In the wee hours of the morning, 100 kilometers west of Algiers, an important French colonial city in North Africa, a periscope slowly rose up, vigilantly looking around to see if there was no movement, and then quietly retracted. Later, the bridge of a submarine was slowly revealed, although there was no obvious marking on the submarine, but judging by the style and livery of the bridge, this was a British submarine, in fact this was a British submarine "Seraphim" under the command of Rear Admiral Jewell, he did not have any combat mission, his only mission was to safely bring ashore the newly appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the "Torch" program, Lieutenant General Mark Clark of the US Army, and his four main staff officers, who was only 46 years old, long-sleeved and good at dancing, The youngest of the high-ranking American generals had flown to Gibraltar the day before yesterday and had secretly traveled by submarine to this beach house near Algiers to meet with high-level representatives of the French colonies.

Robert Murphy, the chief U.S. diplomatic representative to North Africa, was the catalyst for the meeting, and he waited anxiously with the liaison officer sent by the French side in a shelter on the shore, looking forward to meeting Clark and others as soon as possible. Soon the two groups of men met, and looking at Murphy's appearance as if he were facing a great enemy, Clark asked strangely, "Didn't you say that the French were quite friendly to us?" Why is it like this? ”

"Recently, the colonies of North Africa have intensified their efforts to arrest Gaullists, and there are gendarmes and police everywhere." Murphy explained in a low voice, "Of course, the French dare not do anything to you, but it will be difficult to fall into the hands of the gendarmes, for not every French general is in favor of cooperating with us." ”

"Looks like we've got a long way to go." Clark shrugged. "But they'll regret it soon." ”

Clark was met by Major General Maast, commander of the Algiers Defense Zone, who had previously served as chief of staff to the commander-in-chief of the North African Army, General Juan. At this moment, he was as restless as an ant on a hot pot, an hour had passed since the agreed meeting, and there was no news from Murphy and the liaison officer he had sent out, could something have gone wrong in the middle?

Just as he was pacing around the carpet uneasily, and almost wanted to leave to give up the meeting, the liaison officer finally arrived with Clark and the others.

"Welcome, my friend." Look at Clark's rank of lieutenant general. Still, Mast happily took the lead in reaching out: it seemed that the Americans took this matter very seriously.

"It is an honor to meet with you." Because it was much later than the agreed time, the two sides got to the point without much greetings.

Clark was most concerned about the attitude and defense of the French troops in French Morocco and Algeria, and immediately asked about this key point. Clarke was a little disappointed that Clarke was a little disappointed that he had been able to reach the defender of Casablanca and that he had been able to reach the area and that he was in a good position. Clark's face gradually improved again.

Mast, who had been paying attention to Clark's expression, was thinking to himself: Casablanca is probably the focus of the Americans' landing. However, there was one thing he did not tell the Americans, in fact it was Admiral Mishlier who was in charge of the entire Casablanca defense area, which Murphy did not know, and he was happy to pretend to be confused - at least he had to leave a little more bargaining chips for himself, and let the Americans know all the secrets, and when the time came, he would not even have a little capital to bargain.

Master didn't guess too much about where the Americans were about to land, Task Force 34 (if the reader is still impressed by the name) under Rear Admiral Hewitt was to land in French Morocco, and Patton's main landing site for his troops was in Fedara, 22 kilometers north of Casablanca. In addition to this there are two other auxiliary landing sites, not far from Casablanca. One is in Mehdia, 90 km to the north, and the other is Safi, 200 km south. Casablanca was chosen because it was the only well-equipped port in French Morocco on the Atlantic coast, and the French knew about it, and the Americans certainly knew it. For the US military, which relies heavily on logistics for operations, it is simply inconceivable that there is no effective port cooperation.

"What are your country's specific landing plans? Approximately when will it be executed? How many troops are there? Where to land? What kind of cooperation do we need to do? Master asked a lot of questions, "I hope we communicate well in advance, and this time there will be no tragedy like the Dieppe landing." ”

The corners of Mark Clark's mouth couldn't help twitching, the fiasco at the Battle of Dieppe in France, which resulted in the loss of nearly 5,000 Allied troops in August, and also sent the German commander on the opposite side, Major General Zeitzler, to the throne of the army chief of staff, which made him feel terrible, and he told Master bluntly: "The United States is ready to send a large number of troops to North Africa, and then we will have strong support from the British Navy and Air Force, and a situation similar to Dieppe will not happen again in the face of our overwhelming power, And I'm sure that the French friends won't shoot at us either. ”

Hearing the word "Britain", Master's face became a little ugly, and he said in a serious tone: "Your country may not understand that the Anglo-French relations have essentially broken down, and the degree of bad relations between them is no less than that of Franco-German relations, so it is okay for your country to use the support of the British naval and air forces in carrying out the landing operation, but if the British Army also takes the opportunity to land, I dare not guarantee that the bullied French troops will not behave irrationally." ”

Clark nodded in understanding: "We will take note of this factor and make adjustments, and I believe it will never be difficult for you to do it." ”

Unbeknownst to Master, unknown to Murphy, Clark was not telling the truth: there were two fleets to land at Oran and Algiers, all composed of British warships, commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Harold Burroughs of the Royal Navy. The two fleets departed from England together, the slow one setting sail on 22 October, and the fast one departing on the 26th, and both naval task forces had departed by the time the United States and France were in contact with each other. The landing force carried on board was not all American troops, but consisted of nine thousand British and American troops each, with the American Major General Charles Ryder as commander. The reason for this peculiar mixture was that the British knew that the North African Army would not like to see them, and that if they could blend in with the American troops, they might encounter less resistance and hindrance to the landing. It was also agreed that all Allied command in Algiers would be taken over by Lieutenant General Kenneth Anderson, commander of the newly formed British First Army, in the event of a successful landing, so the position held by Major General Charles Ryder was destined to be very short-lived.

In the pre-assessment of Operation Torch, the Eastern Fleet would face a threat from the Italian direction, so the escort force was deliberately strengthened, and it was expected that the British Mediterranean Fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham would be covered by the British Mediterranean Fleet after passing through the Strait of Gibraltar at the same time on the night of 5 November, and the fleet would swell to an unimaginable level - more than 250 (about 40 transports) including various types of quartermasters, and 160 warships of all types used by the Royal Navy for escort and cover. In Cunningham's mind, his fleet was far stronger than the Italians, so that the Italians "could only watch from afar and do nothing if they did not want to be torn to shreds." This is also the same as the Americans, knowing that the French do not want to see the British, and they will do everything possible to bring in the British landing force -- otherwise the British will not work hard to provide naval support.

Master quickly put the British question behind him and continued to patiently inquire about the landing.

Clarke's ability to climb so fast and so high in the U.S. army is certainly not a person who is easily fooled, and he did not say anything about the other party's series of problems, but only vaguely introduced the vague information that Operation Torch was jointly carried out by Britain and the United States, and was roughly divided into three landings. For the sake of safety, he did not tell the other side the specific time and place of the Allied forces preparing to land, nor did he disclose the corresponding strength and the support force that could provide support at that time, and only reluctantly said under the repeated urging of Master: "Your Excellency, this information is a top secret, in fact, we have not finalized it, the real time of action depends on objective factors such as weather, tides, wind direction, etc., but I will authorize Mr. Murphy to notify you of the date immediately before landing......"

"In that case, you must not give less than 24 hours of advance notice - otherwise I will not have time to inform the troops on the front."

"Yes." Clark nodded, "Another important question is which leader will you choose to lead all the North African forces to join the Allied forces after the successful landing, I have heard that the commander-in-chief of the North African forces, Admiral Zhu An, has this intention?" ”

As Zhu An's confidant and chief of staff, Master certainly understands his commander's attitude: he does express this consideration in private, but more importantly, he will not show any attitude until the situation is clear, at most he will stand by and watch and not help each other. He hesitated for a moment, not wanting to point out Admiral Juan's true thoughts, but added: "This question is difficult to answer, General Juan is certainly the right person, but there is another general in North Africa who has a higher status and is more prominent." ”

"You mean Admiral Darlang?"

Maasté nodded: "He is the head of the entire French armed forces, he has always been relied on by the Führer Petain, he has high prestige in North Africa, and the navy is under his control—I think your country should not want to see the French military force divided, right?" (To be continued.) )