"Britain will never surrender!"

This is the cry of King George V, and this voice has given extremely valuable encouragement to the British people in distress. In addition, the king declared that he would not leave his homeland under any circumstances, and that he himself would lead his army to fight until the last moment at Fort Augustus, in northern Scotland!

Such ambition was admirable, but George V and his people faced an enemy who was too strong. Although the progress of the German army was not "simpler than cutting butter" as predicted, the tens of thousands of lives of the British were exchanged for only a slight slowdown in the German advance. Before the final victory of the Germans, most of the royal family, as well as cabinet ministers and government dignitaries, were transferred to Canada, and the government-in-exile was secretly being established.

On April 24, 1915, the British troops in the middle of the battle line were completely surrounded by the Germans, and the battle of annihilation began two days later, in the fierce battle that lasted 18 hours, nearly 30 British officers and soldiers were killed, more than 80,000 wounded, and more than 200,000 captured.

On April 26, 1915, the German 5th Army and the 8th Army successively broke through the British defense line from both flanks, hundreds of thousands of armored troops and infantry carried out a bold detour interspersed, and on April 28, the two flanks were successfully encircled, at this time, 320,000 British rearguard troops, including British Army Lieutenant General Allenby, were surrounded, and the remnants of the main force retreated north under the leadership of General Hamilton.

On May 3, according to the order of the General Command, the German army concentrated all its efforts to launch a general attack on the besieged British army. In an area 22 kilometers long from east to west and 12 kilometers wide from north to south, the intensity of German artillery fire was staggering, and with the all-out attack of the Luftwaffe, the battle ended in the early hours of the next day. More than 150,000 British troops were killed and wounded at home and abroad, and the rest became prisoners of the German Army, and only a few of the besieged troops broke through.

May 7, 1915. Another day for the British to cry.

Under a clear sky, the hearts of those who marched on the plains of the north of England were clouded with a layer of gray. The British soldiers who had been defeated in the Central Campaign were scattered and unmotivated, and many of them could not find their own troops - many of their companies were either annihilated or scattered. Some of these soldiers were armed with guns without ammunition, some were not even fully armed, and their commander, General Hamilton, simply did not have time to regroup his troops and boost morale. The soldiers were told to follow the main force, but no one told them exactly where the road led.

In this sunny weather. The German planes, airships, and any aircraft painted with the Iron Cross logo were demons to the British, they flew in the sky without any scruples, they threw bombs and strafing at the ground with fear, they exposed the corpses of hundreds of Britons to the wilderness, and they made the steps of the retreaters heavier.

After retreating from Sheffield, Hamilton and his men temporarily left the range of German land-based fighters and attack aircraft. However, despite the greatly reduced number of German ground air raids, they were still able to use long-range bombers, airships, and naval carrier-based aircraft to bomb and monitor British forces whenever the weather permitted. The German command was able to keep a firm grasp of the opponent's movements.

Most of the main German forces were involved in the encirclement and annihilation of the British rearguard units. This did not mean that General Hamilton could retreat with his men carefree, and now his main coalition forces were still in a very dangerous state. Then there were the pursuers - the armored units drawn from the German flanks and the cavalry units organized in the center followed like hungry wolves, and the British sent rearguard troops to block the attack at this time, which was more like cutting meat and feeding the wolves. However, the stomachs of these wolves can never be filled; The German troops who landed there had been reinforced for nearly two weeks, and the number of troops under General Mackensen from the Polish and East Prussian clusters had reached 60,000 men, and although these soldiers did not participate in the Battle of France, most of them were veterans of the Polish campaign, and many of them were old subordinates of General Mackensen, and the cooperation and trust between them was reassuring, Together with the Heydrich's fleet, one of the Navy's two main fleets, the force to prevent Hamilton from returning to Scotland was strong enough.

After the Germans had joined forces on both frontal fronts, General Mackensen's troops suddenly attacked from Grimsby. In a very short time, they advanced more than 40 kilometers to the west, and before making contact with the main British army, their vanguard had approached the banks of the Terret, thus cutting off the British army's retreat to Scotland through the plains. When General Hamilton retreated here, they were faced with a field line of defense that had already been constructed. In addition to mines, barbed wire, trenches, machine guns, artillery, and armoured units, the British had to contend with a united and demoralized German officers and soldiers, as well as artillery and air support from the sea.

In a sense, General Hamilton was lucky, as not many of them were able to go head-to-head with some of the best commanders in the German Army. But from another point of view, he was very unlucky. Before him, the brave, wise, and confident Admiral Mackensen was at the mercy of his troops, who were outnumbered by 60,000 men with the troops that had landed earlier, of which about 10,000 remained near Grimsby to protect the landing ground, leaving only 50,000 at the disposal of General Mackenson, while General Hamilton still had 420,000 British officers and men, of whom about 300,000 were British soldiers.

From 10 a.m. on May 7, Hamilton's soldiers, desperate to survive, launched wave after wave of attacks on the German lines without heavy artillery support, but in the face of the German ground fire and the German carrier-based aircraft constantly flying from the sea, the British could not advance a single step in the battle until dusk!

After nightfall, the British launched their last frontal assault on their homeland, this time with the last of their elite troops and only a hundred artillery pieces, and the soldiers even went into battle with the intention of dying. At this time, the Germans could not get cover from the air, but they invested more than 100 tanks and armored vehicles that did not participate in the battle during the day, and the fierce fighting continued until dawn, and in some positions the two sides even fought hand-to-hand battles, at this time will and determination played a decisive role, and the German officers and soldiers used their own flesh and blood to make the British once again drink hatred in front of the defensive line. Not a single British soldier in the entire campaign was unable to penetrate the German line from the front.

As the pursuers approached, General Hamilton was forced to lead the remnants of the British army to abandon all heavy equipment and retreat north through the mountains. Five days later, under the combined effect of the German army, air force, hunger, and psychological factors, only 100,000 remnants of the army who had finally retreated from Hadrian's Wall were defeated. Humiliated, General Hamilton resigned from the king as commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. The following month, the army general, who had been highly anticipated by the countrymen, passed away on his sickbed.

"It was a bloody battle, and the most immediate consequence of it was the loss of the last vestiges of the British resistance to the German invasion on this plain! After that, although the British people resisted valiantly under the leadership of George V. But the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great, and the once prosperous British Empire finally fell under the iron hooves of Germany! ”

These are the words of later historians, and on that bloody day, more than 50,000 British officers and soldiers left their grievances in front of the German positions along with their own lives, while more than 100,000 others chose to survive in humiliating German prisoner of war camps.

On May 20, 1915, the whole of England was occupied by the Germans, and although the English organized partisans under the call of the British king to continue to resist, this could not shake the pace of the Germans to continue their march on Scotland. On the first day of June, the Germans launched a second full-scale offensive, with hundreds of thousands of German soldiers crossing Hadrian's Wall under heavy artillery, aircraft and tanks. The German Navy made a feint in the Gulf of Mali. The glorious G-1 Airborne Division carried out the largest parachute since the British landing in Britain behind the British line, and under such a magnificent offensive performance, the back of the British retreat looked so helpless and sad.

June 10th. After months of active preparations, Ruprecht Lialyut Pod Ferdinand, the former Bavarian Crown Prince of Germany, the eldest son of Princess Modena and James heir to the English throne, Maria Theresia, announced his accession to the throne as the new King of England in London, calling Robert I, and his son Albrecht as the heir to the throne. On that day, thousands of supporters rallied in London and across England to praise the new king "for bringing peace and revival to England," but for many years to come. Most of the British people did not recognize and resisted this government, but those who resisted were ruthlessly suppressed.

On the same day, the governments of Russia, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt and other countries announced their recognition of Ruppetition and the legitimacy of the new British government, and at the same time announced the severance of all diplomatic relations with the government of George V, and sent representatives to attend the enthronement ceremony of the new British king.

In the following month, the legitimity of the recognition of the Rupresette regime was also announced by European countries such as Italy, France, Greece, and Spain, as well as Asian and American countries such as Japan, Peru, Mexico, and Argentina. By the end of 1915, most countries, with the exception of the Commonwealth members, overseas colonies, and a few other countries, had voluntarily or conditionally recognized the new British regime in Germany.

The new British regime was formed, and the old British regime did not give up its resistance. Early July. The Germans approached Fort Augustus, the "last bastion" of the British, and King George V announced his abdication in favor of his son Edward? Albert? Keystone? Andrew? Patrick? David, i.e. Edward VIII. However, Edward VIII, who succeeded to the throne under this particular circumstance, was widely questioned, including many conservative British people who refused to recognize a king who had not been crowned on British soil, and many Britons continued to present the former king, who had been placed under house arrest by the Germans on the Isle of Wight, as monarch long after George V's abdication. As for the British government in exile in Ottawa, Canada, all it can control is a few federal states and colonies loyal to the old homeland, and it is only left to fight for colonies and regions that take the opportunity to declare independence from the Union.

On 3 July, in Belfast, Ireland, the last St. George's flag was lowered from the flagpole and the last British government troops in Ireland announced their surrender to the Irish Independence Army. Thus, the Irish War of Independence, which lasted for nearly half a year and was secretly financed by the German government, ended in victory. Three days later, the Republic of Ireland was proclaimed in Dublin, with the Sinn Fein Party and the Brothers Republican Party in Ireland co-governing the government, with Patrick Pearce, the leader of the Brothers of Ireland Party, as president.

On July 7, 17 countries, including Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary and the Republic of Turkey, announced their recognition of the Republic of Ireland and the establishment of formal diplomatic relations with it, and on July 12, most countries, including the United States, announced their recognition of the new Irish regime, and the new British government and the government-in-exile also recognized the independence of Ireland on July 14 and 16 respectively, and the title "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" ceased to exist.

On July 10, 1915, Augustusburg fell, and George V became a prisoner of the German Empire; On July 27, the last regular soldiers on British soil stopped resisting, and the whole of Britain fell!

At this point, the war that had lasted for a year subsided in Europe! Excluding those who wept over defeat, almost all of Europe was celebrating peace, Germany first declared a three-day national holiday, while Austria-Hungary, Russia, Turkey and other countries also celebrated their victories in their own ways, and even public opinion in France and Italy evaluated this memorable day in a positive tone.

However, peace in Europe is not what everyone wants, and US President Wilson said in a speech in the House of Representatives with dismay: "A just nation has fallen, and the scales have lost their weight!" See! The era of European unity is not far off, and the distance between war and us is also narrowing! ”

In this speech, Wilson also declared that the United States should be prepared for war, including increasing the number of standing armies, developing newer and stronger armament plans for the navy and army, and abandoning isolationist policies in favor of fully assisting the British government-in-exile. The speech evoked some repercussions, but most people believed that peace in Europe would stabilize the world situation and that economy and development would be the main theme of the world for decades to come.

On 25 August, European heads of state and dignitaries gathered in Berlin to attend the world-renowned European Peace Conference, and non-European countries sent special envoys to witness this historic meeting.