The Rise of the Third Reich

Roosevelt's old classmate Colonel William Joseph Donovan came to wartime London again in early July. When the whole of Europe seemed to be surrendering to the German Empire, only the islanders in London and other parts of the UK had no intention of surrendering.

However, Colonel Donovan was very surprised when he returned to England. He was not surprised because of the tense wartime atmosphere in London, but because of the peace and tranquility in London. Compared with London in May when France was about to fall, the smell of gunpowder in this city was not stronger but almost disappeared.

There are no trucks tied to anti-aircraft balloons outside No. 10 Downing Street, and the anti-aircraft guns in the nearby square have also been removed. There are no crashed plane wreckage or newly bombed buildings in the city, only some street sweepers. The cleaners were working hard to clear away the leaflets dropped by German planes last night - starting from late May, the harassment bombing between Britain and Germany no longer dropped real bombs, but instead dropped "paper bombs". Every night, several Ju.88 bombers burst in from an altitude of 8,000 meters, drop several tons of paper bombs without any lethality, and then leave in a swagger. British Wellington bombers also dropped leaflets on Berlin every night.

Colonel Donovan picked up a leaflet that had not been cleared and looked at it as he walked. The Germans claimed in their leaflets that they had huge strategic petroleum reserves and advanced synthetic gasoline technology that could fully meet the fuel needs of the entire Europe. At the same time, the Germans also announced the results of a joint effort by submarines and aircraft to break diplomatic relations, which was horrifying to watch. In the entire month of June, they sank 88 British merchant ships, not including those sunk by mines. !

On one side, they impose sanctions on the EU and blockade Germany and Italy, and on the other side, they use submarines to break diplomatic relations and blockade the UK. Will World War II be decided by blockade?

Colonel Donovan walked into No. 10 Downing Street with this thought, and was led by a secretary from the Prime Minister's Office to a room with a large schematic diagram of the fleet's location hung on the wall. Colorful pins are sparse on the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, but densely packed around the British Isles. There are also many push pins connected in a thin line marking the transportation route across the Atlantic. The British Prime Minister stands in front of this diagram with two old men in military uniforms.

Seeing Donovan walk in, Churchill pointed to the thin line on the map with his cigar-holder and said: "Colonel, the situation is obvious. The key to determining the outcome of the World War is here. In case the Germans are in Cut this off before they run out of supplies and we're doomed."

Different from the historical situation, the German strategy led by Hessmann did not have the option of bombing England or landing in England. Now Hessman's method to deal with Britain is one - break up the relationship!

Before the defeat of France, the task of breaking diplomatic relations was mainly performed by submarines. After the German army took over Brest on the Brittany Peninsula, Fw-200, He-115 and Fokker Zero all joined in breaking diplomatic relations. In action.

The latest tactic of the Germans is to use the long-range Fw-200C3 reconnaissance/maritime patrol aircraft to conduct reconnaissance in the Atlantic Ocean 1,000 kilometers northwest of Brest. When the Fw-200C3 discovers the British fleet, it will use a telegraph to call the submarine and the He-115 torpedo bombers and Fokker Zero fighters (serving as escorts) at the Brest base to attack.

This tactic achieved great success in late June. On June 24, a convoy consisting of 48 merchant ships and 12 destroyers was attacked by German aircraft and submarines in the waters west of Ireland. 29 merchant ships and 4 destroyers were lost, and another 10 were lost. A merchant ship and 3 destroyers were damaged to varying degrees!

For this reason, the British Admiralty had to let the escort fleet sail on the more northern route, and calculate the time to enter the sea west of Scotland after dark, which is also within the combat radius of He-115 and Fokker Zero.

However, when passing through the not-so-wide sea area at night, it was very easy to be sunk and damaged by mines (laid by Fw-200 and German submarines), and the losses were also shocking.

The huge losses at sea were also the reason why Churchill chose to sanction the EU and ban the import of strategic materials (oil, steel, grain, cotton, rubber, non-ferrous metals, etc.) regardless of the risk of European neutral countries turning to Germany. It is worth mentioning that , as soon as Churchill's big stick of sanctions was revealed, Sweden, the strongest among the three Nordic countries, backed down and temporarily stopped joining the European Customs Union. Therefore, the countries currently joining the European Customs Union are Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway (Quisling became the Prime Minister of Norway after the Battle of France), Denmark, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Galicia-Ukraine, Slovakia and other ten countries. Two countries.

Due to British sanctions and blockade, these twelve countries are now unable to transport supplies by sea. Therefore, Germany can only afford the supply of their strategic materials - using strategic reserves saved before the war and strategic resources imported from resource exporting countries such as the Soviet Union, Romania, and Turkey to supply the entire European Customs Union.

However, Germany in this time and space accumulated a large amount of reserves through Soviet-German cooperation and barter trade before the war. The oil reserves alone reached 20 million tons before the outbreak of the war (Germany also grabbed France, Belgium, and Luxembourg during the Western Front Campaign. and other countries’ oil reserves)!

In addition, Germany now produces 5 million tons of synthetic fuels and hundreds of thousands of tons of shale oil every year. The Soviet Union provided another 250,000 tons of oil to Germany every month (the Soviet Union reduced its oil supply after the Batumi incident). Moreover, Germany also controls oil fields in Poland, Western Ukraine and other places, and can get 700,000 to 800,000 tons of oil every year, and the large oil fields in Romania are about to fall into German hands... All of them can also get 10 million tons a year. The above various oils are enough to meet Germany's wartime needs.

Therefore, Germany can now rely on the release of strategic reserves to maintain the basic consumption of oil in the European Customs Union countries. Other resources that need to be imported from outside Europe can also be maintained for a period of time by strategic reserves.

Therefore, even if Churchill's blockade could bring down Germany, it would be a few years later. However, Britain itself is very likely to fall first because of Germany's submarine + aircraft tactics to break diplomatic relations.

"It won't be over, we should join in when the time comes." Donovan said with a smile, "The results of the Republican primary show that the American people do not want to see Germany dominate the world, and it is only a matter of time before full intervention. But in my opinion Come on, what determines fate is not just the thin line across the Atlantic Ocean, but the direction of the Germans' next attack. If the Germans get enough oil, non-ferrous metals and food, I think even if we join, it will be impossible. It will be difficult to liberate the continent from them."

The issues Donovan mentioned were actually the views of Roosevelt and his think tank advisers. The industrial strength of the European continent is no less than that of the United States, and its population is much larger than that of Britain and the United States. However, its weakness is the short-term resources, especially oil, which is very dependent on imports, and there are insufficient grain, cotton and non-ferrous metals.

If Germany can solve the problem of resource supply in Europe, it will be difficult for the United States to win even if it joins the war.

Churchill took a few puffs of his cigarette, and a trace of worry appeared on his fat face. He said: "You are referring to the dangers in the direction of North Africa and the Mediterranean, right? Yes, it is very dangerous there. We do not have enough troops there, and in North Africa and the Mediterranean We only have about 100,000 people in Northeast Africa, and some of them are Indians. Italy probably has more than 500,000 troops there. Fortunately, we bombed the port of Toulon in May and let the French fleet go. Temporarily paralyzed, at least for the next 12 months, we can still maintain sea control in the Mediterranean.

Also, the mistakes the Germans made in the Balkans may well help us. Colonel, do you think it is possible for the Serbs to rebel against the German verdict? If they are willing to resist, they may be able to contain the German forces... After all, Yugoslavia has a relatively large army. "

Donovan had just visited Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, and met the young and energetic King Peter II. The king and the Yugoslav military, as well as most Serbs, firmly opposed the Geneva Judgment.

Prince Paul, the regent in power, was in a dilemma. On the one hand, he knew that Yugoslavia was unable to resist Germany, but on the other hand, he was afraid that his compromise line would lead to death. Therefore, after he returned from Geneva, he adopted a line of "fake resistance, real surrender". In the name of defending Belgrade, Yugoslav troops were transferred from Croatia and Slovenia and then deployed in Vojvodina (which was the gateway to the north of Belgrade). At the same time, he also began to purge the Croats and Slovenes in the Yugoslav army. The name was to purify the army, but the actual purpose was to draw a clear line with Croatia and Slovenia, and then allow these two provinces to secede from Yugoslavia on their own.

"Prime Minister," Donovan frowned and said, "Most Serbs are willing to resist, but the problem is that Yugoslavia is in a very remote location. Its coastline is on the Adriatic Sea, which is completely occupied by the Italian Navy. Control. There is no way the Serbians can persist without external assistance.”

"There will be a way," Churchill grinned slyly, and he continued, "I have just received a very reliable intelligence that the Italian leader is planning to invade Greece. The Serbs only need to endure for two or three months, and we will I can fight alongside them.”