From afar, de Gaulle in his office seemed to hear the applause of the British House of Representatives.

Yes, the British won the battle, but the Free France, as an ally of the British, lost hearts and minds.

In London, even De Gaulle, who was a general and the leader of a country's government, was not as stiff as a major general or mayor of the British.

"Operation Ballista" allowed the British to expose their most selfish side to the eyes of the world.

By daring to do so, they are daring to offend the French people and to bear the resentment of France, which has lost its strength.

Since existence itself was dependent on the British government, de Gaulle could not make any negative criticism of Churchill's assassination of the French navy.

He can only be silent, and lose the hearts and minds of the French people in silence!

"General, in response to this war, should we make a celebratory speech to congratulate the British allies?" A close confidant of de Gaulle's reminded softly: "After all, the British are the only country that recognizes the legitimacy of our regime, and they are also our allies." At this time, congratulations should be given. ”

Although de Gaulle was already the supreme leader of the Free French regime, he held both military and political positions. But his cronies still call him a general.

Not for anything else, but because de Gaulle himself liked to be called a general.

The Ruhr War was the first and last battle of Charles de Gaulle's military career.

Since the defeat in that battle, de Gaulle has never had the opportunity to contact military command again, and has since faded from the public's view. If he hadn't made a temporary jump to the plane to the UK, maybe his life would have passed like this.

However, he came to England and formed a new French government. Although the legitimacy of Free France was not recognized internationally by chance, it was the last chance that de Gaulle had given himself to regain his reputation.

Before he wanted to defeat the Germans, he wanted to take revenge on the defeat of Cherur, and before he took revenge, de Gaulle hoped that each of his subordinates could become his general, so as to warn and remind himself that sooner or later he would have to protect the revenge of the military defeat at the beginning.

However, at the moment, it seems that the opportunity for revenge is estimated to be delayed for a while.

"Public statements are exempt." Knowing full well that Churchill had offended the French people and was regarded as a public enemy by all of France, de Gaulle did not want to risk the whole of France at this time and get too close to Churchill's British government.

"Privately, I would personally visit Churchill and congratulate him." De Gaulle, after thinking about it, said: "By the way, I also want him to ask for a proposal to start the Battle of Oran." We can't let him think that we are cowardly puppets, and sometimes we still have to be superficial. ”

"Yes, my subordinates will go to Churchill's confidential secretary and make an appointment for a meeting." De Gaulle's cronies had also been haunted by Churchill's surprise attack on the French fleet, and they were naturally happy to hear de Gaulle's request for an explanation.

Although we all know, most of this statement is not returned. However, it is better to say and remind Churchill that the French still have tempers than to pretend to be deaf and dumb.

.........

"What? De Gaulle wanted to see me. Churchill, who was signing the award document for Wavell at his desk, looked up suspiciously when he heard the secretary's report.

It was only 3 blocks away from de Gaulle's government building, but De Gaulle didn't want to see Churchill by crossing 3 streets. At the very least, he had to wait for Churchill to make time, or rather for Churchill to make time.

"Push him off for me, I don't want to meet the French now." Churchill said with some weakness.

Ever since he had given the order to carry out Operation Ballista, and at the same time sent Darlan a telegram "showing forgiveness", he had begun to feel that he could not hold his head up in front of the French.

Yes, politicians can be shameless, and many politicians pride themselves on being shameless.

But, after all, Churchill still has to mix in internationally. His despicable and fraudulent telegram was openly sent to Port Oran in order to increase credibility.

Having done such a hurtful thing, Churchill really couldn't be indifferent.

In this regard, he is indeed worse than Reinhardt in Germany and Mussolini in Italy.

"Let's just say that I have to arrange the transfer and deployment of the local defense forces in the near future, and I don't have time to meet with him." Churchill said to himself.

They were only a few blocks apart, and it didn't take much time to meet in person, and Churchill excused himself for this reason, and his secretary probably guessed that the prime minister was deliberately avoiding the French.

So, the secretary nodded very knowingly: "Okay, I'll go and reply to the Free French government." ”

Speaking of deploying home defense, Churchill suddenly remembered something: "By the way, I used two Australian divisions to exchange for two British divisions in Wavell's hands, why haven't the officers and men of these two divisions come to report to the home war office for a long time?" ”

Churchill also didn't want to think about how anyone else could have won the Italian army attacking behind if it weren't for General Wavell on the North African side, who absolutely delayed this dispatch order after consulting with John Deere, the chief of the British Imperial General Staff.

Could it be that the North African confrontation between Italy and Britain had to put its fate in the hands of 2 Australian divisions?

What's more, because of the long distance, these two Australian divisions only arrived under Wavell today, and they had no chance to catch up with the previous North African battle.

In other words, if Wavell was really just a rigid general who only knew how to listen to Churchill's orders, Graziani would have been a bare-bones commander with no troops to deploy when he launched an offensive in North Africa.

Looking at the secretive and embarrassed facial expression of the confidential secretary, Churchill quickly guessed the reason for the incident.

"Okay, I said why Wavell suddenly took the initiative, and after winning the battle, he reported that he led his troops to continue the counterattack on the Italian colony of Libya. It turned out that he wanted to use the fact that this attack was being carried out so that I could not take away the British troops under his command who were attacking. ”

Churchill was fat, and in the blink of an eye, he deduced Wavell's careful thoughts.

After all, the only troops that Wavell could use were two British divisions. Among them, there is also a 7th Panzer Division, which is regarded as a treasure by Wavell.

The Australian division, which was questioned by two combat effectiveness, was exchanged for the most elite troops under his command, and no general would be reluctant.

However, a month ago, perhaps Churchill would have scolded Wavell for his ill intentions and self-respect.

But now, Churchill simply loved the lucky man who won him the victory, and forgave Wavell for his own delay.

"Forget it, the troops of these two divisions should be his reward. Send a telegram on my behalf, and ask Wavell to take Libya with the troops I have left for him. "The sophisticated Churchill chose to push the boat down the river to give Wavell a favor.