While Edel was worried about Italy, Mussolini, as the leader, felt good about himself. Yes, Italy was about to seize Tunisia, completing this regret it had done decades ago.
He is not worried at all about the French army currently stationed in Tunisia. Because the brave and capable Italian Navy has mobilized its main force to the Port of Palermo and is about to encircle Tunisia by sea and land.
As for the possible attack by the French fleet, he is not worried at all. Look at the mighty Italian battleships. They all have 380 and 410 caliber cannons. Whether it is protection, speed or firepower, they can suppress the French battleships, let alone
I still have a numerical advantage.
Previously, the French fleet was hiding in the Port of Toulon, relying on its air force and terrain advantages to avoid being hit. If it dares to come out, it will let the French know how powerful it is.
In fact, not only Mussolini thought so, but the upper echelons of the Italian Navy also thought so.
This blockade of Tunisia Port may be an opportunity to draw out the French fleet and give it a violent blow.
However, Antonescu did not know that Italy was thinking of besieging Tunisia. He and his Italian partner Messe were observing the outer fortifications of Tunisia.
"These fortifications are well repaired, but it will not be easy for us to capture them."
After observing for a while, Antonescu left the high-power telescope and said to his partner.
"Indeed, I have seen three trenches on the hill. It seems that the French have used their special skills from the last war."
When both of them left the telescope, they both saw a hint of sadness in each other's eyes. It was difficult to defeat the French army who was determined to defend like this. It was especially difficult for them to defeat them.
Yes, for the Luo-Italy coalition, it was a bit difficult for them to attack the enemy. Because when the coalition was formed, its equipment was mainly based on mobile warfare, and its mission was also to penetrate behind enemy lines in order to destroy the enemy in mobile warfare.
Now faced with a turtle shell like Tunisia, they feel like they have nowhere to start.
"How long will it take for the follow-up troops to arrive?"
Antonescu no longer thought about his own breakthrough, but asked about reinforcements.
Facing Antonescu's inquiry, Messe spoke up. "Marshal Balbo is already leading his troops on the road, and the telegram said he still has a week to join us."
What Messe is talking about is the newly recruited troops commanded by Balbo. They are composed of the 18th "Messina" Division, the 25th "Bologna" Division, the 64th "Catanzaro" Division, and the 3rd Mountain "Julia" Division.
The other troops were mainly elite troops transferred from the country. In addition, Balbo also led four independent artillery regiments and two siege artillery regiments, a huge establishment of 310,000 officers and soldiers in total.
At present, some of these troops have joined them, but the main artillery is still on the way. Without these troops, they have been firmly tied here.
Antonescu is looking forward to leaving Tunisia as soon as possible, and there are also other people here who want to leave Tunisia. General Dashanliu, who is in charge of commanding the French army in Tunisia, also wants to leave.
Although he stayed in Tunisia, he clearly realized that Tunisia was a dead place. If the North African Army had not arrived so quickly, he would not have been able to stay here. But now that the reinforcement of Tunisia has become the defense of Tunisia, how could this make him
willingly.
And what's more important now is that reinforcements from Italian troops have arrived. The 300,000 Italian troops commanded by Marshal Balbo are rushing towards Tunisia. If they join the Romanian-Italian coalition forces outside Tunisia, the enemy troops outside Tunisia will
As high as 450,000, the 130,000 soldiers in Tunisia cannot stop them.
Not to mention that with the blockade of the Italian navy in the outer sea, the sea and land routes are cut off, so the city of Tunisia is a dead end. Therefore, in order to find a way for himself and the officers and soldiers under his jurisdiction, he must also ask for help from Paris. At least one road needs to be opened for the officers and soldiers to see
Until I haven't given up.
In Paris, the besieged General Dachangliu sent a telegram asking for help, which also made the government find it difficult to deal with it. It was no longer necessary to think of rescuing the French army in Tunisia by land.
The French Army Staff conducted a deduction and found that to rescue the besieged French army, at least 300,000 well-trained troops were needed. This was the lowest figure given by France considering the low quality of the Italian army.
So how many French troops are there in neighboring Algeria now?
There are 240,000 troops, most of which are soldiers recruited from the colonies. This amount of troops is not enough for self-protection, let alone rescue. As for the homeland, defending the Germans is much more important than rescuing Tunisia. So currently France can only send troops from southern Africa.
The conscripted troops were transferred to Algeria. However, this also takes time, but currently relying on army rescue cannot give this time.
Since the army cannot help, the only way is to find a way from the navy. For this reason, at the rescue meeting, Paul Reynaud, the Prime Minister, pointed out that the only one that can rescue the French army in Tunisia is the navy, so he hopes that the navy can rescue the French army in Tunisia.
played an important role in this war.
Facing Prime Minister Reno, Darlan, as the leader of the navy, certainly knows how much pressure he is under. It can be said responsibly that, regardless of personnel and other reasons, from a technical perspective alone, the French Navy is really not strengthened by Edel.
Italian naval rival.
Darlan is not necessarily afraid of the difference in the performance of battleships alone, because they are ultimately using people. However, as an imaginary enemy for many years, the helmsman is also very clear about the situation of the Italian Navy, that is, the quality of the Italian Navy's officers and soldiers is not as good as
French low.
This is difficult to handle. The battleships cannot be compared to oneself, and the quality of the opponent's officers and soldiers is not inferior to one's own, and now one has to rescue General Dashanliu. This operation will be very difficult to handle if one relies solely on one's own strength.
Fortunately, he still had a strategic advantage, that is, the Atlantic Ocean was in the hands of Britain and France, and he could still ask for help. At this time, he ignored his dislike of Britain and took the opportunity to propose at the meeting that there was no problem in allowing him to go to sea for rescue, but he had to
We need to ask for help from the British Navy. The French Navy alone cannot complete this task.
Although Darlan gave the government a difficult problem, considering that rescuing the French troops in Tunisia would play a huge role in defending Algeria, the government finally agreed.
Now that it agreed to Darlan's request, the next thing to do was to take into account the situation of the Tunisian defenders. It was difficult for the French government to be efficient. In the evening of the same day, it requested the United Kingdom to send a navy of no less than 2 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships for reinforcements.
The message appeared on Churchill's desk.
Faced with the French request, Churchill agreed after long consideration. There were two reasons. First, after several tests, the German Navy seemed to have given up on the tactic of breaking diplomatic relations. They no longer wanted to send warships to break through the British.
line of defense, entering the Atlantic to disrupt British shipping lines.
Moreover, the British intelligence agency also discovered that the German shipyards were still not affected by the war, or were more affected, and were working overtime to build warships.
For this reason, the British intelligence department believes that Germany is currently waiting for the navies of Italy and Romania to open up the Atlantic channel and join them to trap the British Isles.
So at this time, the importance of the French navy was revealed. As long as the French navy was still there, the Italian and Romanian navy would not be able to give Britain enough buffer time against the Atlantic.
Another point is that since the British Navy suffered a disastrous defeat in the Alexandria air raid, it has not received any exciting good news. As the proud British Empire Navy, such a situation is unimaginable. They urgently need an exciting enough news.
good news.
There is nothing better than this news to win a hearty victory with the French Navy against the Italian Navy.
So Churchill decided to agree to France's request, and not only did he agree, he also very generously decided to send two aircraft carriers and three battleships to reinforce the French navy.
The officer leading the team this time was Andrew Cunningham, who had been reinstated to his post after being transferred to the reserves.
