Chapter 848 The British Empire (Part 1, 6200 Votes Plus Additional Content)

A high-explosive warhead of 800 kilograms of explosives, a terminal speed of Mach 4, and an invincible state that could not be intercepted or even tracked constituted the terrifying night in London on April 3.

Several consecutive years of blockade have forced Great Britain to plant edible things in fields, on both sides of roads, and even in public places and green belts wherever crops can be grown. The food self-sufficiency rate has increased year by year and can basically satisfy more than 80% of the domestic demand. In addition to the fact that meat, poultry, eggs and milk products have always been rare, the chances of going hungry are getting less and less. In addition, London is a city where the government focuses on ensuring supply, so three meals a day is considered normal. When the German army launched the V2 missile, it happened to be the time when London residents were having dinner together. Due to the misleading broadcast of the BBC's soothing broadcast, except for the most timid families, most London people did not believe the propaganda of the German broadcast. He turned a blind eye to the disaster until his whole family was buried in a sea of ​​fire...

The damage caused by 500 V2 missiles to London was great, especially the situation where civilian buildings collapsed as soon as they were hit by one. Due to the probability coverage weapons and the limited accuracy, apart from the residential areas that were turned into rubble, several places in London were destroyed. Important landmark buildings were also doomed. The famous Big Ben, Tower Bridge on the Thames River, Westminster Abbey and even Buckingham Palace were all attacked. Fortunately, only 1-2 missiles were hit. In addition to these The building itself was relatively solid and had not yet been irreversibly damaged, but it still looked shocking.

The most frightening thing is that you don't know when a missile will fall. When an emergency cabinet meeting was held to discuss countermeasures, a missile exploded near the Prime Minister's official residence at No. 10 Downing Street. The huge explosion and shock caused the basement to shake, and it seemed that it might collapse at any time. Everyone was scared to death, including Churchill himself. His face was pale and depressed, and the hand that always held the cigar couldn't help but tremble.

Although jet bombers are very troublesome to deal with, the British military and political leaders are not ignorant of this. The UK itself is also developing jet bombers based on the Meteor jet. In about a year and a half, a product may come out, but Everyone was just shocked by the unconventional weapon like V2 missile.

"Have you asked our scientists? What kind of secret weapon is this?"

"It is a long-range rocket that flies out of the atmosphere and then comes back." Marshal Brooke gestured with a parabola with his hand. "This is roughly the flight path."

As soon as they heard about flying out of the atmosphere and back again, everyone's slightly calm faces turned pale again. They had never heard of anything that could fly out of the atmosphere and back again.

"Can we build it?" Churchill asked, suppressing his shock.

"No." Marshal Brooke's face was full of frustration. "Scientists have studied rockets, but they are only scientific research and exploration. They are considered a part of atmospheric physics. They have never been designed as weapons. At present, we have developed some rockets based on air defense needs. I can’t tell you the specific technical level difference. Scientists say the gap with Germany in this field is about 5-10 years.”

Everyone was speechless. The difference in technical level between 5 and 10 years did not seem to be too big in peacetime, but it was an earth-shaking change in war. When the Germans first launched the Battle of Britain five years ago, they used the same equipment that they had originally used. What are the cutting-edge Bf-109\110 fighters and Ju-88 bombers used now? Even the Jets got on board!

"Then we need to increase the budget, step up research, and focus on ensuring resource needs. We must have what the Germans have!" Churchill thought for a while and then added, "People should pay attention to searching for rockets that have not exploded, and find ways to imitate some."

Aiden couldn't help complaining: "Prime Minister, this is a matter for the future. The top priority is to discuss how to overcome the difficulty!"

In fact, the German side was also on guard against the British. In addition to the contact fuze, the V2 missile was also equipped with a timed explosion fuze to prevent the complete object from falling into British and American hands.

Churchill glared at him and almost said, "What can I do? I'm desperate too...", but finally held it back and said calmly, "I guess the Germans don't have such advanced weapons either. How much, and it should be very difficult to manufacture, otherwise Hitler would have attacked London with overwhelming force, and the key issue now is to prevent the German troops from landing. How about the navy?"

Before Pound could speak, Fraser, the commander of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, complained: "The Home Fleet currently only has some light warships, which can only do anti-submarine warfare at best and cannot stop the German fleet. Several capital ships have not yet been completed and cannot be used. The large fleet must be brought back..."

Pound then said: "I have sent a telegram to Marshal Dill, asking him to request the main force of the Atlantic Fleet to rescue us through the British and American Joint Chiefs of Staff mechanism. In addition, I have also sent a secret telegram to Admiral Cunningham, in case the United States If people are desperate, let him lead the Royal Navy to act decisively."

Of course Churchill understood the connotation of "acting decisively". In fact, as soon as Cunningham's "British man, British ship" policy was implemented, the cabinet was fully aware of it, and applauded it, thinking that Cunningham had fulfilled "the duty of a noble Royal Navy admiral." Honorable Duty.” Churchill was worried that it would damage the relationship between Britain and the United States and wanted to change people, but no one in the cabinet agreed, not even Pound and Fraser, so he had to give up in the end.

In addition to personal likes and dislikes, different perspectives and positions also determine different ideas: Churchill, as a resistance politician, believed that without the support of the United States, the Royal Navy could not hold on anyway with its limited resources, and believed that Cunningham should not be allowed to become an obstacle to Anglo-American cooperation; while Eden and Attlee, as ambiguous politicians, believed that if Britain and Germany compromised, the Royal Navy's goods at sea and in the docks could be preserved and sold to the Germans for a good price - the French sold their fleet for a good price, at least much better than handing it over to the Americans for nothing!

Cunningham's actions were even known to Ribbentrop. During the negotiations, he expressed his "respect" for Cunningham and the Royal Navy, believing that this was a symbol of the independent spirit of the British Empire, which was not comparable to "American running dogs" like Churchill. Due to the development of the situation in the past few months and the unfavorable results of the Newfoundland and Cape Verde campaigns, the balance of choice of the neutral faction (ambiguous faction) in Britain once again tilted towards the compromise faction represented by Edward VIII. The conditions and positions of the British and German sides became closer, and many problems that stood between the British and German peace negotiations were also resolved.

The most typical one is the Indian issue. At the beginning, Edward VIII proposed to retain India for the British Empire. Later, due to the Japanese attack, the condition was once amended to retain North India. Germany expressed that it did not take a position on this. If the British Indian Army could keep North India, the German side would not obstruct it. However, as the Japanese Indian Expeditionary Force advanced step by step, Mountbatten suffered a series of defeats. Not to mention North India, it would be a luxury to have a foothold in India in the future. Finally, Slim seized the opportunity of the Japanese army's greed for merit and reckless advance to fight a defensive counterattack in Calcutta, but this victory was only short-lived. When Yamashita Tomoyuki readjusted the deployment and ordered the troops to advance steadily, the loss of Calcutta was inevitable.

By late March, the British Indian Army had lost Chittagong in Bengal, and the entire eastern coastline fell into the hands of the Japanese Army. The Indian Expeditionary Army and the Burmese Front Army were geographically connected. After the arrival of the six divisions of reinforcements sent by Ishihara Kanji to Yamashita Tomoyuki, the Indian Expeditionary Army had 13 divisions and six independent tank brigades (including the Burmese Army), and five flying divisions. The total force size was close to that of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, and the degree of mechanization and equipment level far exceeded that of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, ranking second among the five major Japanese Army groups (the first Kwantung Army, the fourth Southern Army, and the fifth Korean Army).

In terms of equipment level alone, if the Kwantung Army had not bought German equipment worth more than 500 million in March, the Indian Expeditionary Army's equipment level would have ranked first.

After the continuous defeats, the total number of British Indian troops has dropped to less than 120,000, and even the allies have begun to waver: the US Army Air Force stationed in India has been unable to obtain follow-up replenishment for a long time, and the number of aircraft has become less and less, and it has become increasingly difficult to cope with it - their opponents have now been replaced by a large number of Fw-190 and Bf-109\219; and in order to cope with the complex domestic political situation, the Kuomintang used the excuse of maintaining the southwest defense line to withdraw more than 10,000 troops stationed in India to fight the civil war. The Chief of Staff of the Chinese Theater, Stilwell, expressed his firm opposition to this, but because the Kuomintang could not get substantial supplies now, Stilwell's words were equivalent to farts. Chongqing ignored him at all, and Mountbatten was powerless to do anything about it.

The most embarrassing thing was that Yan'an was originally going to send 20,000 troops to India at the request of the United States. Because the Indian route was blocked by Japan, American weapons and equipment could not be delivered. Even the little supplies and equipment secretly sent from South Africa and Australia had to be given priority to replenish the British Indian Army. It was impossible to provide large-scale arms to the Communist troops. In addition, the British side did not trust the combat effectiveness of the Tubalu, and finally politely declined the dispatch of troops. After the large-scale friction between the KMT and the CPC and the civil war, the CPC could not spare 20,000 troops to go to India. Therefore, under the coordination of the US, the Indian theater finally accepted more than 200 military personnel from Yan'an as observers - the Americans still had to give face.

The Yan'an military delegation was composed of a large number of middle-level cadres with a high cultural foundation. In addition, more than 50 graduates from Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai universities who had previously defected to Yan'an and were politically reliable were selected to serve as translators and civilians. Chen Geng served as the head of the delegation. First, he had graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and had received formal military education; second, he had engaged in secret front struggles, was familiar with people, and could maintain the scene negotiations with the KMT; third, he had a humorous and free-spirited personality and was easy to get along with.

No matter how much the British looked down on the Tubalu, only Yan'an expressed its willingness to support the British at this critical moment, so from Mountbatten onwards, this military delegation was given due courtesy.