The decisive battle against the Third Reich

That night, the French held a grand welcome party for the officers and soldiers of the Zoav Corps. On the one hand, it was to win over people's hearts. On the other hand, it was also to tell the people of Toulon and even all French people about this rare victory to boost morale. .

More importantly, the French navy is demonstrating against the Vichy government and even the Germans... The French navy has always been dissatisfied with the control of the Vichy government. Before, there was no problem with Darlan being the commander-in-chief of the navy, because the French navy can be said to be under the control of Darlan. Having established and realized the renaissance of the French Navy, Darlan had a high reputation in the French Navy.

Therefore, after the war broke out in North Africa and Darlan was captured, the French navy was eager to sail into North Africa to reinforce Algiers... This is completely feasible militarily. The navy has 80 cannons, giant ships, and warships. It doesn't take a day to reach Algiers at such a speed, and it is very possible to change the entire situation in Algiers and rescue Darlan.

But the Pétain government rejected this idea without thinking... Of course the Pétain government would not agree to this approach. Once the navy was invested, it would mean a full-scale war, and the Pétain government would not be able to survive.

On the other hand, in order to control the navy, Pétain appointed Laval as the commander-in-chief of the navy...Laval was a person who fully supported Germany. It is not an exaggeration to call him a French traitor. This caused France to The navy was extremely dissatisfied.

(Note: Historically, Laval ordered the Toulon fleet to surrender to Germany. The French navy refused to carry out this order and chose to bomb the ship)

So, in order to show their dissatisfaction, the French navy held a large fraternity party in Toulon.

This is of course what Zemamouche wants. In fact, Qinchuan and Zemamouche's plan included inducing the French army to hold a party. Now that the French army has taken the initiative to do so, Zemamouche will also Go with the flow.

"I suggest that the navy soldiers come ashore to attend this party!" Zemamouche said: "The navy ensured that we arrived at the port of Toulon smoothly. My soldiers hope to express their gratitude to them in person!"

The French Navy sent several warships to greet the fleet.

How could General Claude know that there was a fraud involved, so he agreed without thinking.

Of course, there are still soldiers on duty on the warship.

Zemamouche would not let those soldiers endure hardship. He very considerately asked the Algerian soldiers to carry boxes of wine and food onto the warship to the French soldiers. For a while, the port of Toulon was brightly lit and full of laughter.

What the French didn't know was that at this time, there was some movement in the transport ships brought by Zemamouche and others... A few Algerian officers did not pay attention and moved away the layers of wooden boxes stacked outside. , opened the bottom cabin of the transport ship, sent a signal inside with a flashlight, and the German soldiers and crew members climbed out one by one.

This was arranged by Qinchuan early in the morning. Each of the three large transport ships contained a hundred German soldiers and fifty experienced crew members... Most of these crew members were Italian and had experience in driving warships. Some of them are even in active service in the Italian Navy, and were urgently airlifted from the Italian Navy by Rommel.

Among them were German submarine crews... The Toulon fleet had 21 submarines, which resulted in a serious shortage of submarine crews that might be needed, so Rommel directly ordered two German submarines to rush to Algiers and free up all the crews to make up for it.

Of course, the German soldiers and crew members had all changed into French military uniforms in advance, so that they could move more easily and avoid being discovered by the enemy as much as possible... The only drawback was that these French military uniforms were captured in Algiers, so they were Army uniform.

These people carefully walked onto the deck, lowered the ropes and rubber boats on the other side, and then rowed the famous rubber boats in groups close to the French warships... There was also a hanging rope on the other side of these French warships. It was arranged by Algerian soldiers while they were riding to exchange feelings with French soldiers. There were even two Algerian soldiers on the other end of the rope.

So one after another, German soldiers and crew members climbed aboard the warships.

The most difficult thing among them is submarines... Submarines are a bit like tanks in the sea. Once the hatch cover is closed, people outside often have nothing to do with them unless they blow it up with explosives.

But it was not difficult at all. German soldiers wearing French army uniforms jumped onto the submarine deck generously, waved to greet the submarine sentries, and took out cigarettes and handed them over.

The submarine sentry did not suspect anything. After all, this was a large party, and there were many soldiers from Toulon and other places who came to join in the fun, so he took the cigarette. He thought the soldier was pulling out matches, but what he didn't expect was a military thorn. Before he could react, his mouth was covered and a burst of pain...

The gunfire came from one of the submarines. A clever submarine sentry noticed the abnormality and fired a warning shot.

But the gunshot didn't attract much attention. Some people thought it was fireworks, and some thought it was just a drunken soldier playing with a gun.

But when the gunfire became more intense, they realized something was wrong.

"What's going on?" General Claude asked.

"I don't know, General!" the staff officer replied, "Maybe the soldiers are drunk and crazy!"

"No, General!" Seeing that the time had come, Zemamouche took out his pistol and pointed it at General Claude's back and said, "I am honored to tell you that you are already our prisoner!"

"That's not funny, Colonel!" General Claude thought it was a joke.

"It's not funny!" Zemamouche replied, "Because it's not a joke!"

Several French officers noticed that the situation was strange and wanted to come over, but they were quickly held back by several Algerian soldiers with guns. Then gunshots rang out soon after, and a group of French soldiers who wanted to rush in were knocked down on the spot in a pool of blood. among.

The venue immediately became chaotic, with screams and people running around. French officers and soldiers were often shot to death by well-prepared Algerian soldiers just as they tried to resist.

Algerian soldiers may have been accustomed to listening to French officers when they were in Algiers, but if Zemamouche was there, they would of course side with Zemamouche. Zemamouche has ethnic and national aspects. advantage, so before arriving at the port of Toulon, the Algerian soldiers were no longer under the control of French officers.

"Retreat to the warship!" Zema Muche ordered loudly: "Please note that the person with the white towel tied to his left arm is one of our own!"

With that said, Zemamouche dragged General Claude towards the warship. Only then did General Claude realize that this was really not a joke.