The British War Cabinet meeting on February 28, 1941, was held in a low, unfurnished basement with a direct view of the I-beams and concrete columns, and very dimly lit, poorly ventilated, and thick with smoke.
It was the basement of the Treasury building on King Charles Street, which was the underground headquarters of the British Wartime Cabinet.
Planning for this underground command began as early as 1938, and it was officially opened on August 27, 1939, just a few days before the German invasion of Poland.
However, it was hardly used until mid-February 1941.
Because the imaginary scene of indiscriminate bombing by German planes did not appear, but a small number of German high-altitude bombers JU86 and night bombers, mainly HE111, flew to London every day to scatter leaflets advocating European unity.
So this underground command was largely idle after its opening until mid-February, when the news came that the Pope of the Ecumenical Church had been killed by a bomb dropped by a British plane.
The bombing of Rome and the death of the Pope apparently angered the Italians, and on 18 February, two squadrons of Z1007 bombers were deployed to a German air base on the Brittany Peninsula, where they bombed every night from 20 February.
And on the morning of 28 February, that is, this morning, the Italian planes took the risk of daytime bombing and attacked London in broad daylight.
So Churchill had to hide in the wartime cabinet headquarters under the Treasury building to hold a meeting.
"They will learn a lesson, it is a very stupid fault that they dared to bomb London during the day, but it is in the style of the Italians."
The British Prime Minister is still as usual, looking confident, or even stubborn.
At the beginning of the meeting, he made a few jokes about the Italians, who had just defeated the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.
"Prime Minister, it was foolish for the Italians to bomb London during the day, in fact the Italians lost little in the daytime bombing on the morning of February 28, because they had put in German-aided Fokker Zero C3 fighter jets to escort the ship," Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who looked a little downcast, reminded Churchill, "but they were outright victors in the Mediterranean, and bad news came from our embassies in Madrid, Ankara, Baghdad, Tehran and Lisbon."
The rulers of Spain, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran were all actively engaged with Germany, and it was only a matter of time before these four countries became our enemies. ” Churchill was not surprised, as these were to be expected.
By the time he ordered the Mediterranean Fleet to withdraw from the Mediterranean, he had already prepared that many short-sighted governments would see Britain's strategic contraction as the sunset of the Empire, but it would not be long before they regretted it.
"There's some good news, too, isn't it," Churchill smoked as he puffed out of his mouth, filling the entire basement with strong secondhand smoke.
"Not everyone was intimidated by the Nazis and fascists, the Yugoslav people were very brave," he said with a smile. ” Or rather, the Serbs have overwashed their heads with nationalist brainwashing and have washed their brains out.
The Serbs were originally a small and medium-sized people who were not strong in Europe, but after the First World War, they were given the title of Great Yugoslavia, and were forced to become a regional power by Britain and France.
But Yugoslavia and Serbia are, after all, only a country that does not rank in terms of industrial production in Europe, and the number of Serbs as the main ethnic group is not very large.
In the absence of strength, the Obrenović dynasty sought to be spiritually armed with Serbian nationalism and Yugoslav nationalism.
Unlike the historical Tito Bolshevik authorities' "strong Yugoslavia and weak Seybes", the Obrenović dynasty practiced "Sengoslavia unity", integrating Serbian nationalism and Yugoslav nationalism, hoping to bring Yugoslavia on the road to a single ethnic state.
However, various religious, historical and cultural differences made it difficult for the "Yugoslav nation" to take shape.
Chronic propaganda has led the simpler Serbs to see their "Yugoslav motherland" as an indivisible whole, and to regard any attempt to abandon Croatia and Slovenia as politically incorrect treachery As a result, Prince Paul, who was bent on keeping a Greater Serbia, became a traitor.
Immediately after he revealed his desire to compromise with Germany, he was regarded as an enemy by the entire Serbian nation.
The enraged Serbs even ignored the major victories of Germany and Italy in the Mediterranean, and staged a massive anti-German march on February 24 and 25.
Prince Regent Paul's rule collapsed, Prince Paul himself fled to Germany, and King Peter II, who was not yet 18 years old, appointed a protestant advocate of resisting the German and Hungarian invasions Under Prince Paul's line of non-resistance, Croatia and Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia, the former formed a federation with Hungary, and the latter became the air force general of the German republic, with Dushansimovich as prime minister.
"But Prime Minister," Aiden said to Churchill with a frown, "we are now in no way to offer any help to Yugoslavia, and if the Germans are determined to invade, the country will fall within days to weeks." ” Churchill shrugged his shoulders and said: "That is nothing, we will liberate Yugoslavia in the future and the Serbs now struggle will buy us precious time, and the Germans, in order to invade Yugoslavia, will have to slow down the pace of the invasion of the Middle East and the occupation of Greece." ” The British Prime Minister glanced at Sir Deere, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and said, "We must take advantage of this respite to destroy the oil fields of Iraq and Iran, and withdraw as many troops as possible from Crete and Tubruk." ” Destroying the oil fields was not much of a problem for the British, since the oil fields in Iraq and Iran were exploited by British companies.
However, only the machinery and equipment of the oil field can be destroyed, and the oil field itself cannot be destroyed.
In addition, there are many unexplored oil fields in the Persian Gulf, which were discovered before World War II, and the Germans could quickly resume production by transporting oil production equipment.
Therefore, the destruction of oil fields was not very useful against German military power, and it made more sense to withdraw some troops from Crete and Tubrukdo.
However, it was very difficult to withdraw troops from Tubruk, which was surrounded by Italian troops, and Crete in the Mediterranean.
Because the main forces of the British Mediterranean Fleet have retreated, only a small number of destroyers remain in the Mediterranean.
They could only sneak into the ports of Tubruk and Crete at night and withdraw some of their personnel.
The Serbs' hot-headed anti-German behavior could have bought a few more days for the piecemeal British retreat, at least before Rommel's Afrika Army and the Germans moving south from the Balkans joined forces in the Middle East.
"Prime Minister," said Sir Dill to Churchill, looking very worried, "the German armoured units arrived at the port of Mesematroux last evening.
It is estimated that they will attack our defensive line at El Alamein after receiving supplies from the sea."
Rommel's army defeated the British 8th Army on the 25th, encircling the latter at Tubruk.
However, he did not let the Germans carry out the encirclement mission, but let the Italians take charge of the siege, and he led the German African Army to advance wildly, arriving at the port of Mesematroux on the night of the 27th, and joined the German 7th Airborne Division and the Italian 185th Lightning Division.
And the port of Messematroux was occupied by the 7th Airborne Division on the 26th.
As a result, Rommel's armoured forces were now able to get some gasoline and ammunition supplies through the port.
"Alaman" Churchill took a bite of the cigar in his mouth, "How long can you hold it" "A few days, or a few hours."
The Chief of the General Staff, Admiral Diel, said that "Admiral Wavell proposed to abandon El Alamein and Alexandria, and then retreat to the Suez Canal line." ” The Suez Canal is more than 300 meters wide, and there are more than a dozen old gunboats on the canal, which is relatively easy to defend.
But it can't last long, it's just delaying time.
"Well, then give up El Alamein and Alexander," Churchill quickly decided, puffing on his cigarette with some reluctance, "we're just struggling for a change now."
Tell Admiral Wavell to delay as long as you can. ” He paused, and then said, "By the way, the 7th Panzer Division is going to retreat from the Middle East to India." ” "Retreat to India" Sir Deere was stunned and looked at Churchill, "Prime Minister, is anyone going to attack India" "Yes," Churchill nodded affirmatively, "it could be Japan, so we need to put an armored division there, and we can't afford to lose India." ” Sir Deere and Sir Pound, the First Sea Minister, were stunned at the same time, and Sir Pound asked: "Prime Minister, haven't we been courting Japan, and Japan has always regarded China's northeast as a lifeline." ” Over the past few months, secret negotiations between the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan have been going on.
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Britain and the United States hoped that Japan would shift the direction of its expansion to the East Asian continent, and the United States was willing to provide Japan with loans, steel, and oil.
"But now the situation has changed," said Churchill with a wry smile, "and Roosevelt sent me a telegram asking us to impose an embargo and sanctions against Japan together with the United States and the Dutch East Indies in order to force them to withdraw from French Indochina and the Kingdom of Siam."
And we have to cooperate, and now that the president of the United States can dictate to us, we in Britain have to listen to the United States. ” t1706231537: