Battle of the Third Reich

At 3:10 pm on May 27, 1940. London. No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s residence.

Winston. Churchill stood with his hands on the European map hanging on the wall of his office, frowning and staring at the corner of France.

Holding a telegram in his hand, the person who sent the telegram sat downcast on the side sofa, looking at Churchill without a word.

"Mr. Aiden, what else do you say now."

Churchill turned around, staring blankly at the landing army secretary.

"It was because you and General Ismail patted my chest to assure me that you have found a hole in the German squad and promised to use it to save our expeditionary army. I was convinced by you to agree to this stupid plan. You Let’s see what’s going on now? Your plan put the expeditionary forces in a more dangerous situation!"

Churchill slowly walked back to his desk and sat down.

"Prime Minister, this is not our fault. You have also seen the situation two days ago. The information is accurate. It is just a wrong calculation of the time it takes for the German armor to be repaired. If Gott’s forces move faster, Maybe we have succeeded." Ismay understood.

"What? Time? This alone is deadly enough. You have been wrong all day! Now it is because of your mistakes that our first, third, fifth, and fiftyth infantry divisions were defeated by Germany at your choice People are surrounded! Do you still believe in this plan?"

Churchill stood up abruptly and finally couldn't restrain his anger.

"Don't you see that all of this is a German trap now? The Germans may not have trimmed them or lacked any fuel. They are waiting for us to send the expeditionary force to their traps in a silly way. Go. Now the main force of Gott’s Expeditionary Force has hit the muzzle of the German Kleist armor cluster, although they have blocked the German attack, they have not been able to support it for much time.

Now Gott is preparing to retreat. They have no solid defensive positions, enough firepower, and no reason to continue in front of the German armored forces. This is the news I got this morning, and Gott reported on his current situation in detail. His supplies and ammunition have been consumed for more than half of this operation, and now they have only two days of supplies, and ammunition is only enough for one attack. This time the German plan was so insidious and cunning, they finally deceived us all.

The only thing we are thankful for now is that they have not yet defeated the main force of the expeditionary force. But if we don’t do anything now, then their destruction is just a matter of time. Now I hope that you will come up with a proper plan, how should we face this disaster. "

"Your Excellency, do you have any ideas?" the Secretary of the Army asked with a sad face.

Churchill shouted in shock: "Did you not consider any backup plan in these two days?"

"This is the case. We always thought that this plan will succeed, and the situation happened too suddenly. We only received the report from the expeditionary force this morning. Only then did we know that our plan was frustrated. So we said We haven't had time to make a remedy." Ismay replied tremblingly, he couldn't dare to look at Churchill's angry expression.

"Frustration? It's a failure! Do you still want to keep the face of the Chief of Staff Committee?" Churchill roared.

"If the expeditionary forces were wiped out by the Germans, our ending would be the same. At that time, not only the face, but the entire cabinet may fall because of this matter, and you will also be kicked out of the army by the angry British people. With a division of 250,000 people, I dare not think about what would happen to our Britain if these troops were lost. We will have no strength to guard our empire within half a year.

Although I have given orders to bring some elite troops from various colonies, it takes time, and the number of these troops is not enough to make up for the loss of the army caused by the loss of the expeditionary force. Even if it is too late to conscript, it will take at least six months until the soldiers are trained. Before that, we had to rely on retired veterans and untrained rookies to protect our coastline. "

"So what do you mean?" the Secretary of the Army asked.

"I mean? I don't mean anything. I just want to keep these troops." Churchill calmed down a little.

"The situation is very serious and catastrophic now. This stupid operation has caused us to lose four elite infantry divisions. Although two of them were hit hard in the last battle, the other two were The rare main force in the expeditionary force, and those two division commanders are also rare and excellent officers. Now we have no power to rescue them from the encirclement, so we can only let them deal with their own problems.

There are only five complete infantry divisions left in our hands. We can no longer watch them as they are destroyed, so I decided to restart the "Generator" program. We must withdraw them from France. "

"Prime Minister, did you really decide to restart the "Generator" program? But the time may be too late. The Navy has not yet cleared a channel in the minefield that allows large ships to pass. It may take two more It’s only a matter of days." asked Immes.

"Then the speed of mine clearance should be accelerated. It is also necessary to sweep out a channel for small ships to pass through. At least we have to clear the supply line at sea. The ship that can pass can be used to ship and supply supplies. Now we must think about Do everything possible to support Gott’s defense of his line of defense. Airdrop or sea freight, we must deliver the supplies he needs most.” Dent has finally recovered his ability to think.

Churchill said excitedly: "Yes, at the same time, we have to tighten the entire line of defense. Because we lost those four infantry divisions, we can no longer maintain the long line of defense that we used to. We want to join forces with the French First Army Collapse. Re-establish a suitable solid line of defense. Block the German offensive.

We have to pay close attention to the Belgian defense line. Now I haven’t got any reports about it. I don’t know how the Belgians played after the removal of the British troops there. The final report says that the Germans seem to have strengthened there. Troops.

If the Belgians are defeated, there will be a big loophole in our expeditionary defense. I think we should build a defense line behind the Belgians as soon as possible to prevent this from happening. If necessary, take over Belgium directly People’s positions, if they show signs of collapse, they will immediately transport their government and king to London by plane. They will have a great effect on our future battles. If they are not willing to come, we can still Use force.

As long as our defense can withstand the German attack for a week, we may withdraw the main force of the expeditionary force. We must accomplish this difficult task at all costs. The Royal Navy and Air Force must do their utmost to support this plan.

Now I will notify the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Air Force to come and discuss the plan. We must succeed, for our empire and for ourselves. Even if only one division was saved, no, even if only one regiment was saved, it was a victory. It’s better than just sitting around watching their entire army annihilate. Moreover, the current situation is also caused by our mistakes. We have to take all the responsibilities. "

At this time Imes reminded: "The most important thing is to supply, everything else is empty talk. We not only have to supply our expeditionary army, but also the first army of France, they also have little supply. If If the French collapsed first, the end of our expeditionary force would not be far away.

Although the combat effectiveness of those French teams is not very good, but now they can only rely on them to defend the line of defense. When we started to withdraw the expeditionary forces back to the UK, we still needed them to break it.

What a hell, we had contacted the French to let their southern main force cooperate with the attack on the other side of Arras, but they did not start the trial attack until this morning, and the result was the one that was just placed on the defensive line with the Germans. The mechanized infantry division was touched and cut by the German 41st Armored Corps.

Two of their divisions were hit hard, and now they have retracted behind their Wei Gang line of defense. We could have asked them to launch several attacks to reduce the pressure on the troops in the siege circle, but now it seems that we can't count on them. "

"What is that Ironside doing? How did he get in touch with the French? He was the general who supported the plan the most, that is, he strongly asked us to let the expedition break through from the southern line, and we would fall here This kind of situation. I think that if someone is to be responsible for the current situation, he should bear the main responsibility." The Secretary of the Army said excitedly.

"Is the chief of staff of the Ironside Empire? I also remembered that many people raised doubts when discussing the plan at that time, but they were arbitrarily dismissed by him. It was his stupidity that caused the expeditionary army to fall into the present. In the crisis. I now ask the Prime Minister to immediately hold the Chief of Staff of the Ironside Empire in this defeat." Ismay also cried in excitement, and he couldn't help but cast land on the five bodies admired by the army minister. He soon found a scapegoat, and he was full of weight, enough to drag him and the chief of staff committee into the quagmire.

Churchill listened to the words of two people, and his heart moved. He picked up the half cigar that had been extinguished from the ashtray, picked up the lighter on the table and lit it, and then took a sip. Then he frowned and thought about the feasibility of the suggestions the two guys had just made.

Churchill thought carefully and thought that this method was feasible. Someone had to take responsibility for this situation. The position of the chief of staff of the empire is very suitable for this scapegoat. In this way, even if the "generator" operation fails, when the entire expeditionary force is annihilated, it is possible that you and your cabinet will continue to stay where you are.

"Mr. Dent, immediately call General Ironside back to the UK, and then detain him at the airport. You immediately form a committee to investigate the responsibility of General Ironside in this plan. These are It’s all up to you, and you know what to do about the media.” Churchill made up his mind, and the tragic fate of the lord of the General Staff was decided between the two sentences.

The Secretary of the Army and the representative of the Chief of Staff Committee were happy in their hearts, but on the surface it was serious. They looked at Churchill and nodded.

Then the office door rang. Churchill shouted quickly.

"Come in!"

"Your Excellency, this was just sent by the Army Department, General Gott's urgent telegram!" Churchill's secretary came in with a telegram.

"Oh, give it to me." Churchill took the telegram and wanted to read it, but he remembered something.

"Wait a minute." He called to the secretary who was about to leave.

"You now immediately notify the Navy and Air Force Ministers and the chiefs of staff of all arms to come to my meeting immediately."

"According to the order, Prime Minister, I will do it immediately." The secretary went out and closed the door.

Churchill lowered his head to read the telegram carefully, but the more he saw the more ugly his face turned, he walked back to the desk and sat down slowly. His face turned pale, frowning and staring at the telegram, sitting there without saying a word.

"Prime Minister, what does Gott's telegram say?" the Army Secretary asked nervously, and he saw from Churchill's face that the situation might have deteriorated again.

"The situation has changed. You can read it for yourself." Churchill picked up the telegram.

Dent hurried over and took the telegram from Churchill and read it, and Ismael hurriedly approached. The two were shocked after reading the telegram.

"What? Calais lost? What should we do. Now we only have Dunker carved a harbour. As long as Guderian's armored army wins Calais, he can go straight to Tun along the coast. Kerke, not even the flood line in the canal area can stop him, he will kill Dunkerke in two days. We may be too late to implement the "generator" operation." The Secretary of the Army exclaimed. .

"God, pitiful Britain." Ismay lamented there too.

"No, it's not the last time, we can't lose faith, justice is on our side. We will never give up as long as Dunkel hasn't fallen. If there is still a hint of hope, we will continue to act, we must put Those troops withdrew."

Churchill stood up abruptly.

"We also have the air force and the powerful navy. We have to help the expeditionary forces to guard the city at all costs. As long as we can persist for a week, we can withdraw most of the troops back to Britain. We will pay any price for these troops. It’s worth it. Weapons can be built and purchased, but the elite trained troops can’t be built and bought immediately. As long as we still have this army, we can defend our empire. I believe that the final victory will definitely belong we."

Just as Churchill spoke with confidence, the office door was knocked again.

"The Prime Minister, all the ministers and chiefs of staff are here. They are waiting for you in the living room."

"Oh, ask them to go to the meeting room first, and I'll be here soon."

"Okay, Lord Prime Minister."

The secretary stepped back. Churchill turned around and said seriously.

"Gentlemen, let's discuss with the elite of the empire how to save our British empire now. I hope they can come up with a better idea."

;