The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Two days later, a group of Italian troops withdrew from the front line. Just like what Qin Chuan and others saw every day, their uniforms were in disarray and their formations were scattered. Their faces always had their trademark... panic.

Of course, it would be understandable if they came off the battlefield, but anyone who has fought in a war knows that they did not stay on the battlefield for long, which can be seen from their military uniforms and cars.

If they came off the battlefield, their uniforms would have at least a few frayed spots due to tactical actions, and there would always be some bullet holes or rags cut by shrapnel on the cars...but they had nothing. .

"Maybe you really want to be them!" Qin Chuan said to the soldiers in the French camp: "Because they always retreat before seeing the enemy!"

The soldiers in the French battalion couldn't help but burst into laughter... Even the French couldn't look down on the Italians who revolted.

It is ironic to say that France and Italy are also enemies. Italy even thought France was easy to bully after its surrender and led troops to invade the Vichy government. But it turned out that the Italians could not even defeat the weak Vichy government.

"Where are they going?" A French soldier asked worriedly, "Are they setting up defenses behind us?"

"No!" Qin Chuan replied: "Like the wounded, they went to Algiers first and then to Sicily!"

Another advantage of taking Algeria is that relatively safe routes to France and Italy were opened at the same time.

"I knew it!" Another French soldier said sarcastically: "Leaving them here will only waste supplies!"

The French soldiers burst into laughter again.

Qin Chuan gave these French soldiers a meaningful look and said, "I hope you won't waste supplies too!"

"Don't worry, Lieutenant! We will use weapons to teach those proud British men a lesson!"

The person who said this was a young man named Stefan. His father almost monopolized the casinos in Algeria. Of course, the casinos needed the support of the government and the army, otherwise they would have been smashed by the Algerian people.

Qin Chuan's words to Stefan are understandable. This is not only because Stefan's family business requires him to hold on to the German army, but also because recruits always have two extreme behaviors when the battle is approaching. One is so scared that he can't even eat food, and the other is extremely excited.

Stefan obviously falls into the latter category.

"I think we'd better finish the job at hand!" Baudoin pointed at the tunnel and said, "Because our lives may very well depend on it!"

This statement was recognized by many French soldiers.

Baudoin's father was an arms dealer...Arms dealers are always the most profitable in times of war, especially in Algeria, where the security situation is unflattering.

Of course, arms dealers usually have numerous connections with the government or the military. They are even agents of the French government, so that they can obtain weapons and sell them to the private sector for profit.

At the same time, you will also take certain risks when doing arms business.

Apparently, Baudouin picked up some military knowledge or crisis awareness while running his family business and applied it here.

Qin Chuan couldn't help but glance at Vinette, who was smoking a cigarette and joking with several female soldiers... She was obviously the kind of person who "is drunk today and is drunk now". She didn't care about anything, just like she was a bystander.

Of course, once the real war appears in front of everyone, things may not necessarily be like this.

Sure enough, Qin Chuan's idea came true two days later.

This morning, everyone ate bread and baked potatoes as usual and then started their day's work.

At this time, the work on the tunnel has basically taken shape. What is uncertain is how much supplies will be loaded into it... This is always an unknown, because you don’t know how long you will be trapped in by the enemy, whether it will be two days, three days, or a week or two. week.

What's worse is that the place where the supplies are buried is likely to be blown down, and everyone will starve to death inside.

Therefore, the supply points are reinforced with the thickest wood and stored in several locations to prevent one place from being blown down and becoming unsustainable.

Just as the soldiers were discussing whether to store more food or ammunition, the "rumble" of an airplane was faintly heard in the sky.

The soldiers looked towards the sky, but the dazzling sunlight made them unable to see anything.

"Enter the tunnel and take cover!" Qin Chuan shouted: "It's an enemy plane."

After staying on the battlefield for a long time, Qin Chuan could basically distinguish between ourselves and the enemy by the roar of planes... Alfredo once expressed doubts about this.

"There are so many types of aircraft!" Alfredo said: "There are German, British, American, and Italian... How can you tell which kind of aircraft it is from the sound?"

"I can't tell the difference!" Qin Chuan replied.

"But you can always know in advance whether it is the enemy's plane or your own plane!" Alfredo asked with disbelief: "Why?"

"I just need to remember the sound of German aircraft engines!" Qin Chuan said: "Besides, anything that will fly over our heads is always the enemy's!"

Alfredo couldn't help but suddenly realized.

This is indeed true. It can be said that Italian fighter planes are basically not active in North Africa... Even if they are, they are used for reconnaissance. Reconnaissance is of course reconnaissance in front of the enemy's positions and not wandering around our own positions.

Therefore, it is not difficult to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy.

At this time, Qin Chuan heard a different kind of roar, and it was very dull, like thunder coming from a far away place... So Qin Chuan judged that it might be an American bomber.

Qin Chuan's guess was correct. What came was a formation of American B17 and B24 bombers. Compared with the British heavy bombers' altitude of 7,000 meters, they could fly to an altitude of 8,500 to 10,000 meters, and their range was even more impressive. be surprised.

The B17 has a shorter range, only 2,900 kilometers, so it was deployed to the Malta Island to bomb Tunisia.

The B24 has a longer range and can fly 3,700 kilometers when loaded with 5,000 pounds of bombs, which means it can fly directly from Benghazi in Libya to the front line in Tunisia... In fact, the Allied forces did locate the bomber group in Benghazi.

Benghazi is a protrusion on the map. The bombers take off from there and go all the way to the ocean, so that they can avoid being shot by enemy anti-aircraft guns when passing over land. Then they insert the land from Gabes and insert the shortest path into Tunisia to bomb them. Bomb anywhere.

This kind of bombing was very cheap for the Allies because they did not need to transport artillery shells across the long desert...the bombs were unloaded directly at the port of Benghazi and transported to the bombers, and then dropped on the enemy.