The scene in the port of Algiers was once again played out in the port of Toulon.

It's just that the scene in the port of Toulon is much larger than that in 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, and it was not surprising that the Germans had the upper hand.

This is not to say that the Germans are superior in strength, in fact the Germans are still inferior in terms of strength...... The French would casually leave a few dozen men on the warship, while the Germans assigned only about ten people, including the crew, to the warship (the number varies, and some larger warships are assigned more).

However, 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, coupled with the unpreparedness, so the German army occupied one warship after another, and even solved many problems of insufficient crews...... The German soldiers captured many French sailors and drove the warship with guns held at them.

The fighting on the shore was like that of the port of Algiers, where the Algerian soldiers set up a defensive line on the perimeter to fend off the French reinforcements under the cover of buildings...... The French reinforcements were much slower than expected, much to Zemamouche's surprise, and even half an hour later the French were unable to organize a decent attack.

But this is actually normal.

First of all, because most of the French officers were in the party, they were killed and wounded in the first place, and even the deputy commander, General Claude, was captured, so the French army could not coordinate effectively.

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

After the First World War, French military strategists generally believed that the future battles would be like the First World War, where the two sides dug a trench and then fought back and forth, so the whole of France was permeated with a tactical idea of "absolute defense", so they built a Maginot Line, and they also believed that defense would be more advantageous than offense, so most of the training of the French Army was to build trenches and then shoot in the trenches, as for the offensive ...... I'm sorry, but they think that in the era of machine guns and artillery, another meaning of attacking was to send them to death, so they didn't know how to attack.

Another reason was that the French Army at this time was under the Vichy government, and many of them thought that France had actually surrendered and was already a puppet of Germany...... And that's exactly what happened.

So they don't have honor, morale, confidence, etc., which an army should have, plus they basically have no combat experience...... The entire French campaign had only been fought for more than a month, and it was over before the warm-up, so the combat effectiveness of the French Army was far from that of these "outlaws" of the Zoaf Corps.

This allowed the fighting on the shore to go so smoothly that the Algerian soldiers were able to withdraw to the warships in an orderly manner and help the Germans control and operate the warships together......

Of course, due to the quality of the Zoaf Corps, there were only two things they could do: one was to use their guns to do things against the French prisoners, and the other was to set up rifles on the warships to provide cover for their comrades on the shore.

Soon after, the warships left the port one by one under the control of the German and French prisoners, and the last Algiers soldiers were withdrawn from the ships under the cover of the warship's fire.

This time it was the turn of the French officers on the shore to watch helplessly as the warship disappeared into the darkness, and ironically, some of the surviving French officers had fled, mocking the Germans at the time of their escape from Algiers.

Colonel Denis, who was pursuing his troops to the port of Toulon, did not even know what was happening, he looked at the chaos of the harbor, the corpses, and the empty sea and asked the survivors: "God, what is happening here?" Where did our warships go? ”

"Algiers, Colonel!" A French major, covered in blood, replied.

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

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

As he spoke, the major glanced at the few fishing boats and transport ships parked in the harbor that no one wanted, and then said, "They exchanged these broken ships for our warships, all of them!" ”

When the Algiers command received the news, there was a burst of cheers.

"Well done, second lieutenant!" Colonel Slane said to Qin Chuan, "You have once again refreshed your legend!" ”

The surrounding staff officers also congratulated Qin Chuan:

"Congratulations, second lieutenant!"

"A great strategy, ensign, what an admirable one!"

……

Colonel Slein then reported the situation to Rommel.

"We succeeded, General!" Colonel Slane said.

"What? It worked? Rommel still couldn't believe it: "How many have you grabbed?" ”

"All!" Colonel Slein's voice trembled a little with excitement: "Except for the two submarines that dived into the sea in time, all the other ...... Got it all! ”

"Very well, Colonel!" Rommel replied: "You guys are doing well, very well, especially the ensign!" ”

Rommel never boasted about a man or a unit as much as he did now, not even before taking Alexandria.

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

There was an immediate cheer from the headquarters, and then the news quickly spread outside the headquarters, and then spread like a plague, even to the British army.

Montgomery didn't believe it when he heard the news, and he said to Eisenhower with great confidence: "It's not true, eighty warships, and there are still a large number of French troops in Toulon, how could the Germans snatch them all?!" ”

"But Monty!" Eisenhower said, "There's been so much incredible going on here, hasn't it? ”

"But we can't be sure!" Montgomery said: "You know this, England and France are enemies, and we have no channels of communication!" ”

"I can!" Eisenhower immediately contacted the embassy in France and asked the U.S. ambassador to inquire about it.

As mentioned before, the United States supported the Vichy government, so it maintained diplomatic relations with the Vichy government.

Soon after, 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 incredulity, "how did they do it?" ”

"They lied to the French!" Eisenhowie turned and handed the telegram to Montgomery: "The French are suffering another disgrace, this time no less than the 'Maginot Line'!" ”