The high-explosive warhead of 800 kilograms of explosives, the terminal velocity of Mach 4, and the invincibility of being unintercepted or even untraceable made up the terrifying night of London on April 3. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

After several years of lockdown, Great Britain has planted edible things in the fields, on both sides of the road, and even in public places and green belts, where crops can be grown, and the food self-sufficiency rate has increased year by year, basically meeting more than 80% of the needs of the country. The German V2 missile was launched at the time of dinner for the residents of London, and because of the BBC's soothing broadcast, most of the people of London, except for the most courageous families, did not believe the propaganda of the German radio, but thought that the Germans were exaggerating and turning a blind eye to the impending catastrophe until their families were burned......

500 V2 missiles caused great damage to London, especially the situation that civilian buildings collapsed as long as they were hit by a shot, due to the limited accuracy of the probability of covering weapons, in addition to the residential areas that turned into rubble, several important landmarks in London were also in danger, including the famous Big Ben, Tower Bridge on the River Thames, Westminster Abbey and even Buckingham Palace were attacked, fortunately, the missiles that hit were 1-2, plus the buildings themselves are relatively strong, Therefore, no irreversible damage was caused.

The most frightening thing is that you simply don't know when a missile will fall. When an emergency cabinet meeting was convened to discuss countermeasures, a V2 missile exploded near the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, and the impact of the huge explosion and shaking caused the basement to shake and collapse at any time, and everyone was frightened, Churchill himself was pale and depressed, and the hand that had always held the cigar could not help but tremble.

Although jet bombers are very troublesome to deal with, the British military and political leaders are not ignorant of this, and Britain itself is also developing jet bombers based on the research basis of meteor jets, and there may be products coming out in about a year and a half, but everyone is only shocked by the ultra-conventional weapon of V2 missiles.

"Have you asked our scientists? What exactly is this secret weapon? ”

"It's a long-range rocket...... A rocket that flies out of the atmosphere and back again. Field Marshal Brooke gestured a parabola with his hand, "That's roughly the trajectory of the flight." ”

As soon as they heard that they flew out of the atmosphere and flew back, everyone's slightly calm faces turned pale again, they had never heard of anything that could fly out of the atmosphere and back......

"Can we make it?" Churchill asked, holding back his shock.

"I can't." Marshal Brooke's face was full of frustration, "Our scientists have studied rockets, but they are only scientific exploration, which is part of atmospheric physics, but they have not been designed as weapons. At present, we have developed a number of rockets based on the needs of air defense, and I cannot tell the difference in the specific level of technology, but scientists say that the gap between us and Germany in this field is about 5-10 years. ”

Everyone was speechless, the difference in technical level in 5-10 years seems to be not too big in peacetime, and it is a drastic change in the war - when the Germans first launched the Battle of Britain five years ago, they used the Bf-109\110 fighters and Ju-88 bombers, which were still cutting-edge, what are they using now? Even the jets are on the field!

"Then we need to increase the budget, step up research, and focus on ensuring resource needs, and we must also have what the Germans have!" Churchill thought for a moment and added, "Let people pay attention to the search and see if there are any rockets that haven't exploded, and we will find a way to copy some." ”

Aiden couldn't help but complain: "Prime Minister, this is a matter for the future, and the top priority is to discuss how to tide over the difficulties!" ”

In fact, the German side also guarded against the British, and the V2 missile was equipped with a timed explosion fuse in addition to the touch fuse to prevent the complete physical object from falling into the hands of Britain and the United States.

Churchill glared at him, almost "What can I do?" I'm desperate too......" When these words came out, Riga Sheng held back and forced himself to calm down, "I guess there are not many Germans with this advanced weapon, and it should not be easy to manufacture, otherwise Hitler would have been fighting all over the world instead of just attacking London." The key question now is to prevent the landing of German troops, what about the Navy? ”

Before Pound could speak, the commander of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, Fraser, complained: "The Home Fleet currently only has some light warships, at most they can only be anti-submarine, and they are powerless to stop the German fleet, and several capital ships are not finally completed and cannot be used, so the Grand Fleet must be brought back......

Pound then spoke: "I have sent a telegram to Marshal Diere, asking him to request the main force of the Atlantic Fleet to rescue us through the mechanism of the British and American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and in addition, I have sent a secret telegram to Admiral Cunningham, in case the Americans do not save him, let him take the Royal Navy to act resolutely." ”

Churchill certainly understood what it meant to "act resolutely", but in fact, as soon as Cunningham's "British and British" policy was implemented, the cabinet knew all about it, and it applauded Cunningham, believing that Cunningham had fulfilled "the honorable duty of a noble Royal Admiral." Churchill also wanted to change people for fear of damaging Anglo-American relations, but no one in the cabinet agreed, not even Pound and Fraser, so he had to give up in the end.

In addition to personal likes and dislikes, everyone's different perspectives and positions also determine different ideas: Churchill, as a resistance politician, believed that without the support of the United States, the Royal Navy would not be able to hold on to it anyway, and believed that Cunningham could not be allowed to become an obstacle to Anglo-American cooperation; And Aiden and Attlee, as ambiguous politicians, thought that if Britain and Germany compromised, the Royal Navy's goods at sea and in the dockyard could be sold for a good price - wouldn't the French sell their fleet for a good price? At least much better than giving it to the Americans for nothing!

Cunningham's actions were known even to Ribbentrop, who expressed his "respect" for Cunningham and the Royal Navy during the negotiations, believing that this was a symbol of the independent spirit of the British Empire, not comparable to that of Churchill's "American lackeys". As a result of the development of the situation in the past few months and the unfavorable results of the battles of Newfoundland and Cape Verde, the balance of the neutral faction (ambiguous faction) within Britain once again tilted in favor of the compromise faction represented by Edward VIII, the conditions and positions of Britain and Germany became closer, and many problems that had previously existed between Britain and Germany in the peace negotiations were resolved.

The most typical example is the Indian problem. At first, Edward VIII proposed to keep India for the British Empire, but due to the Japanese attack, this condition was changed to keep North India, but Germany said that Germany did not take a position on this, and if the British and Indian troops could keep North India, Germany would not stand in the way. However, with the continuous advancement of the Japanese and Indian troops, Mountbatten suffered defeats in successive battles, not to mention North India, and it is an extravagant hope to have a foothold in India in the future. Eventually, Slim seized the opportunity of the Japanese army's reckless advance to fight a modest defensive counterattack in Calcutta, but this victory was short-lived, and the loss of Calcutta was inevitable when Yamashita readjusted his deployment and ordered his troops to advance steadily.

By the end of March, the British and Indian troops had lost even Chittagong in Bangladesh, and the eastern coastline had all fallen into the hands of the Japanese army, and the Indian Dispatch Army and the Burmese Front Army were geographically connected. The total strength of the Indian Dispatch Army is close to that of the Chinese Dispatch Army, and the degree of mechanization and equipment level far surpasses it, ranking second among the five major heavy forces of the Japanese Army (the 1st Kwantung Army, the 4th Southern Army, and the 5th Korean Army).

In terms of equipment level alone, if it were not for the Kwantung Army's purchase of German equipment worth more than 500 million yuan in March, the equipment level of the Indian Dispatch Army would have ranked first.

The total number of British and Indian troops in India has dropped to less than 120,000, and even the allies have begun to waver: the US Army Aviation stationed in India has been unable to provide follow-up reinforcements for a long time, and its planes are becoming fewer and fewer and more difficult to cope with -- now their opponents have been replaced by a large number of Fw-190 and Bf-109\219; and in order to cope with the complicated political situation at home, the Kuomintang withdrew more than 10,000 troops stationed in India to fight the civil war under the pretext of maintaining the southwestern defense line. Stilwell, chief of staff of the Chinese theater of operations, expressed resolute opposition to this, but because the Kuomintang could not get substantial material supplies now, Stilwell's words were tantamount to fart, Chongqing ignored him at all, and Mountbatten could not do anything about it.

The most embarrassing was Yan'an, which was supposed to send 20,000 troops to India at the request of the United States, but because India's shipping route was blocked by Japan, the United States could not send weapons and equipment, and even a little material and equipment secretly sent from South Africa and Australia had to be given priority to replenish the British and Indian troops, so it was impossible to provide arms to the communist troops. After the large-scale friction between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the start of the civil war, the Communist Party was actually unable to draw 20,000 troops to go to India again, so under the coordination of the US side, the Indian theater finally accepted more than 200 military personnel from Yan'an as observers -- the Americans still had to give face.

The military delegation sent by Yan'an consisted of a large number of middle-level cadres of the army with a high cultural foundation, and in addition, more than 50 politically reliable graduates of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai universities were selected to serve as interpreters and civilians, and Chen Geng was selected as the regiment commander. secondly, he has engaged in secret front struggles, and he is familiar with everyone, and he can maintain his dealings with the Kuomintang on the scene; Third, Chen Geng's personality is more humorous and free-spirited, and he is easy to get along with.

No matter how much the British looked down on Tubalu, only Yan'an expressed its willingness to support the British at this critical moment, so from Mountbatten onwards, this military delegation was still given due courtesy.