Chapter 288 Shame

The scene in the port of Algiers was repeated in the port of Toulon.

It's just that the scene in the Port of Toulon is much bigger than that of the Port of Algiers...

On the sea, dozens of warships and submarines broke out in a fierce battle for warships almost at the same time. Unsurprisingly, the Germans had the upper hand in this battle.

This is not to say that the German army has the upper hand. In fact, the German army is still at a disadvantage in terms of military strength... The French army will leave dozens of people on the warship casually, while the German army assigns only ten people to the warship, including the crew. Left and right (the number of people varies, some larger warships are allocated more).

But on the one hand, the German army was assisted by Algerian soldiers, and on the other hand, the French army was scattered on the warships. In addition, they were prepared and unprepared, so the German army occupied the warships one by one, and even solved many of them. The problem of insufficient crew... German soldiers captured many French sailors, so they drove the warship at gunpoint.

The battle on the shore was just like what happened in the Port of Algiers. The Algerian soldiers relied on the cover of the building to set up a line of defense on the outside to resist the French reinforcements... The French reinforcements were much slower than expected. This To Zemamouche's surprise, even half an hour later the French army failed to organize a decent attack.

But this is actually normal.

First of all, because most of the French officers were at the party, they were beaten to death and wounded immediately. Even the deputy commander General Claude was captured, so the French army was unable to coordinate effectively.

Secondly, the French Army was actually abolished at this time.

After World War I, French military strategists generally believed that future battles would be like World War I, with both sides digging trenches and fighting back and forth. As a result, the whole of France was permeated with a tactical thought of "absolute defense", so they constructed They built a Maginot Line of defense, and they also believed that defense would have more advantages than offense, so most of the French Army's training was to build trenches and then shoot and fire in the trenches. As for offense... I'm sorry, they thought that machine guns and cannons would In that era, another meaning of attacking was to die, so they didn't know how to attack.

Another reason is that the French Army at this time was under the rule of the Vichy government. Many of them believed that France had actually surrendered and was already a puppet of Germany... This was indeed the case.

Therefore, they did not have honor, morale, confidence, etc., which an army should have. In addition, they had basically no combat experience... The entire French campaign only lasted for more than a month, and it ended before it had warmed up. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the French Army was different from that of These "desperados" of the Zoav Corps are a far cry from each other.

This allowed the battle on the shore to proceed so smoothly that the Algerian soldiers were able to evacuate to the warship in an orderly manner and help the Germans control and operate the warship...

Of course, due to the quality of the Zoav Corps, there are only two things they can do: one is to use guns to hold French prisoners, and the other is to set up rifles on warships to provide cover for their comrades on the shore.

Soon, the warships left the port one by one under the control of the German and French prisoners. The last group of Algiers soldiers evacuated the ship under the cover of warship firepower and then left the port.

This time it was the French officers' turn to watch helplessly on the shore as the warships disappeared into the darkness. Ironically, some of the surviving French officers had laughed at the Germans when they fled Algiers.

Colonel Denis, who led the troops in pursuit to the port of Toulon, didn't even know what was happening. He looked at the chaos, corpses, and empty sea in the port and asked the survivors: "God, what happened here? Our Where did the warship go?"

"Algiers, colonel!" replied a French major with his head covered in blood.

"Are they going to attack Algiers?" asked the colonel.

"No!" replied the Major: "The Germans stole them, just like we did in Algiers, only..."

As he spoke, the major glanced at several unwanted fishing boats and transport ships parked in the port, and then said: "They used these broken boats to exchange for our warships, all of them!"

The Algiers headquarters burst into cheers immediately after receiving the news.

"Well done, Second Lieutenant!" Colonel Slain said to Qin Chuan, "You refreshed your legend once again!"

The surrounding staff officers also expressed their congratulations to Qin Chuan:

"Congratulations, Lieutenant!"

"What a great plan, Lieutenant, it's really admirable!"

…

Colonel Slain then reported the situation to Rommel.

"We did it, General!" Colonel Slaine said.

"What? Success?" Rommel still couldn't believe it: "How many ships did you grab?"

"Everything!" Colonel Slaine's voice trembled with excitement: "Except for the two submarines that dived into the sea in time, everything else... was grabbed!"

"Very good, colonel!" Rommel replied: "You did a good job, very good, especially the second lieutenant!"

Rommel had never praised a person or a unit as he did now, not even when he had captured Alexandria before.

When Rommel hung up the phone, he said to the staff who were looking at him: "Gentlemen, we have a fleet!"

There was a cheer immediately in the headquarters, and then the news quickly spread outside the headquarters, and then spread like a plague, even reaching the British army.

Montgomery still didn't believe the news after hearing it. He said to Eisenhower confidently: "This is not true. There are 80 warships and a large number of French troops in Toulon. How could the Germans take them all away?!"

"But Monty!" Eisenhower said: "Too many incredible things have happened here, right?"

"But we can't confirm it!" Montgomery said: "You know this. Britain and France are enemies. We have no communication channels!"

"I can!" Eisenhower contacted the embassy in France as soon as possible and asked the American ambassador to inquire.

As mentioned before, the United States supports the Vichy government, so it maintains diplomatic relations with the Vichy government.

After a while, the American ambassador sent a telegram to Eisenhower.

Eisenhower was stunned with the telegram.

"What's wrong?" Montgomery asked.

"You're wrong, Monty!" Eisenhower said, "They did it!"

"But..." Montgomery's face was full of disbelief: "How did they do it?"

"They deceived the French!" Eisenhower turned around and handed the telegram to Montgomery: "The French are suffering another humiliation, this humiliation is no less than the 'Maginot Line'!"