Four Hundred and Four Prime Ministers Elegy

There was a knock on the door of Churchill's office, and a blond female secretary put the documents on the desk in front of the Prime Minister and turned to leave. Recently, Prime Minister Churchill's mood is getting worse day by day, so no one wants to stay in the prime minister's office and suffer bad luck.

The British Prime Minister raised his eyelids and looked at the thick stack of reports, knowing that there was nothing good going on today, so he picked up the top report and started to read it—these things have to be dealt with no matter what, Although they are all funeral documents, if you read too much, you will become insensitive.

Sure enough, this was a loss report of the convoy, which stated that a transport fleet numbered 96 was attacked by the opponent on its way into the UK and suffered heavy losses. This is a cliché in the first place, and Churchill would be surprised if the British transport fleet had no losses for an hour.

But looking at it, Churchill's already numb face unexpectedly showed a heavy expression. It's not because the loss of the No. 96 transport fleet is too huge. After all, there are not no transport fleets that have been wiped out by the wolves in Doenitz these days-Churchill was surprised by the way the fleet was lost this time, or There were some differences in the way the Germans attacked.

Originally, more than 90% of the loss of the British transport fleet was caused by German submarines. These elusive wolves were commanded by a middle-aged man named Doenitz, and they used hordes of tactics to attack the British fleet on a large scale at night. Britain has done irreparable damage.

This kind of tactic that is quite a headache for the British has not yet found a good way to fight, and the Germans have played a new trick this time. At the outermost periphery of the transport fleet are generally the escort destroyers of the Royal Navy. These destroyers are responsible for driving away German submarines and ensuring that most of the ships in the core of the transport fleet can reach the UK smoothly.

But this time it was the turn of the destroyers to be attacked. A "new type of weapon flying in the sky like an airplane directly crashed into British warships and sank the destroyers who were on guard at the outermost perimeter." The report mentioned that this new weapon can accurately hit For British warships, it is even possible to change the trajectory of the flight halfway.

Moreover, the report stated that this weird aircraft that would fly and automatically crash into a British destroyer appeared on two major British routes at the same time, sank 5 ships including a light cruiser and 3 destroyers, and was shot out. The transport fleet in the gap was undoubtedly attacked by submarines that night and suffered heavy losses.

Reports called this weapon "flying torpedo", "suicide plane", "Acador's dart", and most claimed that this weapon was a new type of weapon launched by a German submarine. However, Churchill's staff were not fools, and they ruled out the possibility of a submarine launch from clues.

A weapon expert who was summoned to the Prime Minister's Office read the report and gave his own conclusion: "Mr. Prime Minister, this weapon should be launched by a destroyer or a cruiser, not a submarine weapon.

"

He pointed to several black shadows he had captured and said: "From some blurred photos, we can see that this weapon takes into account aerodynamics, but does not consider the need to travel in seawater, and the frequency of use of this weapon is obvious. It is much rarer than the number of German submarines, so I analyze that this is a guided weapon launched by a battleship."

"It doesn't matter what it is launched from." Churchill said with a sigh: "My concern is whether it will appear on our routes on a large scale! Will it completely cut off our transportation routes."

Churchill couldn't help but not be in a hurry. On average, every two British merchant ships sailing from New York in the United States would be sunk, and about one-third of the US aid supplies sank into the icy Atlantic Ocean. Britain lost half of the life-saving equipment it exchanged for islands and military bases before the war started.

The three armored corps expected to be established in the UK were unable to arrive due to the delay in supplies, and now only one has been formed. Although the other two are also called armored corps, they do not even have half of the equipment of the German armored forces. The remaining 20 infantry divisions and more than 300,000 troops are "World War I infantry" with only light weapons and cannons. Only God knows what kind of results they can achieve in the face of the experienced German troops.

Poor Montgomery's smart woman can't live without rice, and has even suggested that the British royal family go to Egypt or Canada for "inspection work". Although this suggestion was rejected, it has already shown that the senior British generals are not optimistic about the defense line in the strait.

On the beach, 17 of the 75 minefields arranged by the British frugally and economically have been scrapped due to the damage of the German Navy and Air Force; only 9 of the 33 mine blockades on the sea are still intact. Relying on those coastal defense guns and trench barbed wire, let alone a military general like Montgomery, even Churchill did not believe that the Germans could be put into the sea.

So the question before Churchill is no longer whether to prevent the Germans from landing, but how to consume the Germans to death on the British Isles. So he promulgated this "British People Must Defend the Homeland Combat Order", which vowed to turn Britain into a hell on earth. This order is actually very simple. All the old inventory equipment and weapons that are too late to be distributed to the front-line combat troops will be distributed to British civilians, so that they will fight the regular German army regardless of sacrifice.

The combat department estimated that 1.5 million British civilians would die in the battle against the German army. Montgomery was even more pessimistic. He felt that once Germany retaliated wildly and used Britain's move as an excuse to tear up some international agreements, then the British would have 3 million people. Die in war.

Moreover, Montgomery is not optimistic about these so-called "blocking operations". He once said to Churchill: "These civilians have not been trained and will be massacred in front of the German regular army, and these civilians lack the support of heavy weapons. It is very limited in what it can do.”

At that time, Churchill's answer made Montgomery almost scold people: "The limited effect means that it still has an effect... These civilians died thousands of people, even if they can only destroy a German tank, it will buy some time for Britain. What we lack , precisely the time."

In fact, to put it bluntly, what Britain and Germany are fighting now is not the strength of the army, nor the quality of technology, nor the conflict of people's hearts-the fight between the two countries is time! Germany raced for time hoping to win Britain in one fell swoop, and Britain dragged its time hoping that the United States and the Soviet Union could respond and besiege Germany. It is nothing more than that simple.

Churchill and Montgomery pulled out all the stops to ensure that Germany was dragged into the quagmire of war. Montgomery secretly deployed the only armored army in a hidden area in southern England. Once the German army landed, he would command this army and another elite infantry army to rush to the German beachhead, fighting to be disabled by the Luftwaffe. The German army should also be sent to sea.

Because he knows that Germany seems to be rich and powerful, just like Napoleon's France, it seems invincible. It is nothing more than the courage to land once. safe. At that time, whether it is peace or war, it will be up to the British themselves.

In some sea areas suitable for landing, the United Kingdom has been deploying defense systems since a century ago, but the forts and defense facilities in some places are too old to meet the needs of modern warfare, but many places can still be used. It also saves a lot of time.

The original fort was changed to an "open-top" machine gun position, and the original machine gun position was reinforced into a trench. Barbed wire was arranged on the original open space, and with a few cannons, it was considered a fairly strong coastal defense position.

Britain has too few troops, and even fewer soldiers who have trained and fought, so Montgomery has been filling in holes to sequentially strengthen the southern coastline defensive positions. He put the elite troops on the second line, hoping to concentrate superior forces The German army headed back into the sea.

However, his troops have an unavoidable disadvantage, that is, the quality of the armored units. All the original British armored units were lost in Dunkirk. Now the armored units in Montgomery's hands have only been trained for less than 15 days. The recruits, and the weapons in their hands are also quite different from the equipment of the German opponents: relying on American equipment such as M3lee to challenge the German Leopard tank, which in itself is a frustrating thing.

The support that the navy can provide to the British anti-landing is very limited. The King George V and the aircraft carrier HMS Fury are being overhauled in the northern port. The Repulse has become the only battleship in the UK that can fight. With the aircraft carrier Ark, the strength of the British Navy is not half that of the German Navy.

Moreover, the landing site will definitely be within the combat radius of the Luftwaffe. If the Navy interferes with the landing at this time, it will be the same as giving away the Luftwaffe's record for nothing. Moreover, whether the British Royal Navy, which has been beaten to the point of losing its courage, will have the courage to fight is also a question.

Thinking of these problems, Churchill immediately felt dizzy. He really wanted to throw the burden back to Chamberlain, but that old and cunning guy would definitely not stand up and take the blame at this stage—he was Anticipating today's ending, he played a trick to escape the shell.

Speaking of the golden cicada escaping its shell... Churchill seemed to have thought of something, picked up a pen and began to write a report. He also wanted to learn from Montgomery, persuading the King of England to take the royal family to Canada to inspect the production line of the new Hurricane fighter. ()