The Rise of the Third Reich

The British War Cabinet meeting on February 28, 1941 was held in a low room without any decoration. I-beams and cement columns could be directly seen. The lighting was very dim, the ventilation was poor, and it was filled with thick smoke. Held in the basement.

This is the basement of the Treasury Building on King Charles Street, which was also the underground headquarters of the British War Cabinet. This underground command began planning as early as 1938. On August 27, 1939, just a few days before Germany invaded Poland, the underground command was officially opened.

However, until mid-February 1941, it was almost unused. Because the imagined scene of indiscriminate bombing by German aircraft did not appear, but a small number of German high-altitude bombers (Ju86) and night bombers (mainly He-111) flew to London every day to drop leaflets advocating European unity. Therefore, this underground command center was basically idle after it was activated until the news came that the Pope of the Ecumenical Church was killed by a bomb dropped by a British plane in mid-February.

The bombing of Rome and the death of the Pope obviously angered the Italians. On February 18, two squadrons of Z.1007 bombers were deployed to the German air base on the Brittany Peninsula. From February 20 Since then, they have been bombing London every night.

And on the morning of February 28, that is, this morning, Italian planes took the risk of daytime bombing and invaded London in broad daylight. So Churchill had to hide in the War Cabinet Headquarters underground in the Treasury Building to hold a meeting.

"They will learn a lesson. They dared to bomb London during the day. It was a very stupid mistake, but it was in line with the Italian style."

The British Prime Minister looked as confident as ever, or perhaps downright stubborn. At the beginning of the meeting, they made fun of the Italians who had just defeated the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.

"Prime Minister, it was indeed foolish for the Italians to bomb London during the day (actually the Italians suffered little loss in the daytime bombing on the morning of February 28th because they invested German-aided Fokker Zero C-3 fighters "Convoy escort)," Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden looked a little downcast. He reminded Churchill, "But they are out-and-out victors in the Mediterranean. Our embassies in Madrid, Ankara, Baghdad, Tehran and Lisbon are all There is bad news. The rulers of Spain, Turkey, Iraq and Iran are all actively in contact with Germany. It is only a matter of time before these four countries become our enemies."

Churchill was not surprised because these were expected. When he ordered the Mediterranean Fleet to withdraw from the Mediterranean, he was already mentally prepared - many short-sighted governments would regard Britain's strategic contraction as the sunset of the empire, but they would regret it before long.

"There's some good news, isn't there?" Churchill puffed on his cigar and kept blowing smoke from his mouth, filling the entire basement with strong second-hand smoke. He smiled and said: "Not everyone is intimidated by the Nazis and fascists. The people of Yugoslavia are very brave."

In other words, the Serbians have gone too far with nationalist brainwashing and their brains have been damaged.

The Serbians were originally a small and medium-sized nation that was not very powerful in Europe, but after World War I, they were given the title of Greater Yugoslavia and were forcibly built by Britain and France to become a regional power. But whether it is Yugoslavia or Serbia, after all, it is just a country whose industrial production is not ranked high in Europe, and the number of Serbs as the main ethnic group (referring to the Serbs who believe in Orthodox Christianity) is not very large.

In the absence of strength, the Obrenovich dynasty sought spiritual arms - Serbian nationalism and Yugoslav nationalism. Different from the "strong South and weak Serbia" of Tito's Bolshevik authorities in history, the Obrenović dynasty pursued the "Unification of South Serbia", integrating Serbian nationalism and Yugoslav nationalism, hoping to turn Yugoslavia into a single nation state. Take it with you on the road. However, due to various differences in religion, history and culture, it is difficult for the "Yugoslav nation" to take shape.

And the long-term propaganda has made the relatively simple Serbs regard their "Yugoslav motherland" as an indivisible whole, and regard any attempt to abandon Croatia and Slovenia as a politically incorrect and traitorous act!

Therefore, Prince Paul, who wanted to keep a greater Serbia, became a traitor. After he expressed his desire to compromise with Germany, he was immediately regarded as an enemy by the entire Serbian nation. The angry Serbs even ignored the major victories achieved by Germany and Italy on the Mediterranean battlefield and held massive anti-German demonstrations on February 24th and 25th. The rule of Prince Regent Paul fell apart, and Prince Paul himself fled to Germany. King Peter II, who was under 18 years old and took office in advance, appointed people who advocated resisting the invasion of Germany and Hungary (under Prince Paul's non-resistance line, Croatia and Slovenia successively After breaking away from Yugoslavia, the former formed a federation with Hungary, and the latter became Germany's common monarchy. Air Force General Dusan Simovich was prime minister.

"But Prime Minister," Eden told Churchill, frowning, "we can offer Yugoslavia no help now, and if the Germans were determined to invade, the country would fall in a matter of days to weeks."

Churchill shrugged and said, "That's nothing. We will liberate Yugoslavia in the future... and the current struggle of the Serbs will buy us precious time! In order to invade Yugoslavia, the Germans will have to slow down the pace of invading the Middle East and occupying Greece." The British Prime Minister glanced at Sir Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and said, "We must make good use of this breathing space! Destroy the oil fields in Iraq and Iran, and withdraw as many troops as possible from Crete and Tobruk." It is not difficult for Britain to destroy the oil fields. After all, the oil fields in Iraq and Iran are all mined by British companies. However, only the machinery and equipment in the oil fields can be destroyed, and the oil fields themselves cannot be destroyed. Moreover, there are still many oil fields that have been explored but not mined in the Persian Gulf (the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were discovered before World War II). The Germans can quickly resume production by transporting the oil extraction equipment. Therefore, destroying the oil fields is not very useful in attacking Germany's military power. In comparison, it is more meaningful to withdraw more troops from Crete and Tobruk. However, it was very difficult to withdraw troops from Tobruk and Crete in the Mediterranean, which were surrounded by Italian troops. Because the main force of the British Mediterranean Fleet had already withdrawn, only a few destroyers remained in the Mediterranean. They could only sneak into the ports of Tobruk and Crete at night and withdraw some personnel.

The Serbians' hot-headed anti-German behavior could buy a few more days for Britain's piecemeal withdrawal - at least before Rommel's African Army and the German troops from the Balkans joined forces in the Middle East, the withdrawal could continue.

"Prime Minister," Sir Dill looked very worried and said to Churchill, "The German armored forces arrived at the port of Messe Matruh last night. It is estimated that they will attack our defense line in El Alamein after receiving supplies at sea..."

The army under Rommel's command defeated the British 8th Army on the 25th and surrounded the latter in Tobruk. However, he did not let the German army carry out the siege mission, but let the Italians take charge of the siege. He led the German African Army to advance rapidly and arrived at the port of Messe-Matruh on the night of the 27th, joining forces with the German 7th Airborne Division and the Italian 185th Lightning Division. The port of Messe-Matruh was occupied by the 7th Airborne Division on the 26th. Therefore, Rommel's armored forces can now get some gasoline and ammunition supplies through this port.

"Alamein..." Churchill bit the cigar in his mouth, "How long can it be defended?"

"A few days, or a few hours." Chief of the General Staff Admiral Dill said, "Admiral Wavell suggested abandoning Alamein and Alexandria, and then retreating 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 easier to defend. But it can't be defended for too long, it's just a delay.

"Well, then give up Alamein and Alexandria," Churchill made a decision quickly. He exhaled a puff of cigarette unwillingly, "We are just holding on now. Tell Admiral Wavell to delay as much as possible." He paused and said, "By the way, the 7th Armored Division will withdraw from the Middle East to India." "Withdraw to India?" Sir Dill was stunned and looked at Churchill, "Prime Minister, is anyone going to attack India?" "Yes!" Churchill nodded affirmatively, "It may be Japan! So we need to put an armored division there, we can't lose India." "Japan?" Sir Dill and First Sea Lord Sir Pound were stunned at the same time. Sir Pound asked, "Prime Minister, haven't we been trying to win over Japan? And Japan has always regarded China's Northeast as its lifeline." In the past few months, secret negotiations between Britain, the United States and Japan have been going on. Britain and the United States hope that Japan can turn the direction of expansion to the East Asian continent, and for this reason the United States is willing to provide loans, steel and oil to Japan. "But now the situation has changed," Churchill said with a wry smile. "In the telegram Roosevelt sent me, he asked us to work with the United States and the Dutch East Indies to impose an embargo and sanctions on Japan to force them to withdraw from French Indochina and the Kingdom of Siam. And we must cooperate! Now... the President of the United States can give us orders, and we in Britain have to listen to the United States."