Chapter 282 Algiers

It was three o'clock in the morning, and it was drizzling.

This was unusual in the dry season in Tripoli. It was said that this was the effect of the cold current passing by the coast.

Although the drizzle would cause some trouble for the airborne landing, it would also provide cover and make it more difficult for the French army to identify the enemy, so it was hard to say whether it was good or bad.

With General Slaine's order, the troops boarded the Caproni transport plane roughly in platoons. After the transport plane slid on the runway for a distance, it took off in the air with a noisy engine sound.

After the plane stabilized, Werner took off the disc helmet on his head and said, "I remember the instructor told us that we can't wear such a helmet when parachuting!"

"That's right!" Dominic replied, "This may cost us our lives, and they seem to have overlooked one point. The British paratroopers' helmets also have no brims!"

"No!" Qin Chuan said, "It's not that they overlooked this, but that they couldn't find so many British paratrooper helmets!"

"So we have to wear this thing when parachuting?" Werner raised the disc helmet.

"Come on, sergeant!" the baker said, "We are disguised as British, and only the French can't recognize us!"

"We can choose to do this!" Dominic said, "Tie the helmet to the backpack before parachuting, and put it on after landing."

The German soldiers nodded one after another. The backpack was hung on the parachute before landing, which would obviously improve the safety of landing.

Two hours later, the transport plane flew over Algiers... As the capital of Algeria, its reaction was a bit too quiet.

After all, no matter what, a large number of transport planes and fighter planes penetrated more than 200 kilometers into Algeria. Even if the French colonial army did not have radar, they would be prepared because of the warnings of the people or the border troops.

Or, the French army did not want to prepare at all.

The following facts proved that Qin Chuan's guess was correct. The news spread by the German spies in Algiers worked, so that the French officers and soldiers thought that the fleet flying over Algeria was a British fleet... During this period, they also used searchlights to shine into the sky, and chose to remain silent after seeing the British army icon on the plane.

Most of the French army's grassroots officers still supported the Allied side, even though they hated the British. This prevented Algiers from receiving any news of the invasion of the group.

In fact, Algiers was not calm, because General Cesar, who held real power and hoped to join the Allied forces, was planning a mutiny... He hoped to detain Darlan and force him to order the French army to give up resistance and join the British army. He even set a time with the British army.

So, when he heard that British planes had appeared over Algiers, he couldn't help but curse: "These damn British, they always deceive their allies!"

"What's the benefit of doing this for them?" asked the staff officer.

"You have to ask those damn British!" said General Cesar.

Then he hurriedly ordered his subordinates who could be controlled to stay put to avoid conflict with the British army, and on the other hand, he immediately contacted the American ambassador Steve... Britain and the United States persuaded General Cesar to surrender through Steve.

"What's going on?" General Cesar asked on the phone: "Didn't we decide to take action in two days?"

"What?" Steve, who had just crawled out of bed, was a little confused by the question.

"Open the window and look at the sky!" General Cesar said: "There are British planes everywhere. The British have deceived us again!"

Steve walked to the window as he was told, and saw the British icons in the sky under the searchlight, and couldn't help shouting: "God, what's going on?"

"You liars!" General Cesar roared on the phone: "I should have known that I couldn't trust you, just like you suddenly attacked our fleet, are you going to do the same trick again? Is asking me to cooperate in launching a mutiny just a means to stabilize me?"

"General Cesar!" Steve hurriedly replied: "Please believe me, I know nothing about these situations, and I can guarantee that the United States knows nothing about this..."

"I know it's the British!" General Cesar said: "It's always the British!"

General Cesar also had a grudge against the "Catapult Plan" launched by the British army, so he chose to surrender to the United States instead of Britain.

"Now, I beg you, General!" Steve said, "Tell your men not to clash with the British for the time being. I will understand the problem clearly and report to you!"

"You'd better hurry up!" General Cesar said, and hung up the phone angrily.

Steve hung up the phone and immediately sent a telegram to the US commander Eisenhower. Eisenhower angrily asked Montgomery, and when he found out that Britain and the United States had not sent out airborne troops at all, it was already twenty minutes later.

Steve was so surprised when he heard the news that his jaw almost dropped. He quickly called General Cesar and said, "General, we were fooled. Those are not British planes. They may be Germans!"

The other end of the phone was silent for a while, and then replied, "I already know!"

General Cesar certainly knew, because there were already more than a dozen soldiers standing in front of him who were wearing British military uniforms but speaking German, and more than a dozen black muzzles were facing him.

Although it was only 20 minutes, it was a good opportunity to be prepared, and there were many people leading the way... Of course, these guides supported the British army, and the German army could also remember them one by one, and arrested them at gunpoint after leading the way.

Then, General Darlan's residence was captured.

There was a fierce gun battle here. The French army defended a villa surrounded by iron fences and fired bullets at the outside without hesitation... Darlan was anti-British, or more precisely, he hoped to achieve a balance between Germany, Britain and the United States so that France could survive in this chaotic world. He even successfully obtained the support of the United States.

This sounds a bit strange: Germany is the enemy of Britain and the United States, but the United States supports the Vichy government controlled by Germany... This relationship is so complicated that it makes people a little confused.

But in fact, this is normal. Britain wanted to control France, so it supported the Charles de Gaulle government in exile in Britain as a puppet, and the United States did not want Britain to enjoy the fruits of victory alone in the future... At this time, the United States was secretly competing with Britain for the position of world leader, so of course it had to support the Vichy government.

This is politics. Politics only talks about interests. There is no so-called "justice" and of course there is no "evil".