Chapter 771: Rescue
Immediately afterwards, US bombers and fighters swooped down with a shrill whistle and bombed the German defense area and barracks indiscriminately, and the German troops, who were not mentally prepared, were stunned by this sudden bombing and did not know what to do at all. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
At this time, Rear Admiral Hans was still in his mind, and he knew that it was time to organize the Germans to storm the port and quickly occupy the port of Territory and seize the French ships that had not yet had time to escape, but he also knew that it was too late and pointless to do it now.
"Too late" because the French sailors must have been prepared for this, and the German invasion of the port would undoubtedly be blocked, and the worst thing for the attacking German army may be bombarded by American fighters and French large-caliber naval guns.
"It doesn't make sense" because the main target of the German army was the battleships of the Toulon fleet. By this time, the French warships had already sailed to sea...... What did the Germans take to capture them? Swimming?
At this time, there were only a few transports, submarines, and oil tankers in the port of Toulon, and the capture of these was just a pile of scrap metal.
So Major General Hans simply did nothing, and did not even order the artillery to bomb the port, because he was afraid that it would expose the location of the artillery and be bombed by American fighters.
As a result, the French sailors were able to calmly withdraw to various ships and sail out of the harbor, and the entire Toulon fleet was withdrawn almost intact, the only damage was that due to some panic in the haste to withdraw, a transport ship and an oil carrier collided together, but because the speed was not fast, it was only slightly injured.
It was even later discovered that more ships had escaped than expected, as many civilian transports anchored in the port of Toulon had also escaped with the French Navy...... They feared that they would be harmed or requisitioned by the Germans, so there were more than 60 transport ships alone, as well as dredgers, fishing boats, and most strangely, a few boats came with them.
Later, when asked why the sailing ship and yacht came together, their owner replied: "I don't know, I just saw that all the ships were busy leaving the harbor and there was the sound of cannons...... You know, I'm coming! ”
As a result, some of them wanted to go back, because their families were still on the other side of the Mediterranean, but this was no longer possible, and the Algiers government replied to them: "Wait until the day of the liberation of France, and hopefully that day will not be too long!" ”
The command in Algiers immediately received the good news, and General Juan excitedly shouted with a telegram: "We have succeeded, they have escaped, and there are no casualties!" ”
There was an immediate cheer from the headquarters.
Only Darlan seemed calm, and he said lightly: "Gentlemen, they still have to evade the air pursuit of the Germans to be considered successful!" ”
Having said that, Darlan knew that the Germans might not send an air force to pursue, after all, the air supremacy at this time was in the hands of the Americans, and the air battle at the "Crossroads of Death" had already made the Germans feel uneasy, so even if they would send the air force, it would be difficult to have any impact on the Toulon fleet.
In fact, the most exciting thing here is Darlan, because this navy was created by him, and if there is anything in this world that can make him care like a son, it is this fleet.
This was one of the reasons why Darlan was reluctant to sink this fleet in the port of Toulon.
Because he has been thinking about a problem: Britain and the United States are willing to pay such a big price to rescue the Toulon fleet, it is nothing more than to make the Toulon fleet a sharp weapon to fight the German army in the future, but Darlan does not want this, he wants to see Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany and other countries in a mess and France can benefit from it.
Thinking of this, Dar Lang couldn't help but sigh secretly, if it weren't for such a big thing happening in Algeria, his idea might still be realized, but now...... Darlang could only silently accept reality.
As Darlan expected, the Germans did not send fighter planes to pursue them.
Of course, the Germans wanted to do this, and in fact when Hitler received this information, he immediately ordered the air force to pursue, but Kesselring replied: "Honorable Führer, I think that the enemy must have made full preparations to rescue the Toulon fleet, and if we rush into pursuit, it is very likely that we will suffer heavy losses in the absence of an unknown target!" ”
Kesselring's "unclear target" here refers to the awkward situation that the air force will encounter when it goes in pursuit, whether it should target the French fleet or the British and American fighters that may exist.
If it was the former, then the German fleet should have more bombers, and even the BF fighters should have been hung with bombs.
If this is done, if it is intercepted by British and American fighters, the consequences will be unimaginable.
If it was the latter, then the German fleet should have more fighters ready for air combat.
Doing so did little harm to the Toulon fleet...... Bullets can't sink a warship, not even a warship, not even a transport.
Hitler soon realized that he was too impulsive, so he reluctantly canceled the order to pursue.
This has also proved to be very wise, because the British and American air forces are ready to fight another air battle similar to the "crossroads of death" in an attempt to annihilate the main force of the German air force.
This allowed the Toulon fleet to reach the port of Algiers that night after a thrilling voyage of more than ten hours.
At this time, the port of Algiers was brightly lit, and many French people living in Algeria rushed to wait for the news, and when the fleet entered the port, cheers immediately rang out in the port, and people kept shouting in French:
"Welcome!"
"You've made it!"
"We've won!"
……
The word "victory" was almost a irony for France, because the seemingly powerful Toulon fleet had never been victorious, and even their only combat experience was being hunted down by British bombing after France surrendered to Germany.
Fortunately, they finally don't have to sink themselves in the port of Toulon, as history has done.
Darlang finally didn't hold back, he shook his hand and said, "Thank you, Rear Admiral, you saved my fleet!" ”
Zhang Chi knew what Dar Lang meant, because from the beginning, the US air power was involved, and even the rescue plan codenamed "Crocodile" was actually from Zhang Chi.
However, Zhang Chi didn't take this seriously, because it was just a trivial matter for him, a trivial matter not worth mentioning.