The Third Reich in Desperation

Third Reich Episode 307

Surely no one would admit that the handsome pot was given to the king, because His Majesty the King had nothing to do with this battle at all, and it was his Prime Minister Churchill who was in charge of scheduling.

No way, Churchill had no choice but to push the blame to General Alexander who accepted the British Expeditionary Force.

There is a theorem in ancient and modern China and abroad, that is, if something goes wrong, someone must bear the blame. To put it bluntly, there must be a person who is responsible for the responsibility.

Churchill was rather slippery. He first blamed his boss Chamberlain, and later blamed his subordinate Alexander for the new failure.

However, the disaster seems to be endless.

As the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly, but the bad things that happened to Churchill have already happened for 4 consecutive rounds.

"Operation Ballista", a surprise attack against the French naval power, happened to be disrupted by the Italians.

The French main fleet was successfully disabled by the Forbes fleet sent by the British Royal Navy, but the Forbes fleet was also smashed by the Italians who came behind.

On the four aircraft carriers in the hands of the British mainland fleet, after the fiasco in the North Sea, there was a large shortage of carrier-based aircraft. It was hard to concentrate all the remaining carrier-based aircraft and put them on the most advanced HMS Ark Royal. Let the Forbes fleet lead To attack the French fleet.

As a result, that idiot Forbes actually surrendered!

The captured destroyers can be tolerated, but how can a good aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, be given to the Italians.

Churchill has always been worried about Italy, the overlord of southern Europe, and he has always focused on two aspects of diplomacy.

One is to win over the United States to support the United Kingdom. It is best for the United States to participate in the war. Even if it cannot participate in the war, at least sell more weapons to the British army.

The second is to avoid Italy's participation in the war. Once Italy participates in the war, this last European overlord, which looks huge in every way, is definitely an existence that any force should be in awe of.

Today's Europe is no longer the era of 20 years ago.

With the withdrawal of Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, and other industrial and military powers, there are only a handful of remaining European powers.

The German Third Reich, which annexed the above-mentioned powers, is undoubtedly the most powerful superpower in Europe at the moment.

After all, not to mention the small countries annexed by Germany such as Denmark, Belgium, and Hungary, just the entry of the four major European countries into Germany will increase Germany's national power exponentially.

Once the top seven powers in Europe, now only Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy remain.

And the other four countries, without exception, were all defeated by Germany alone!

Now, Italy entered the war, as a military ally of Germany.

In other words, among the last three powers in Europe, two of them have chosen to join forces to deal with the British Empire, which is losing one after another.

It is different from the famous three-legged confrontation in Chinese history. At that time, Wu and Shu were the second and third most powerful forces. They joined forces to deal with the most powerful Wei State, which was considered a balance of power.

But in today's Europe, Germany, which ranks first in military power, and Italy, which ranks third in military power, have joined forces to attack Britain, the second child.This is too much, it is obvious to play an asymmetric duel!

Mussolini launched an offensive in North Africa, which Churchill had always worried about, but could not avoid.

It happened after all, but Churchill was powerless to change anything.

He doesn't even have troops to defend his home country now, and he faces the danger of the Germans landing at any time. Where does he have extra energy to manage the Italians who are showing off their might in Africa?

"Don't read about the process, just talk about the result." Churchill, who had concluded that North Africa would fail, waved his hand and instructed the confidential secretary: "It's nothing more than filling in another stain in my governing career."

"Okay, Prime Minister." The confidential secretary nodded respectfully, took out the telegram in the file bag and read: "The North African troops, led by General Wavell, wiped out 3 enemies and captured nearly 2 Italian officers and soldiers at the same time. , destroyed more than 200 artillery pieces of various types in the Italian army, and destroyed more than 300 tanks and armored vehicles. The loss of our army did not exceed 4 people!"

Victory in North Africa? !

"What did you say?!" Churchill, who was ready to accept the bad news, suddenly stood up from his seat and asked loudly in disbelief.

"Prime Minister, General Wavell successfully defeated the Italian offensive. Moreover, they are still launching a counterattack! General Wavell reported that he is preparing to take Benghazi and seize the Italian colony in Libya!" The confidential secretary also looked excited Report again: "We won!"

"This guy Wavell actually defeated the Italians?" Churchill said with trembling lips, talking to himself.

The total number of British troops deployed in Africa is only 9, and they are also distributed in East Africa and North Africa.

But the Italians, their North African Army alone has a full 23 people, more than twice the total strength of the British army in Africa.If you count the 2 Italian troops in East Africa, the strength of the British army in Africa can be said to be less than 30% of the Italian army.

Under such an absolute inferiority of troops, Churchill could not have imagined that Wavell would launch a classic battle of winning more with less!

Soon, Churchill proudly reported in detail the history of the North African war in the House of Representatives.

After the report, all the MPs stood up and applauded. This is a scene that has never happened since the failure of the invasion of Norway.

I have to say that the British Empire has waited too long for a victory...

After the report, Churchill held a press conference with pride and said: "When I walked into the House of Representatives to speak, the warmest applause I received was usually only from the Labor Party seat. Treat me with reservations. But today, in this solemn, resounding harmony, all are united! All the people of the British Empire, proud of it!"

Text Chapter 476

From far away, de Gaulle in the office seemed to be able to hear the applause from the British House of Representatives.

Yes, the British won the battle, but the Free France, which was an ally of Britain, lost the hearts of the people.

In London, even de Gaulle, who is an admiral and the leader of a government, is not as tough as a major general and a mayor of the British.

"Operation Ballista" allowed the British to expose their most selfish side to the eyes of the world.

If they dare to do this, they dare to offend the French people, and dare to bear the French resentment that has no strength.

Since the existence itself had to be attached to the British government, de Gaulle could not issue any negative criticism on Churchill's assassination of the French navy.

He can only be silent, and lose the hearts of the French people in silence!

"General, in response to this war, should we make a congratulatory statement to congratulate the British allies." A de Gaulle confidant reminded softly: "After all, the British are the only country that recognizes the legitimacy of our regime and are also our allies. This It’s time to congratulate.”

Although de Gaulle is already the supreme leader of the Free French regime, he holds both military and political positions.But his cronies still call him general.

Not for anything else, just because de Gaulle himself likes to be called a general.

The Battle of the Ruhr was de Gaulle's first and last battle since he joined the army.

Since the failure of that battle, de Gaulle has never had the opportunity to get in touch with the military command, and has since faded out of people's sight.If it hadn't been for the impromptu idea of ​​jumping on the plane to England, maybe his life would have passed like this.

However, he came to England and formed a new French government.Although international opportunities do not recognize the legitimacy of Free France, this is the last chance that de Gaulle won for himself, the last chance to regain his fame.

He wanted to defeat the Germans, and he wanted the shame of Xueluer's defeat. Before taking revenge, de Gaulle hoped that every one of his subordinates could become a general of himself, so as to remind himself that sooner or later he would have to save his military failure. revenge.

However, from the looks of it right now, the timing of this revenge may have to be delayed for a while.

"Public speeches are avoided." Knowing that Churchill had offended the French people and was regarded as a public enemy by the whole of France, de Gaulle did not want to risk the whole of France and get too close to Churchill's British government at this time .

"Privately, I will personally visit Churchill and congratulate him." After thinking about it for a while, de Gaulle said, "By the way, I also want him to ask for an argument for launching the Battle of Oran. We must not be made to think that we are cowardly puppets." , sometimes you have to be superficial."

"Yes, this subordinate will go to Churchill's confidential secretary and make an appointment to meet." De Gaulle's confidants have always been worried about Churchill's surprise attack on the French fleet, and they were naturally very happy to hear that de Gaulle asked for an explanation.

Although we all know that this statement is mostly irresponsible.However, I can say it and remind Churchill that the French still have a temper, so it is better than pretending to be deaf and dumb.