Chapter 339 Bombing

Two days later, a group of Italian troops withdrew from the front line. As Qin Chuan and others had seen before, their uniforms were untidy and their formations were scattered. Their faces always had their signs...panic.

Of course, if they came down from the battlefield, it would be understandable, but anyone who had fought in a war knew that they did not stay on the battlefield for long, which could be seen from their uniforms and cars.

If they came down from the battlefield, there would be at least a few places on their uniforms that were worn out due to tactical actions, and there would always be some bullet holes or rags torn by shrapnel on the car...but they had nothing.

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

The soldiers of the French camp couldn't help but burst into laughter...Even the French looked down on the Italians.

It's also ironic that France and Italy are also enemies. Italy even thought that France was easy to bully after France surrendered, and led troops to invade the Vichy government, but it turned out that the Italians couldn't even beat the weak Vichy government.

"Where are they going?" a French soldier asked worriedly, "Are they going to our rear?"

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

Another benefit of taking Algeria is that it will open relatively safe routes to France and Italy at the same time.

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

The French soldiers laughed again.

Qin Chuan looked at the French soldiers meaningfully and said, "I hope you won't waste supplies in the same way!"

"Don't worry, Lieutenant! We will teach those proud British people a lesson with weapons!"

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

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

Stefan obviously belongs to the latter.

"I think we'd better finish the work at hand!" Baudouin pointed to the tunnel and said, "Because our lives may depend on it!"

This statement was recognized by many French soldiers.

Baudouin's father is an arms dealer... In times of war, arms dealers are always the most profitable, especially in Algeria, where the security situation is not satisfactory.

Of course, arms dealers usually have a thousand connections with the government or the army, and they are even agents of the French government, so that they can get weapons and sell them to the public for profit.

At the same time, there are certain risks in doing arms business.

Obviously, Baudouin learned some military knowledge or crisis awareness when running his family business and used it here.

Qin Chuan couldn't help but glance at Vineet, who was smoking and laughing with several female soldiers... She was obviously the kind of person who "drinks today and drinks today", and 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 be so.

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

That morning, everyone hurriedly ate bread and baked potatoes as usual and started the day's work.

At this time, the work of the tunnel has basically taken shape, and the uncertainty is how much supplies to put in it... This is always an unknown, because you don't know how long you will be trapped in it by the enemy, two days, three days, or a week or two weeks.

What's worse is that the place where the supplies are buried is likely to be blown up, so that everyone will starve to death in it.

Therefore, the supply point is reinforced with the thickest wood, and it is stored in several locations to avoid being unable to continue if one place is blown up.

Just when the soldiers were discussing whether to store more food or more ammunition, the sound of a plane rumbled faintly in the sky.

The soldiers looked up at the sky, but the dazzling sunlight made it impossible for them to see anything.

"Go into the tunnel and hide!" Qin Chuan shouted, "It's an enemy plane."

Having been on the battlefield for a long time, Qin Chuan can basically distinguish between the enemy and us by the roar of the plane... Alfredo once expressed doubts about this.

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

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

"But you can always know in advance whether it is an enemy plane or your own plane!" Alfredo asked with disbelief, "Why?"

"I only need to remember the sound of the German plane engine!" Qin Chuan said, "Apart from that, the ones that fly over our heads are always enemy ones!"

Alfredo suddenly realized.

This is true. Italian fighter planes basically did not operate in North Africa... Even if they did, they were used for reconnaissance. Reconnaissance is of course to scout in front of the enemy's position, not to fly around our own position.

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

At this time, Qin Chuan heard a different roar, and it was very dull, like thunder coming from a far distance... So Qin Chuan judged that it might be the American bombers that came.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly, it was the American B17 and B24 bomber formations that came. Compared with the British heavy bombers at an altitude of 7,000 meters, they can fly to an altitude of 8,500 to 10,000 meters, and the range is even more amazing.

Among them, the B17 has a shorter range, only 2,900 kilometers, so it was deployed to Malta 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 Tunisian front... In fact, the Allies did set up a bomber brigade in Benghazi.

Benghazi is a bump on the map, and the bombers take off from there with the ocean all the way, so they can avoid passing over land and being shot by enemy anti-aircraft guns, and then insert the land from Gabes to Tunisia to bomb wherever they want to bomb.

This bombing is very cheap for the Allies because they don't need to transport the shells across the long desert... The bombs are unloaded directly at the port of Benghazi and transported to the bombers, and then dropped on the enemy.