In the underground headquarters of the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street, a bunch of people sat as if they were mourning, not knowing what to say to each other, and the air was dreary and almost frozen. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Originally, everyone's mood was still very good in the past few days and even at noon that day, because there were always a few good news coming from the chaotic war situation:

The first good news was that the German anti-radar bombs had found a preliminary response - an early shutdown reduced the loss of radar stations to 15-20%, plus the non-stop maintenance in the previous two days, the southern radar network was barely restored to more than 70%, and more importantly, the Germans stopped using anti-radar bombs on the same day, because the 1,000 hailstones were used up.

The second piece of good news is the successful development of a new generation of jet aircraft, the "Vampire" fighter. This jet is equipped with de Havilland's "Leprechaun" turbojet engine, which adopts a very distinctive dual tail boom aerodynamic layout, inheriting the traditional wooden cockpit of the Mosquito bomber, with four 20mm Sispano cannons and engines in the nose mounted in the central nacelle, and two tail booms on the left and right, connected by a pair of small swept trapezoidal middle wings.

The reason for the use of this design is because the early jet duct is long and the loss of jet thrust is very serious, so they are all used in the thick and short form - Ta183 also adopts this feature, this goblin engine can reach nearly 17 kN thrust per unit, which is only between the top 18 kN thrust of the latest German mass-produced BMW004H engine (Me-262), compared with the 20 kN thrust of the HeS-011F engine that has just been finalized on the Ta-183, the gap is not too big, And in the Rolls-Royce company, there is also a 22,000N Nien engine that is close to being developed.

In addition to the 27,000 N-thrust DB016 engine that is close to success, there is also a 34,000 N-thrust BMW018 engine under development. Looking at the overall R&D progress, Germany's lead in the field of jet engines is 9-12 months, and the lead in the field of jet commercialization is 16-20 months. Of course, the technical paths of Britain and Germany are different, the UK is centrifugal and Germany is axial, both of which can be called the leading explorers in their respective fields, far ahead of other countries.

As a matter of fact, the British cabinet was extremely dissatisfied with the US side's delay in allocating Meteor jets, and when Britain was repeatedly confronted with the tactics of German jet groups, it was urgent to introduce jets to counter it, and the Air Force even proposed that even if all the outnumbered were shot down, it would be better than watching the enemy flying around and being powerless.

According to information learned by the British delegation to the United States, the US military has mass-produced as many as 200 Meteor jets, and there are still 50 British Air Force pilots in training. Marshal Deere of the British side proposed that even 50 planes could boost morale, but he did not expect that the Joint Staff Committee thought that the time was not ripe and directly rejected it.

Admiral Portal, Chief of the General Staff of the Air Force, was so anxious that he proposed that since the strategic airlift was not safe, it would always be okay to use submarines to transport three Meteor parts from the United States, right? The US side could not refuse, so it only hummed and chirped without a happy word, and when it was in a hurry, it said that it was mobilizing submarines to prepare for shipment, but it did not start until the 26th, which made the Royal Air Force feel deeply desperate.

At this time, the vampire jet was born, as if everyone saw hope again. When the Meteor project was delivered to the U.S. side, Gloucester was reluctant to hand it over, but the government executive order was not possible (the Meteor research and development costs were supported by the government), and de Havilland was much more treacherous, using the excuse that the test flight was unsuccessful and suppressed the Vampire project (also a government project). Some high-ranking officials of the Royal Air Force were also willing to keep a hand, pretending not to know about it, let alone reporting it, but the money was still given in the name of studying the subsequent modification of the Mosquito. Later, some of Gloucester's personnel who did not go to the United States were also accepted by de Havilland, and the two companies invested in research together, so the project remained in England.

Technically, the Vampire has a speed similar to that of the Me-262, has a longer range (nearly 1,400 km), and has its own advantages, but because it uses only one engine and has a large number of wooden components, it is much cheaper to manufacture than the Me-262 after mass production, and is basically on par with the Ta-183. Now that the good news was reported by Potter, Churchill pretended not to know about it, and ordered it to be the highest priority and speed up the manufacture of equipment.

The third piece of good news is about the rocket, the British technicians have successfully collected all kinds of parts by cleaning up the wreckage, and even dug up an unexploded complete finished product from the Thames River according to the instructions of enthusiastic citizens - this rocket does not know whether it was because of water or because it plunged headlong into the mud, in short, it did not explode, except for some parts that were corroded by fuel, the rest of the rest is quite well preserved. Before reporting to Churchill, Brooke, Pound and Portal, the three army bosses, in view of the gas received on the Meteor Jet, privately reached an offensive and defensive alliance: only reported to the Prime Minister about the first half of the collection and sorting of rocket wreckage, and did not reveal to the cabinet and the Americans that they had a complete rocket in their hands, even if it was the wreckage, the Americans had to exchange it!

The fourth piece of good news came from Spruance, saying that everything went smoothly after the fleet set off from South Africa, not only did it not encounter any German submarines, but it also successfully avoided the German reconnaissance planes in southern Madagascar and entered the Indian Ocean, and the specific location of the fleet is 2,300 kilometers east-southward of Reunion Island (formerly French, now Germany), and it is expected that it will enter the heart of the Indian Ocean in another week. Spruance decided to pull the nail out of the British Indian Ocean Islands (now occupied by Japan) and then break through strongly. Pound and Fraser studied the charts and decided that if they had breached the Indian Ocean Islands and the Maldives, they would not be able to stop the fleet.

At noon, the last good news was received: Cunningham sent a telegram saying that the German fleet had been spotted and was ready to strike. Pound, Fraser, and others believed that their side had many planes this time, and the pilots were not badly experienced, so they should have a slight advantage in fighting, and Fraser even optimistically predicted that they would be able to achieve at least two dry sinking of the opponent's ships and the loss of one of their own ships.

But unexpectedly, a few hours later, the situation of the battle took a sharp turn, the Germans launched an attack as if they were open, TF46 first lost 1 aircraft carrier, and then nearly 200 attack waves were knocked out without even touching the side of the opposing fleet, and the remaining half was forced to retreat. This can make everyone anxious, but there is no rescue method, and there is no way to rescue the locals. Pound would have liked the RAF to send strategic bombers to help, but Potter refused, after careful consideration. First, because the large planes of the Royal Air Force hid in the north of England in order to avoid German bombing, a single flight of more than 2,000 kilometers, flying over for 5 hours, and when they arrived, it was dark; Second, practice has proved that strategic bombers against the fleet are purely anti-aircraft guns to fight mosquitoes, and they are useless at all.

This is not a pretext, and Pound and Fraser gritted their teeth and accepted it. Then the bad news kept coming, first the Ticonderoga abandoned ship, then the Anglo-American fleet was divided, and then Cunningham was hit by a second blow, the Hornet was heavily damaged, and the George V was mined. At this time, the cabinet members and the military top brass were still hoping that Cunningham would bring the fleet back, even if the aircraft carrier was lost, as long as the two George V-class ships and 20,000 experienced Royal Navy officers and men could be saved, and in a few months, when the new warships on the mainland were ready, the Royal Navy would still have the strength to fight - at least on paper it would be stronger than Italy.

In the evening, the confidential secretary sent a telegram, and by looking at his sad expression, he knew that the news was not good, but no one expected that it was actually a farewell telegram from Cunningham.

Marshal Pound burst into tears and shouted in despair: "It's over...... Finished...... The Royal Navy is all over...... Great Britain is finished! ”

Fraser staggered down the hallway, hiding his face and weeping.

Portall and Field Marshal Brooke hugged their heads and cried, although the army and air force looked at the navy in various ways in peacetime, and they quarreled over resources and equipment, but it really came to a desperate juncture, and everyone was sad when they thought that the Royal Navy, which had supported the British Empire to dominate the world for 300 years, was wiped out in one day.

Churchill shook his hands and scolded angrily: "Cunningham, this idiot, who the told him to cover the ...... of the Americans"

Pound got up angrily, slapped the table and scolded: "Winston, you bastard, who the fuck made you agree to form a combined Anglo-American fleet?" When the Royal Navy reigned supremacy, the Americans didn't know which bathtub to nest in! ”

Churchill was about to fight back, but when he saw that the eyes projected by everyone were full of anger, he had to let go when he knew that everyone was angry: "Okay, okay, I'm an idiot, I'm a fool, what do you say now?" ”

"Find a way to continue to contact the warship, at least keep the officers and men as safe as possible and come back......," Brooke sighed, "If you don't want to surrender, you can prepare for the defense of the homeland, and leave nothing else." ”

"Surrender?" It was like a heavy blow that made Aiden and Attlee stunned, although the two repeatedly wavered about the peace talks, but when they heard the word surrender, they were still dumbfounded, and stayed there in a daze and couldn't speak.

"Nope! Can't surrender! We still have 3 million troops, tens of thousands of aircraft, and several warships, and we have to persevere! Stay the course! Churchill roared like a madman, "If we surrender now, we will be slaves to the country, and we would rather die than be slaves!" The British Empire will fight to the last man! ”

"Woo woo......" At the end, even he couldn't help crying.