At 3 a.m., the sea surface in the Middle East was calm and accompanied by a slight cool east wind.

On such a night, many sailors of the Midway aircraft carrier fleet where Guderian was located hurriedly got up to eat and then prepared to change shifts and work.

So at this moment, noisy voices would be heard from the kitchens of each ship, as well as cooking, fried eggs and various meats, which were also staged one after another.

Of course, the staff in other positions are also preparing to change positions to rest and sleep, especially the staff in charge of the boiler room and the mechanical officers on the ship are also queuing tiredly waiting for their replacements and preparing to collect their breakfast to satisfy their hunger.

At this time, Goodrian was also in the officer's room where he was, smoking a cigarette and cooking a cup of steaming coffee, ready to dispel his sleepiness.

At the same time, he was also browsing the Middle East map hanging on the walls of his officer's office. This map marked the Middle East countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar; Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Palestine, Cyprus and Turkey, and clearly annotated the topographic maps and the rough location of the city there.

Finally, Guderian shifted his eyes from Türkiye and Iran, two non-Arab countries to Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries that rely on the Mediterranean.

But soon his eyes remained in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine and other countries close to the Arabian Sea.

Because at this moment, the aircraft carrier fleet that Guderian was riding had already passed through the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and stationed into the Arabian Sea.

And now Guderian is also thinking that Chen Yanlong will let him attack the Middle East country first.

The aircraft carrier fleet he was riding in had been in the Arabian Sea for several days, but he had not received Chen Yanlong's offensive orders, and he had not even been notified to attack the country so far.

In the original history, in World War II, the Mediterranean battlefield in the Middle East was commented as being able to be ranked as three battlefields along with the European Atlantic battlefield and the Far East Anti-Japanese Pacific battlefield. And whoever grasps the battlefield advantages of the Middle East will be able to influence the results of Germany's ongoing battlefields.

For this reason, whether it is the troops of the Allied Powers such as Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, or the Axis powers such as Germany, treat the Middle East as a strategic location that must be fought for by military strategists.

The first Middle East War was the beginning of Italy's war in July 1940, invading British Sudan, Somalia and Kenya, and fighting Egypt's back; and launching a frontal attack from Libya to Egypt.

But in the end, whether it was the Peripheral War in Northeast Africa, the Egypt-Libya Battle, or the final winner of the North African landing battle, they were still the troops of the allied countries such as the United States and Britain.

As for Germany, Italy not only lost the war, but also suffered heavy damage to the main German army commanding Rommel at night. Of course, the Italian troops suffered a large number of casualties and surrendered.

Of course, during and after the Second World War, in the Middle East, the biggest winners were not Britain, France, nor the Soviet Union, but the United States.

Although before the war, Britain firmly occupied the core areas of the Middle East—Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan, controlled Iraq, and interfered with government decisions in the Arabian Peninsula in the south-central and eastern regions.

France controls the commissioned rule of Syria and Lebanon.

But after the outbreak of World War II, all the situation in the Middle East changed.

"Maybe the Head of State will plan to occupy the Persian Gulf oil fields that let me go south to Iran first and occupy the British ruled Persian Gulf oil fields, completely destroy the British resource base, and turn British planes and tanks into useless scrap iron!"

After watching it for a long time, Guderian made up his mind to say.

The reason why he thought this way was very simple, that is, Iran was one of the core factors that determined the direction of World War II.

If Iran is controlled by allies such as Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, then Iran's railways and oil fields will be used by British and American troops, giving the Soviet army various military supplies and soldiers to fight against the German Eastern Front troops, thereby dragging down a large number of German living forces.

On the contrary, once Iran is controlled by the German army, the German army will be able to use Iran's railways to march south to attack the British Persian Gulf and destroy Britain's oil bases, thus leaving the British army unable to continue to transport military supplies such as food, medicine, fuel, metal, weapons and engines to the Soviet Union.

"But if you want to control Iran, you must first defeat the troops stationed in Iran and Iraq."

But then Goodrian continued to murmur to himself with interest.

Then he picked up the investigation report on the troops in Chen Yanlong's hand and went out to browse and study.

Before the end of June 1941, the German army had a total of 205 divisions, which were distributed on the Western Front, 145 divisions on the Eastern Front, 12 divisions on Norway, 7 divisions on the Balkans, 2 divisions in Libya, and 1 division in Denmark.

Guderian was already very troubled at the time of such a dispersed state of force; because he felt that there were too many troops stationed on the Western Front and Norway, but the Eastern Front was not enough. In addition, if Rommel's African Legion could obtain more new weapons, equipment and troops, he would probably not have lost to Montgomery.

Now, based on Guderian's private investigation of Chen Yanlong's troops, he summarized about 140 divisions on the Eastern Front, and many of them were newly recruited recently, with almost zero combat experience.

However, the Western Front now has less than 9 divisions, because his Central and Eastern troops were divided into 7 divisions, and Rommel captured the Port of Ceuta in the English Channel and also divided into 7 divisions, but it did not include the First Airborne Division and the Brandenburg Division.

As for Norway's troops, the number of troops has been shortened to 3 divisions, and now Germany has 20 divisions, of which 8 are veteran divisions sent back from Norway. Of course, the troops sent back to China from Yugoslavia and Finland are also forming about 20 divisions.

In other words, the most powerful force Chen Yanlong can have now is only 203 divisions.

Of course, this requires the integration and supplementation of the troops sent back to China from Yugoslavia and Finland.

Otherwise, there would be only 183 divisions, and among these troops, there were less than 100 divisions that truly had certain combat capabilities. The other divisions were recruit divisions and did not have much combat power.

"It seems that most of the troops of the head of state are now strong and powerful! I really don't know what the final result will be if I continue to fight like this!"

When Guderian saw the approximate situation of Chen Yanlong's current troops that he had sent someone to investigate privately, he sighed worriedly.

"Commander! A great victory!"
Chapter completed!