The Rise of the Third Reich

Since the war began, German planes have not dropped bombs over major British cities, so the outside of No. 10 Downing Street looks very peaceful. There are no anti-aircraft guns with their barrels raised high, and there are no military trucks tied to anti-aircraft balloons (trucks are tied to balloons). for ease of movement), with only one helmeted policeman pacing back and forth in the morning sunshine. General Arthur Tedder, commander of the Air Force of the British Army's Middle East Theater, got out of the car. When he saw this scene, he was reminded of the peaceful years before the outbreak of the war. Now, except for the terrible news coming from the sea from time to time and the increasingly tight supply rations, there is no longer a smell of gunpowder in Great Britain.

Arthur Ted smiled at the unarmed London policeman, and then quickly walked into the British Prime Minister's official residence. Accompanying him when he arrived was a colonel from the Air Force Command. The colonel introduced him to a male secretary in a formal dress and then left on his own. The secretary took him up the broad staircase hung with portraits. Under the gaze of the prime ministers from the heyday of the empire in the portraits, he went up to the second floor, and then to a room furnished with exquisite ancient furniture and excellent oil paintings. In the large room, I saw the sick Prime Minister Chamberlain and the energetic Lord of the Admiralty Churchill, as well as Aviation Minister Howard Kingsley Wood and Royal Air Force Chief of Staff Admiral New****.

When Ted arrived, several people in the room were discussing something enthusiastically. When Churchill saw Ted, he greeted him with a cigar in his hand: "Arthur, you are here, come here quickly and sit down." Say it.”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, Your Excellency Minister, General." Arthur Ted gave everyone in the room a military salute before sitting on an empty chair.

"How is it? Life in the Middle East is quite leisurely, right?" Churchill asked half-jokingly.

"I am so idle," Arthur Ted said with a wry smile, "I have nothing to do every day."

The purpose of establishing the Middle East Theater was to defend against Italy and the Soviet Union. Now that these two countries are relatively "honest", there is naturally nothing going on in the Middle East Theater.

Prime Minister Chamberlain said: "Then you have something to do now! The war cabinet decided to implement 'Operation Spear'!"

"What?" Arthur Ted was stunned.

"What?" Air Force Secretary Howard Kingsley looked at Ted, "Arthur, are you not confident in completing the mission?"

"Of course it can be done!" Arthur Ted said, "It just feels a little sudden..."

"Operation Spear" is the code name for the bombing of the oil-producing areas of Baku, Grozny and Batumi. The British Middle East Theater Air Command has been planning secretly since last year, and all preparations have been made long ago.

However, even Ted, who was responsible for the specific planning of the matter, and Junod, the commander of the French air force in Syria, believed that the risk of "Operation Spear" was too high and it was unlikely to be implemented.

"Allocate to you 10 squadrons of Wellington bombers and 3 squadrons of Blenheim long-range fighters," Air Force Chief of Staff General New York said, "Arthur, you can complete the bombing of the Baku oil fields and Grozny oil field mission?”

"The mission must be completed!" Arthur Ted replied. In fact, he could not complete the task of destroying the oil field, because the drilling rigs in the oil field were spread over a wide area, and more than a hundred Wellington bombers could not blow them up. However, military generals during this period generally overestimated the power of strategic bombing, and Ted was no exception.

"But the British Empire needs this mission to fail!" Churchill suddenly interjected lightly.

"Ah, failure?" Arthur Ted really didn't understand what this meant, "Minister, you mean..."

"The bombing operation failed," explained Air Force Chief of Staff General New York. "The bombers got lost after takeoff and failed to find their way to the Soviet Union or were intercepted by the Turkish Air Force... Operation Spear only gained Turkey's tacit approval. , in theory, it is still a violation of Turkey’s neutrality, and it is normal to be intercepted, right?”

"Not entering Soviet airspace?" Arthur Ted still didn't understand. "What's the point of a bombing mission like that?"

"Just because we were unable to enter Soviet airspace for some reason does not mean that the French were also unable to enter." Churchill took a puff of his cigarette and said with a smile, "Can 96 LeO-451 bombers destroy the Batum refinery?"

"That's no problem," Arthur Ted replied. "There are flammable and explosive items everywhere in the refinery. Just throwing a few bombs will cause disaster, not to mention dispatching 96 bombers. But... the refinery in Batumi was destroyed , the Germans can still get oil from the Soviet Union.”

Yes, it was not the German oil refinery that was bombed. Such an action seemed to have no benefit in defeating Germany. The only effect was to anger Stalin.

Air Force Chief of Staff General New York said: "After careful investigation and careful calculations, we have concluded that about 50% of the oil produced from the Baku and Grozny oil fields is processed by the Batumi refinery. The volume accounts for 75% of the Soviet Union's domestic oil processing volume. In other words, once the Batumi refinery is bombed, the Soviet Union will be short of petroleum products for at least 12 months, and Germany does not have rich oil refining. Production capacity can help the Soviet Union!”

According to estimates by the British intelligence agency, Germany's annual oil processing capacity will not exceed 10 million tons (actually only 6 million tons). Although there is no problem in meeting domestic demand, it is impossible to supply refined oil to the Soviet Union. If Germany does this, Germany's own oil supply will be in difficulty.

That is to say. Once the Batumi refinery was blown up, the Soviet Union would soon fall into a supply shortage of refined oil. The consequences for the Soviet Union, which was at war and threatened by Japan in the other direction (the Far East), were quite serious.

Once Germany is unable to supply oil, who else in the world has such oil processing capabilities?

The answer is: the United States, the United Kingdom and France!

The only one the Soviet Union could turn to was the United States, a super industrial power. In this way, Stalin had to obey Roosevelt's will and reduce or even stop the supply of oil to Germany. This was the logic of the British Empire launching this almost blind adventure. That’s it.

…

"Marshal, we just received intelligence from the Middle East. The French have transferred at least 80 LeO-451 bombers to Syria." Colonel Galen, director of the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff and director of the Strategic Deception Bureau, walked into Hessman's office and said Brought him surprising news.

Because they have a certain foundation among Jews in the Middle East, and they have always been thinking about the large oil fields in the Middle East. Hersmann ordered Canaris to set up an intelligence network in the Middle East very early. Therefore, the 96 LeO-451 bombers of the French Air Force were detected by the German Central Security Service as soon as they arrived.

"They transferred the plane to the Middle East again? They are..." Hersman looked at Colonel Galen, frowned and asked, "What is the range of this LeO-451 bomber?"

"The maximum range is 2,900 kilometers," Galen replied, "The combat radius is estimated to be more than 1,000 kilometers."

This is a very good medium bomber with fast speed (level flight speed of 480 kilometers per hour), long range, high ceiling, and strong self-defense firepower. It is a weapon used by Air France to carry out night harassment bombing. Now that so many people have been transferred to the Middle East at once, they obviously have important tasks to perform.

"They are going to bomb the Baku oil fields?" Hersman said to himself, "If that's the case, we can look forward to it!"

"Marshal, they won't really do that, right?"

"Yeah, this is too crazy, isn't it?"

Air Force Commander-in-Chief Kesselring and Navy Commander-in-Chief Raeder were both in Hersman's office at this time. The two came to negotiate with Hersman about the start dates for Operation Scythe and Project Liberator—both operations in which Air Force and Naval Aviation would play important roles. Moreover, "Operation Liberator" also involves the issue of the transfer of naval aviation to Rana (Rana is only 280 kilometers away from Toulon, the home port of the French Mediterranean Fleet).

Both of them expressed disbelief about the British bombing of the Soviet oil-producing areas.

"What if it's true?" Hessman asked, "Boss, do you know what this means?"

"Will the Soviet Union declare war on Britain and France?" Kesselin asked.

"There is no doubt!" Redel said and shook his head, "But Britain and France are not that crazy. What is the benefit to them? Why would they do that?"

Hersman glanced at Redel, smiled and said: "Maybe your submarine drove them into a hurry? It will be April soon. Not only is there good weather in the North Atlantic, but there is also extreme daylight in the Arctic. If two submarines' The Bismarck and the two Seydlitz will attack in July or August, and the British route will be in trouble again. "

"Marshal, it's not a matter of urgency, but it can be completely cut off!" Reidel still did not give up his plan to use the battleship to break the relationship. "With two Bismarcks here, there is nothing to be afraid of even if we encounter the Hood."

Hersman smiled, noncommittal. Historically, the Bismarck capsized the Hood. Now with the Tirpitz and two aircraft carriers, I am afraid that even the Prince can be sunk together... If the British can have a George in the second half of the year If you serve at the fifth king level.

"Don't consider occupying the British mainland before conquering the Middle East!" Hersman said calmly, "The Mediterranean and the Middle East are the key to victory! For this reason, the navy must be prepared to take over the main ships of the French Navy within two months."

Then Hessman considered again and said: "The date for our launch of the operation is set on April 15th... Give Britain and France another 20 days. Colonel Galen, you can get a few more Ferena radars to go to Batumi and walk along the Danube River - Black Sea Route.”

"Understood, Marshal." Colonel Galen nodded. He knew that Hessmann was giving orders to the Strategic Deception Bureau and would not transport the real radar to Batumi, but the British **** got intelligence that Batumi would deploy German radar.

This prompts them to take immediate action.