"The second question......" Churchill said in pain, "should the Suez Canal be blocked, as General Alexander suggested?" ”

This sentence is as if a 500-kilogram aerial bomb was directly thrown into the venue, "Ah! The crowd was amazed at first, and then fell silent one by one—the problem was so great that no one dared to say anything about it. This is completely different from the survival of Alexandria, the port is lost, and it can be recovered in the future. Blocking the canal is not a trivial matter, Britain and France in order to dig the canal, before and after 10 years of hard work, killing and injuring countless Egyptian people to achieve their goal, once the canal is blocked, do not think about it easily, at least during the war - if it can be easily repaired, then it will not be difficult for Germany.

No one would have expected that Great Britain, the hegemon of the four seas, would fall to the point where it would consider taking the initiative to block the canal -- during the Russo-Japanese War, they also blocked the canal to prevent the Russian Second Pacific Fleet from passing, and as a result, all the Russians who had taken a long detour were sunk in the Tsushima Strait. After being silent for a long time, it was Pound who took the lead in speaking: "I don't think it should be blocked...... First of all, it is technically very difficult to do this, and to block the canal, we must either choose large ships to sink in suitable positions, or let the engineering units bury a large number of explosives on both sides of the canal to blow up the embankment, and use a huge amount of earth and rock to block the river; after the defeat of the Mediterranean fleet, we are left with small boats, and we can no longer find suitable ships to undertake this task, and as for the latter, let alone whether there will be time or not, the sappers and explosives alone will not be able to make up the numbers -- it is estimated that at least tens of thousands of tons. Secondly. Blocking the canal was not strategically necessary, and assuming Germany controlled Egypt and the canal, what could they do? ”

Someone chimed in: "They got an outlet to the Indian Ocean......

"So what?" Pound sneered. "Although the Italian navy is still like that, and the Germans have obtained a small fleet by cunning and plunder, they are still at a disadvantage in the face of the combined naval power of Britain and the United States, and we are worried that we will not be able to destroy them, and if they dare to come out and make waves in the Indian Ocean, the Allies will soon be able to destroy them, which is more convenient than in the Mediterranean. Other than that. Even if Germany and Italy had access to the Indian Ocean, as long as South Africa and India were in our hands, they would not be able to obtain supplies through trade routes – any ships entering the Indian Ocean in either direction would be closely monitored. They just jumped from the small bathtub of the Mediterranean Sea to the big tub of the Indian Ocean. If they dared to attack South Africa or India, it would be even more desirable - it would mean that their front line was stretched indefinitely, and when their strength was used to the limit, it would inevitably shrink without suspense. ”

Churchill nodded quietly, after the destruction of the British Mediterranean Fleet and the merger of the German and Italian fleets, the Axis Navy could certainly go sideways in the Mediterranean direction. But their naval power is still not enough to see compared to the combined British and American navies. "Rats cowering in rat holes are not easy to deal with. It is easy to get rid of the rats that are released. He interjected, "I admit that the Germans have a great army, perhaps more than all the armies of Europe combined, but their navy is far inferior, and we may be able to induce Hitler to devote more resources to the navy, especially to surface ships, and it is much easier to destroy a German at sea than on land." ”

Suggestions were also raised, and although many did not fully agree with Pound and the Prime Minister, they did not dare to insist on blocking the canal - Egypt had not yet lost it. The hint given to the defenders by a wall of the canal is too bad! Even if he loses it, if he has the opportunity to retake Egypt in the future, he will be a sinner for the rest of the British Empire. In the end, Attlee's method was used, and the pot was thrown to the prime minister - let Churchill decide. This time, however, Churchill was careful not to say anything directly, saying only: "Considering the present situation, I think it seems more advantageous for us to keep the canal, and in case there are new and important circumstances, we can renegotiate the strategy for the canal." ”

"The third important topic is the issue of rearmament, first of all, the construction of capital ships of the Navy." As the former First Minister of the Navy, Churchill knew the naval situation well, "After the end of the French campaign and the retreat from Dunkirk, we faced a major threat to the Luftwaffe and the complete loss of the army's heavy equipment. It was originally conceived to dismantle and reallocate resources to other areas - I voted for it at first, but now that I have revisited this decision, I personally believe that the two warships should be built as soon as possible, rather than being cancelled. ”

Pound stood up to explain Churchill's point: "The current situation is not good for us. First of all, the Royal Navy battleships have lost too much, since the start of the war, we have successively lost the Royal Oak, the Prince of Wales, the Barham, the Nelson, the Rodney, and the Lorraine battleships in previous operations, plus the battleships Queen Elizabeth and the Warrior are currently seriously injured (they were damaged and stranded by the Italian Navy's torpedoes) and could not be put into operation within half a year. Not long ago, we lent four warships of George V to the American side, and now the only battleships that can be used are Malaya, war-weary, and four Sovereign-class, and none of the battlecruisers are available, and the strength has fallen into a dangerous range. Secondly, our reserve forces are insufficient, and in addition to aircraft carriers, there is only one battleship Qianwei under construction, which is too thin. In the end, the strength of our enemies was rising, especially with the combined forces of the German and Italian fleets, and the threat was even more serious when Germany got the remnants of the French fleet. ”

Everyone knows that the third point that Pound said is not alarmist at all: Regardless of the Tirpitz that Germany is hiding in Norway, in the Mediterranean direction alone, Italy has three cutting-edge battleships Veneto in service, and the fourth Reich is under rapid construction under the auspices of the German side, and it is expected to be commissioned in another 3-4 months, plus the two Dunkirk-class battlecruisers that Germany got from France, after excluding George V and the Tejas class aircraft carriers, have posed a serious challenge to the Royal Navy. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of the four cutting-edge Italian battleships is significantly greater than that of the old ships of the Sovereign class.

"In addition, there is another ......," Pound continued, "judging from the combat situation of the previous time when Japan suddenly put into use the super Nagato-class battleships, under the premise of suitable air cover, the super battleship is not at all capable of 100 carrier-based aircraft, and the combined number of carrier-based aircraft of the three Teishi-class aircraft carriers is more than 100 aircraft, so it is of special significance to re-examine the construction of battleships, especially strong defensive and fast super battleships." ”

This sentence touched everyone very much: I thought that Japan would never be able to turn over after losing four aircraft carriers at Midway Island in one go, but I did not expect to kill three more American task forces so quickly, although most of the results in the battle were achieved by aircraft carriers, but if it was not for that super battleship to attract the attention and firepower of the Americans, the Japanese mobile fleet would never have succeeded easily. This super battleship is chilling, and even the U.S. Navy is deeply troublesome, otherwise why did the Americans readily agree to the request to land in Egypt as soon as they heard about the support for their four George V and three aircraft carriers? Now it seems that it is fortunate that the prime minister made this decision in the first place, otherwise Egypt and the Middle East would have been lost.

"Since the Navy is in dire need of capital ships and the enemy is trying to strengthen their naval armaments, I believe that the two Lion-class ships should continue to work with the Warrior in mid-1944, while also preparing to design and begin construction of a new generation of battleships - of course, this can be left for the next meeting." Churchill did not wait for the crowd to digest the information, and he could not wait to throw out his opinion.

Now that everyone understands that Pound must have communicated with the Prime Minister before the meeting, he first expressed his support for the Prime Minister in exchange for Churchill's agreement to restart the construction of 2 battleships - this guy made a good deal!

There was a lot of discussion, but no one jumped out against it - this is tantamount to getting along with the Prime Minister and the Navy at the same time, and Attlee had no choice but to stand up and say: "The adjustable budget is not easy to pass in Parliament, right?" Also, in addition to the financial and resource problems of the original shutdown, it seems that we also have a certain bottleneck in technology? ”

"I personally greeted the parliament to persuade Great Britain to save money, but saving money is not the goal, and if this is the goal, we will simply surrender - what a cost to fight! As for the second point...... "Churchill immediately turned his head to look at Pound.

The latter took over the conversation smartly: "The problem with the Lion class was the 16-inch naval gun, and our technology and manufacturing capabilities were not enough to support this new naval gun, but now the situation is different, the Americans have mature models, and we can order them from the United States." ”

Churchill immediately stated: "I will write to President Roosevelt and ask them to support the ......naval guns needed for the two warships." He deliberately accentuated his tone on "support," and everyone immediately understood that this meant that the Americans were going to pay for it, and even if they really couldn't rely on it in the end, they could wait until they won the war in the future.

Seeing that the Prime Minister and the First Secretary of the Navy had finished this issue, Chief of the General Staff Brooke couldn't stand it, and decisively interjected: "I agree with the reorganization of the Navy, not to mention 2 battleships, 1-2 more should be, but what about the Army?" (To be continued.) )