Army. The Italian army can cut off the ties between the two Groups of Armies and form an encirclement with the Allies.

So it is obvious that it is wise to quickly withdraw the A-group Army from Italy. Although Kesselling strongly opposed it, Hitler did not take Kesselling's words to heart.

However, after Kesseling accidentally launched a counterattack against the British army and succeeded, Hitler was moved... The fragility of the British army in front of the German armored division made Hitler see hope for victory, and Hitler would not give up any victory. If possible, he would not be willing to give up Italy, because it was Hitler's hope for a comeback. One day if the Luftwaffe gained air supremacy again, Hitler could control the Mediterranean through Italy.

So Hitler secretly recalled Kesseling and Rommel back to Berlin for a meeting.

Keseling and Rommel stood quietly in front of Hitler. Hitler was bent down and looking at the map. His devoted look made the two feel that the Prime Minister seemed to have forgotten their existence.

But at this time, Hitler asked without raising his head: "I want to know... the possibility of us defending Italy!"

Rommel chose to remain silent because he has been advocating the withdrawal of Italy, so this question should be answered by Kesseling, who advocates persistence.

"I can't give you an exact number, respected head!" Kesselin replied: "If I do this, it's obviously self-deception, because accidents can happen at any time on the battlefield. I can only say... the terrain of Italy is very suitable for defense, and we may block the battlefield outside Germany! But if I decide to do this, I will need more troops and supplies, otherwise my soldiers will have to fight the enemy with stones!"

Kesselin's words were true. Before that, all the supplies in Italy were focused on transporting to Africa, and there was almost no reserve of supplies within Italy... At that time, Hitler and Mussolini's order was to transport the supplies to Africa no matter how difficult it was.

Then with the rapid fall of Sicily, a large number of German supplies fell into the hands of the Allies, and the German supplies soon reached a state of incompetence.

Hitler didn't look up until then, but he still didn't say anything, just looked at Rommel.

Rommel understood what Hitler meant, so he replied: "I always insist that we should withdraw from Italy, respected head of state!"

"Even after Salerno's victory?" Hitler asked back.

"Yes, of course!" Rommel understood when he heard this. It was Kesseling's bright counterattack in Salerno that made Hitler shake his determination to withdraw his troops.

But Rommel replied: "Saleno's victory was just a coincidence, although it could be said to be an inevitable... I know the British, they are too perfunctory, so we can even guess their landing location and prepare in advance! The problem is that sticking to Italy will bring us too many potential dangers, and we will also have to invest more troops... Our troops are already slightly insufficient, and I think we should shrink our defense line instead of wasting our precious forces on land that does not make much sense to us!"

“Italia is not a land of meaninglessness to us!” Kesselin retorted: “It can be our southern barrier, and we can use the mountains and rivers there to block the Allied offensive.”

"The Alps can also do it!" said Rommel.

"We cannot put all hope on a line of defense!" Kesselin retorted: "We are all very clear that the enemy has much more aircraft, cannons and tanks than we do. They can use these to blow up any fortifications on the line of defense, so we need to use space to defend and retreat, and plan to delay the Allied offense!"

"The Italians may not agree with you!" Rommel said: "I just want to know... how should we face the possible rebellion of the Italian army? Once they point the gun at us, don't mention any defense or delay, and the supply line and retreat route of the entire Group A Army will be cut off!"

Hitler also looked at Kesering, which was also a concern for Hitler. Kesering's troops were dwarfed by the Allies, not to mention that they had to control the Italian army and even the people.

"Of course, I agree!" Kesselin replied: "It is indeed a threat, but I know these Italians, they won't really pick up guns to resist us, nor do they want to fight for the so-called liberation. They just think we will lose this war, so they are on the winning side. So... it's not impossible to control them, right?"
Chapter completed!