"Lieutenant!" Marshal Redel asked Qin Chuan loudly across a few meters away: "How are you talking to the French general?"

"Oh!" Qin Chuan replied: "You know, there is nothing else to talk to the French except for surrender!"

A burst of laughter broke out in the command center again.

Just as the German warships rushed to the Tunisia Strait at full speed, the British Fleet A was working hard to clear mines.

During this period, Major General Fischer, commander of the 27th Air Wing, took the initiative to contact Marshal Redel.

"Marson Marshal!" Major General Fischer reported: "We found an enemy minesweeping fleet in the Tunisia Strait. There are more warships in the future. The specific number needs further reconnaissance. What is your plan? Do we need to stop them from sweeping mines?"

"No, Major General!" Redel replied: "Let them clear the mines, we will arrive in more than half an hour!"

"Yes, Marshal!"

Redel's decision was of course correct, because the minefield from Tunisia to the Strait is about the same distance as Malta, which means that when the Luftwaffe located in Tunisia takes off and bombs the British minesweeper fleet, the British military aircraft fleet will also take off from Malta to participate in the war.

In this way, Germany only has the air force, while the British army has the navy and the air force to fight together, which obviously the Luftwaffe will suffer.

The Luftwaffe does not have an advantage in number, so waiting for the navy to arrive is a wise choice.

"And!" Redel said to Major General Fischer: "I think we should change the tactics a little!"

"What?" Fischer didn't understand what Radell meant.

"You should have heard of our battle in the Tyrrhenian Sea!" said Raidel.

"Yes!" Fischer replied: "A very beautiful battle, Marshal!"

"So..." Raidel said: "You don't have to rush to provide air cover for the navy, do you understand? I think those British people still don't know where the problem is, and they will try to take the initiative with planes as before, so that we can teach them another lesson!"

Now Fischer understood, and he nodded and responded: "Yes, Marshal!"

Without interference from German fighter jets and warships, the mine clearance of the British Fleet A was going smoothly.

Of course, minesweepers always sweep the mines cleaner, the better, so that they can provide their fleet with wider and more favorable combat waters as much as possible.

So, eight minesweepers were driving back and forth in the Tunisia Strait under the cover of cruisers and destroyers...

The minesweeping principle of minesweeping ships and mine hunting ships is different.

The mine hunting ship is equipped with detection equipment on the ship, which can detect whether there are mines under the water and then targeted mine clearance... But it can be imagined that although the mine hunting ship is relatively accurate, its work efficiency is relatively low and it requires more time to clear mine clearance.

The minesweeper has no detection equipment. Its hull has undergone special treatment, such as building the hull with non-magnetic or less magnetic materials, and also equipped with demagnetization devices so that it will not detonate magnetic mines; for example, the ship is equipped with various noise reduction devices so that it will not detonate audio mines.

In short, minesweepers are basically invisible to mines.

Then, the minesweeper will drag the floating minesweeping cable behind, and a magnetic field will be generated around the cable... Magnetic mines will be detonated one by one. Audio mines fired sonic bombs into the water.

Ordinary mines are anchor mines with reso... Only by fixing them at a certain point through the lightning anchor and reso will the mines not be washed away with the flow.

It is even easier to deal with this kind of mine. The tonnage of the minesweeper ship is shallow and generally does not trigger this type of mine. The minesweeping cable that sinks to the bottom of the sea at the back has a cutting knife on it. When passing through the mine, the minesweeping cable will be cut off. Then the mines will float to the surface and then detonate it with a gun or a cannon.

The eight British minesweepers are all new minesweepers, each with several different minesweepers at the same time, so the mines were almost cleared in less than half an hour.

"General!" After receiving the telegram, the staff officer reported to Lieutenant General Tovey: "It's ready to pass!"

Lieutenant General Tovey, who looked at the map, was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "Where is the German fleet?"

“We are still 20 nautical miles away!”

"Where is the Italian fleet?"

"Always in Port Palermo and Port Messina!" the consultant replied.

The Port of Palermo and Port of Messina are on the other side of the strait, and Port of Messina has to pass through the narrow Strait of Messina and will easily be blocked by the British Air Force, which almost means that Italy has no intention to join the war.

In fact, Raidel did make a request to Garipo, hoping that Italy would also send a fleet to fight with the German Navy.

But the Italian naval commander chose to avoid it after hearing that the British Mediterranean fleet was dispatched.

"It is difficult for our warships to break through the British air blockade and join the battle through the Strait of Messina!" Admiral Angelo replied to Garipo: "And we do not have good communication with the Germans and identify the enemy and enemy. Our participation in the war may cause unnecessary chaos!"

When Raidel heard this explanation, he couldn't help but cursed: "The Italians actually said they don't recognize French warships?!"

Redell is right. The Germans used French warships, and Italy was next to France, and the French fleet has always been Italy's main opponent, so how could it be "unable to mislead".

But Redel had no hope for the Italians, and he didn't care whether he came or not, especially after repelling a sneak attack from the British Air Force.

Lieutenant General Tovey was hesitant, thinking that the German Navy must have some support to dare to come to meet the enemy as it is now... Or, the German Navy may not have suffered any serious damage as the Air Force reported.

At this time, Montgomery's phone call entered Lieutenant General Tovey's command.

"What are you waiting for?" Montgomery said: "Crossing through the Tunisian Strait, so that you can fire without being blocked by the enemy and unable to move!"

The Tunisian Strait is not narrow, it has a width of about 200 kilometers. Although this is enough for two naval forces to fight, there may be unremoved mines in the strait, which will make warships worry about it.

On the other hand, the fleet is easily bombarded by enemy fighter jets when concentrated in the strait.

Therefore, the correct way should be to cross the minefield as soon as possible, which is also the narrowest (148 kilometers) area of ​​the Tunisia Strait, and enter the Bisseda Port area to fight the German Navy.

"General!" said Lieutenant General Tovey: "I don't think they were severely damaged as we had guessed..."
Chapter completed!