As Allied supplies and equipment were concentrated on the island of Banterelli, the Allied forces also built three airfields and two ports on the island...... At this point, the pre-war preparations were almost over. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Then it took the Allies four days to assemble their troops, after all, this is a multi-country and there are hundreds of thousands of troops, and the assembly is a very complicated matter.

The British Eighth Army set out from Tripoli, Alexandria, Port Said, Haifa and Beirut.

The U.S. Seventh Army set sail from Oran, Algiers, and Bizerte.

The French Third Army departed from Tunisia...... The French army only had the Third Army participating in the war, and this was a decision made by Zhang Chi.

Zhang Chi believes that so far the other armies of the Zoaf Corps are not capable of participating in the war, and General Zhu An agrees with this, especially after he inspected the Third Army.

Eisenhower, of course, did not object to this, and in his opinion, the more French troops entered the war, the more burdens the American army would have...... In his opinion, the French army was undoubtedly a burden to the American army.

All the convoys carrying the landing force were disguised as escort convoys, which first headed for a rendezvous in Malta and then turned to Banterelli Island.

In order to cover the landing formation's smooth arrival at sea to its destination, the Allies put in a total of eight battleships, six cruisers, and 25 destroyers to escort it.

In fact, the Allies were not worried about harassment by other German and Italian troops...... Air and sea supremacy in the Mediterranean was already in the hands of the Allies, and if the German and Italian armies sent warships or warplanes, it would be in line with the will of the Allies, and they would be able to defeat them before the war.

The only thing the Allies feared was the German submarines.

Submarines are not something that can be blocked by air supremacy or sea supremacy. However, it turned out that this concern was completely unnecessary, because the main force of the German submarine force had been operating in Algerian waters until then, and its purpose was to protect the German army's supply to Africa.

In the process, nine of the fifteen German submarines in the Mediterranean had been sunk, and the remaining six could no longer pose much of a threat to the Allies.

Surprisingly, the greatest threat to navigation was not the enemy, but a sudden storm at sea......

The weather was fine, the sun was setting and the sun was shining, and warships and transports spread out across the sea, like a torrent of steel, heading towards Banterelli Island.

But the weather at sea was changing, and before the sun had completely set, a dark cloud came from the other side, followed by the raging waves, and the waves brought by the Category 7 gale lifted the warship high and then threw it down.

Zhang Chi and General Zhu An in the command post of the Dunkirk had to hold on tightly to the grip so as not to be thrown out...... It feels like a roller coaster, more thrilling than a roller coaster, because there is a constant stream of bitter water pouring in through the window, giving the impression that a warship is about to sink to the bottom of the sea.

This made Zhang Chi's stomach churn constantly, and he vomited out with a "wow" sound half an hour later.

Zhang Chi can be said to have been on many warships and encountered strong storms and waves, he is like this, not to mention the soldiers of the Zoaf Corps...... Many of them were landlubbers living in desert areas, except, of course, the soldiers recruited from the coastal urban areas, and at this time they almost vomited their intestines when they were tossed in such a way.

At this time, Zhang Chi began to worry, if the storm continued like this, then the Allies were afraid that they would not be able to land in Sicily at all, in fact, let alone landing, it would be difficult to lower the landing craft from the ship...... Those landing craft were afraid that they would be overturned by huge waves as soon as they reached the sea, especially when it was still dark at this time, and it would be difficult for the soldiers to rescue them once they fell into the water.

"Do they know there's this storm tonight?" Zhang Chi asked General Zhu An loudly: "How do they do their meteorological work?!" ”

General Juan replied with difficulty: "The weather officers did not predict the storm, but they said that it was a temporary north wind blowing from the south coast of France, and the wind was fierce, but it came and went quickly, and it may subside in a few hours!" ”

"I hope so!" Zhang Chi replied.

Otherwise, the landing operation will be burned to the ground.

Luckily, the weather officer had guessed correctly, and by ten o'clock in the evening the sea had returned to calm, and a full moon hung high in the sky, shining the sea like a mirror, as if the previous storm had never existed.

All parts hurriedly took advantage of this time to take a short rest.

At this time, Zhang Chi received a report that five soldiers were missing...... Don't think about it, you must have been thrown into the sea in the wind and waves.

General Juan was not at all dismissive of this.

The five soldiers didn't look much in his eyes, all the more so that they were Algerians and not French officers.

However, Zhang Chi's reaction was diametrically opposed to that of General Zhu An, who immediately scolded the Chinese advisers to whom the five soldiers were located, punished them, and ordered them to immediately search and rescue them.

General Zhu An was very puzzled by Zhang Chi's move.

"Major General!" General Juan said: "Don't you think it's all in vain? They were washed into the sea, and we were only afraid that it was dozens of nautical miles away! ”

Zhang Chi replied, "But it's also possible to be on the ship, isn't it?" ”

In fact, Zhang Chi didn't understand this truth, and he didn't really want to find the five missing soldiers, of course, it would be best if he could find them.

What's more, Zhang Chi's actions would make the Algerian soldiers feel that their superiors valued their lives......

The fact that the general counsel would punish the Chinese instructors for five soldiers who went missing in the storm and spare no effort to search and rescue them gave the Algerian soldiers and the French officers another sense of ignoring their lives.

Therefore, while searching and rescuing, the Algerian soldiers also silently read or whispered to their comrades in their hearts:

"The Chinese are really our friends!"

"We can rest assured that we will obey their commands, they will not let us go to the battlefield to die!"

……

This is the effect that Zhang Chi wants to achieve.

As a result, one person was rescued.

The soldier was clever enough to tie himself to a cable and the other end to the boat, so that although he was swept off the boat by the waves, he hung himself on the side of the boat and fell unconscious, and no one else noticed him for a while.

When the soldier was rescued, the entire Third Army cheered as if they had won a battle.

So, it is by no means a question of saving a soldier, but of the unity and morale of an army.