Chapter 870 The Vast Ocean Is a Casino (Supplement)

The signs that Hoffman wanted to win over the Irish were obvious, and he said it directly without any scruples. The Italians, French, British, and Americans all knew it, and the Irish knew it even better.

Ribbentrop and others had advised Hoffmann many times, telling him that Anglo-German negotiations were difficult. The Northern Ireland issue alone could become a thorn in the side of Anglo-German negotiations, and Edward VIII might not be able to accept this. As a result, the British centrists criticized the Irish issue most about the peace negotiations. But Hoffman was unwavering about this. He knew very well what kind of virtue the British were. They had been troublemakers in Europe for 200 years. How could they do it without restraint? He can find a way to reserve some territory for the British in the Indian subcontinent and find a colony for them in South America. But at the same time, he also needs to find a dog leash for the British in Europe to prevent the British from causing trouble in the EU in the future. Let's see. Go, Ireland is the best choice for this rope.

Necessary flexibility is still needed, and the German Foreign Ministry also made additional elaborations: It believes that the issue of Northern Ireland's ownership should not be changed by force, and it is recommended that a referendum be held in Northern Ireland after the war to decide whether to join Ireland or remain in Great Britain. This statement is very smooth: the Irish believe that the people above are all residents of their own ethnic group. Isn’t the so-called referendum just a formality? Some people in the UK believe that there are many pro-British factions in Northern Ireland, and coupled with the administrative and military rights reserved by the UK, there is a high chance of manipulating the referendum even if forced to do so.

As a result, the balance of the Irish tilted towards the Axis again. When the German tsunami plan was successful and the Azores were occupied, especially after the Combined Fleet's westward expedition and the Axis Combined Navy defeated the British and American fleets, Ireland's pro-Axis signs became more obvious, and At this time, the United States stopped aid to Ireland - it was too busy supplying supplies to the United Kingdom, so how could it care about Ireland? Replenishing ports in Ireland is not a top priority. For the Allies, Ireland has lost its strategic significance. As long as it prevents Ireland from openly surrendering to the axis, it will be a victory. Ireland did declare its neutrality many times and rejected Germany's arms assistance, which made the Allies secretly relieved.

Could it be that this subtle critical point would begin to break through in April 1944, as Marshal Brooke estimated? While Churchill was still thinking, Menzies called and said he had something important to report. Churchill originally wanted him to speak on the phone, but when he saw everyone behind him pricking up their ears to eavesdrop, he thought Menzies must be informed. Come here, otherwise the top management will make random guesses and everything will go wrong in the future.

"What's the bad news?"

Menzies reported expressionlessly: "News has just been sent from inside France that the SS Irish Division has appeared near the port of Brest!"

"What?" Churchill was immediately shocked. "Is the news accurate?"

"We are verifying through other channels, and..." As if the bad news wasn't enough, Menzies added, "There were indeed four German battleships carrying supplies in A Coruña, Spain, two days ago. Our I don’t know if it included the other two aircraft carriers, but he saw German aircraft.”

With a "boom", the conference room seemed to explode and everything was in chaos.

Ireland has a defense force, with a total of 40,000 troops and 200,000 reserves. It always uses British weapons and maintains neutrality in name, but everyone knows the tendencies of the Irish. But it was not the Irish Defense Forces but the Irish SS Division that was in trouble.

After Hoffmann promulgated the Declaration on the Belonging of Northern Ireland, many Irish people secretly went to Germany to join the SS. They either went to France, or passed through the Netherlands or Belgium, but their final destination was Germany, and they were not allowed inside. Having avoided being mixed up with pro-British Irish undercover agents, Menzies had relatively easy access to intelligence.

In order to absorb this group of volunteers, the SS specially established the SS-13 Irish Division. This designation historically belonged to the Holy Sword Master (Croatian Green Cult). He was a good hand at causing harm to the people. His combat performance was completely poor, and he eventually turned traitor. . Hoffman knew the virtues of this unit very well. While giving the SS-13 designation to the Irish, he refused to set up the Holy Sword Division. He only agreed to set up a similar security force and let them work under Mussolini to encircle and suppress Tito - the latter I'm worried that I don't have enough troops. How can I not use the thugs who come to the door?

In addition to SS-13, the SS-14\15 designations also differ from history. Originally, these two designations were given to Ukrainian and Latvian volunteers respectively. Since Ukraine, Latvia and other countries began to independently form their own defense forces after the promulgation of the Eastern Policy, Hoffman was ready to let them join their respective defense forces. The Ukrainians were easy to solve, so he readily agreed. However, there were difficulties in dealing with Latvian volunteers. Not only Himmler repeatedly expressed his wish to retain them, but the Latvians themselves also strongly requested to stay in the SS, saying they would "fight loyally for the Führer to the last moment."

In view of the fact that the Latvians were very capable in fighting, and had historically fulfilled their promise to fight to the last moment - some Latvian SS troops continued to fight until 1959, and Hoffman was a little reluctant to push them out. Finally, after coordination, he canceled the originally planned designation of SS-19 (Latvian Second Division), and injected all volunteers from the two units into SS-15 to form an independent SS Latvian Division. In the future, except for supplementary troops, there will be no more Formation of the Latvian SS.

The Latvian authorities were naturally grateful for this, and the volunteers who remained in the SS were also satisfied. Enough volunteers were recruited on the third day after the recruitment order was issued, and applicants continued to pour in. In the end, 1,200 more people had to be recruited in the name of the reserve team. The designation SS-14 was given to the Estonian Division (historical designation SS-20) for the same reason.

However, among the three Baltic countries, only Latvia and Estonia have independent SS troops, but not Lithuania. In fact, there are relatively few volunteers in the country, mainly due to the Aryan racial problem - Latvians and Estonians are regarded as Eastern Aryans, but Lithuanians are not. A small number of Lithuanian volunteers (more than 2,000 people) were finally coordinated after coordination. Joined the Lithuanian Defense Forces.

So the three SS-13, 14, and 15 divisions became foreign SS, and the three SS-16, 17, and 18 divisions that were subsequently formed became German divisions (Hoffmann originally promised Himmler to expand the army by 4 divisions, pointing out that The ones are the 4 divisions 12, 16, 17, and 18).

The National Leadership Division of the SS-16 Division has a mediocre evaluation in history. Although its weapons are very good, it has not fought hard battles with real swords and guns, and it also lacks experienced commanders. The reason for this situation is inseparable from Himmler's ambition. He tried to control this army for his own use and focused on appointing private individuals. Hoffman did not allow this to happen, and due to the smooth war on the Eastern Front, the losses of the SS also increased. Small, so SS-16\17\18 is the same as SS-12. The key officers are drawn from several veteran divisions such as the Guards, Empire, Skeleton, and Northern Divisions, plus high-quality reserve forces. The combat effectiveness is natural. cannot

I thought that 18 divisions would be the limit of the SS in 1944, but I didn’t expect that SS-19\20 formed an army faster than several German divisions, and the source was completely unexpected. These are the designations of two American divisions-SS-19 The 1st American Division and the SS-20 American 2nd Division.

By April 1944, the number of officially operational SS troops reached 20 divisions (there were also some smaller units, such as the Walloon Brigade), except for SS-17\18, two German and Irish divisions that had not yet been organized. In addition, almost all of them served on the Eastern Front, and even two American divisions also joined the Eastern Army.

In order to solve the ideological style and combat effectiveness problems of the American division, Hoffman ordered them to rest on the ground in Russia for a month and let the Propaganda Department send people to brainwash them again - survivors of the Great Rebellion, survivors of the Gulag, various Soviet Representatives of ethnic minorities, comrade-in-arms of the Russian People's Liberation Army, and the old, weak, sick and disabled Russians who were ruthlessly abandoned by Stalin due to hunger crowded in and took turns telling their personal experiences. Finally, they were arranged to visit the site of the Katyn Forest massacre and several Ministry of Internal Affairs prisons, which made them This group of officers and soldiers who had been taught the "terrible nature of Bolshevism" since childhood received a vivid experience class. Only then did they discover that the contents and problems mentioned in the United States not only existed here, but were even worse. and.

"The United States actually joins forces with such a cruel country to send supplies and arms to attack us? Roosevelt and Stalin are working together!"

The sense of justice and morale of the American SS Division instantly exploded. In the words of Marshal Weickers, the commander of Army Group East: "The Americans are very good, much better than the rumors I heard. Except for the wasteful behavior of ammunition, they have always been the same." , other performances are remarkable, who spread the rumor that they can’t walk without trucks and jeeps?”

Now, the appearance of the SS Irish Division in the Port of Brest, coupled with the news of other fleet movements, can't help but stimulate everyone's nerves - are the Germans really planning to land in Ireland?

Marshal Pound, who had been silent until now, suddenly pointed out another possibility: "Will the Germans use their main fleet to withstand General Nimitz's fleet, and then use other warships to force a landing in Ireland? And this Irish division said Maybe this is the first step for the Germans to throw stones at them? As long as the Irish Defense Forces do not attack this force, they will be able to easily connect with the large German formations to land after they control the key points. "

After Pound said this, the more Churchill thought about it, the more dangerous he felt. He turned and asked Brooke: "How many troops do we have in Northern Ireland? Do we want to launch preventive control?"

"Northern Ireland currently has about 400,000 troops, including 2 armored divisions. It is not particularly difficult to control the attack, but..." Brooke interjected, "If it is just a feint, we will completely push Ireland away. And it is difficult to defend the entire island of Ireland with 400,000 people, and it is even more difficult without naval superiority..."

Should I gamble or not? Everyone fell into deep thought.