Roosevelt's old classmate, Colonel William Joseph Donovan, returned to wartime London in early July.
At a time when the whole of Europe seemed to be subject to the feet of the German Empire, only the islanders of London and the rest of Britain had no intention of yielding.
But Colonel Donovan, who returned to England, was very surprised, not by the tense wartime atmosphere in London, but by the peace and quiet of London.
Compared to London, when France was about to fall in May, the smell of gunpowder in the city was not stronger but almost dissipated.
There were no trucks with balloons tied to the air balloon outside No. 10 Downing Street, anti-aircraft guns in the nearby square were removed, and there were no crashed plane wreckage or buildings that had just been bombed in the city.
Every night, several JU88 bombers burst in from an altitude of 8,000 meters, dropped tons of paper bombs that had no lethal power, and then swaggered away.
British Wellington bombers also went to Berlin every night to drop leaflets.
Colonel Donovan picked up a leaflet that hadn't been cleaned up and looked at it as he walked.
The Germans claimed on leaflets that they had large strategic oil reserves and advanced synthetic gasoline technology that could fully meet the fuel needs of the whole of Europe.
At the same time, the Germans announced the results of a joint effort between submarines and planes that made everyone shudder, and in the month of June they sank 88 British merchant ships, not counting the number sunk by mines On the one hand, sanctions against the EU and blockade of Germany and Italy, and on the other hand, submarines break diplomatic relations and blockade the UK.
Did the Second World War depend on the blockade to decide the winner?
With this in mind, Colonel Donovan walked into 10 Downing Street, and was led by a secretary in the Prime Minister's office to a room with a large schematic diagram of the position of the fleet hanging on the wall.
Colourful little pushpins are scattered across the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Indian Oceans, but dense around the British Isles.
There are also a number of pins connected together in a thin line marking the transatlantic shipping route.
The British Prime Minister stands in front of this diagram with two elderly men in military uniforms.
Seeing Donovan walk in, Churchill pointed to the thin line on the map with his cigar and said, "Colonel, the situation is obvious now, and here is the key to determining the victory or defeat of the world."
In case the Germans cut off this place before their own supplies run out, we are finished. ” Unlike in history, Hersmann's German strategy did not include the option of flattening Britain or landing in England.
Now the method that Hirschman used to deal with Britain was to break diplomatic relations Before the defeat of France, the task of breaking diplomatic relations was mainly carried out by submarines, and after the Germans took over Brest on the Brittany Peninsula, the FW200 and HE115, as well as the Fokker Zero, joined the operation.
Now the latest tactic of the Germans is to use the long-range FW200C3 reconnaissance maritime patrol aircraft to conduct reconnaissance in the Atlantic, 1,000 kilometers northwest of Brest.
When the FW200C3 spotted the British convoy, it would call the submarine and the He115 torpedo bombers and Fokker Zero fighters at the Brest base to serve as escorts to attack.
This tactic was extremely successful in late June.
On 24 June, a convoy of 48 merchant ships and 12 destroyers was attacked by German aircraft and submarines in the waters west of Ireland, losing 29 merchant ships and 4 destroyers, and another 10 merchant ships and 3 destroyers to varying degrees of damage As a result, the British Admiralty had to keep the convoy moving further north and to enter the waters west of Scotland, also within the operating radius of HE115 and Fokker Zero, after dark.
However, passing through that not very wide sea area at night was very vulnerable to sinking and damage by mines laid by FW200 and German submarines, and the losses also reached a shocking level.
It is worth mentioning that as soon as Churchill's sanctions stick came out, Sweden, the strongest of the three Nordic countries, retreated and temporarily did not join the European Customs Union.
Therefore, the countries that have joined the European Customs Union are Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Quisling, who became the Prime Minister of Norway after the Battle of France, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Galicia, Ukraine, Slovakia and other twelve countries.
Due to British sanctions and blockades, none of the 12 countries can now import goods by sea.
As a result, Germany could only afford to supply the entire European Customs Union with its strategic reserves stored before the war and imports from resource-exporting countries such as the Soviet Union, Romania, and Turkey.
However, Germany in this time and space accumulated a large amount of reserves before the war through Soviet-German cooperation and barter trade, and the oil reserves alone were as high as 20 million tons before the outbreak of the war, and in the Western Front campaign, Germany also grabbed the oil reserves of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries In addition, Germany now produces 5 million tons of synthetic fuel and more than 100,000 tons of shale oil every year.
The Soviet Union supplied Germany with another 250,000 tons of oil every month, and after the events in Batumi, the Soviet Union reduced oil supplies.
Moreover, Germany also controls the oil fields in Poland, Western Ukraine and other places, and can get 7.8 million tons of oil every year, while the large oil fields in Romania are also about to fall into the hands of Germany, and the total amount of oil can also get more than 10 million tons of various oil every year, which is enough to meet Germany's wartime needs.
As a result, Germany is now able to rely on the release of strategic reserves to maintain the basic consumption of oil in the countries of the European Customs Union.
Other resources that need to be imported from outside Europe can also be sustained for a period of time by strategic reserves.
So Churchill's blockade, if it could bring down Germany, would be a few years later.
And Britain itself is very likely to fall first because of the tactics of German submarines and planes to break diplomatic relations.
"It's not over, it's time for us to join."
Donovan said with a smile, "The results of the Republican primaries show that the American people do not want to see Germany dominate the world, and it is only a matter of time before they are fully involved."
But in my opinion, it's not just the thin line across the Atlantic that determines fate.
It's the next offensive for the Germans, and if the Germans get enough oil, non-ferrous metals, and food, I think even if we join, it will be very difficult to liberate the European continent from them. ” The problem Donovan said was actually the opinion of Roosevelt and the think-tank advisers around him.
The European continent is no less industrially powerful than the United States, and its population is much larger than that of Britain and the United States, and its weakness is the short-term resources, especially oil, which is very dependent on imports, and grain, cotton, and non-ferrous metals are also insufficient.
If Germany can solve the problem of supplying resources to Europe, it will be difficult for the United States to win even if it enters the war.
Churchill took a few puffs of his cigarette, and a hint of melancholy appeared on his fat face, and he said: "You mean the danger in the direction of North Africa and the Mediterranean, yes, it is very dangerous there."
We don't have enough troops there, and in North and Northeast Africa we have only about 100,000 men, some of whom are Indians.
And the Italians probably had more than 500,000 troops there, and they would also be supported by the Germans.
Fortunately, we bombed the port of Toulon in May, temporarily paralyzing the French fleet, and we will be able to maintain sea supremacy in the Mediterranean for at least the next 12 months.
In addition, the mistakes made by the Germans in the Balkans may well help us.
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Colonel, do you think it is possible for the Serbs to resist the German ruling, and 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 had met the young and vigorous King Peter II.
This king and the Yugoslav military, as well as most of the Serbs, were categorically opposed to the Geneva Verdict.
The regent in power, Prince Paul, was torn between knowing that Yugoslavia was powerless to resist Germany and fearing that his compromise would lead to death.
Therefore, after his return from Geneva, he took a line of "fake resistance, real surrender".
In the name of defending Belgrade, Yugoslav troops were transferred from Croatia and Slovenia and deployed to Vojvodina, the gateway to the north of Belgrade.
At the same time, he also began to purge the Yugoslav army of Croats and Slovenes, nominally to purify the army, but in reality to draw a line with Croatia and Slovenia, and then let these two provinces secede from Yugoslavia on their own.
"Prime Minister," said Donovan, frowning, "most of the Serbs are willing to resist, but the problem is that Yugoslavia is located in a very remote position, and its coastline is in the Adriatic Sea, which is completely controlled by the Italian navy.
Without outside assistance, the Serbs could not hold on. ” "There will be a way," said Churchill, grinning slyly, as he continued, "I have just received very reliable information that the Italian leader is plotting an invasion of Greece."
The Serbs only need to endure for two or three months, and we will be able to fight alongside them. ” t1706231537: