Chapter 937 The Sunset of the Empire (Supplement)

By the time Eleanor arrived in the ward, Roosevelt was already lying quietly on the bed under the care of medical staff. Truman was sitting beside him. The heavy curtains were completely opened, and the sun shone on Roosevelt's peaceful face as if he had not passed away. Just like a deep sleep.

Eleanor's nose felt sore and she couldn't help sobbing. In the past few months, she had been traveling back and forth between the hospital and home. She had received "danger" signals from medical staff many times. She didn't expect that this time it was true.

Truman stood up and said softly: "Ma'am, I'm very sorry that the president has passed away, but he passed away peacefully."

"I can see that."

"Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Eleanor shook her head: "No. How can we help you? It's you who are in trouble now."

Five minutes later, important members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and cabinet members who received the emergency notification rushed to the hospital and saw Franklin Roosevelt for the last time. Great grief enveloped everyone: the future of the United States was uncertain, and the leader who had led the United States to reverse the trauma of the Great Depression But he let go and went to heaven.

At 3:40 in the afternoon, a bereavement team was set up in the hospital, with Truman as the team leader, and the other two deputy team leaders were Hull and Stimson. Of course, Hopkins was also included. The news was immediately announced to the public opinion community.

At 4:40 pm, a voice came from the radio: "We interrupt the program to report a special message to the listeners. The beloved President Roosevelt unfortunately passed away this afternoon due to cerebral hemorrhage..."

The news of Roosevelt's death made many people breathless with sadness, and the people were generally immersed in grief. Even Dewey, who had criticized Roosevelt two days ago, had to change his tone in the interview, saying: "The President is a great man. , he contributed everything to this country."

In the evening, Goebbels called Hoffman's office: "Führer, I must inform you of the news that President Roosevelt of the United States passed away this afternoon."

"Oh, okay...wait a minute." Hoffman suddenly came to his senses and asked with wide eyes in disbelief, "Who? Roosevelt? Did I hear you correctly?"

"Yes, you heard it right, Roosevelt - the warmonger who has always been against us is dead!"

"How did he..." Hoffman almost said "Why did he die so early?" According to his memory, Roosevelt should have died in the spring of 1945, which was now a full 10 months earlier. Of course, he had known about deviations in history for a long time: Wallace was forced to commit suicide before he could finish serving as vice president, Truman became vice president early and acted as president, and Roosevelt gave up his fourth re-election... But all of this combined was worth But the impact of Roosevelt's death.

Compared with history, although Goebbels is very happy now, he is not ecstatic yet, because Germany is now at its peak and in a strong position. In his opinion, Roosevelt's death or not will not change the direction of the war.

"The United States always loses, and Roosevelt's personality can't stand it." Goebbels guessed the reason correctly, "But this is good for us. After removing this obstacle, there should be no principled obstacles to peace with the United States."

Hoffman nodded: "We should show a little bit of our attitude. In tonight's European Voices program, we should express our condolences for Roosevelt's death, reiterate our desire for peace, and call on the new American leaders to stand for peace with Germany. Come up..."

"News from Moscow?"

"Wait for a moment and wait until the treaty is actually signed before announcing it. This will have a continuous impact on the Americans." Hoffman warned, "Don't attack Roosevelt personally, and don't get involved in the vortex of the political struggle between the two parties. We It can be said that Roosevelt brought the United States out of the Great Depression. Don’t talk about other issues. Unlike Japan, we are not despicable villains, we are a group of fighting gentlemen!”

Earlier than Goebbels, Truman sent a telegram to Churchill, notifying the news of Roosevelt's death. At the same time, he implicitly agreed to his request to "stabilize the overall situation" and stated that relevant orders had been issued to the US military troops stationed in the UK.

Churchill took his cabinet members to the U.S. Embassy to express condolences to Roosevelt. When he returned, he was very thoughtful and didn't know what he was thinking. After returning to the Prime Minister's Palace, he fell asleep on the sofa... After a long time, he suddenly woke up. Come here and invite your own henchmen.

"Sir..." The lean but capable Jonathan Churchill stood in front of him - he was also a member of the Churchill family, but a side branch.

"Are all the candidates I asked you to implement ready?"

"Everything is done. The family member list and property have been divided into two parts, and the candidates for the Canadian side have also been finalized."

"There's something you need to do."

"yes?"

"D-Day!"

The other party was a little shocked, but still said reflexively: "Understood!"

"You must master the power that Director Donovan left for you, and you must make them obey the command unconditionally."

"No problem."

"I'll give you 3 days to prepare. I need to brew..."

"Master, has it really come to this? Can't you leave quietly?"

Churchill shook his head: "It's easier said than done. Once you get to this point, you can't retreat. If you retreat, you will be shattered into pieces... I hope you won't expel me from the family in the future."

Jonathan immediately fell silent. Winston Churchill was not only Prime Minister to him, but also a patriarch. Although he did not have a duke title, everyone recognized that only Winston Churchill was worthy of the title of heir to the Duke of Marlborough. In terms of his current power, he has already surpassed an empty-headed duke, and the entire family looks up to him.

In the past two days, all the high-ranking nobles have been splitting into two, and the quickest ones are still looking for a place to live in Canada. The prices of high-end villas in livable places such as Ottawa and Vancouver have actually increased a lot - although Britain has been The blockade is very severe, but for the nobles, there is no problem in sending funds out of the country, and there is also a transit point in Switzerland.

The news of Roosevelt's death also reached Japan. In the past two days, the base camp paid more attention to the Battle of Delhi than to any other affairs. After the British received reinforcements from two local divisions and corresponding supplies and equipment, their morale was greatly boosted, and they actually showed rare bravery. The three giants of Lim, Auchinleck, and Wilson respectively commanded the troops to take charge of a section, and they fought hard with the Japanese. In some sections, there was even unprecedented hand-to-hand combat. The entire Delhi battle was in a stalemate!

The Tiger tanks that the Japanese army relied on were also severely damaged by Firefly tanks. Especially when the 17-pounder gun fired armor-piercing discarding sabots (APDS), the armor-piercing power increased dramatically. Even the Tiger front armor was not immune at close range. Yamashita Fengfumi warned the troops many times not to try to use tanks to fight street battles, but the army soldiers always forgot this when they were stunned.

The battle in the sky was also extremely fierce. The British army received a batch of new Spitfire 14 fighter jets, which had better performance than the early models such as Bf-109 and Fw-190 in the hands of the Japanese army. Even the Army's most cutting-edge four-type fighter Hayate It could only be a draw. The Stukas used by the Army were shot down a lot, which made Yamashita Fengfumi and Tokyo complain and demanded that they be replaced with Comet modifications as soon as possible - even though it was a Navy Red Deer aircraft.

The base camp is also having a headache about this. Now the Japanese army in India has exceeded 450,000, and there are 140,000 Japanese troops on the Delhi front alone. Intelligence shows that the British army in Delhi only numbers more than 90,000. The fighting is so fierce that it far exceeds the base camp's expectations. And there's no point adding more troops, the battlefield is just that big! Everyone knows that the war has reached a critical moment. As long as Delhi is captured and the last heavy British army group is defeated, the Indian strategy is basically done.

Now that armor can't penetrate, aircraft can't penetrate, and it's too far from the coastline to support naval guns. Yamashita Tombumi muttered that he wanted to use railway guns to suppress the battle. Tokyo urgently contacted Germany to ask about railway guns. After hearing the price and transportation difficulties of the K5, he also He shook his head greatly, but Germany promised to dispose of several Russian-made and Polish-made railway guns captured by Japan more cheaply, and the base camp said it would consider it.

Even so, the news of Roosevelt's death still caused waves in the base camp, and the bigger wave was the news brought by Cole: The Third Reich had initialed an armistice agreement with Stalin, and the Soviet Union was expected to retreat to the east of the Ural Mountains.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves. As soon as this news arrived, even the war in India and Roosevelt were put aside in the base camp to discuss the northward advance!

Prince Higashikata Minuhiko rubbed his hands and said: "Special Envoy Cole also conveyed the opinions of the German head of state to prepare to hold the Three-Nation Axis Summit in Cairo in late August and invited me to attend! I hope that the Indian issue can be resolved as soon as possible before departure. Of course, the focus of today’s discussion is the northward march.”

"It's difficult to move north..." Ishihara smiled and sighed.

Horikichi also said: "It's okay to take advantage. If the army moves north, the navy will not support it."

This statement made Dong Jiure Gong Minuhiko's face stiffen, but he knew that he was in a dilemma and did not dare to refute rashly and asked: "What should we do?"

Tada Shun shook his head: "Kohl's message couldn't be clearer. In the future, Soviet Russia will have 2 million troops. They only need to keep 500,000-700,000 troops on the Western Front. They can keep 1.3 million troops in the Far East, and they must be on guard. The Russians secretly expanded their forces."

"Judging from the geographical location, characteristics and number of enemy troops in the Far East, it is impossible to attack without 2 million land troops, and the mecha strength must be greatly strengthened." Ishihara Wanji sighed, "The Kwantung Army only has one-third of this number , Too much self-preservation, not enough progress.”

"but……"

Everyone knows what Prince Higashino Miyazaki said "but..." means. Germany has defeated the Soviet Union. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity, will the Russians have a chance to recover in the future? I'm afraid that the Kwantung Army's group of red deer will become violent again, right? I just hate that the Germans didn't wipe out all the Soviet troops. Of course, no one will say this clearly: Japan and the Soviet Union have a neutral relationship, so why should Germany want to wipe out the Red Army? What good does this do for Germany?

"I have a suggestion..." Horikichi pondered for a moment before expressing his thoughts.