Although Roosevelt tried his best to downplay the impact of the French side-picking, the arrival of the French ultimatum still exploded in London. www.biquge.info It was the season of the midsummer sun, and the Downing Street Prime Minister's residence was crowded with many sweaty cabinet bureaucrats.

Although Churchill's face was shocked, his heart was turbulent, and his fat face was full of cold sweat. At an emergency cabinet meeting, he pretended to be calm: "I have only one answer to the French authorities' act of taking advantage of the fire to loot -- phew! In the future, the Royal Government will not be an opponent of the Petain regime! General de Gaulle and the Free France he led were the legitimate government that was truly legitimate and able to represent the interests of the French people! ”

"Do you need him to make a statement and sentence Pétain to death?" Someone suggested.

"It doesn't make sense, the point is, what will a French declaration of war bring us?"

"Nothing will change, except that they will be closer to Germany and then they will try to seize our colonies in Africa." Churchill shrugged, "President Roosevelt promised me that he would defend South Africa at all costs." ”

"Whatever it takes" has now become Churchill's mantra: it is at all costs to maintain supplies in the British Isles, India is to be defended at all costs, and South Africa is to be defended at all costs...... Attentive people can see that the word "turning point" that hung on the Prime Minister's lips some time ago is missing - presumably the result of the siege of India was an extremely bad turning point.

"The threat from Australia and New Zealand has not been lifted, does the United States have the ability to do so?" Field Marshal Brooke was deeply skeptical, "Their troops in South Africa are only more than 100,000, which is not enough for Guderian's armored army." ”

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff have stated that the 7th Air Force will do whatever it takes to repel the invading Combined Fleet......"

Everyone thought to themselves: yes, it's another sentence at all costs, how can it sound so cheap?

Someone interjected: "Are Americans willing to support India at all costs?" ”

"India? Yes, of course, we also have to pay some price. Churchill slurred, "For example, giving national independence to India." ”

"Is this your true idea or a stopgap measure?" Attlee, who had not spoken, suddenly interjected.

"Of course it is? ......" Churchill was about to say without thinking, when he suddenly glanced at the other party, "what do you mean by this?" ”

"We can discuss the matter of India again, and I personally agree to the return of Hong Kong to China anyway." Churchill waved his hand, "In this moment of crisis, the will of all must be united and all forces that can be united." ”

"Your Excellency, we believe that the government should be prepared for both." Aiden, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly spoke, "Now that the U.S. military has established an air transport route, when they return home, they can take away some of the people, and I suggest that this aspect should be strengthened." ”

"Haven't we been transporting shipyard workers? Figures show that more than half of them have made it to the North American continent. Churchill knew that today's meeting might not be good, so he said in an excited tone, "I know what you want to say, but the responsibility for some fraud or wrongdoing among 100,000 people should not be held accountable to me, I am the Prime Minister, in charge of the strategy of the whole United Kingdom, I ......"

"Yes, you are not to blame for this, but we want to know who is responsible for causing France to declare war on us?" Aiden sighed, "The parliamentarians are going to question the cabinet about this matter and make it clear that they want you to participate, they need to know how we made decisions about the Ballista campaign in the first place, and they want to know more about how we attacked Dakar, captured Syria, and occupied Madagascar, in other words, they think we have done some wrong things in diplomacy." ”

The sabotage of the French fleet was first bypassed by Churchill, and even the question of not deploying the latest fighter jets to France was a topic he talked about with great interest, but judging from the current attitude of the public, it seems that he wants to be charged with "losing France".

"France did not declare war on us because of what we had done to him," he said, "but that France had betrayed the fundamental interests of the French people simply by Petain." ”

"No, there is a theory out there that the Gaullists manipulated, influenced, and exacerbated the destruction of Anglo-French relations."

"If I don't support de Gaulle, should I go and support Petain or Darlan?"

"Prime Minister, these are two different things." Aiden couldn't take it anymore and stopped Churchill's nonsense, "It is imperative to convince Parliament that it would not be a big deal even if France declared war on us, rather than simply telling Parliament that France's declaration of war was not caused by our actions - this would only cause resentment among the majority of the parliamentarians, who were not stupid." ”

"Well...... "Churchill," said Churchill, turning his head to Field Marshal Brooke, "tell me, what effect will the declaration of war on France have on us?" ”

"France is militarily insufficient, and the declaration of war is at best mental rather than substantive, but it is important to ignore the rumor that Germany is trying to rally the nations of Europe together to seize our remaining colonies on the continent, such as Rhodesia."

"What do you think I should do? I now have 3 million troops in the country, but I can't deploy to Africa, and even if I transfer people by plane, it's too slow. ”

Airlift personnel?

What does it mean that everyone looks at each other?

"President Roosevelt told me that he could transport our troops to the United States by strategic transport planes, and then arm them with American arms and send them to ......fight in Africa," Churchill mused, "and the United States lacks experienced officers and soldiers, and has a lot of weaponry, so instead of going to great lengths to transport them to the British Isles, we should transport people out." The Royal Air Force has calculated that based on the calculation of 16 people per aircraft, we can directly transport a division at a time. ”

Attlee hit the nail on the head: "This is the Americans' intention to send us to death!" Is there a shortage of so many or ten divisions in the United States? ”

Churchill was speechless.

Aiden sighed, and finally said: "Your Excellency, I would like to remind you that this inquiry about French policy is a rehearsal, and if the situation on the Indian side continues to deteriorate, there may be further inquiries, and then there will be an even more ugly scene. ”

The meeting ended in an awkward atmosphere, and while Churchill showed his usual confidence, it was clear that it could not convince any more.

After the meeting ended, Aiden and Attlee met their heads and had a brief exchange of opinions, and the opinions reached by the two sides were unanimous, the policy must be changed, and it was imperative to change horses, and there was only one difference - should you fall down the hill or not? (To be continued.) )