The decisive battle against the Third Reich

I won't say much. I drank a little tonight. I will update three times tomorrow. I will try to update more this month... Let me go today!

As soon as the fleet docked, teams of French sailors and crew members were taken down.

Waiting for these prisoners is interrogation again and again... The German army wants to get the detailed operating procedures of the warships and the methods and essentials of using various weapons on the warships from them. After all, these are French equipment, which are different from the German warships and equipment.

"Dear Führer!" Rommel sent a telegram to Hitler: "We need crew members and sailors, otherwise these 78 large and small ships will be equivalent to a pile of scrap metal!"

"Don't worry, my general!" Hitler agreed immediately: "You will get everything you want soon!"

This was beyond Rommel's expectations, because before this, Hitler had always regarded the African battlefield as a secondary battlefield. No matter what reinforcements Rommel wanted, it was difficult and would be discounted, but this time he got Hitler's promise very easily.

What Rommel didn't know was that Germany's resources were already seriously depleted at this time, and Hitler had never attached importance to the navy... The German navy, or more precisely, the surface warships, had never been able to compete with the British navy, and the attack on the Soviet Union required a lot of tanks and equipment, so Hitler even dismantled the warships to build tanks. (Most of Germany's blockade of the British army relied on submarines)

As a result, Germany actually had many crew members and sailors idle, and Hitler was having a headache about these people... It was not right to use them, and it was not right not to use them.

If they were used, the warships would only be sunk by the enemy, basically sending them to death.

If they were not used, they would be like vases, not only useless but also consuming supplies.

Sometimes Hitler even thought about incorporating these crew members and sailors into the army to fight on the Eastern Front, but it was not easy to train the navy, and doing so was undoubtedly a huge waste.

At this time, the African Corps had captured an entire fleet, and Hitler just took advantage of the situation and sent them to North Africa.

In fact, Hitler had another idea:

Before this, the German Navy had lost several battles with the British Navy, which made Hitler completely lose confidence in the navy. Now he would rather dismantle the warships and build tanks than send them out to fight.

But now...

Hitler thought, if the navy in Algiers joined forces with the German Navy, could they defeat the British Navy?

If it could be done, it would mean that Britain could be completely blockaded or even directly landed on Britain.

But after thinking about it, Hitler felt that the timing was not right: the German army was attacking the Soviet Union with all its strength and could no longer organize a large-scale battle against Britain.

On the other hand, the United States would not sit idly by and watch the British Navy be defeated, so the most likely result of doing so was that all the warships would sink to the bottom of the sea.

In fact, there was another very important reason that Hitler discovered afterwards: the French fleet, especially the Toulon fleet, was mainly designed for naval battles in the Mediterranean.

The characteristic of the Mediterranean is that it is an inland sea, and generally there are no strong winds and waves, and at the same time, fighting in the Mediterranean will not have a long voyage.

As a result, most French warships were not suitable for ocean-going operations, that is, they could not withstand wind and waves, had short endurance, and were not flexible enough.

Of course, they also had advantages, that is, they were fast, had excellent firepower and protection performance.

This made Hitler finally give up the idea of ​​transferring the Toulon Fleet to Germany to fight the British Navy.

The only one who dared not speak out during this period was the Vichy government... The Toulon Fleet could be said to be the only thing that made Germany afraid, and now even the Toulon Fleet was taken away by Germany, so... Pétain knew what it meant next.

Pétain sent a telegram to Hitler tremblingly to test: "Mr. Führer, I always thought that we had signed an armistice agreement, but you sneaked into Toulon Port and took away our entire fleet..."

Hitler pretended to be confused with Pétain: "Really? Oh, I remember that General Rommel once reported... Those Algerians drove the warships back to Algiers Port and surrendered to the German army. This is not our fault, Mr. Prime Minister, I promise it has nothing to do with us!"

Then, no matter how many telegrams Pétain sent, Hitler did not reply.

Pétain understood that Hitler was too lazy to even deal with him now... If it weren't for the fact that Germany was attacking the Eastern Front, he would have immediately marched south to occupy the entire French territory.

However, this matter took a turn for the better soon.

Qin Chuan looked at the map and asked Major General Oxter: "General, you just came from France, I think you must have a better understanding of the situation in France!"

"Yes, Lieutenant!" Major General Oxter nodded. At this time, he no longer dared to despise this lieutenant, because he knew that the lieutenant in front of him was the "legendary sergeant" who had saved Rommel and won brilliant victories on the battlefield again and again.

In fact, Major General Oxter still looked down on Qin Chuan. As a nobleman, he even looked down on Rommel, but now he had to hide this attitude in his heart.

"Then..." Qin Chuan said, "I want to know the transportation situation in France, including roads, railways and sea transportation." "Pretty good!" Major General Oxter replied, "My troops took the train from France to Italy and then went to Tunisia by sea. We all know that France surrendered in more than a month, so its infrastructure such as roads and railways were not damaged!"

Upon hearing this, Qin Chuan couldn't help but look at Colonel Slain and nodded secretly.

"Are you targeting France?" Major General Oxster asked.

"Yes!" Qin Chuan said: "We hope to establish a supply line from France to Algiers. In fact... this does not need to be established, because this supply line has always existed before, and the port of Toulon and Algiers They were originally two shipping ports!”

Colonel Slain continued: "If this transportation line is established, then Algeria can get everything we need directly from France. It will be difficult for British aircraft on the island of Malta to even threaten this line. Supply lines!”

Colonel Slaine is right. On the one hand, this is because the distance is too far, three to four hundred kilometers. Although this is within the bombing radius of British fighter planes, it will obviously weaken its effect exponentially.

What's more important is that these British fighter planes have to pass through the fighter blockades in Sicily and Tunisia... If the German and Italian fighter planes interfere casually, the British planes will not be able to fly over the supply line.

"But it's different now, isn't it?" Major General Oxster said: "Now they are in a quasi-hostile relationship!"

"Yes!" Qin Chuan nodded: "But I believe the French are willing to rebuild this supply line for us!"