Chapter 436 North African Campaign (4)

Of the 50,000 Vichy French soldiers transferred to North Africa, only 20,000 participated in the attack on Egypt, while the remaining 30,000 started touring their colonies to intimidate those who had been restless and rebellious.

Their first stop was Tunisia, which borders Libya.

Tunisia was initially controlled by the Phoenicians, then the Romans, followed by the Hafsid Dynasty, and was eventually occupied by the Ottoman Turks in 1574.

France had already used dubious reasons to annex Algeria in 1830, and then set its sights on Tunisia. The Ottoman Empire, weakened significantly by this time, sent warships to Tunisian waters to show its disapproval when it learned of France's intentions.

France, enraged, also dispatched warships to Tunisia, warning the Ottoman Empire to leave before things escalated. Realizing its declining power, the Ottoman Empire wisely withdrew.

Tunisia, already economically backward, was suffering from years of severe drought, leading to widespread hunger and panic among the people. Sensing an opportunity, France established a "financial commission" in 1869 to help Tunisia resolve its fiscal deficit and foreign debt. However, this was merely a pretext for control. France, in collusion with Britain and Italy, began to dominate Tunisia's economy.

Believing in France's false benevolence, Tunisia soon realized that French influence had infiltrated all sectors of its economy, with French control over its banking sector. By the time Tunisia woke up to this reality, it was too late.

France needed a "legitimate" excuse to annex Tunisia. Conveniently, in early 1881, a Tunisian boy was killed by the family of a girl from French Algeria he was courting. This incident escalated into a conflict between the two villages. France accused Tunisia of attacking French Algeria. Tunisia's attempts to explain were ignored, and in April 1881, France invaded with over 30,000 troops.

Tunisia, with its antiquated weapons, was no match for France's modern military and quickly succumbed, signing the Treaty of Bardo. This treaty allowed France to station troops and administer Tunisia.

France fully controlled Tunisia until 1956, when Tunisia finally freed itself from French rule.

Wilhelm and Pétain discussed that all French colonies should nominally remain under Vichy France's control, with Germany extracting resources from these colonies on a 60-40 split.

Given that Germany could simply take these colonies by force if it wanted, and with 40% of the profits still going to them, Pétain had no objections. He was just curious about how the Germans were so adept at locating resources, finding them with uncanny accuracy. For instance, the French had never discovered a lead mine near Colbert, but the Germans found and began mining it immediately.

Wilhelm, smiling, attributed it to "divine guidance," leaving Pétain skeptical but uncertain.

Tunisia's oil and gas resources were limited compared to other African oil producers, with reserves of 70 million tons of oil and 61.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Additionally, it had 2 billion tons of phosphates and 25 million tons of iron ore.

Besides, Tunisia was the world's largest exporter of olive oil and the tenth-largest producer of tomatoes, making it a worthwhile investment for Germany.

With no room for other ambitions, Tunisia quickly fell in line, pleasing the French as they moved to their next colony, Algeria.

Like Tunisia, Algeria was originally part of the Ottoman Empire until the French gradually annexed it in the early 19th century.

During World War II in the original timeline, France promised Algeria independence in exchange for help against the Axis powers. After the war, de Gaulle not only reneged on this promise but intensified exploitation, leading to an eight-year struggle for Algerian independence.

Algeria was rich in natural resources, with oil reserves of 1.7 billion tons (1% of the world's total, 15th globally), primarily high-quality Saharan light crude. It also had 4.58 trillion cubic meters of natural gas (2.37% of the world's total, 10th globally), and significant reserves of iron, lead, zinc, uranium, copper, gold, and phosphates. Algeria's iron ore reserves ranged from 3 to 5 billion tons, primarily in the Ouenza and Boukhadra mines. Other resources included 150 million tons of lead-zinc ore, 50,000 tons of uranium, 2 billion tons of phosphates, and 73 tons of gold. Algeria also had abundant water resources, with potential for developing 17.2 billion cubic meters of water and 64 dams with a storage capacity of 71 billion cubic meters.

Next were Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger.

When the French arrived with their more powerful Jackal tanks and Bf 109s, these colonies had no choice but to abandon de Gaulle's enticing promises and submit again to Vichy France.

Meanwhile, the German-Italian-French coalition advancing into Egypt was pushing towards Cairo, now less than 200 kilometers away. At their current pace, they would reach Cairo in less than two days. To maintain this long supply line, the three nations mobilized 3,000 trucks to transport supplies to the front lines continuously.

General Wavell of the British forces could only retreat repeatedly, much to Churchill's discontent.

Churchill and Wavell had clashing personalities, leading to significant disagreements. Churchill, eloquent and persuasive, found it difficult to communicate with the taciturn Wavell, who was frustrated by the government's interference in military matters and doubted Churchill's military expertise given his brief service history.

Churchill wanted a decisive victory in North Africa to boost morale, a demand Wavell found unrealistic.

In the original timeline, Churchill replaced Wavell with General Auchinleck as the commander of British forces in North Africa. However, Auchinleck had already perished, and Britain itself was in peril, leaving them unable to focus on distant North Africa.