Chapter 849 The British Empire (Medium, 6400 Votes Plus Additional Content)
Chen Geng and the Yan'an Observation Group followed the British to watch the two sides fight in eastern India, and participated in various battles throughout the process, even in the Battle of Calcutta. Everyone saw that the British Empire was in a bad situation. Not only was its morale and training inferior to its opponents, but it was also inferior to its opponents in equipment. At first, the Communist Party believed that no matter what, British and American equipment was always advanced, until they saw the Japanese tank brigade and Stuka appear on the scene to launch ground-to-air coordinated operations, especially when a Japanese Tiger battalion (16 tanks) appeared and directly scared away an Indian battalion, they realized that the British were also at a disadvantage in terms of equipment.
Later, the Yan'an Observation Group found that the British were seriously ill. They called this emotion "Tiger tank phobia". Surprisingly, the British themselves also admitted it openly, believing that the Tiger was invincible unless they sent planes. Several military observers who did not believe in evil risked their lives to personally go to the front-line positions to fight the Tigers, but both the American M3 37mm anti-tank gun and the British heirloom 6-pound gun could only tickle the Tigers. Only a few 17-pound guns were threatening, but they were also limited to a relatively close distance. This scene shocked the people in Yan'an. Not to mention the lowest-level 37mm anti-tank guns, they did not have many anti-tank guns that had long been eliminated by Britain and the United States. If the Japanese army used these equipment on the Chinese battlefield, how many comrades would die by relying solely on explosive packs and cluster grenades?
In addition to the Sherman, the biggest threat to the Japanese tanks was the bazooka and the recoilless gun, but most of the British and Indian troops operating these two weapons were killed by Japanese infantry. The Japanese army also regarded tanks as their treasures, especially the Tigers, which were hung far behind to play the advantage of precision sniping. How could they be willing to let them break through the positions and fight a war of attrition like the German army? When they heard that Germany and the United States built tens of thousands of tanks a year, the Yan'an Observation Group was silent.
Faced with such a situation, Chen Geng suggested to Slim more than once that they launch guerrilla warfare in the Japanese-controlled area. At first, the other party just smiled and said, "Major General Chen (Chen Geng has the title of brigade commander and the rank of major general of the Kuomintang), guerrilla warfare can't repel the Japanese army..."
Later, the war situation worsened day by day, and Slim, who was desperate, did listen to it. With a try-and-see attitude, he agreed to Chen Geng's attempt once, but he spread his hands and said that no one could execute it. Chen Geng asked more than 100 British and Indian volunteers and more than 100 observers to form an Indian guerrilla team to infiltrate the Japanese-controlled area, trying to imitate domestic experience to establish a guerrilla zone. He knew the nature of the British regular army and did not dare to ask for a local officer, but only asked for two people to act as liaisons.
But after two months of practice, the attempt to establish a guerrilla zone failed as expected. There were many reasons for the failure, such as language barriers, unfamiliar terrain, low morale and disobedience of the British Indian Army - they would rather listen to the British scolding than obey the Chinese, but the deeper reason lies in the colonial slavery of the Indian people. In order to win the hearts of the people and speed up the pace of base construction, the Indian guerrillas did not adopt the relatively mild rent and interest reduction measures at home, but used fierce methods of beating the local tyrants and dividing the land to remove a prince who they believed to have a bad record, and wanted to divide his land and property with the Indian poor. As a result, a jaw-dropping thing happened. Not many people dared to take it, and many people even thought it was a great rebellion - "There will be no master to take care of us in the future, how can we survive?", which made the guerrillas dumbfounded.
No one resisted the guerrillas, so the guerrillas settled down with peace of mind and planned to do more mass work. But what worried them was that the National Army of the Bose government heard the news and attacked them a few days later. In their opinion, the Indians who had received favors should be loyal to the guerrillas, or at least should not help each other. Who knew that they all ran to the National Army to report that outsiders had "harmed the master". The guerrillas used all their tricks to repel the encirclement of the National Army and return to their own control area.
Along the way, everyone summed up their experience with a depressed look, and someone said unconvincedly: "I'm surprised, why do the masses support the puppet army?"
No one could answer, only one British Indian soldier muttered: "What is a puppet army?"
"Isn't Bose a puppet regime? Isn't it a puppet army?"
"Then...what is a regular army?"
"Aren't you a regular army..." He was dumb after saying half a sentence and couldn't say anything anymore. Now everyone realized where the problem was: the British Indian Army was composed of British officers from top to bottom, how could it be called a regular army? The colonial army is more or less the same! Bose's national army is at least Indian from top to bottom, and at most has a few Japanese advisers. It looks more like a regular army than the British Indian Army!
After listening to the guerrillas' report on the work situation, Chen Geng, with a heavy heart, wrote a long telegram and sent it to Yan'an: "...The tragedy of India is that they are a colony, full of history of being conquered by outsiders, and have never had the consciousness of national self-reflection. Even if Bose's national government is a puppet regime supported by the Japanese authorities, it can be regarded as the first national regime in India in modern history-after all, when the British were in power, they did not even allow Indians to establish such a government. In the past century, the most radical Indian nationalists have fiercely resisted British rule. Now they would rather believe in the Japanese than the British. Ordinary Indian people are at a loss about resistance and don't know who to resist... So I think it will take a long way to launch a revolution and establish a regime in India. At least it will be possible after the hypocrisy of Japan is exposed and the confrontation between Japan and India is intensified.
Based on various information, I think we can understand the reason why Japan gradually withdraws from mainland China: Japan lacks military strength and resources and is unable to conquer China and India, two large countries with vast territories and large populations at the same time. It must make a choice. In view of the fact that the Indian people are more docile , easier to drive, Japan chose India to attack, I think Japan will withdraw from more territory at home, the central government should seize the favorable opportunity to accelerate development.
From a purely military perspective, the complete defeat of the British army in India without foreign aid is inevitable, but this does not mean that there is nothing to do. Simply relying on the British and Indian troops for frontal resistance is not enough, even if a stable guerrilla force cannot be established in a short period of time. I think it is possible to deploy some elite troops to carry out mobile operations behind enemy lines and undermine the stability of the enemy's rule and smooth supply lines. If the central government agrees, I am willing to lead some Indian comrades and delegations to carry out this task and prolong the Japanese offensive as much as possible. time……"
Yan'an responded to him with a long letter, and finally pointed out emphatically: "...launching guerrilla warfare and helping the British hold back Japan is not your top priority. Your most important mission is to learn and master modern military theory. and large corps combat command experience, we must humbly learn regular army command tactics from British officers, use the current favorable opportunity to learn from British and Japanese combat experience, master the essence of modern warfare and use it as much as possible. At the same time, we must pay attention to collecting relevant information on military, economic, and Political and other aspects of information and intelligence, especially to understand Japan’s equipment configuration and technical characteristics..."
Even the Yan'an Observation Group knew that the situation in India was over, how could the top brass in London not know? Therefore, it is obvious that the condition of retaining the Indian colony can be removed from the Anglo-German negotiations first.
The second condition is the issue of British colonies. Germany’s position in this regard is very clear: there should be no more attempts to take back the British colonies that have been de facto occupied by the Axis and its allies. In this way, Africa, the Middle East and even Southeast Asia will definitely compete with The British Empire has no chance, and there is no need to think about the Falklands being handed over to Argentina. However, Germany, the four most elite dominions, promises to help Britain continue to stabilize. South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (a little bit of land that has not been swallowed up by European countries) Germany If the promise remains unchanged, Australia, New Zealand and Germany will come forward to coordinate with Japan, and Germany will provide security guarantees for Canada.
Ribbentrop even said that if the Canadians are willing and the British government requests it, the European Combined Fleet and the European Integrated Armed Forces can be deployed on the U.S.-Canada border in the future. In particular, Newfoundland, as a direct territory of Great Britain, is a top priority for garrisoning troops. Heavy. For Hoffman, once he established a foothold in the North American continent, missiles could reach New York in 10 minutes, and armored divisions could conduct blitzes across the U.S.-Canadian border in one fell swoop - thinking about this scene was sour.
In order to bring the British into submission quickly and considering that the British still had millions of troops and a fleet, Germany proposed that they could find a colony for the British in South America - such as part of the Brazilian territory bordering British Guiana. It would be more effective in fighting the war, and if it contributed a lot, it would agree to hand over the Panama Canal to British control.
The third condition is the arrangement of high-level British military and political affairs. Ribbentrop said that any British high-level officials who are willing to cooperate with Germany will not be held accountable regardless of their past attitudes towards Germany. Those who are unwilling to cooperate with Germany but do not resist or destroy (including Churchill himself) will be punished by Germany. Being tolerant and free to come and go means that there is no thought of settling scores later. Since Britain's long-term maritime power has been obvious to all, in order to take care of British national sentiment, it was agreed that the British will serve as the commander of the European Combined Fleet in the future.
The fourth is economic arrangements. After the peace talks, the British blockade will naturally be lifted immediately. Germany will be responsible for coordinating the shortage of supplies and raw materials. At the same time, Germany will place various industrial orders in the UK to help stabilize the economic situation. In the future, the UK can join various European association mechanisms and the common market. At the same time, the current oil fund in the Middle East will also give British capital a share of the pie, and the two parties can also cooperate in advanced technology. After all, British industrial technology is second only to Germany in Europe, and even surpasses Germany in some fields. In the final analysis, Germany will certainly have to take the lion's share of the EU integration process, but as long as the four major dominions are in hand, the UK will surpass France and enjoy second place in transactions and status - isn't it also the second best to follow the United States?
In other words, with the continuous defeats of Britain and the United States, Britain's psychological asking price is lowering, and the possibility of Britain and Germany reaching an agreement has become more and more likely...