Chapter 506 New Battlefield (Part 1)

The menacing questioning meeting was finally settled under Churchill's Tai Chi push, but the situation he faced was different from Roosevelt. The difficulty of the latter was that some members of Congress had a sense of distrust in the president due to the frontline defeat and needed to be settled urgently; while Churchill's difficulty was that he could not find a good way out of the predicament, and all solutions depended on the Americans.

By now, the congressmen were completely numb, and they gradually came to the idea that Britain was destined to be unable to defeat Germany in this war, and it must rely on the Americans to win. The British Empire would either surrender to Germany and become second-rate, or it would surrender to the United States and become second-rate. To most aristocrats and bourgeois people, Americans were at least a little more lovable in comparison.

Everyone can understand what Churchill repeatedly reiterated as "persistence" - that is, hold on and don't fall, and wait until the United States regains its strength and gains the upper hand.

However, as soon as Churchill finished the meeting, he received bad news: The Eighth Air Force suffered unprecedented heavy losses. The Americans could not stand it anymore and wanted to withdraw the personnel. They also sent an urgent telegram asking the United Kingdom to send the research data and information on jet fighters. Scientific researchers and semi-finished products are shipped to the United States to speed up research and manufacturing.

Facing the anxious-looking cabinet members, Churchill pondered for a long time and deliberated for a long time before making up his mind:

1. Understand the decision of the main personnel of the Eighth Air Force to withdraw, and express gratitude to them for their hard work over the past year. The corresponding bases and equipment will be taken over by the Royal Air Force. The United Kingdom will independently carry out the mission of bombing the Azores. The United States is welcome to come later. It’s time to continue sending aviation forces to fight in Britain;

2. Agree to transfer all personnel, facilities and equipment for jet research and development, but require the United States to commit to transferring complete technical data to the UK and providing the first batch of equipment after the final research and development is completed.

Attlee opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, but finally nodded in agreement - his agreement meant that both the Conservative Party and the Labor Party had reached an agreement.

"Using this opportunity of retreat, we can immigrate some people to the United States..." Churchill explained, "Secretly notify the members of Congress and ask them to recommend five families related to shipbuilding. One family can be an engineer or technician, and the other four The households should be industrial worker families and go to the United States or Canada as the first batch of immigrants.”

Everyone in the cabinet was stunned for a moment, and then they came to their senses and secretly applauded the Prime Minister's sophistication: it was impossible to keep the matter of immigrating to the United States a secret at the top. Once it was implemented, big shots would definitely come to intercede, and it would be bad to refuse anyone. The Prime Minister's cleverness is to ask each of them to recommend 5 households - you can also include your relatives, friends or other people who need care. This not only blocks the mouths of the MPs, but also quickly forms a community of interests. Being able to explain to all parties is one of the few strategies that can please the majority of members of the cabinet, which is currently facing internal and external difficulties.

While Britain and the United States were struggling to sort out and communicate internally, there was great excitement in the direction of Berlin. Goebbels solemnly congratulated Hoffman on the victory of the Berlin Air Defense War and the Madagascar landing campaign, but then he was confused. Asked: "Führer, is your idea of ​​​​advertising through radio broadcasts true? Are you really planning to make peace with the enemy now?"

"Of course! As long as it follows our terms, any one of the three countries, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, who is willing to make peace with us, can agree."

"It's okay for Britain and Russia. Making peace now seems a bit too cheap for the Americans." Goebbels said unwillingly, "Now that we have destroyed the Panama Canal, the strength of the U.S. Navy has also been greatly weakened, and their army strength is even less worthy. It’s a good time to take advantage of the victory.”

"Cheap?" Hoffman shook his head, "I don't think so. The United States has not fully exerted its power. What everyone has seen is just the tip of the iceberg. Take advantage of the opportunity now to have the upper hand and have an overwhelming advantage to stop the war against us. There are more benefits, and no one stipulates that you can’t fight after peace. When the time comes, the war will unfold in ways you can’t imagine.”

Goebbels had heard the theory of "two or even three world wars". Although he did not understand why the Führer emphasized the need to fight through multiple wars instead of solving the Americans once and for all now, this did not prevent him from admiring the Führer. Since the head of state said so, then that's it - anyway, after so many years, the head of state is almost always right.

“Broadcasting to the United States is an important matter and must be done well. The signal relay station in Portugal must continue to invest in making Americans hear more voices. The focus of attacks must be clever, focusing on politicians, capitalists, and Jews. Don’t attack military personnel and separate the American government and the American people as much as possible.”

The Voice of Europe broadcasting founded by Goebbels became more and more popular. After the first batch of lists of the dead were broadcast, at least 100,000 American households listened to the broadcast in just a few days, and it was spread to hundreds of people. It spreads at a crazy speed, especially at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night in Washington, D.C., when families of all ages gather in front of the radio station to listen to the German announcer broadcast the list. The families who hear the names naturally burst into tears, and those who don't hear the names seem to be scratching their heads. Heart, long sighs.

As the wreckage and remains were collected and sorted, the Germans announced a few days later the total number of more than 400 dead and nearly 5,000 prisoners, and even included multiple recordings.

A 19-year-old B-17 gunner from Virginia cried bitterly on the radio: "Mom... I'm Sean... I'm still alive! Our plane was shot down by the Germans, and I was killed after parachuting. Prisoners, the Germans said we blew up the Berlin Cathedral and asked everyone to participate in forced labor to repair the church... I have to do manual labor for 10 hours a day... Mom... come and rescue me!"

There was also a 29-year-old B-17 captain from Wisconsin with the rank of second lieutenant. Although he did not burst into tears, his speech was equally heartbreaking: "Lily... I am Joe... I was captured by the Germans... ...It's a bad situation now, but it's going to work. The worst thing is, I found out that we were fooled - we were tricked into fighting the Germans! We were managed by a retired German elementary school teacher who spoke English, he said. 'We fought for the dignity of Germany, to defend Berlin and the Führer. Why did you Americans fight? Germany has never offended you...' I can't answer!"

Although a handful of mentally ill Junkers criticized Goebbels's propaganda and prisoner-of-war management methods, thinking they were not knightly enough - anyone willing to cooperate in the recording and denounce Roosevelt, politicians and Jews would be given preferential treatment. If you are of German origin, can speak German and express willingness to cooperate, you will have more relaxed treatment.

The onlookers in Berlin were happy to see and criticize this kind of forced labor for building roads and bridges. The shooting down of so many planes and the capture of so many prisoners were a sign of disgust at Berlin's bombing experience in the past few years. At this point, Hofmann was completely screwed up - he had learned all about the National Socialist Workers' Party's mass line of winning votes and winning people's hearts and minds to come to power.

On May 9, at a meeting of the Supreme Command, Chief of General Staff Keitel reported the victory of the Madagascar campaign, but also expressed uneasily: "The reconnaissance situation shows that the US military seems to be retreating from the front line, and reconnaissance planes discovered that their transport aircraft and In addition to transporting the wounded, the bombers were also transporting intact troops on their way back; the only good news was that because the US military planes were busy retreating, they finally couldn't spare the time to bomb us. "

Hoffman nodded: "This is foreseeable. After the fall of Madagascar, our flanks in Kenya can be fully covered. The Americans are forced into a corner. As long as they make a second landing, they can be completely surrounded."

"Then what should we do now?" Jodel, the director of the operations bureau, was anxious. "Heinz reported that the enemy's defense line is very tight and the terrain is favorable to them. There are still at least about 100,000 troops. The equipment and firepower are not bad. Forcibly The attack suffered heavy losses, and it may take another week for the Madagascar landing forces to be fully gathered before landing again. Although the battle has ended much earlier than the original plan, it is still impossible for us to allow this force to join the pincer offensive before May 25. Americans are shrinking too quickly.”

"Do they have an escape route on land?"

"I don't think so." Yoder pointed to the map and explained, "Nairobi is surrounded by mountains to the north and the huge Lake Victoria to the west. The only way to retreat on the road is to go south through Tanganyika. Currently, the coastline north of South Africa is completely occupied by our army. Control, even if they do nothing and let the Americans withdraw from the land, they still have nearly 4,000 kilometers to go to South Africa, further than Paris to Moscow. There are no railways, only low-grade highways, dirt roads, and there are not even cars in most areas. If the law is passed, we can only do it on foot - not to mention the spoiled US military, even if we change, we can't do it. "

"Then we can only retreat from the air." Hoffman nodded, "Are you able to intercept them?"

"It's difficult. There are 300 aircraft invested in Africa, most of which are fighter jets. However, there are also a lot of US military aircraft, especially escort aircraft, and the interception effect is not significant. Moreover, due to logistical problems, it is very difficult to maintain these 300 aircraft in combat. "

Hoffman looked at the map, thought about it over and over and said: "Let the landing force land at Dar es Salaam in Tanganyika and establish an airport, and dispatch 300 of the latest Fw-190A8s from the mainland to Africa - Berlin Air Raid In the end, the enemy should be greatly restrained, allowing the aircraft carrier to transfer aviation fuel and ammunition to the Fw-190. As for the accessories... there is no way to dismantle them from other aircraft. "

"On May 15th, the Japanese combined fleet will leave for home. What about the campaign to attack South Africa?"

Hoffman shook his head: "If we don't fight South Africa, let's fight here!"

Looking where he pointed, everyone was stunned...

Ps: Readers, please guess where to hit? You can post the location you think is correct to the book review area, and the first one to guess correctly will win a prize - a free book. The time limit for guessing is before the next update.