By the time the Duke of Hamilton was alone and picked up by a transport plane sent by the Germans, the situation on the north bank of the Thames could not have been worse.

Lord Gott promoted a number of Army officers, giving them an average rank of one or two levels, and then placed them in command of a larger force in the National Guard.

For these officers who have been promoted, Gote said that he is completely optimistic about them, and hopes that they will make persistent efforts in their new posts, continue to play the spirit of not being afraid of death and not afraid of death, and be responsible and responsible cannon fodder.

Hamilton heard a rumor that a National Guard soldier asked his newly transferred army officer, "May I ask if we are going to be here for a long time in this battle?" ”

"The Prime Minister ordered that it should be held out to the last man." The officer, to the soldiers of the National Guard.

Finally, the soldier lamented, "Oh, it won't be long. ”

Although it was a joke, it was a reflection of the morale of the British troops stationed on the north bank of the Thames.

In addition to the British army, the 2,000 troops left by the Free French on the Thames were all old, weak, sick and disabled. De Gaulle took all the main forces and stationed them on the Isle of Man. What remained in London were the armies he had not been able to take with him.

As long as it is a normal commander, he will choose to take the better troops with him, leaving the worst troops that cannot be taken away.

As a result, the 2,000 Free French troops on the north bank of the Thames River were not much higher in combat effectiveness than the National Guard, and their defense was extremely fragile.

There is no doubt that this is a line of defense tied in paper.

It seems that the Anglo-French forces used the Thames River to establish a dangerous defensive line, relying on the dangerous terrain to blow up the bridge and garrison it.

But in fact, both Gott and De Gaulle had already transported their elite troops. Before the battle for the defense of London began, the top leaders of Britain and Free France were ready to abandon the capital.

Of course, Churchill's slogan of vowing to live and die with London is still ringing in my ears. But the only people who really believe that London can hold on are the ignorant and the more ignorant civilians.

To some extent, how long London can hold on depends on how long the Duke of Hamilton can delay under the guise of peace negotiations.

After all, the London Thames Line is simply full of holes, and the most obvious mistake alone has already accounted for three major places!

First, it was a strategic mistake. After the outbreak of the Anglo-German campaign, Churchill realized that Britain's war against the Allies could only be a war of attrition, but the strategic principle he proposed was to resist defensive warfare. Before the Battle of London, the British army concentrated its forces in Greenwich, a suburb of London, as a passive defense, and stuck to the field as if waiting to die.

When the Germans advanced under the city of London, the garrison of London was ordered by Gott's prudent order not to take the initiative to attack, but to adopt the strategy of dividing the troops, and each unit was responsible for a wide frontal defense, lacking depth and equipment, and not sufficient reserves. When the Germans attacked, they concentrated their forces and tanks to attack a little under the opening of artillery and aircraft, causing the British troops to be beaten passively everywhere. In the fierce fighting, some units put forward plans to take the initiative to attack, but they were not approved.

For example, when the Germans were fiercely besieging the flank National Guard, the main regiment of the British Army, which was guarding Shaw Square, suggested to the London City Defense Command that it should take advantage of the opportunity of the German army's large-scale offensive to concentrate the mobile forces of all the British Army units, take the initiative to attack the German, French, and Norwegian allied forces and threaten the enemy's rear in order to gain the initiative.

However, this surprisingly winning battle plan was not approved because Gort was bent on evacuating London and did not want to make mistakes, which made the main positions in the south of London even more critical.

This kind of mistake in strategic thinking because he wanted to escape to the island of Ireland and no longer focus on fighting the defense of London carried out the entire defense of London.

Second, there is a disparity in military strength. At the time of the fall of Greenwich, the total strength of the troops left behind in London was about 190,000, but a large part of them were crippled troops that had just been withdrawn from the Greenwich battlefield, there were very few regular British Army soldiers, and most of the National Guard were untrained, and many of them had not even fired guns.

According to the chief of staff of Gort's command, only 30 percent of the defenders of London were combatants who could fight the enemy directly, and nearly 70 percent were militiamen of the National Guard.

Moreover, the British army had lost most of its heavy weaponry at Dunkirk, and then lost a small number of its remaining heavy weaponry along the coast of the English Channel. As a result, the artillery that they can still collect now is not even as strong as the firepower of an integrated artillery regiment of the German army.

By the time the fighting reached the south bank of the Thames, the RAF had lost all its fighters, and the few remaining fighters had been transferred to airfields in Northern Ireland to avoid the battle.

As for the Royal Navy's home fleet, almost all of its main ships were blown up, and the remaining part of the patrol fleet had been withdrawn to various ports on the island of Ireland, also avoiding the battle and protecting the ships.

The Allied expedition to Britain had a total of 21 divisions plus a reinforced Norwegian combat detachment, and now except for the seven German divisions that were transferred back to China in the first batch, the remaining 14 divisions are still in operation, with a total strength of more than 150,000 troops, all of which are the main combat forces of various countries, most of which are composed of well-trained veterans and have strong combat effectiveness.

In addition, the Allied Allied forces also have obvious advantages in weapons and equipment, with heavy weapons and equipment such as submersible tanks and artillery during operations, as well as bombing support from aircraft.

In particular, the troops sent by Vichy France and Norway were basically their own elite divisions.

Finally, there are the deficiencies in the fortifications.

Although the fortifications on the outskirts of London have been in operation for more than a year, most of them do not meet the requirements of actual combat. Some of the reinforced concrete fortifications built on the positions around Greenwich are even buried in earth, and some of the pillboxes still have the problem of doors not being opened. The improvised machine-gun bunkers have large holes that can be easily spotted by the enemy and destroyed by concentrated fire. Although the fortifications in the suburbs are made of reinforced concrete, they are exposed and densely packed in a small area, which is completely impractical.

To make matters worse, most of the troops that Gott used on the defensive line were the worst of these forces.

These soldiers of the British and French armies, who were at the bottom of their combat effectiveness, were used as outcasts, cannon fodder, and consumables from the very beginning.

The most important thing is that due to the hasty deployment of defenses, the London City Defense Command did not distribute a map of the distribution of fortifications to all the National Guard units, and it was difficult to find the fortifications and a large number of houses mixed together, so some troops were tired of looking for fortifications on the ground in a radius of more than ten square kilometers.

However, the National Guard was disorganized, and it was difficult to count them, so they had to fill in the front of the defense line one by one.

As a result, the Thames Line became a paper garbage line, and no one had any hope for him.