Chapter 794： Battle of Cape Tunis (Part 1)

While Edel was worried about Italy, Mussolini as the leader felt good about himself. That's right, Italy is about to seize Tunisia, completing this regret that decades ago.

He is not at all worried about the French army currently standing in Tunisia. Because of the brave and combative Italian navy, the main force has been mobilized to the port of Palermo, and Tunisia is about to be encircled by land and sea.

As for the possibility of an attack from the French fleet, he is not even worried. Look at the mighty battleships of Italy. They are all 380 and 410 caliber cannons. They can suppress the French battleships in terms of protection, speed and firepower. Don't say you have a quantitative advantage.

Before, the French fleet was hiding in the Port of Toulon, relying on the air force and terrain advantages to avoid being hit. If you dare to come out, just let the French know how powerful it is.

In fact, it is not only Mussolini who thinks this way, but also the current Italian navy.

The blockade of Tunisia this time may be just an opportunity to draw the French fleet out and give it a violent blow.

However, Antonescu, who was besieging Tunisia with Italian minds, did not know. He and his Italian partner Messer were observing the outer fortifications of Tunisia.

"These fortifications are well repaired, and it is not easy for us to win."

After observing for a while, Antonescu left the added high-powered telescope and said to his partner beside him.

"This is indeed the case. I have seen three trenches on the hills. It seems that the French have used their housekeeping skills from the last war."

When they left the binoculars, they could see a trace of sadness in each other's eyes. It was difficult for such a dedicated French army to fight. Especially for them, it is even harder to fight.

That's right, for the Luoyi coalition forces, it is difficult for them to attack fortifications. Because at that time, when the coalition forces were assembled, their equipment was mainly mobile warfare, and its mission was also to intersperse behind the enemy in order to eliminate the enemy in mobile warfare.

Now facing a tortoise shell like Tunisia, they feel like they have nowhere to start.

"How long will the follow-up troops arrive?"

Antonescu now no longer thinks about his breakthrough, but instead asks about reinforcements.

Faced with Antonescu's question, Messer spoke. "Marshal Balbo has led the troops on the road, and the telegram says he has one week to join us."

What Messer is talking about is the newly added troops of Commander Balbo. They are based on the 18th "Messina" Division, the 25th "Bologna" Division, the 64th "Catanzaro" Division, and the 3rd Mountain "Julia" Division. Waiting for the main force, are all elite troops transferred from the country. In addition, Balbo also brought four independent artillery regiments, two siege artillery regiments, a huge organization composed of a total of 310,000 officers and men.

Some of these troops have joined them, but the main artillery is still on the way. If these troops are not there, they have been firmly chained here.

Antonescu is looking forward to leaving Tunisia soon, and there are also others here who want to leave Tunisia. General Dashanliu, who was in charge of the French army in Tunisia, wanted to leave.

Although he stayed in Tunisia, he clearly realized that Tunisia was a dead place. Had it not been for the North African Legion to come too fast at the time, it would be impossible for him to stay here. But now that reinforcements for Tunisia have become a defense of Tunisia, how could this make him reconciled.

What’s more important now is that reinforcements from the Italian troops are coming. The 300,000 Italian troops under the command of Marshal Balbo are coming to Tunisia. As high as 450,000, his 130,000 soldiers in Tunisia are absolutely unstoppable.

Not to mention that with the blockade of the Italian Navy in the open sea, the sea and land passages are cut off, then the city of Tunisia is a dead place. Therefore, in order to find a way for himself and the officers and soldiers under his jurisdiction, he must also seek help from Paris. At least one road needs to be opened up so that the officers and soldiers can see that they have not been abandoned.

In Paris, the besieged General Dashanliu's telegram asking for help also made the government feel difficult. To save the French army in Tunisia, there is no need to think about it from the land.

The French Army Staff did a deduction. To rescue the besieged French army, at least 300,000 well-trained troops are needed. This is the lowest figure given by France considering the low quality of the Italian army.

So how many French troops are there in neighboring Algeria?

240,000 troops, most of which are soldiers conscripted by the colonies. With this strength, let alone rescue, self-protection is not enough. As for the homeland, defending the Germans is much more important than rescuing Tunisia. Therefore, at present, France can only transfer troops from southern Africa to Algeria. However, this also takes time, but the current army rescue cannot provide this time.

Since the army can't help, it can only find a way from the navy. For this reason, at the rescue meeting, Paul Renault, the prime minister, pointed out that now only the navy can rescue the French army in Tunisia, so he hopes that the navy can play an important role in this war.

Facing Prime Minister Renault's words, Darren, as the leader of the navy, certainly knew how much pressure he felt. It can be said responsibly that, apart from personnel and other reasons, from a technical point of view, the French Navy is really not an Italian navy opponent strengthened by Edel.

As far as the difference in the performance of battleships is concerned, Darlan is not necessarily afraid, because people are ultimately used. However, as an imaginary enemy for many years, the situation of the Italian navy, the man at the helm is also very clear, that is, the quality of the Italian naval officers and soldiers is not lower than that of France.

This is difficult. The battleship can't match it, and the quality of the opponent's officers and soldiers is not inferior to that of him. Now he must go to rescue General Dashangliu. This operation would be very difficult to do if it was done by oneself alone.

Fortunately, he still has a strategic advantage, that is, the Atlantic is in the hands of Britain and France, and he can still ask for help. At this time, he didn't care about his dislike of Britain. He took the opportunity to propose at the meeting that there was no problem in allowing himself to go to sea for rescue, but he had to ask the British navy for help. The French navy alone cannot accomplish this task.

Although Darlan gave the government a problem, considering that rescuing the French army in Tunisia would play a huge role in defending Algeria, the government finally agreed.

Now that Darren’s request was agreed, the next step was to take into account the situation of the Tunisian defenders. The French government was difficult to be efficient. In the evening of the same day, it requested the British navy to send no less than 2 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships for assistance. The message appeared on Churchill's desk.

Facing the request of the French, Churchill agreed after considering it for a long time. There are two reasons. The first is that after several trials, the German Navy seems to have given up the tactics of breaking the relationship. They no longer want to send warships to break through the British defense lines and enter the Atlantic Ocean to destroy British transportation lines.

Moreover, the British intelligence agency also found that the German shipyard was still unaffected by the war, or even more affected, and it was working overtime to build warships.

For this reason, the British intelligence agency believes that Germany is currently waiting for the navies of Italy and Romania to open the Atlantic channel and trap the British Isles after they merge.

So at this time, the importance of the French navy is revealed. As long as the French navy is still there, the Italian navy cannot target the Atlantic and give the United Kingdom enough buffer time.

Another point is that since the British navy suffered the fiasco of the Alexandria air raid, it has not received an exciting piece of good news. As the proud British Imperial Navy, such a situation is unimaginable, and they desperately need a piece of good news that is exciting enough.

Together with the French navy, against the Italian navy, there is nothing better than this news.

So Churchill decided to agree to the request of France, and not only did he agree, but also very generously decided to send two aircraft carriers and three battleships to reinforce the French navy.

The officer who led the team this time was Andrew Cunningham, who was reinstated after being transferred to the reserve service.

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