March 31, 1940, 10:30 a.m., London, 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister.

British Admiralty Chancellor Winston Churchill walked into the conference room with a blank face on his face as he bit his cigar. After greeting the already arrived War Secretary Dent and Air Force Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Dowding, Churchill sat down in his chair and waited for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's arrival.

Chamberlain did not keep the crowd waiting, and less than five minutes later, Chamberlain sat down in a chair in the middle of the conference room and called the meeting to begin.

"The Germans have occupied Denmark, and you must know the news. How should we deal with the current situation? After Chamberlain finished speaking, he took out a plastic medicine bottle from his pocket, poured out two white pills and took them with warm water, and then stared at the participants, waiting for their reactions.

"It seems that the Prime Minister's stomach problem is serious again." The congregation thought of it in unison.

War Secretary Dent said: "According to the intelligence provided by MI6 agents deployed in Germany, the Germans have amassed a large number of troops, said to be as many as 400,000 men, in Rostock and Hamburg. Around 200,000 tons of German merchant ships have been assembled in Szczecin and Swinamünde, and their next target is Norway. ”

Chamberlain put away the medicine bottle and said with a lack of breath: "I also think it's Norway, what should we do?" Continuing Operation Catherine? ”

"Not only Operation Catherine, but also Operation Royal Navy must be carried out immediately, and we cannot delay any longer." Churchill saw Chamberlain glance at the cigar in his hand, and graciously extinguished the cigar in the ashtray.

"The French have already said that they do not want to do anything that will provoke retaliation from the Germans, so the Royal Navy operation can only be postponed indefinitely, but Operation Wilfred can be carried out. As for Operation Catherine, the two infantry divisions that we had planned for Operation Catherine have been transferred to France, and now I am able to come up with a maximum of eleven battalions to carry it out, and we must have the support of the French. War Secretary Dent said.

"The Germans could attack France at any time, and now that the main forces of the Air Force, especially the bombers, have been stationed in France, the Air Force does not have enough aircraft to carry out the Catherine Plan." This was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Marshal Dowding.

"Lovely French!" Churchill's tone was full of mockery.

As early as 1939, after the outbreak of the Polish campaign, Churchill proposed the "Wilfred Plan", in which the British and French navies should set mines off the coast of Norway, especially near Narvik, to increase the risk of German ships at sea. If necessary, after the summer thaw, mines were to be laid outside the Swedish port of Lyole to prevent German merchant ships from importing iron ore from Sweden.

In January 1940, Churchill proposed the "Royal Navy Plan", which proposed to take advantage of France's geographical advantage in the upper reaches of the Rhine to put a large number of mines in the Rhine, and those mines would flow down the river into Germany. At the same time, the British and French air forces also sent planes to drop mines on the canals in Germany, completely disrupting Germany's inland waterways.

At the end of January 1940, the British Supreme Military Council decided that Britain would send two infantry divisions and France would send one infantry division to land in the Norwegian port of Narvik, under the pretext of entering Finland through northern Norway to assist Finland in resisting Soviet aggression. Of course, this was only a high-sounding official reason, and the real purpose of Britain was to use it as a pretext to occupy Narvik and cut off the German iron ore transportation line for the winter. If necessary, the Anglo-French forces would even invade Swedish territory and occupy the Swedish Jällival iron ore mines. The operation was codenamed "Project Catherine".

However, in the presence of the passionate and romantic French people, any military operation that needs to be executed efficiently should be renamed Operation Snail, why a snail and not a tortoise? Because the French love to eat snails.

The French replied to the "Wilfred Plan" that they agreed in principle, but the date of implementation was to be determined.

After nearly two months of arguing about the "Royal Navy Plan", the French finally agreed to carry it out. Just when the British were impatiently transporting various types of mines to France, a bad news came, the French leadership was changed, and Prime Minister Daladier stepped down. After succeeding as prime minister, Paul Reynaud announced that the Royal Navy's plans had been postponed indefinitely. The reason was that in order not to provoke retaliation from the Germans, France would not take any irrational military action.

And the most tragic was Operation Catherine, the French directly rejected the British proposal, on the grounds that in order to resist the invasion that could occur at any time, France needed the strength of every infantry division, and could not temporarily draw excess troops to carry out Catherine's plan. It was not until March 13 that another bad news was that Finland and the Soviet Union had made peace, and there was no excuse for carrying out Catherine's plan.

For five months, from the autumn of 1939 to March 31, 1940, Britain and France failed to take a single joint military action, and all that came was news of the fall of Denmark.

All because the French, the passionate and romantic French, are they really like the German major who forgot his name said, and the French can only win battles under the leadership of Lori like Joan of Arc and Corsicans like Napoleon?

There is a famous saying in military circles that it is your enemies who know you best, and this sentence really makes sense. It is indeed the feuding Germans in France who know the French best, and even an unknown German major can see through the true face of the French.

Looking back on his dealings with the French over the past five months, Churchill became more and more sure that the German major, who had forgotten his name, was right, that the last French soldier had died in the Napoleonic era, and that all that remained was the Saint of Love. If the Fa** people could have half the efficiency of their pickling girls, how beautiful the world would be!

Chamberlain's voice interrupted Churchill's inner emotion, "I will go to Paris this afternoon to discuss military cooperation with the French, and you and I will go with you, the more we will unite the French at this time." ”

"I will do my best to persuade the French to accept our proposal." Churchill said.

"However, now that the Finns have made peace with the Soviets, we must also consider what effect our actions against Norway will have on world opinion and on our own reputation. Otherwise, our actions will put us in a very passive position in the face of world public opinion. Chamberlain said.

Churchill subconsciously picked up the cigar to light it, remembered Chamberlain's presence, put down the cigar again and said: "In order to help the victims of German aggression, we have risen up to fight in accordance with the principles of the League of Nations Covenant."

Attacking Norway is technically a violation of international law, but we must not deprive a neutral country of its goodwill towards us as long as we do not commit any inhumane act in Norway.

It will not have a bad effect on the United States, the most important of the neutral countries. There is reason to believe that they will deal with this in the most ingenious way that will help us. And they are very resourceful and experienced.

The final judge is our own conscience. We go to war to re-establish the rule of law and protect the freedoms of small States. If we were to be defeated, it would mean that the world would face an era of barbaric atrocities, a mortal threat not only to ourselves, but also to the independent existence of every small European state.

In the name of the League of Nations Covenant, and as the League of Nations and all the de facto agents it represents, we must for a short time abandon certain conventions in the law that seek to strengthen and reaffirm. When we fight for the rights and freedoms of small nations, they should not tie our hands and feet.

In times of great urgency, the letter of the law should not be used to hinder the actions of those who protect and enforce the law. If, on the one hand, the German aggressors were free to tear up all laws, and thus enjoy a benefit; On the other hand, it is neither legitimate nor reasonable to use our inner respect for the law to enjoy another benefit.

We should not judge whether it is legal, but whether it is humane. Now we have to face up to the present situation, and history will make a fair judgment on the attack on Norway, on all of this. ”

Seeing Churchill's incessant speech of justice, War Secretary Dent lowered his eyelids, looked at his nose and his heart, silently analyzed Churchill's generous statement in his heart, and finally could not help but draw a sympathetic cross for Chamberlain in his heart.

Churchill's tirade did not contain any constructive suggestions and did not at all solve the pressure of public opinion caused by the attack on Norway. Looking at Chamberlain, who couldn't stop nodding his head at Churchill, Dent said in his heart that it seemed that the Prime Minister was willing to carry this black cauldron.

・・・・・・

At 4 p.m. on March 31, Chamberlain and Churchill arrived in Paris on their plane.

Before they departed, as Göring had foreseen, the British and French Foreign Offices became the Denunciation Departments, and gathered all kinds of great and righteous words to strongly condemn the German aggression against Denmark.

The German Minister of Propaganda, Dr. Goebbels, fought back, claiming that German troops had "entered" Denmark to protect Denmark from Britain and France.

Countless diplomatic rhetoric flew through radio and newspapers, striking countless invisible sparks in the cold night sky, heralding the imminent arrival of a major war.

On 2 April, Chamberlain and Churchill returned to London, with two pieces of news.

The bad news was that the French still did not agree to the Royal Navy plan, fearing that it would provoke retaliation from the Germans.

The good news was that the French agreed to send the Alpine Infantry Regiment to take part in Operation Catherine, which captured Narvik, and that more troops would be sent into Norway in succession.

On the afternoon of April 3, the 24 Guards Brigade of the British Army, headed by Major General Maxey, began to board the ship.

At 4 a.m. on 4 April, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier Fury, battleship Weary and nine destroyers left Scapa Bay and marched towards Norway.