"Good man" is the latest popular phrase among the French people to praise the old and healthy French supreme leader. For Petain had made an agreement with Germany to recover the vast majority of the occupied territories on the condition that Germany be allowed to move freely through French and colonial territory; More than 1 million French prisoners of war were brought back - on the condition that the French armed forces were controlled within 500,000 men, and the rest were disarmed and repatriated; Syria was recovered - France paid the fleet and some other price; The problem of unemployment that abounded was solved - France produced military supplies for Germany, and Germany paid at a fair price.

The French looked back and found that the defeat was not particularly terrible, except for the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, they were almost unscathed, and when batch after batch of British and American soldiers either died on the battlefield or entered the German prisoner of war camps, millions of French soldiers returned safely from the prisoner of war camps.

Whatever the criticism of the French people about the government, not even a single French politician, including Charles de Gaulle, dared to oppose the reunion of French prisoners of war with their families, the French press was trying to promote the figure that France had suffered the fewest casualties among the major belligerents in the war, that even the United States had more dead than France, and that the end of the war now seemed far from over. When the news was published, everyone was relieved: thankfully, France finally didn't have to die more for this damn war.

Therefore, cooperation with Germany not only did not attract criticism for Petain, but was touted by some media as "the only way for the revival of France", and the French top brass saw very clearly that the French farmers and industrial capitalists had reaped great benefits from the export of agricultural and industrial products to Germany, not to mention that there was almost no civilian textile, printing and dyeing and garment industry in Germany, and the clothes, hats, shoes and boots of the 80 million German people were all provided by the French and Italians, except for military clothing. The capitalists of Western Europe shuddered with excitement at the thought of Germany's depiction of a common market on the European continent, with a population of 300 to 400 million, and the vast colonies and resource-supplying regions of Africa and the Middle East.

After the domestic political situation in France stabilized, the unemployment problem that had plagued France for many years began to improve, fewer and fewer people defected to the "Free France", and even some people secretly broke away from the "Free France" and returned to the mainland, and the resistance in France became more and more shrinking. Roosevelt's fall in love with Spain was not at all a whim.

Roosevelt looked at Hull expectantly, hoping to hear approval or echo from the mouth of his old friend and partner.

"I fully agree with your expectations of facing the European continent and striking directly at the heart of Germany, but ......," Hull said after a few minutes of consideration, "I think it will be difficult for Spain to take up this task." First of all, Spain is not currently invaded by Germany, and there is little incentive to join us; Secondly, Spain was much weaker militarily than Germany, and as soon as any sign of our landing in Spain appeared, Spain would be attacked by Germany before reinforcements arrived; Last but not least, Spain is not a democracy, their political system and political atmosphere are closer to Germany than to ours, and Franco is the political leader supported by Hitler and Mussolini, and they have a special historical relationship......"

"You mean that if Franco moves closer to us, he will lose his supporters and followers?"

"Yes, in Germany's current dominant situation, he is under a lot of internal pressure – Spain has already coup once, and it is very likely that there will be another coup d'état under external pressure." Hull said without worry, "Franco, although he has different political views from us, is still a wise and rational politician, what if he is replaced by a radical?" And the regime in Portugal, we have to think about the chain reaction. ”

As secretary of state, he had more experience in handling international affairs than Roosevelt, and the latter involuntarily nodded: "Maybe you're right, I'm a little naïve." ”

Hull shook his head: "Actually, there is another sentence that I don't want to say but I have to say, the rash decision to suspend the torch program and go to Egypt to land in Egypt was actually a big mistake, and now this mistake is more and more obvious, and we are forced to pay greater sacrifices and costs in order to reduce our losses." ”

Roosevelt was silent, and he did not regret it in his heart: If he had insisted on landing in North Africa regardless of the little German defense force in the French colonies, the big deal would have been the death of tens of thousands of people and the loss of a few warships.

"I think the priority is not to help the British stabilize their position first." Seeing that Roosevelt was silent, Hull no longer dwelled on his scars—he had been with Roosevelt for many years and knew what was enough. Turning to other opinions, "Churchill was frightened by the losses of the JW-51A fleet and the J fleet, and was a little scrambling in the face of the challenge of the Tirpitts, could you consider giving him more support?" ”

"Support? He asked me for the aircraft carrier Independence, and I had promised to lend it to him temporarily, and to have two heavy cruisers and two cruisers accompany the Independence to England for support. ”

"And give him the Pennsylvania."

Roosevelt raised his head in astonishment: "This is the last remaining capital ship of the Atlantic Fleet, and if it is transferred away, if a madman sends an armored ship to the east coast, we will not have any strength to fight back." ”

"Nope! We have enough aircraft, and the battleship Iowa is about to enter service, so we can temporarily stay on the east coast to perform alert functions and complete sea trials by the way. ”

"Well, you've convinced me, I'll call Admiral Kim immediately."

"President, I have said so much, and I would like to ask you to send a telegram to Prime Minister Churchill - for the matter of Gibraltar." "Whatever Franco's excuses," Hull said sincerely, "at least the solution he proposes is negotiable, and if Gibraltar must be lost, it is much better in Spanish hands than in German hands." ”

It is no wonder that Hull not only agreed to give the Independence to the British, but also strengthened the Pennsylvania to the British, because his starting point and position was here - to use this means to force Churchill to comply. Roosevelt narrowed his eyes and thought about it, thinking that the strategy was feasible, at least to hear what Churchill really thought, but he still asked uneasily: "What if he firmly disagrees?" ”

"If you don't agree, find another way." Hull sighed, "Aid is still given to him, let's not try to tie aid to Gibraltar, which is not conducive to consolidating his prestige." But we must be clear that the United States will not spare any additional forces to save Gibraltar, and that this support is for Tirpitz and cannot be diverted elsewhere. ”

Roosevelt nodded, Admiral King and Marshall had already told him that without the assistance of sufficient naval forces, Gibraltar was completely a dead land, and no amount of strength was enough for the Germans to fight, and the navy did not dare to send it now-the navy calculated that the Atlantic Fleet and the existing strength of the British Navy could not defeat the navy with the axis in the Mediterranean, and the British Home Fleet did not dare to go south, and there was still the Tirpitz in the north.

"I have an immature proposal for an attack on the European continent, what about Norway, for example?" "By taking Norway, we would have liberated Britain's flanks and had a stable route to the Soviet Union, and we could even go east into Sweden to cut off the Germans' iron ore supply routes, and we could deploy more aircraft in southern Norway to strike directly at the German heartland." ”

Roosevelt's eyes lit up, he immediately thought of the Arctic Route and the Tirpitz this time, and he couldn't help but think of the pitiful appearance of Princess Martha of Norway in front of him, so he nodded and said: "Very constructive suggestions, maybe they should be taken to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for discussion." ”

However, Hull's strong desire with Roosevelt was soon thwarted, and two hours later Churchill sent a telegram from London, thanking the United States for naval support to Great Britain but at the same time firmly rejecting the proposal to hand over Gibraltar to Spain, and making it clear that "Great Britain will never give up Gibraltar to Spain in wartime custody unless Spain is willing to renounce its neutrality and join the Allied Powers at once." Then he babbled on and on a whole bunch of reasons for not agreeing to hand it over to Spain, and finally used "...... I am convinced that we can hold Gibraltar and use this fortress to thwart the German offensive attempts. This is the end of the story.

Roosevelt frowned, and he noticed one of the wording in this telegram - custody! This shows that the British have not given up their desire to colonize until now, and they do not agree to hand over Gibraltar, a key strategic hub, to others, and he cannot help but be a little irritated when he thinks that Churchill did not agree to return Hong Kong to China after the war in order to further enlist China's help.

"Look, we've tried our best to figure out a way out for him, and he's so stubborn."

"I don't know what he thinks, but it's clearly not a positive attitude to fight for more power." Hull sighed, "I hope Gibraltar's defenses are strong enough to withstand the onslaught of the Germans." ”

"He's going to pay for it." Roosevelt gritted his teeth and picked up the phone, "Pick me up Admiral King, find a way to tell our senior naval officers sent to England to refuse all orders to rescue Gibraltar - the American people are fighting to defend freedom, not to defend the colonies of certain countries!" (To be continued.) )