Mediterranean Hegemony Road

As early as half a year ago, the British Isles began to implement a strict material rationing system.

Compared with before the war, the consumption of meat, eggs, sugar and fruit in the UK dropped by 396%, 693%, 55% and 76% respectively, and the rations of candy, butter, tea and coffee were almost zero.

Due to insufficient supply of materials and rapid inflation, the cost of living of the British people has increased by 86% in less than a year.

On May 1, 1940, the London government began to ration cloth again, and each person could get 66 fixed coupons a year.

A pair of trousers cost 8 coupons, a shirt 7 coupons, a pair of socks 3 coupons, a pair of underwear 4 coupons.

In order to cope with the blockade of the Holy Alliance, the British also took great pains to produce food by themselves. In 1940, the area of ​​cultivated land in the UK increased by 1.26 million acres. (approximately 764.82 million mu)

Insufficient meat and cheese, they use fish to make up for it. As a country surrounded by the sea, they have a natural advantage in this regard.

At first, Bulgarian fighter planes bombed the British fishing boats. Later, the British had an idea to abandon the modern large fishing boats and switch to more primitive small fishing boats.

After weighing the pros and cons, the Bulgarian Air Force had to give up chasing them. The investment was too much and the reward was too small.

Relying on offshore fishing, locally produced potatoes, and the original grain reserves, the British survived the 1940s with difficulty.

London

It's Christmas Eve again, which is a rare time of peace. The Bulgarians, who are also a Christian country, will not launch an attack at this time.

In this happy festival, Mr. Churchill was not happy at all. He knew that this war would be difficult to carry on.

According to the information from Northern Europe, the positions of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are changing, and the Holy Alliance is putting too much pressure on them.

Although the three countries are sparsely populated and there is no food crisis, the lack of industrial raw materials is also unacceptable to them, and a large number of capitalists have changed their positions.

In this case, the London government was prepared. They even sent people to win over the three countries. Unfortunately, even though they promised huge profits, they still did not move them.

Joining the Holy Alliance can lie down and win the war,

Joining the Pan-International Front requires a real battle, and it is still unknown whether the war will be won in the end.

Everyone is not a fool. The Nordic countries have limited strength, and they are very self-aware.

Unless they can hang up, defeat Western Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the shortest possible time, then defeat France and Spain, and then fight the Bulgarians.

Obviously, this doesn't exist, and they don't have a Gundam. It is estimated that West Russia can play three against one, which is the kind of fight against them.

"Is General Dowding ready?" Churchill asked with concern

"Your Excellency, the Royal Air Force is already in place, but I am not optimistic about this operation. Even if our sneak attack succeeds, it will not hurt the enemy's vitality!" Air Force Commander Dowding said helplessly.

This is not unfounded. The war has progressed to the present, the British Empire has exerted its last strength, and most of the countries of the Holy Alliance have spare power.

Even if the enemy's front-line airport is surrendered, it can only delay time. Unless Spain and France are turned against each other, the British Isles will always be in danger.

"General Dowding, as a soldier, you only need to execute orders, and other things have nothing to do with you!" Churchill said with a gloomy face.

If possible, he really doesn't mind letting the old guy go, but the situation is too dangerous now, and he can't stir up internal conflicts anymore.

The air forces deployed in North Africa, Spain, and France are not all Bulgarian troops. The Holy Alliance still plays a role. There are air forces from various countries here, and the Bulgarian Air Force is only the most powerful one.

In order to encourage the air forces of various countries to fight bravely, Bulgaria will be responsible for all the losses of fighter planes. Every time an enemy plane is shot down, the pilot can also get a bonus of 1,000 levs.

The Bulgarian Air Force did not lower their vigilance on Christmas Eve. Even if they were celebrating, everyone was on alert. The deployed radar stations were on duty 24 hours a day to prevent the British from jumping over the wall.

The air forces of other countries are not so lucky. For the convenience of command, the air forces of various countries are stationed separately, and the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, General Graves-Ivanlov, only has command authority during wartime.

The air force is a technical arm, and General Graves is not so strict with them. As long as they can take off on time to carry out bombing missions, other times the air forces of various countries are managed by themselves.

On the surface, this is a manifestation of Bulgaria's respect for its allies, but in fact it is Bulgaria's unwillingness to help countries train a powerful air force.

Who knows that today's allies will not become enemies tomorrow?

We must know that Britain, France and Paulo were still allies who fought side by side more than 20 years ago. Many people believed that the three countries would continue to cooperate and jointly dominate the world. Haven't they turned against each other now?

On the surface, it was the British who were unwilling to share world hegemony with the two countries, and finally the Triple Alliance fell apart.

In fact, it was not that Bulgaria developed too fast, which aroused the anxiety of the British; the French developed too slowly, and their own strength was not worthy of sharing hegemony with the British, so the Big Three system finally collapsed.

"Didi..."

The sound of radar kept ringing, and the Bulgarian Air Force immediately ended the banquet and entered a wartime state. The roar of anti-aircraft artillery sounded, and the fighter plane slowly took off under the cover of night.

Important warehouses and airport facilities all chose to turn off their lights, while the areas used as camouflage to attract the enemy turned on street lights.

Under the cover of night, the British Air Force was confused, unable to see the situation underground at all, but arrived at the approximate position, and instinctively bombed the place with lights.

In the war room, General Graves sneered and watched the British perform. Such a large-scale night attack, wanting to do everything in one battle, is simply a dream.

As for the possible losses caused by the British bombing, he didn't care at all. Anyway, the Bulgarian Air Force was prepared. What does the loss of allies have to do with him?

The general headquarters has ordered the troops to be more vigilant. They didn't listen to them. If they died, they deserved it. At worst, Bulgaria would pay a few more fighter planes.

The governments of various countries will not have any opinions. In the minds of most politicians in this era, airplanes are more valuable than pilots. (except industrial powers)

Besides, if the allies are not stimulated, how can they be willing to contribute in the next battle?

Time flies by, the British Air Force has completed its bombing mission and is about to return, Graves slowly uttered two words - counterattack!

It is said to be a counterattack, but in essence it is just to hold back the British and prevent them from returning to the voyage smoothly.

The range of the fighter planes is also limited. After departing from the British Isles and bombing for more than an hour, most of the fighter planes ran out of fuel, and they didn't have to go back if they didn't run.

This is the reason why Graves ordered the fighter planes to take off. Under the cover of night, taking advantage of the advantage that the Bulgarian fighter planes flew higher than the British fighter planes, they hid in advance and watched the British perform to their heart's content.

With so many air forces deployed by the Holy Alliance in these areas, the airport is naturally indispensable. In most areas, the two sides fought a melee and defeated the British by virtue of their numerical advantages.

In only a few areas, the British fighter planes have an advantage in numbers and have to adopt more active tactics to counterattack.

"Your Excellency, this is a telegram from various places. It has been confirmed that seventy-three of our airports have been attacked. The current battle situation is unknown!" the intelligence staff whispered.

"Yeah, I see!" Graves said lightly.

The hearts of the British are too big. If they only attack a few airports, they may have succeeded by now.

Simultaneously dispersing attacks on so many airports, their forces were obviously divided, except for those unprepared areas, most of the areas were covered with nets.

...

After Christmas, the countries of the Holy Alliance were in an uproar, and the British actually broke the rules and launched an attack on Christmas Eve.

It's okay, revenge, revenge must be done!

Especially after the politicians of various countries got the loss report, their faces were really exciting. Don't think that Bulgaria will pay for the fighter planes, so they can consume them recklessly.

The battle damage and record will determine their future profit distribution. If the battle loss is greater than the record, then congratulations, a big event is on the table.

The existence with a negative contribution value still wants to share the spoils?

Of course, this is only part of the calculation. If it involves a major strategy, as long as it wins strategically, Bulgaria can ignore all the losses of fighter planes.

Another example is the war between the French and the Germans. These are paid by the French themselves. Naturally, the Holy Alliance does not need to calculate their battle losses, only the results of the battle.

sofia

Looking at the battle report from the front line, Little Ferdinand smiled slightly. The British jumped the wall in a hurry, and they didn't even want the last face.

In the battle last night, the British paid the price of 975 fighter planes falling, and killed 1683 fighter planes of the Holy Alliance. Most of them failed to take off and did not do a good job of hiding.

In addition, the British also bombed more than 20 warehouses, plus eight port cities received damage to varying degrees.

On the surface, it seems that the Holy Alliance has suffered a big loss, but the loss of the Holy Alliance does not mean that Bulgaria has also suffered a loss. The biggest losses this time are undoubtedly France and Spain.

As the host, most of the British bombs fell on their heads. Because of the night, it is unknown how many British fighter planes deviated from the target and dropped bombs on their cities.

Little Ferdinand admitted that it would be immoral for him to secretly entertain himself while watching the misfortune of his allies, but he still couldn't help being happy.

A tactical victory is not equal to a strategic victory.

Judging from the results of the battle, the British undoubtedly had the advantage, but unfortunately they won tactically, but failed strategically.

According to the plan, the purpose of the United Kingdom is to concentrate the main force of the Royal Air Force to strike hard, severely damage the air force of the Holy Alliance, and buy the sky of the British Empire a few months.

It's a pity that the Holy Alliance's fighter planes suffered serious losses this time, but the pilots suffered little casualties. Bulgaria would be able to make up for the losses of these fighter planes in less than a week.

You must know that in the battle last night, the British lost 2,106 pilots, including 896 captured; while the Holy Alliance lost only 1,568 pilots.

From this point of view, Ferdinand Jr. does not mind continuing to exchange with the British. Anyway, Bulgaria has the largest industrial production capacity in the world.

London

The silence in the Prime Minister's Office is terrifying. Don't read the newspapers' constant publicity that the government achieved a Christmas Eve victory yesterday. In fact, those who know the inside know that the British Empire has suffered a loss in this battle.

In less than a year since the outbreak of the World War, the sea transportation capacity of the British Empire has been weakened by 27%, and the domestic industrial capacity is less than half of what it was before the war.

"I'm sorry everyone, we failed again in this battle! Our boys have worked very hard, but the number of enemies is too large. Even if they took advantage of the sneak attack, they still couldn't complete the mission!" Dowding said angrily.

How could he be in a good mood when he was forced to execute the death strategy? For him, the current situation is still considered good, and God blesses if there is no complete annihilation.

Churchill gritted his teeth and said: "Last night, we lost 1012 fighter planes and 2216 pilots. The Royal Air Force lost nearly a quarter of its strength in World War I!"

(Remarks: The statistics of the two sides are different, mainly because of the actual situation, for example, the way home was lost when lost at night, or the injured fighter plane crashed halfway)

Dowding frowned and said, "I'm sorry, Prime Minister! I want to interrupt, the loss of the Royal Air Force is not a quarter of its strength, but a little more than one-third.

You also know that there are more than 800 fighters that need to be overhauled, and they will not be able to be used in the war for at least half a month. "

He didn't want to make up for it, but in order to prevent these politicians from making wrong decisions, Dowding had to come out and be this villain.

Now they are disgusted with each other. The cabinet believes that the lack of power of the air force has caused the passive situation of the British Empire, while the air force believes that the current predicament is caused by the blind command of the cabinet.

"Didn't General Dowding want to retire? I approve this time!" Churchill said with a gloomy face.

Apparently, Prime Minister Churchill couldn't bear it with him. He was so awesome after losing the battle. He was courting death. If it weren't for Dowding's influence in the Air Force, Churchill couldn't help but send him to a military court.

"Okay, Your Excellency Prime Minister? If there is nothing else, I will leave first!"

After finishing speaking, the air force commander left without looking back, without any memory.

The meeting room fell silent again. This time the strategic goal was not achieved, and it was impossible to end the war decently.

(..)