Chapter 348 Airborne

Businessmen always see profit, just like Benoit and others. They are willing to temporarily succumb to the German army because of profit.

If one day, the Allies occupied Tunisia or even conquered Algeria, Benoit and others would definitely stand on the side of the Allies without hesitation.

The soldiers of the French camp are all children of these businessmen, so of course they have inherited this.

This has both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that they don’t have much patriotism... As mentioned before, they only see profit, so as long as they see the interests or really experience it, they may fight for the German army wholeheartedly.

The disadvantage is that their position is still wavering, and they may even be afraid of the strength of the Allies and lean towards the Allies.

Therefore, to solve this problem, we must start from two points:

One is to make them believe that the final winner of this war will be the Germans rather than the Allies... They will certainly stand with the winners because they value profit.

The other is to make them realize that even if they surrender, they will not have a good end.

Moreover, Qin Chuan believes that these two points apply to most French people.

For the former, Qin Chuan believed that they would gradually realize this as the war progressed, and this was still impossible to "convince". Whether the war situation was favorable to the Germans or the Allies was a reality that could be seen by those who understood.

For the latter, the French soldiers themselves actually knew that they would be liquidated. It was just that they were not sure that it had not happened, so they still had a fluke mentality.

This was the fundamental reason why the French battalion performed so poorly in combat. If these problems were not solved, the training of the French battalion would be in vain.

But Qin Chuan did not know how to solve it for a while, so he could only put it aside temporarily.

Originally, Qin Chuan thought that such a stalemate offensive would continue for a while. After all, the Germans had been operating on the Gabes Line for several months and occupied the terrain. Even if the Allies were strong, it would be difficult to break through in a short time. However, Qin Chuan did not expect that Montgomery, who had always been steady and cautious, would adopt a relatively risky and radical approach this time.

In fact, Montgomery also had his own difficulties... After several rounds of bombing on the Gabes Line, he found that the results were not ideal. The reason was that most of the German fortifications were built on mountaintops or reverse slopes. The British artillery fire was basically ineffective against these fortifications. Bombers could still play a role, but the British army had only one bomber brigade, and they had to travel back and forth between the enemy and us, and they could not bomb the Gabes Line, which was tens of kilometers long.

What's worse is that after several attempts to attack the Gabes Line, Montgomery also found that the Eighth Army was trained for desert warfare... but now it has to face the mountains of Tunisia.

This made the British army a little at a loss, and many troops did not know how to launch an attack.

"We can't wait any longer!" Montgomery said, "Our intelligence shows that the Germans and even the Algerians are building fortifications on every high ground, including the high ground along the Gafsa Highway... If we let them complete these fortifications, even if we have powerful armored forces, we will not be able to break through the enemy's defenses!"

Eisenhower nodded to show his understanding. It is common sense that mechanized troops are not suitable for mountain warfare, and the British Eighth Army has formed a large-scale mechanized force and ran into the mountains.

"So, where should we attack from?" Eisenhower asked.

"Gafsa, of course!" Montgomery replied.

"But we have tried it!" Eisenhower said, "Their defense there is very strong, and the German First Infantry Regiment, an elite force, is stationed in that area!"

"Have you forgotten the paratroopers we have been training?" Montgomery asked back.

"You mean..." Eisenhower said, "Carry out an airborne landing in Gafsa?"

"Yes!"

"But they have two armored divisions on the front line!" Eisenhower expressed doubt.

As we all know, the natural enemy of airborne troops is the enemy's mechanized and armored troops. Mechanized troops will rush to the airborne point and launch an attack before the airborne troops gather, while the tanks of the armored troops will make the airborne troops with only light weapons helpless.

Montgomery pointed to the map and said: "The two German armored divisions are on the east and west sides of Gafsa. If we launch a fierce attack on both sides of the defense line..."

Eisenhower suddenly realized: "That will delay the two armored divisions, and then we will capture Gafsa in the shortest time!"

"Yes!" Montgomery said: "The Germans can only choose between defending the defense line and defending Gafsa!"

Montgomery did what he said and immediately ordered the two armored divisions on the front to launch a fierce attack on the German defense line.

The attack points chosen by the British army are also very good. One is Gabes, which is the starting point of the entire defense line, close to the sea and with a relatively flat terrain, and the other is Negrin, which is almost the end of the Gabes defense line.

These two places can be said to be the must-save places for the German armored divisions.

Gabes is right on the seashore, with almost no threat from anti-aircraft guns, so British bombers can drop bombs here without any scruples, and then tanks move forward along the coastal road.

Negrin, as it is the farthest end of the Gabes defense line, is more difficult to transport supplies, so the fortifications here are relatively simple.

The British army even used "Sherman" tanks to penetrate the German defense line along the highway between the highlands and attack the German highlands from the front and back... If the German armored divisions did not reinforce, the Gabes defense line would probably collapse.

So, the two armored divisions were transferred to the two ends of the defense line, and Gafsa opened the door to the British airborne troops.

That day, Yulia shouted to the Allies in her usual magnetic voice: "Aha, dear Allied soldiers, you have tried to attack our defense line, how do you feel? At this moment, I believe that many people have been wailing in pain in the hospital, and some have even died. You may think that we are the same, no, we just consume some bullets! Give up, you will not succeed, if you continue like this, you will all die here..."

At this time, the voice stopped abruptly, because fighters and transport planes had already flown in the sky, and the "rumbling" engine sound was like thunder from far to near, and the black fuselage was connected together like a dark cloud crossing the German defense line.

Then, under the watchful eyes of the German soldiers, white parachutes floated out from behind the planes, and soon filled the entire sky.