The turmoil of the Hood incident spread almost instantly throughout the British Isles, Churchill wanted to control public opinion, but he couldn't control the mouths of the British people, Churchill never thought that the Germans would do such a thing!

Churchill tried to direct hatred to the Germans, but too many Britons already knew about the banner on the Hood, and more and more people began to question the wartime cabinet, why they had to get involved in the war between the Germans and the French, and why they wanted to let their own people die for the irrelevant French!

Churchill's firefighting operation did initially have an immediate effect, but then it was reversed because another person had already acted in private: Halifax. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Halifax, who was bent on seeking peace for Britain and preventing Churchill, the warmonger, from pushing the British people into the pit of fire, had no patience, and he was using the network he had run for many years to spread the word to the British people who were confused by Churchill's fallacies that as long as Churchill stepped down, Britain would move towards peace, and the British would no longer need to die for people who had nothing to do with other countries!

British society is gradually colliding, with Churchill's supporters strongly demanding the continuation of the war, while his opponents marching everywhere to demand Churchill's resignation and an end to a war that should not have belonged to the British.

Britain is already in chaos, all kinds of violence are constantly staged, Churchill is busy, and on the European continent, it has become a mess.

In the early morning of 16 May, with all but a few exceptions of Belgium occupied, King Leopold of Belgium ordered the Belgian army to lay down their arms and surrender, and to surrender unconditionally.

However, the Belgian army's communications and command system had long been completely destroyed, and the order for unconditional surrender even needed to be heard through the German army's broadcast, so it was not until the evening of the 16th that the Belgian army completely ceased resistance.

But on the same day, the Belgian cabinet of ministers, who had fled to France, issued a joint statement claiming that King Leopold's order was null and void and unconstitutional. At the same time, King George VI of England, with the intervention of Churchill, also sent an invitation to King Leopold, asking him to take refuge in England and continue to lead the Belgian army against the German invasion.

After learning that Leopold refused to continue fighting, the French revoked Leopold's Legion of Honor in France as a punishment, but it seems that Leopold was more concerned about how to ensure his life at the moment, and what so-called honor had nothing to do with him for a long time.

On the 17th, after completely eliminating all resistance forces in northern France and Belgium, the German Führer Heydrich officially issued an ultimatum to France, demanding that the French must declare their unconditional surrender within 24 hours, otherwise France would suffer a devastating blow.

On the very day of the ultimatum, the only French unit that had escaped from Dunkirk arrived on the outskirts of Paris, and this force did not even experience any decent fighting, and when the Germans began to crush the battlefield frantically, the division commander of this army immediately chose to flee, looking for any possible way to escape, and managed to escape from the encirclement of the German army of millions with his Fourth Panzer Division without being detected by anyone.

His name was Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle!

As the only officer to escape from the encirclement of two German army groups, the question of how he escaped was no longer important, and he was immediately portrayed as a national hero by the French press, who was no longer a colonel, but was immediately awarded the rank of brigadier general, and the press began to praise him as a 'brilliant commander of courage and determination'.

Now France really needs heroes, the war is like this, they urgently need to create a heroic figure to save the confidence of the French people, and the appearance of Charles de Gaulle just gave the French government this opportunity.

On the 18th, just one hour before the time given by the ultimatum, the president of the French parliament, Paul Renaud, appointed Charles de Gaulle, the "hero of France", as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Defense and War.

But it was in these last hours that it was not just the French who were nervous, but the whole world was a little nervous.

In the last hour, Italian leader Benito Mussolini announced that his troops would attack from the south of France a day later to assist his strongest ally, Germany, in their attack on the French.

Immediately afterwards, the Spanish Franco government announced that due to the war, in order to ensure Spain's national security, the Spanish army would officially block the Strait of Gibraltar, the mouth of the Mediterranean, and conduct an inventory of all British and French ships docked in Spanish ports in order to determine whether these ships posed a threat to Spain's national security.

Then there was the Soviet statement, in which Molotov claimed to the press that the time had come for the French to stand trial, and that they should have expected such a day when the French abandoned their allies and invaded Germany.

The Soviet government could no longer sit idly by and ignore this evil country, and the USSR officially declared war on France!

Molotov's remarks instantly detonated world public opinion, the Soviet Union, which had always been neutral before, actually chose to declare war on France at this time, and also claimed that France was the first to invade Germany, is there anything more eye-catching than this?

No, there is, there really is more eye-catching news than this!

Ten minutes before the ultimatum deadline, the U.S. government held a press conference to announce that it had just signed a military contract with the German government for 20 B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers and 300 Wright GR-1830-39 (G2) Whirlwind star engines.

Although the United States has always adopted a policy of neutrality, it is a little unreasonable to announce the export of such a large number of heavy bombers and as many as 300 engines to Germany at this time. Coupled with the 10 B-17s and a large number of engines that were previously ordered, this is simply arming the Luftwaffe directly!

The British and French governments almost immediately protested to the United States, but US President Roosevelt replied: "We love peace, and we sympathize with the plight of the British and French people, but we will not be at fault with money." ”

With the expiration of the ultimatum, as many as 600 bombers flew in formation in a mighty formation in the French sky, which did not need any escort at all and could pose a threat to itself, flying into the sky over the French capital Paris!

(To be continued.) )