Three Hundred and Forty-Three Mess

Looking at the information in his hand, Churchill felt that after the arrival of God in 1938, he never had mercy on the poor country of the British Empire.

Chamberlain was gone, handing Churchill an unprecedented mess. Although the British king and other ministers were extremely unwilling to hand over power to such a former navy minister who had defeated the navy again and again, they had no choice but to let Churchill take over as the prime minister of the British Empire because no one else dared to take over the mess in front of him.

But now Britain is like a giant suffering from chronic illness, and the current bad state cannot be completely cured by changing a leadership team. When Churchill took office, he realized that the problems he was about to face were countless times larger than those that the Secretary of the Navy had to face.

First of all, the most terrible thing is still the threat of submarines in the Atlantic Ocean. He will receive news that a transport ship has been sunk by a German submarine almost every few hours. And lately, the messages have become denser and deadlier.

German submarines are being deployed on a large scale, and they have adopted an attack method that makes him helpless. These submarines are moving in groups on the vast Atlantic Ocean, chasing their prey like a pack of wolves. Any transport fleet that is discovered will be attacked by German submarines on a large scale at night, even those escorted by destroyers.

In just a few days, Britain has lost 3 destroyers leased from the United States and more than a dozen transport ships. The sinking records are being refreshed every day these days, almost to the point of collapse. In comparison, the losses of the German army are really negligible. The British lost hundreds of thousands of tons of transport ships and destroyers in exchange for only the poor record of sinking a German submarine. What depresses Churchill the most is that the number of German submarines that are elusive is at least three times more than the previous estimate of the British Navy.

Before the war, the British Navy evaluated the German Navy. They believed that the German Navy had no more than 50 submarines, and most of them were small-tonnage offshore models. However, in fact, the German Navy had 146 submarines at the beginning of the war, and more than 90% were large-tonnage oceangoing attack model.

These submarines do not include 10 Dutch Navy submarines, 2 Danish submarines, and 3 Polish submarines. And these submarines are designed and manufactured by German designers, so the German Navy is familiar with them. Therefore, in fact, the total number of submarines that the German army can use now is an astonishing 151, which is far from as few as the British estimated.

Of course, when Churchill was struggling to deal with German submarines, he had to fight against the pressure on the British home fleet from the German High Seas Fleet moored in Wilhelm Naval Harbor. That is a real fleet of 4 aircraft carriers. The aircraft carriers and battleships that Britain can use now are only barely able to compete with this German fleet.

The threat at sea could not be dealt with, and the defeat on land made Churchill miserable. Lord Gort had submitted several resignations, but because there was no suitable candidate, Churchill has not yet approved these resignation letters.

The British and French troops retreated all the way, and now they have lost the entire territory of Belgium, surrounded by the narrow Dunkirk area. Hundreds of thousands of troops have no food, no supplies, ammunition and fuel, and it is difficult to even hold on, let alone break through.

150,000 British Expeditionary Forces were trapped on the line of defense, and the daily telegrams urgently urging supplies made Churchill suicidal. From food to clothing to shells and weapons, from oil to accessories to supplementary soldiers, it seemed that the British and French allied forces became paupers overnight and lacked everything.

What Churchill didn't understand was that in the northern part of France, the German armored forces that swept across everything were not involved in the battle to encircle and annihilate Dunkirk at all, but the German army was still unstoppable, and the French and British troops were rarely able to stop the attack in all directions. Even a few hours of German attack.

So Churchill began to organize the navy to carry out "Operation Dynamo" to rush to transport the British expeditionary force back to the British mainland. But this plan was full of troubles from the very beginning. First, the Secretary of the Navy claimed that he could not ensure the command of the sea near the English Channel, and then the British Air Force announced that it was unable to cover this operation-it seemed that all efforts would be in vain. I can watch my army become prisoners of the German army.

Of course, if it is said that although the navy is at a disadvantage, it still has the power to fight a war, and although the army is close to collapse, it is far away in the sky, then Churchill couldn't bear the pain of the air force.

The Hurricane fighter has just entered service, and the original fighter performance gap was made up by British engineers. The current form can be said to be a good stage. But at this time, German strategic bombers attacked London.

The Hurricane fighter jets, which were originally thought to be very advanced in performance, exposed many fatal problems in the process of intercepting the new German strategic bombers, which also made this interception a failure. The king was furious, and asked Churchill, who had just become prime minister, about the air defense problem near London, which made Churchill, who had only been in office for only a few days, very embarrassing.

But this is not just a matter of losing face. Britain's actual air defense preparations are indeed very backward. The shortage of major generals in the local air defense gave Churchill a headache after receiving the report.

The first is the reality of the backward equipment of the British air defense force. It seems that most of the entire force is still using the tactics and equipment of World War I, relying on hearing aids and naked eye observation to guard the sky.

Secondly, anti-aircraft guns are outdated and backward. Most of the anti-aircraft artillery units are equipped with backward weapons, with a slow rate of fire and a limited height. There is no way to deal with the new German strategic bombers. Of course, a small number of troops equipped with Bofors anti-aircraft guns can be regarded as making up for the lack of low-altitude defense, but in terms of high-altitude defense system, Britain is like a woman without clothes.

Obviously, it is unrealistic to replace a large number of anti-aircraft artillery in a short period of time to strengthen its own air defense level. Churchill had to focus on the development of fighter jets that can advance, attack, retreat, and defend.

After all, the improvement of fighter jets has been completed due to the needs of the war, but this new type of Hurricane fighter still needs greater improvement in firepower. So Churchill ordered almost immediately to order the relevant companies and design departments to increase the firepower of the Hurricane fighter from eight 7.7mm machine guns to four 20mm machine guns.

Order 10,000 anti-aircraft guns to strengthen the air defense force in the southern part of the UK, and purchase 2,000 Hurricane fighters to bridge the technical gap with the Luftwaffe. Immediately develop the next generation of fighter jets, requiring performance to surpass Germany's existing FW-190D fighter jets... Churchill issued a series of orders in one breath that even he felt impossible to complete.

But there are still two problems that he needs to solve most urgently. These two problems cannot be solved by delay. The first question is how to quickly improve the air defense capability over the British capital; the second question is how to stabilize the raw material transportation route and increase the output of fighter jets.

He worried that once German bombers appeared on a large scale and began to threaten British industrial production areas, he would not have enough fighter jets in his hands to face these terrible "air bombing machines".

What is even more frightening is that if the British industrial area and the big city of London become targets at the same time, he will have to disperse his already weak fighter force to deal with the overwhelming German bomber force at the same time. In this way, Britain will be in a completely disadvantageous situation, and even the replenishment of the navy will be affected.

Entering this vicious cycle, the UK will be completely finished: transportation cannot satisfy industrial production, industry cannot satisfy war losses, and war losses make the army even more unable to guarantee smooth transportation routes—if it really enters this cycle, Not to mention surrendering to Yihe, it is hard to say whether Britain can keep the country.

So today, at this moment, Churchill had to send a telegram to US President Roosevelt again, asking the United States to continue to assist the British war materials, including 1,000 P-36 fighter jets, and also asked the United States to provide 50 destroyers and 20 cruiser.

And at the end of the telegram, he stated that he requested at least 400 p-36 fighter jets and 20 destroyers to be transported to the UK first-so that the UK can carry out "Operation Generator", allowing the UK to withdraw 150,000 troops to resist Germany's possible attack. Invasion across the sea.

But the reply from the United States made Churchill very disappointed. Roosevelt claimed that he could only provide Britain with 200 p-36 fighter jets and 12 destroyers. Other weapons and equipment will have to wait for the United States to expand its production capacity before it can be replenished. These promises are far from quenching the thirst, and Britain has to face the current situation alone.

Now he must fulfill his promise, because in his speech in response to the German bombing of London, he declared that Britain would inevitably respond to the German bombing. Hundreds of bombs in Germany! But it was not until the actual operation that the British bomber that could fly to Berlin, Germany was still on the drawing board.

But the situation no longer allowed him to think about it. He decided to follow the advice of several members of Congress and ministers and ordered the Air Force to take off bombers. events in Berlin.

Churchill sat behind his desk, grabbed the telephone on the corner of the desk, and issued the plan he had ordered and prepared a long time ago: "Hello? Air Force Command? I am Winston Churchill, Prime Minister! Take off bombers, air strikes German ports, retaliation begins immediately!"