Because General Giraud's influence on Algeria was very limited, the airborne plan reached a dead end for a time, and even hundreds of C47s used by the United States to support the program had landed at Port Said Airport in batches. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

While Montgomery and Ramsden and others were in a hurry, General Giraud took it in stride, as if it had nothing to do with him, sitting in the headquarters drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.

At this time, a piece of news from the United States made everyone excited.

It was a telegram from the United States, and it was very short, with only one line: "We are in contact with General Juan, the French military governor for North Africa!" ”

"General Juan?" After hearing the news, General Giraud couldn't help but exclaim: "He is the commander-in-chief of the French army in North Africa!" How did you get in touch with him? ”

But no one answered his words, and everyone regarded General Giraud as an invisible man. Obviously, if General Juan can be contacted and his support can be obtained, then General Giraud will be completely worthless and become an ornament...... In fact, General Giraud could have left at this time, but Montgomery didn't want to lose face for the old general.

General Giraud was bored with himself, and then sat down at his desk and flipped through the newspaper.

As for how the United States got in touch with General Juan, it was because the United States, unlike Britain, supported the government of Charles de Gaulle in exile, while the United States supported the Vichy government, which surrendered to Germany.

As a result, the United States maintained diplomatic relations with the Vichy government.

Maintaining diplomatic relations inevitably involves contacts with diplomats. Murphy happens to have a good relationship with General Juan.

When Murphy was in contact with General Zhu An, he vaguely learned from his words that General Zhu An was a person who was "in Cao Ying's heart in Han", so he volunteered to persuade General Zhu An.

It should be said that this practice is dangerous, because if you are not careful, you will be arrested by Juan on charges of espionage.

But luckily, Murphy guessed right.

In fact, General Juan's plan in Africa was to "train African armies to be used in future battles against the Axis powers."

Thanks to General Juan's efforts, France's troops in Africa were actually far more than 100,000 men, with a total of 5 motorized divisions (including 3 in Algeria and 2 in Morocco) and 1 light mechanized brigade, totaling 200,000 men.

Moreover, these units are fully equipped and have a secret logistics base in the mountains of Tunisia, and they are well prepared for the battlefield.

So soon the good news reached the command of the Eighth Army: "General Juan is willing to cooperate with the Allies!" ”

The command immediately burst into cheers, and with the cooperation of General Juan, the implementation of this plan can be said to be effortless, all the Allied forces have to do is to parachute into Algeria to receive troops, and then clear a small number of pro-German forces.

However, just as everyone was about to make their next plan, an accident happened.

The number two man of the Vichy French government appeared in Algeria...... The number two man, Darlan, was the deputy head of the Vichy government and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and his command was even higher than that of General Juan.

"Damn it!" Montgomery couldn't help but scold: "What is this guy doing in Algeria?" When will he go back? ”

Montgomery knew something about the Vichy French government, and he knew that this admiral named Darlan was a powerful figure in France, and he was also the heir of Pétain's division, and his appearance was obviously extremely unfavorable to the seizure of Algerian power.

"General!" Ramsden then took a telegram and said: "Dar Lang has come to Algeria to visit his son!" ”

"Visiting his son?" Montgomery couldn't help but wonder.

"Yes!" Ramsden handed the telegram to Montgomery: "His son suddenly fell ill with polio and was hospitalized in Algeria, and predictably, ...... He won't be back in France anytime soon! ”

This sudden change stunned Montgomery, everything was going very smoothly, but he didn't expect to kill such a trip to bite the gold halfway!

Then Montgomery turned his gaze to Zhang Chi and said, "If this is the case, we may be able to suspend the attack on the Germans and implement the plan when everything is ready or Dar Lang returns to France!" ”

What Montgomery said made sense, because with the Algerian plan, the attack on Rommel's Afrika Corps was no longer important, as long as the Algerian uprising was successful, the Allies would have an extra 200,000 troops out of thin air, and these armies were well prepared and well supplied, and the most important thing was that Rommel's rear was still in the rear, and then Rommel's African army would not be able to withstand the flanking attack of the British Commonwealth Army and the Zoaf Corps.

So Montgomery also realized that there was no rush right now.

But......

Zhang Chi shook his head and said, "It depends on how many people know about this plan in Algeria!" ”

Montgomery soon understood, and immediately asked Ramsden to send a telegram to inquire.

The reply he received made Montgomery frown: General Juan had contacted his cronies and was ready to know that the Allies were going to Algeria with at least a hundred men.

"Hundreds of people know!" Zhang Chi said: "As you know, a considerable part of the French are still hesitating, that is, they do not know whether to support the Allies or the Germans. After a long time, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be one or two informants among these hundreds of people, and then ......"

Montgomery nodded and said, "I'm afraid that before we can start our operation, these pro-Allied French officers will have already been purged!" ”

"Yes!" Zhang Chi replied: "So we have no choice, we can only take a risk, and the sooner the better!" ”

Montgomery nodded and said, "So, how about tomorrow?" ”

"It should be tomorrow night!" Zhang Chi corrected: "Around one o'clock in the morning tomorrow night, so that when we arrive at the landing site, it will be just dawn!" ”

Montgomery couldn't help but blush, he was an army general, and he didn't know much about air delivery, especially American equipment.

But it's right to think about it, if the transport planes are delivered during the day, they are afraid that they will be easily intercepted by German fighters and suffer heavy losses, after all, they have to fly over the German defense line and the whole of Libya, and it is much easier to fly at night.

At this time, Montgomery suddenly realized where the gap between himself and the Chinese general was.