Reborn as a police officer in South Africa

When Madagascar began to expel the French, the commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force, François Darlan, had just arrived in Reunion with his fleet on the battleship "Colbet".

Francois Darlan was born in 1881. He rose to prominence during the World War and became France's youngest cruiser captain.

Throughout World War I, the performance of the French Navy was lackluster. After the World War, François Darlan graduated with first place from the Center for Advanced Naval Studies in Paris and was appointed French Navy Minister Georges Le.

François Darlan became France's chief adjutant, and later became France's youngest rear admiral and was ordered to carry out the combat mission to Madagascar.

In order to return to Madagascar, France formed a huge fleet with a total of 16 warships and a total force of nearly 50,000 troops, including marine troops. This was France's largest military operation since the World War.

Reunion Island is not large, covering an area of ​​2,500 square kilometers. It is 190 kilometers away from the British colony of Mauritius to the east and about 650 kilometers from Madagascar to the west. It is the closest French colony to Madagascar.

A few years ago, France actually had a better choice. Compared with Reunion, the Comoros Islands were more suitable as an advanced base for the French army.

It is a pity that the Comoros Islands were used as a mortgage and have now become part of the territory of southern Africa, so France had to choose Reunion.

Fifty thousand troops gathered on the small island of Reunion. There were simple temporary military camps everywhere, and supplies piled up on the docks. The port conditions on Reunion Island were not good, and the battleship "Colbet" could not even enter the port.

Having to anchor in the open sea made Francois Darlan feel bad. Considering that several previous attempts to colonize Madagascar had failed, this time it cast a shadow of failure on subsequent operations.

"Madagascar has begun to expel the French people on the island, and we must take action as soon as possible." Francois Darlan's chief of staff is Lieutenant General Brad Adelaide, and the chief of staff has a higher military rank than the commander.

This situation only happens in France.

"Are all the marine forces in place?" Darlan is similar in age to Roark. His ancestors are all sailors. His great-grandfather once served on the French Navy "Formidable", but the ship was destroyed in the Battle of Trafalgar.

Sunk by British troops.

Darlan's father, Darlan Sr., was a lawyer who was elected mayor of Nehak and a member of Congress. In 1896, he became Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Julius Merin.

So Darlan is truly a second-generation official.

"Not yet, less than two regiments have arrived now, and it will take about half a month to complete the assembly." Adelaide has no choice. The French government is ambitious to return to Madagascar, but unfortunately the French army is not strong enough.

During the World War, 1.315 million French soldiers died in battle and 2.8 million were disabled. Wartime production and frontline service caused a loss of 1.365 million working people. Most of the lost people were young and middle-aged men. It can be said that an entire generation was killed or injured as a result.

All.

After the World War, the French economy was in a slump, and even pensions for disabled soldiers could not be paid in time. The French government was criticized for this, and the public's anti-war sentiment was serious. The government had to mobilize colonial troops to Reunion.

In order to conquer Madagascar, France mobilized 25,000 army troops, all from North African colonies and Asian colonies. It took time to assemble these troops.

"How will Southern Africa react?" Darlan is still worried about Southern Africa. As the leader of the Southern African Union, Southern Africa cannot ignore France's attack on Madagascar.

"There are at least four destroyers of the Southern African Indian Ocean Fleet off the coast of Reunion, and there are countless submarines under the sea. A few days ago, Madagascar completed an arms purchase contract with Southern Africa through the umbrella company with a total value of more than 15 million rand.

It's a pity that we don't know the specific content of the contract." Adelaide frowned, the French government was not ready to fight in southern Africa.

The Umbrella Company has a huge influence in Madagascar. Before the French colonial government left Madagascar, it had to rely on the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company to maintain its rule in Madagascar.

During this process, the Umbrella Company grew rapidly, and tens of thousands of Malagasy people joined the Umbrella Company and received training from the Umbrella Company to become mercenaries.

The subsequent collapse of the colonial government of Madagascar had a lot to do with the Malagasy people who had been trained by the Umbrella Company.

It can even be directly said that the collapse of the colonial government of Madagascar was directly related to the umbrella company.

But this statement cannot be made public. Everyone knows that the boss of the umbrella company is Roque.

Roque was still a creditor of France.

"The content of the arms purchase contract does not include submarines?" Darlan was worried. Although both fleets were tight-lipped about the joint exercises of the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet, the news spread like wildfire. Ghost submarines are no secret to the French Navy.

During the Washington Naval Conference, due to France's insistence, there were no strict restrictions on submarines.

Although the French delegation won power for the French Navy, unfortunately the French Navy did not make much achievements in the field of submarines due to various reasons, which is very embarrassing.

In fact, before the World War, the French Navy had a distorted science and technology tree. When Britain and Germany were engaged in an arms race, France had to implement the "Green Water Navy" strategy because of its lack of strength and could not keep up with the pace of Britain and Germany. Green Water

The navy means a navy with certain medium and long-sea combat capabilities. Although it can operate hundreds of sea miles away from the land, the farther away from the home port, the weaker its combat effectiveness is.

Reunion is more than 8,500 kilometers from mainland France.

The battleship "Kolbe" has an endurance of only 4,200 nautical miles at an economic speed of 10 knots, and has standard short legs.

For the French Expeditionary Force, the only thing that could pose a threat to powerful battleships was the ubiquitous ghost submarine. Darlan was very afraid of the performance of ghost submarines.

"It's not clear yet." Adelaide is also very distressed. France does not even have a reliable intelligence agency, and the channels for obtaining intelligence are very limited.

During the World War, a dancing girl was able to infiltrate Paris into holes, which shows France's neglect of intelligence work.

After the World War, all countries have increased their emphasis on intelligence. The United Kingdom established the Military Intelligence Service, the United States established the Bureau of Investigation (the predecessor of the FBI, referred to as BOI), Southern Africa has Bullard, and France also established its Security Service. However, as of last year,

, the budget of the Security Bureau does not exceed 10 million francs.

The income from intelligence work is directly proportional to the investment. 10 million francs sounds like a lot, but in fact it is equivalent to less than 300,000 pounds, which is not even enough to pay salaries to employees.

"Send France to Madagascar to test the attitude of southern Africa." Darlan had to do something. Returning to Madagascar was another adventure for the French government, and no one knew whether it would succeed.

The "Colbet" class battleship is also known as the "Courbet" class battleship. There are four ships of the same class, namely Kolbet, Ocean (original name: Jean Bart), Paris, and France.

The expeditionary force fleet has a total of two battleships, the "Colbet" and the "France". Both battleships were built by France before the World War. After the Washington Naval Conference, although France had 175,000 tons of battleships

total tonnage, but there is no new shipbuilding plan.

Of course, for Madagascar, which does not even have a navy, the "Colbe" and the "France" are already powerful enough. The "France" battleship has a full load displacement of 25,000 tons, is equipped with 12 twin-mounted 305-caliber main guns, and has a crew of 1,108

Man, the data on paper is not as good as the "Normandy" class battleships after the transformation in southern Africa.

After receiving the order, the "France" set fire and weighed anchor, preparing to set off for Madagascar.

Darlan was still very cautious and sent four destroyers to accompany the "France" in its operations. Unless the Southern African Navy took action, this fleet had no opponent in Madagascar.

Unlike Darlan and Adelaide who were cautious, Rear Admiral Queller Grote, the captain of the "France", was relatively optimistic about this mission.

After all, the mission assigned by Darlan did not include combat. The mission of the "France" was reconnaissance and testing, which was easy for Grote.

"Departure, target Madagascar -" In the bridge of the "France", Grote was full of confidence. Regardless of whether the French army could defeat the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company, the French navy was still confident in the maritime operations.

Although 650 kilometers is not far, it was already the second day when the "France" arrived off the coast of Madagascar.

The weather on this day was good, the sun was shining brightly, the sea breeze was warm, a few seagulls passed by the side of the "France", and there were dolphins playing on the sea not far away. Grote observed with a telescope, and saw a few seagulls on the sea in the distance.

A fishing boat, and a patrol gunboat farther away, probably belonging to Madagascar, probably discovered the huge "France" and turned around in panic to escape.

"Hahahahaha, we found an enemy warship and prepared to bombard it -" Grote was extremely excited. The offshore patrol gunboat has a tonnage of one to two hundred tons, and its 305mm main gun can be broken into pieces as soon as it runs down.

"General, our mission does not include combat parts." Grote's first mate Richie Effie reminded him softly.

"See clearly, the enemy is attacking us. We must kill them and bring glory to our French navy!" Grote's attitude was resolute. It was very exciting to run away after the fight. Anyway, Madagascar could not threaten the "France" at all.

attack--

Richie Effie didn't know which of Grote's eyes saw that the offshore patrol boat that was escaping hastily was attacking.