Battle of the Third Reich

At six o'clock in the morning on the dth, Churchill woke up from the bed, and he pressed the bell beside the bed. According to the habit of weekdays, the first thing he wakes up every morning is to listen to the confidential secretary for the latest situation report in bed, and then choose to continue to stay in bed or get up to wash and eat breakfast according to the mood.

The dedicated lady encountered the worst situation in her career. The Prime Minister had drunk too much last night and woke up too early in the morning. As soon as the secret secretary entered the door, he felt the nearly frozen low air pressure in the room. The prime minister was suffering from the double torture of hangover and insomnia. The shrewd and secretive secretary does not dare to slack off. She has been aware of several terrible experiences. At this time, any small mistake will trigger a terrifying thunderstorm.

Churchill sat back against the bed, pulled the quilt to his chest, and put two pillows under his waist. He twisted his body strenuously, picked up the ashtray on the bedside table and put it on his stomach. Then he picked out half of the cigars that had not been smoked last night from the ashtray. The secretary secretly walked over to pick up a box of matches from the bedside table Pass it to him.

"Thank you, Miss Christine. There is good news today. I don't think I need good news like I do now." Churchill lit the cigar, knocked out the match in his hand, and threw it into the ashtray. He has a terrible headache now, like a cone keeps poking his brain. For weeks, the pressure of war has forced him to work almost sleepless day and night, taking less than three hours of rest a day, but the situation in Britain has not improved at all. , But getting worse.

The Germans made several huge cuts in the arteries of the British Empire. The giants were losing blood quickly, and there was no way to deal with it.

The Army is working very hard to restore its strength. They have undertaken 90% of the tasks of the national defense project. The efforts made by the command generals and the sacrifices are obvious to all, but the final result is more and more chilling, weapons Insufficient equipment and a shortage of officers and non-commissioned officers The training time of soldiers has been compressed, but the age range of conscription has expanded a lot. Although there is no shortage of soldiers, the Army's formation speed is not up. The Army Department has crowned a bunch of empty shell troops with the famous name and tried to confuse the Germans. Churchill can only continue to use awards and promotions to encourage the morale of these rookies. What kind of effect can he achieve in the end? Churchill is no longer interested. He only hopes that these young soldiers will be like their predecessors for the British Empire. The honor of fighting to the end.

The Air Force's Dowding disappointed him. The cowardly performance was simply an open enemy. But Churchill not only can not punish him, but also defend him in the cabinet. He must protect his most loyal men. Especially at this critical time, the cohesion of the team is the most important. Once the hearts of the people are dispersed, Then everything is over.

The Royal Navy’s performance was simply unsightly. Churchill had served as two naval ministers during his tenure. He continuously introduced the latest technology and equipment, studied the latest tactics and tactics, promoted a group of young naval generals, and worked hard to eliminate the stale air in the British navy. It can be said that the modern British Royal Navy was completely built by him. But obviously, his reforms failed, or the stubborn forces in the navy were deeply entrenched. The Royal Navy seems to have an incredible reduction instinct until he leaves the position of navy minister. The navy will immediately return to its original state, and his efforts will only bring some new toys to the navy as he steps down. The equipment development plan has also stalled.

Now that the Royal Navy has eaten the bitter fruits they have planted, the Germans have surpassed them in equipment and technology. Although a large part of the fiasco at the Battle of Dunkirk was a human error, especially because he played the most crucial role in promoting it, he was not prepared to shirk his responsibility, but the subsequent series of Atlantic **** battles Failure, this is entirely the Royal Navy's own problem.

The high-level navy of the artillery giant ship sent a shortsighted view of submarine technology and tactics. After experiencing the painful lessons of World War I, they still did not make progress, did not conduct special research and targeted them. Equipment development. The equipment used in the destroyers of the Royal Navy is still the equipment developed during World War I. It was proved that these things could not suppress the attack of German submarines.

But the victory of the First World War blinded the eyes of the British. They were intoxicated by the aura of victory. The German surrender proved that the submarine was only a scepter, and the artillery ship was the key force to decide the victory or defeat of the war. Now these crooked evils have once again choked the British throat, and the artillery giant ship has no effect on this.

The destruction of the Somerville Fleet once again dealt a heavy blow to him. Prior to this, Churchill had been very conceited. He believed that the plans he had made were perfect and the strategic directions were correct, but his subordinates appeared during the implementation process. Some deviations, some obstacles that have never been encountered before, and failure is just luck, and it does not mean that there is something wrong with the plan. The landing of Gallipoli and the retreat of Dunkirk, these two battles were completely theoretically achievable. Only bad luck led to the final defeat. But this time Somerville's failure seriously hit Churchill's self-confidence. This plan was made by him alone, without anyone else involved. He was the first to introduce the aircraft into the Royal Navy, and he also developed an aircraft carrier with his support. Churchill thought that no one would be more than him. Knowing this kind of ship and how to use her, I didn't expect that it would be a slap in the end.

When he received the naval report, Churchill's entire body was depressed. This failure seriously damaged his self-esteem and self-confidence. So Churchill, the raid plan of the local fleet, only issued an operational order, put forward a combat target, and threw all the specific plans and operations to the Royal Navy Command, and he insisted that he would not pay attention to the signature painting, from beginning to end. Honestly staying in the wartime cabinet waiting for the final battle report to arrive. Poor Tovey thought that until the moment of the war, all the plans and orders were the same as they were in the past. Churchill personally formulated and issued it. He didn't expect it to be the navy headquarters' own plan. He showed it to the dog.

When Churchill started to smoke his cigar, the secret secretary began the morning briefing. The clever and confidential secretary has expected that this morning will not be so good, so she rearranged the order of the contents very skillfully. First report some bad news, then put a little bit better news. The best news is at the end, so Churchill will not be bothered by bad news, and can get up and work in a good mood.

First of all, the French Betan government issued a formal protest to the British Empire government. The content of the protest book does not need to be expressed one by one. The key is that the French have a very tough attitude and the sentence is very fierce. Among them, a lot of space was used to slam the British government. There is no shame in betrayal, and the British government is asked to give a clear statement, punish those responsible and compensate France for the loss, otherwise it will seriously hurt the feelings of the French people. Affecting the relations between the two countries and embarking on a path that no one wants to see. Anyway, in the eyes of professional diplomats, this document can be viewed as a notice before the declaration of war. Churchill, of course, dismissed it. The person responsible for this incident is him himself. Is it necessary to punish the person responsible for resignation? The group of dogs on the continent really dare to think. Churchill pouted and dusted his ashes, beckoning the secretary to continue.

The German bomber bombed Oxford again, turning several large estates there to ashes, and the local fire station was completely helpless with this particular incendiary bomb. As reported by the towns on the southern coast, this incendiary bomb is very difficult to extinguish, and can even burn in the water.

Churchill frowned, and this thing had caused him too much trouble. He has ordered someone to be in charge of this project, contacted chemistry experts from various colleges, and tried to find a way to suppress this flame in the shortest possible time. The military immediately organized experts to rush to the bombing site to investigate and sample, but the feedback was not good. Because the fuel was burned sufficiently and the site was contaminated with other impurities, it was impossible to obtain fuel samples at all.

Now I can only pray to get a malfunctioning unexploded ordnance, but it is simple to say. If you really want to achieve this, it is filled with a burning agent. Even if the fuze fails, other incendiary bombs can also detonate it. The only way to obtain a sample is by God's will. Churchill nodded again and signaled the secretary to continue.

The next thing is about the German bombing, to be precise, the sequelae caused by the bombing. Yesterday afternoon, Churchill had been informed of the outbreak of refugee waves along the coast, but the government did not obtain complete incident reports and recorded data until midnight, which only really understood the seriousness of the incident.

From noon on that day, it was estimated that 1.7 million to 2 million people had fled their homes, a large part of them have been dispersed to several large cities near London, and some are still non-stop. North migration. Due to the huge number of people, the garrisons and police along the way did not dare to stop, and the self-defense forces along the road just stood by their villages and towns to prevent the influx of refugees, and the rest did not interfere.

With the arrival of refugees, there are all kinds of rumors, most of which are extremely alarmist, but there is a market among the residents at the bottom, and many urban residents and villagers and villagers have listened to the rumors and joined the flight team. The police arrested some of the fugitives on the streets for the crime of refugees, but they could not stop the panic-like escape of the group. The Police Department interrogated some of them and found that some people did not want to leave their homeland at all, but at that time everyone in the village was preparing to escape, and staying in place was starving to death, so they could only follow the brigade. The London Police Department requested the cabinet to give more power to strengthen the control of some refugees entering London.

Until 12 o'clock last night, there were still 600,000 people stranded on various roads leading to the north. What worries the government is that many villages and towns on the southern coast have been left empty, and the local People’s Self-Defense Forces have all fled. It can be said that from 4 pm yesterday until Churchill read this document, most of the southern coast of Britain is Unguarded.

Hearing this, Churchill was taken aback, but then he thought that it was irrelevant whether there were any guards on those coasts. The Germans must choose Dover to land. As long as the army troops arrived there in time, then they could fully defend it. The two ports, as long as the Germans are repulsed this time, there will be no major battles this year. However, some troops still have to be mobilized to re-establish the coast guard post. Churchill is going to specifically mention this issue at the daily meeting of the Chief of Staff in the morning.

The confidential secretary continued to report that the fighting on the European continent had stabilized. Germany and France had a truce for a long time. Their attitudes were very ambiguous. However, the conflict between the French and Italian borders began to heat up. The Italian army launched the defense line towards the French Alps border the day before yesterday. The fierce attack simultaneously dispatched three mountain divisions and two aviation regiments. As a result, the French Army easily hit back. The Italians were allegedly attacked by intensive large-caliber artillery and a large number of automatic weapons. The first-line troops suffered heavy losses. The Italian Air Force also encountered strong resistance from the French Air Force. The French claimed to have shot down Forty-seven Italian planes, but Italy only admitted that two bombers were missing in the mountains due to trek.

Churchill’s impression of this was that the Joker was dying and the noodles would be blamed for this kind of end. It’s not surprising at all. In contrast, France is still right in this battle. For concern, this on the other hand confirmed that France had indeed secretly reconciled with Germany. Or what kind of deal has been reached, the Germans must be secretly supporting French weapons and equipment, as the intelligence department guessed.

France was still crying two months ago that the weapons factory was trapped by its rivals and demanded that Britain support heavy artillery and aircraft. So where did the weapons used to hang noodles come from? If the French Army was so fierce, how could it be that the capital was captured by others.

Churchill decided to meet with the spy leader of the MI again. Menzies seemed to be preparing for action on the front line of Dover. He just got him back to give a report, and by the way, he stepped up his efforts. Clear the question between France and Germany.

Next is the report on Dover. At 10 o'clock last night, the reorganized First Armored Division and the Fifth and Sixth Infantry Division finally arrived at Dover and Folkestone. However, from eleven o'clock, the large-caliber heavy artillery clusters deployed by the Germans on the Weissan line began to bombard Dover Fortress and Folkestone. It is said that two or three large-caliber shells are dropped every minute. German bombers are also constantly bombing the two places. From 3 o'clock this morning, Dover has lost contact with us.

Folkestone’s Army forces have been using radio to maintain contact with the Kent Command Post, according to the Army report. The local buildings and coastal defense positions were severely damaged, the casualties of military personnel were also very serious, and large troops have been withdrawn from the urban area. Only a small number of soldiers were left on alert. At present, shelling and air strikes are still intermittently carried out. The attack has not shown signs of weakening. At the same time, the German landing fleet has not been found on the sea. The last contact was at six in the morning, after which no new reports were received.

Churchill breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that his judgment was correct. Germany was preparing for artillery fire for landing in both places. Since the shelling was still going on, it meant that the landing had not yet begun, and the Germans must launch the landing in these two days, etc. Let's discuss it again at the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting to see what other troops can be transferred to strengthen the defensive force there.

The following is good news for Churchill. The Canadian government finally can’t bear the pressure of the domestic royalists. It passed a resolution that it will mobilize two infantry divisions at the end of this month to come to the British homeland to protect the king. Although it is far from being able to dissolve the thirst, it is after all a plain reinforcement. When the German landing is repelled, there will be two more infantry divisions in the hand, then the British mainland will be guarded. Churchill scoffed at the combat effectiveness of Canadian soldiers, but he still coveted their weapons supply. At that time, as long as they were withdrawn from it, Canadians would not dare to complain.

The last piece of news even made Churchill feel more invigorated, and the secret contract with the United States was finally signed. Originally, Churchill was already mentally prepared and will be severely knocked down. After all, the British former academics have no credibility. But what is interesting is the unusually generous generosity of Franklin Rose's performance. The United Kingdom has not suffered any loss in the transaction, and it can even be said to have taken a big advantage.

The United States agrees that the British government will use the British assets mortgage loan in the United States, and the interest rate is also very low. The United States will provide 500,000 stock m1917 rifles and 500 75mm artillery, as well as 5,000 Makqin machine guns, rifles One million rounds each with a machine gun, and each round of artillery comes with 1,000 rounds. Among them, 200,000 rifles and 300 cannons have been shipped to the ship. The United States even privately stated that it can send destroyers to help escort, but the destroyers can only fly the British flag. At the same time, the British Special Envoy has started to discuss the issue of buying tanks and aircraft with the US. The US has stated that because it does not have much equipment, it can only resume production, but if the British side urgently needs it, the US can use its own army equipment. Some of them are selected, and the specific quantity is being discussed now, and the result should be obtained soon.

This is the best news that Churchill got this month. It seems that his cousin is impatient. Churchill knows that this deal is good for both parties, especially for the other party who is in trouble. , Saving Britain is actually saving himself.

"What a beautiful day, Christine, is General Ismael here?" Churchill put the cigar into the ashtray with a smile, and then handed it to the secretary.

"I haven't arrived yet. Do you need me to ask him?" The confidential secretary took the ashtray and put it on the bedside table.

"After ten minutes, ask him to come to the small restaurant to meet me. What is breakfast today?"

"Mashed potatoes and fried bacon, and boiled eggs."

"Great, I like bacon."

Churchill lifted the quilt, climbed out of the bed, and stretched to the bathroom while stretching. At this moment, the headache seemed to have gone away from him, his mood had never been so comfortable, and the future of Britain was full of hope. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and faster!