Chapter 290 Supply Line
Not much to say, I drank some wine tonight and will update tomorrow. I will try my best to update more this month... Just let me go today!
As soon as the fleet docked, groups of French sailors and crew were taken down.
Waiting for these prisoners are interrogations over and over again... The German army wants to learn from them the detailed operating procedures of the warships and the methods and essentials of using various weapons on the warships. After all, these are French equipment, not the same as the German warships and equipment. Differences.
"Dear Führer!" Rommel sent a telegram to Hitler: "We need crews 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 expectation, because Hitler had always regarded the African battlefield as a secondary battlefield before. No matter what reinforcements Rommel wanted, it would be difficult and would be discounted, but this time it was very easy. Got Hitler's promise.
What Rommel didn't know was that Germany's resources were severely depleted at this time, and Hitler had never paid attention to the navy... To be precise, the German navy's surface warships had never been able to compete with the British navy. In addition, attacking the Soviet Union required a lot of tanks and equipment, so Hitler even dismantled warships to build tanks. (Germany’s blockade of the British army relied mostly on submarines)
As a result, Germany actually had many idle sailors and sailors, and Hitler was having a headache with these people...it would be useless to use them, and it would be useless not to use them.
Use them. If the warship goes out, it will only be sunk by the enemy, which basically means death.
Don't use them. They are like vases sitting there. Not only are they useless, they also consume supplies.
Sometimes Hitler even thought about integrating these crews and sailors into the army and rushing them to fight on the Eastern Front. However, it is not easy for the navy to train them, and this would undoubtedly be a huge waste.
At this time, the African Corps captured an entire fleet, and Hitler just took advantage of the situation and sent them to North Africa.
In fact, Hitler had another idea:
Prior to this, the German navy had lost several duels 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 Algiers navy united with the German navy, could it defeat the British navy?
If this can be done, it means that the UK can be completely blocked or even directly launched a landing operation on the UK.
But after thinking about it, Hitler felt that now was not the right time: at this time, the German army was attacking the Soviet Union with all its strength, and it was no longer possible to organize a large-scale operation against Britain.
On the other hand, the United States will not sit back and watch the British Navy be defeated. Therefore, the most likely result of this is that all warships will sink to the bottom of the sea.
In fact, there is another very important reason, which Hitler discovered after the fact: 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. Generally, there are no strong winds and waves. At the same time, fighting in the Mediterranean does not require a long voyage.
As a result, most French warships are not suitable for ocean navigation and operations, that is, they cannot withstand wind and waves, have short endurance, and are not flexible enough.
Of course, they also have advantages, that is, they are fast, have excellent firepower and protection.
This led Hitler to finally give up the idea of moving the Toulon fleet to Germany to fight the British Navy.
The only one who dared not say anything at this time was the Vichy government... The Toulon fleet can be said to be the only thing that Germany is afraid of. Now that even the Toulon fleet has been snatched away by Germany, then... Pétain will know how to take over. What does it mean to come down?
Petain tremblingly sent a telegram to Hitler to test: "Your Majesty the Führer, I always thought that we had signed an armistice agreement, but you sneak attacked the port of Toulon and robbed our entire fleet..."
Hitler pretended to be confused with Petain: "Is there any? Oh, I remembered that General Rommel once reported... Those Algerians drove the ship back to the port of Algiers and surrendered to the Germans. This is not our fault, Prime Minister Sir, I promise this has nothing to do with us!”
Then, no matter how many times Pétain sent telegrams, Hitler never responded.
Petain understood that Hitler was too lazy to deal with him now... If it weren't for Germany's attack on the Eastern Front, he would have sent troops south to occupy all of France soon.
However, things took a turn for the better soon after.
Qin Chuan looked at the map and asked Major General Oxster: "General, you just came from France. I think you must know the situation in France better!"
"Yes, Second Lieutenant!" Major General Oxter nodded. At this time, he no longer dared to despise this Second Lieutenant, because he knew that the Second Lieutenant in front of him had saved Rommel and achieved brilliant victories on the battlefield again and again. " Legendary Staff Sergeant.”
In fact, Major General Oxter still looked down on Qin Chuan. As a nobleman, he even looked down on Rommel, but now he wanted to hide this attitude in his heart.
"So..." Qin Chuan said: "I want to know the transportation situation in France, including road, railway and sea transportation."
"Pretty good!" Major General Oxted replied: "My troops took the train from France to Italy and then to Tunisia by sea. We all know that France surrendered in more than a month, so its infrastructure such as roads , the railway was not damaged!”
Upon hearing this, Qin Chuan couldn't help but look at Colonel Slain and nodded secretly.
"Are you targeting France?" Major General Oxted 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 is difficult for British aircraft on the island of Malta to even threaten this line. Supply lines!”
Colonel Slaine is right. This is partly 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!"