The decisive battle against the Third Reich

I'm in a hurry tonight, so I only have one chapter. I'll make it up tomorrow, sorry!

Part of the reason why Hitler did not attack France to give the Vichy government a place was the Toulon Fleet... The French Toulon Fleet was a fleet including 3 battleships and 7 cruisers, a total of 80 various battleships and submarines, and its performance Pretty good. So no matter which party is coveting it, Hitler is certainly no exception.

The Vichy government also knew this, so Pétain and Darlan deliberately publicized an order shortly after surrendering to Germany... Once the German army threatens or is likely to occupy the port, the navy should blow up the warships and scuttle them as soon as possible. .

This obviously has an element of intimidation. The French do not want the Germans to go south, but no one doubts that the French will do so... The reason is that it will not do France any good if these warships fall into the hands of the Germans.

Hitler was frightened, or it could be said that Hitler was afraid, so he never dared to take action.

Of course, the port of Toulon is at the southernmost tip of France, and the German troops are all in northern France. The Toulon fleet, which had remained neutral and had nothing to do, believed that they had enough preparation time, so they did not take much precautions.

To a certain extent, they were right. Germany was fighting from north to south, and even marching would take several days. Not to mention being prepared to blow up the ships, these warships would have enough time to escape one by one.

It's just that the French fleet has nowhere to escape: Britain is also France's enemy, and France has always been obsessed with the British army's "ballista plan"... This is especially the French navy, because they are the direct victims, so they Rejecting the British "rescue" and "accommodation", in history, they could only end their own tragedy in a tragic way of sinking themselves.

But this time it was different.

Zemamouche was taken to a school that served as a temporary prison cell. To be precise, he was escorted there by German soldiers, along with dozens of his subordinates.

In this school, there are at least 500 French officers and more than 300 officers and soldiers of the Zoaf Corps. More importantly, the school is relatively close to the port of Algiers, so it is very convenient for the rebellious French army to rescue them.

The French army acted on time. At one o'clock in the morning the next day, several explosions suddenly came from the city of Algiers, and then fires were set off in several directions... These fires were set by Algerians, who are used to obeying the law. Of course, some of them were due to the coercion their families suffered at the hands of the French army.

Then there was loud gunfire and shouts everywhere in the darkness, as if a vigorous city-wide riot had been launched.

But if you listen carefully, you can easily tell that the sound of gunfire is mainly concentrated in the north of the city, which is at the harbor.

"The French fell into the trap!" Qin Chuan said.

Colonel Slaine raised his glass to Qin Chuan and said, "This is completely expected, Second Lieutenant! Of course the French will not be your opponent. I can't wait to see the French warships now. I think General Rommel is also looking forward to it!”

Colonel Slain was right. Rommel in Alexandria walked anxiously in front of the telegram, saying from time to time: "God, this is a fleet, can they really get it?" "

“It would be great to get them!”

…

If it weren't for the fact that Rommel needed to take charge of the overall situation in Alexandria, he would have flown to Algiers to take command with Qin Chuan and others.

The French army quickly gained the upper hand in the port of Algiers. They quickly occupied the school and rescued hundreds of officers inside, including Zema Mouche and his men.

This is not entirely a case of the German army "letting go". In fact, most of the German troops stationed at the port did not know the inside story, but their strength was relatively weak... which meant that they were actually sacrificed.

Qin Chuan had nothing to do about it. War sometimes had to face this kind of situation.

Then, as everyone can imagine, the German and Italian troops coming from other directions tried to recapture the port, but it was not easy because the French officers led the soldiers of the Zoav Corps to defend the buildings along the street. , then fought and retreated, and on the other side they took this time to board the ship.

After loading one ship after another, a total of thirteen ships were loaded and nearly five thousand people left the port. Of course, most of these were soldiers of the Zoav Corps under the command of French officers.

The German army, however, was unable to pursue them because they had no warships. They could only watch from the shore as these transport ships and fishing boats left the port.

Those French officers even proudly stood on the bow of the ship and shouted at the German and Italian troops: "Go to hell, Germans, we will fight back!"

"Wait for us!"

…

After Darlan knew this, he hurriedly called Colonel Slaine... Although Darlan was under house arrest in his own room, he could still talk to Colonel Slaine with permission.

"Colonel!" Darlan explained: "I didn't know about this in advance. Please believe that this is their spontaneous behavior and has nothing to do with the French government!"

"General!" Colonel Slaine replied angrily: "I believe this, but your spontaneous behavior has challenged my limits time and time again. If it were my personal idea, I would regard it as tearing up the truce. Agreement, but I know they (superiors) will not do this, so please do it yourself!”

As he said that, Colonel Slain hung up the phone with a bang, and then asked Qin Chuan: "My performance is good, right?"

"Great, Colonel!" Qin Chuan replied with a smile: "If Darlan still has some way to contact the outside world, then he will also send wrong information!"

This was just in case, after all, Algiers was still under the rule of the French not long ago, and the German army did not fully control this area.

The French defected fleet sailed at sea for more than thirty hours, and did not arrive at the port of Toulon until the afternoon of the next day.

When the fleet sailed into the port of Toulon, the surrounding warships and the French troops in the port couldn't help but cheer... Although this was not a victory for France, France needed a little inspiration at this time. The successful escape of this force of more than 5,000 people into the "asylum" of France is worthy of celebration for them, even if most of them are soldiers of the Zoav Corps.

"Welcome!" Claude, deputy commander of the Toulon fleet, personally greeted Zemamouche at the port. Claude, like other French people, believed that Zemamouche would become a useful pawn in the counterattack against Algeria.

But what these French people don't know is that when they treat others as pawns, they are actually the pawns themselves.