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So in reading an article on German Replacement Battalions (link below) for North Africa, I realized, very belatedly, that the French General Barre could have changed the course of the war considerably by stationing troops in numbers (battalion strength, or greater) around the Tunisian airfields. This pre-supposes that he decides that the Germans will almost certainly take Vichy France now that the Allies are in Morocco and heading for Tunisia, leaving him with the choice of fighting the Germans to keep them out or doing nothing, which was his OTL course.
I can see him putting men around the airfields because of the known danger of German airborne attacks, re-activating whatever aircraft he can and sending troops to the border to delay an German advances into Tunisia. He had very limited resources, but OTOH, its a long way for German airborne units to fly over.
Doing this will greatly crimp the Axis efforts in N. Africa, with Allied air and surface units being able to interdict any efforts to make the run to N. Africa. The Axis armies there will be destroyed sooner, OTOH, US units get less combat experience, and it might mean a smaller haul of Axis prisoners.
How would his deciding to fight affect the course of the war?
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