"How many troops does he want?"

"At least 5 armored divisions."

The opening is another 5 armored divisions! Attlee thought to himself: If you really want to be an armored division, you can use it however you want? Now there are only 5 armored divisions left in the British Empire (including the Praetorian Guard, the 6th, 9th, 11th and 42nd armored divisions), of which the 6th armored division was taken to North Africa, and it is still nested in Kenya.

Attlee bitterly refused: "Tell him that there are no troops on home to support him, and even if there are armored divisions now, they can't transport it." ”

Brooke added: "Is the plan for the 79th Panzer Division ahead of schedule?" "According to the original plan, the division will begin training in April, and will be composed of personnel drawn from the Royal Engineer and Janissary Panzer Corps, but now there is a shortage of troops, and new troops are urgently needed.

"The strength of one 79th Panzer Division alone is not enough." Churchill said, "Consider restoring the 1st Panzer Division to the 1st, 7th and 10th Panzer Divisions, with some of the remaining reserves on home and some of the domestic infantry divisions." ”

"Where's the equipment?"

"Seize the tanks that were originally intended for the Russians and let the Americans fill the gap. In addition, the old tanks should no longer be produced, and the Crusaders, Valentine, and Matilda should be stopped, and the energy should be focused on the Cromwell and Churchill tanks. Churchill said to himself, "Although I said that the Churchill tank was probably the worst Churchill." ”

"Agreed."

"Agreed." Now the voice of the cabinet is unanimous.

"I heard that your improved 17-pounder tank gun is doing well?"

"The performance of the gun is good, but there is no suitable hull. Experts tried to install a large turret with a 17-pounder gun in the Cromwell cruiser tank, which was very difficult, and went through a lot of modification work such as extending the hull and expanding the width of the fighting compartment, and just a few days ago they succeeded in getting one, the army number A30 (Challenger tank), which had many problems and was very imperfect, and it took at least 6 months or more to enter the mature and stable period. Brooke looked bitter, "There are also suggestions that it will be developed on the hull of the American M4 Sherman tank, and his changes will be smaller than Cromwell's, but there are many objections - the main thing is that the M4 armor is too weak, and even if it is produced, it will be a freak of attacking and defending weakly." ”

"It doesn't matter so much, the Americans are also working on new tanks." Winston Churchill said, "You can try anything, now we need to find something that can deal with the tiger, and then the second step is to talk about how to protect ourselves to the maximum." ”

"Okay, then I'll set up this project as well." Brooke asked, "As for the support that Admiral Wilson requested?" ”

"We can only transfer a batch of planes from India to him, and I am afraid that the army strength will not work, and of course we cannot completely sit idly by." Churchill turned his head to Aiden in confusion and asked, "Didn't you ask the Russians to send 150,000 troops to support him?" Coordination with Stalin is not yet complete? ”

"It's done. Stalin promised to transfer 100,000 troops from the Caucasus direction and 50,000 troops from the Central Asian reserves. Originally, Stalin only planned to draw 50,000 from the Caucasus and 100,000 from Central Asia, but Aiden, who had been dealing with the Russians for a long time, knew very well what the so-called reserve forces of the Red Army were, and he hurriedly demanded that the other side withdraw the main forces, and finally it became 100,000 from the Caucasus and 50,000 from Central Asia. Even so, Aiden finally added uneasily: "You can't expect too much from the Russians, even if they enter on a large scale, only in the north of Persia, and now the Germans are focused on the south, and the first target is the oil fields." ”

"Blew up...... It's all blown up. Churchill gritted his teeth and slapped the table, "This crude oil cannot be left to the Germans." ”

"It's easy to blow up, and the local area itself will not have a source of crude oil in the future, what should I do?" Before the war, Britain had three important sources of oil, one was the Iraqi oil field group, one Persian oil field group, and the other Borneo oil field group. As the war progressed, two of the three oil complexes had fallen into the hands of the Axis, and the third seemed to be unkempt, and Britain, with its global maritime territory to take care of, had more than 12 million tonnes of oil a year. At a time when the North Sea oil fields were not yet developed, the supply of crude oil from the British Isles was entirely imported. Germany also had the technology to convert coal into oil, and Great Britain had nothing but 3 million tonnes of its own reserves – and that was only enough for the British for three months.

"What else can I do? Regardless of what the Americans want! Churchill was furious, "Tell the Americans that we need a lot of refined oil, let them watch the quantity, and if the British Empire can't fight, everyone will be finished together." ”

Everyone looked at each other, and the prime minister now completely carried out his role as a scoundrel to the end, and originally only imported oil, but now it is better to directly ask the Americans to provide refined oil -- even refining it is not troublesome.

In the evening, when the doors of the parliamentary hall were closed, Churchill gave a general introduction to the war situation in North Africa and the Middle East, and now that the Germans' leaflets were so clearly written, he simply did not hide it anymore, and even said that the situation was more serious than the actual situation, and finally emphasized his determination to resolutely resist to the end.

The rest of the cabinet, including Attlee, Aiden, Brooke, and others, sat on the side, watching Churchill with apprehensive eyes, and for a few minutes, everyone was on pins and needles and fidgeting.

The parliamentarians quickly opened fire: "Mr. Prime Minister, is Lieutenant General Montgomery's request for reinforcements from 5 armored divisions true?" ”

"This ...... True. ”

"Did you or another minister refuse?"

"It's me." Churchill followed suit, "This is also a unanimous decision of the Cabinet." We believe that he has enough troops at his disposal, in fact, the Eighth Army has twice as many troops as the enemy, and the main equipment, including tanks and aircraft, is more than the enemy. ”

"So, you admit that you have 5 armored divisions at your disposal, but you refuse to allocate them to him because you think he has enough troops?"

"Let me emphasize one more point, North Africa is only a part of our global strategy, I can't give him all the troops I can send out, the Eighth Army is completely sufficient, and even has three times the strength, isn't the German African Army surrounded by our regiments in Tobruk?"

"And then the enemy threw in reinforcements, landed at Matrou, and copied our rear route?"

"The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and front-line commanders should be prepared to respond to changes in the enemy's situation."

"Which of the two generals, Montgomery or Alexander, do you think is more responsible?"

"We are still analyzing and reviewing the course of the campaign...... "Churchill used to want to push Montgomery to blame, but now he feels that Alexander can't escape the blame anyway, so he won't distinguish between him, and will simply drag it down first."

"Back to the topic of the armored division just now." Another congressman stood up and asked, "Although we have a large number of tanks, can we compare the quality with the enemy?" I heard that the Allies so far did not have tanks that could match the enemy's Tiger tanks. ”

“…… It is justice and strength that determine victory in the war, not one or two technical weapons. ”

"Is it possible to consider Britain inferior to Germany in tank development?"

"This ...... Sort of. Churchill said, "The Germans are traditional continental countries, and it is normal for them to be a little stronger than us in army weapons, just as our navy does not know how much stronger than them." ”

"Since you know that the German Army is superior to us in terms of combat effectiveness and weapons, and that the course of the Dunkirk and French campaigns has proved this, why do you insist that Montgomery has enough troops? Is London's judgment more accurate than that of a front-line general? ”

Churchill's forehead couldn't help but ooze sweat: "This...... This is a difficult question to answer, and it is not possible to generalize. ”

"In the current situation in the Middle East, how many additional reinforcements do you think will be needed?"

"This is a military secret, and I have nothing to say."

"Is it true that Admiral Alexander abandoned his troops and fled without permission?"

"It's not true, it's wanton slander and rumors by the enemy."

"And how do you interpret this picture?" Another councillor stood up, waving a leaflet in his hand, "Everyone has seen it, or do you think it's a forgery?" ”

Churchill, of course, did not dare to deny it directly, and only said in a hesitant manner: "There are some misunderstandings among the front-line troops. ”

"What kind of misunderstanding can develop into this situation? Is there a lot of ulterior behind this misunderstanding? Is it true that the front-line commanders have lost control of their troops? ”

Attlee knew that Churchill could no longer be left alone, otherwise he would have to be ousted by the agitated parliamentarians today - although the Labour Party and the Conservative Party had now formed a unified cabinet according to the needs of the war, this did not mean that the prime minister could not be replaced, and he stood up to relieve Churchill at the right time: "The cabinet has just met and decided to remove Admiral Alexander from his post and let him return to China for investigation, and the front line troops will be led by Ramsden." At present, the British and American allies have agreed that General Eisenhower of the United States will be the supreme commander of the African theater of operations, with full authority to command all the troops currently in Africa. ”

After Churchill's all-out arguments and pleas, and even Attlee, Aiden and other cabinet members took the initiative to help him take part of the responsibility, he finally got through the danger, and the parliamentarians did not initiate a no-confidence motion, but put forward many demands, including reorganizing the army, shrinking the defensive line, developing more powerful weapons, and asking the United States for more support - none of which was easy to do.

As soon as he stepped out of the venue, Churchill didn't even have time to communicate with the other members about the follow-up work, and the sad-faced adjutant handed over the latest battle report: "...... The transport fleet returning to South Africa was intercepted by the Japanese fleet in the Mozambique Strait, and the warships such as the Hundred-Eyed Giant, the New York, and the Texas battleship were sunk, and more than half of the transport fleet was lost, and our troops damaged one enemy aircraft carrier, and the enemy seemed to have the intention of attacking Madagascar or South Africa. (To be continued.) )