The Rise of the Third Reich

It was not only the British cabinet that was thrown into turmoil by King George VI's speeches and orders, but also those now gathered at Buckingham Palace.

They are the regent Princess Elizabeth; the princess's fiancé, Prince Friedrich of Germany; the princess' uncle, the former king and now Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII; and Oswald Mosley, chairman of the British Union of Fascists.

Of course, these people are the leaders of the so-called peace faction. Among them, Princess Elizabeth is still young and doesn't understand anything. Prince Friedrich has not yet married the princess. He is still the prince of Germany and of course has no say. So the real decision-makers were the Duke of Windsor and Mosley, chairman of the Fascist League.

According to the original arrangement, the Duke of Windsor would actually assume the power of the king after Elizabeth ascended the throne.

The Duke has no children and appears to be sterile, and his marriage to Mrs. Simpson violates the rules of succession to the British throne. Even if he does not abdicate, his and Mrs. Simpson's children (which there are none) cannot inherit the throne.

And he and George VI's other two brothers, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, have taken their families to Canada - which means that the only important members of the Windsor royal family remaining in the UK are the Duke of Windsor and the eldest princess Elizabeth, even though The Duke of Windsor wants to be restored, and Princess Elizabeth is also the first in line to succeed. That's why King George VI recalled his pro-Nazi brother from the Bahamas and asked him to assist Princess Elizabeth.

Oswald Mosley, chairman of the British Union of Fascists, was selected by the Duke of Windsor to serve as Prime Minister after Churchill moved to the New World. He was originally the youngest member of the House of Commons in the Conservative Party. Later, he fell out with the Conservative Party over the issue of Irish independence and joined the Labor Party. However, during the Great Depression, he fell out with the Labor Party because of its economic line (he was a Keynesian), so he quit the Labor Party and founded a new party. Later the New Party evolved into the British Union of Fascists!

Since he is the chairman of the Fascist League, this Mosley is of course more pro-German and pro-Italian - it is not that he is a British traitor or anything, but his "political correctness" is different from Churchill and Roosevelt. He was a nationalist who put the fundamental interests of the British Empire first. Endless fighting with Germany would definitely destroy the empire, so he advocated making peace with Hitler to preserve Britain's overseas colonies to the maximum extent possible.

But Fatty Qiu's approach seems stupid to this British fascist, and he will ruin the empire sooner or later!

So when George VI's order came to entrust the entire British mainland to Churchill, Mosley rushed to Buckingham Palace as soon as possible and found the Duke of Windsor who had been living here since returning to London.

"Duke, the king's order is a disaster for the country... You must stand up to prevent the disaster from happening and find a decent way out for the empire." Mosley's words were urgent and fast. "We must achieve a ceasefire before the Germans land on the British Isles, otherwise we will lose our negotiating leverage."

The Duke of Windsor was also confused. He was originally a weak person, otherwise he would not have lost the throne. If he were a hard-liner like William II, he would not lose the throne because of a woman.

"Stand up? Oswald, I am not the king now, I am just a duke, what can I do?" The Duke of Windsor said hesitantly, "And the "Imperial Defense Act" has authorized the king to use any method to fight against Germany... "

The British are, of course, more law-abiding. Even if you engage in political struggle, you cannot violate the law, right?

"Then repeal the National Defense Authorization Act! You can contact the members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons!" Mosley stamped his feet and said, "The Labor Party definitely doesn't want to continue fighting. The workers who voted for them are starving to death now! Conservatives There must be peace factions in the Party and the Liberal Party. The Royal Navy almost no longer exists, Ireland has lost 90%, and even the west of the British Isles is no longer safe. The German fleet can sail around the British Isles at will... There is no power to do so. The Germans are blocked from landing. If we don’t seek peace now, are we really going to wait for the Germans to land? If the Germans succeed in landing, will there be a decent peace in the empire?”

Mosley turned out to be a law-abiding fascist. If he had been replaced by a Russian revolutionary, he would have mobilized the Royal Guard at this time.

Just when the Duke of Windsor and Mosley were plotting a legal rebellion, an aide suddenly reported that Winston Churchill was visiting - if this was in a country in the East, axemen would be ambushing and preparing to kill people.

However, there seems to be no such tradition in Europe (excluding Russia), so the two "rebels" did not think about it and went directly to the audience hall to accompany Princess Elizabeth to meet Fatty Qiu.

"What? Martial law? A state of emergency? Mr. Prime Minister, what do you want to do? Do you want to turn Britain into a country like the Soviet Union?" Mosley, the leader of the Fascist Alliance, heard that Churchill had ordered martial law and a state of emergency. He immediately jumped up and interjected.

"No, Mr. Mosley, I ordered martial law precisely to prevent Britain from becoming Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1918." Churchill said with a serious face, "Britain must remain united and persist in resistance. Only in this way can we Get through the current crisis.”

"Persist in resisting?" Mosley rolled his eyelids and asked loudly, "Do you want to fight a devastating ground war with the landing German armored forces?"

"There must be such preparations!" Churchill gritted his teeth and said.

He had already prepared for a homeland defense war, otherwise he would not have mobilized millions of armed personnel in the UK. However, in Churchill's original plan, there was no preparation to personally lead the resistance to the last minute.

"And... once we are prepared to resist to the end," Churchill paused and said, "Germany is likely to give up the landing plan. After all, there are millions of armed personnel on the island of Great Britain, and the Germans are likely to pay a huge The heavy cost of millions of casualties is unbearable for Hitler’s government. Their main enemy now is the Soviet Union!”

It turned out that Churchill still had some illusions, thinking that the Germans would not really land, but would continue to use blockade methods to trap Britain, so that Britain could continue to wait for change.

…

"Marshal Imperial, if we want to land, are we sure we can succeed? Perhaps continuing the blockade is the best solution."

In Berlin, in the building of the German Empire's Ministry of Defense, Reich Chancellor Hitler was really hesitant about whether to land in Britain.

Although the Royal Navy is now about to become the Canadian Navy, it is said that there are millions of English soldiers carrying guns on the British Isles.

Although they will definitely not be able to defeat the blond German Superman, they will definitely cause heavy losses to the supermen. Not to mention a million people dead, even if hundreds of thousands of people died, Hitler would still be heartbroken.

"Leader, the landing is guaranteed to be successful." Hersman said, "And we must make an attempt...The purpose of this is to show the determination of the German Empire! Now Churchill has promulgated martial law and a state of emergency, and also stopped This shows that Churchill lacked confidence in his people and had to take drastic measures to suppress the peace faction.

However, the British peace party did not show determination at the critical moment. They acquiesced in Churchill's decision. This shows that the British peace party also has doubts about whether we will actually land. So we must show determination! "

The UK and Japan are somewhat similar in that they are both island countries that have not been invaded by external forces for a long time. Since the Norman Conquest, Britain has not suffered a large-scale invasion from foreign enemies. Neither King Philip II of Spain nor Emperor Napoleon of France could land their powerful armies on British soil.

Hirschman believes that this is likely to give some British people an illusion of security, and this illusion must be broken before it is possible to force Britain to surrender.

The surrender of Britain was of great significance to Germany and Europe. Not only did it eliminate the springboard for an American invasion, making Germany invincible, but it also added an industrially and technologically powerful country to the Axis ranks - Britain's electronics, aviation and shipbuilding industries were quite strong at this time. , if the United Kingdom can be integrated into the European Community led by Germany, Germany's air power and maritime power will become more powerful.

"Then how many troops do we need to conquer Britain?" Hitler asked thoughtfully.

"Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands," Hersman said. "The General Staff and Naval Command have conducted studies and concluded that there would be no problem with landing because, except for southern England, the rest of the coastline of the British Isles is not heavily defended. It is simply impossible to resist the powerful European combined fleet."

The British Isles has a coastline of more than 8,000 kilometers long. If it were to be fortified everywhere, Fatty Qiu's millions of troops would simply not be enough. Therefore, tight defense only exists in the southern part of England near the English Channel. In other places, that is, important ports along the coast are guarded by more troops.

Therefore, the German army could easily land on the coast as long as they avoided the large ports on the coast of southern England and the British Isles.

Once the German army landed on the British Isles and captured one or several medium-sized ports. Then the illusory sense of security in the British mind will be completely shattered. If the counterattack organized by Churchill could no longer be effective, then the British peace forces might gain power.

"Okay!" Hitler thought for a while, and finally nodded and said, "You can show Germany's determination! But to avoid storming the fortified city, I don't want to reduce Britain to ruins, nor do I want the German soldiers to suffer too many casualties. "