On the first day of the Lunar New Year, it's time to bow down to everyone!

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In the spring and summer of 1933, the name that appeared most frequently in the newspapers and magazines of various countries was neither a monarch in Europe nor a strongman in the Americas, but an obscure little person, Second Lieutenant Bonecke Bartland of the British Royal Air Force. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The British officer's overnight rise to prominence was not due to his personal achievements or acts of kindness, but because his fighter plane was shot down in eastern Persia and unfortunately captured by the Turkish army. The Allies made a big fuss about it, attacking the British government for flagrant violations of the armistice signed in 1915 and the written commitments made in 1927.

Before Butland's statement was made public, the British military actively argued that Second Lieutenant Butland's fighter jet was taking off from an air base in the northwestern border of British India for a routine training mission, and may have strayed into Persian airspace due to a malfunction of the flying compass, and was later shot down by the Allied air force. Such an explanation seems to be tenable, but with the release of the contents of the confession of Second Lieutenant Butland by Germany, international public opinion became very unfavorable to Britain -- Second Lieutenant Butland not only admitted in this confession that he was sent by the British military to help the Persian army fight, but also confessed that there are at least 60 American and British pilots and hundreds of technicians in Persia, and that the British military has always allowed the Persian armed forces to cross the border into British India for rest and recuperation, and has provided them with a large amount of weapons and equipment.

On April 16, 1933, the German government sent a diplomatic note to the British government, demanding that the British government withdraw all illegal immigrants from Persia within 48 hours, cease economic and military assistance to all anti-government forces in the region, expel armed men who had been organized in British India, and again demand that Britain completely close the land passage between British India and Persia.

The contents of the diplomatic note are usually not made public, but soon after the German diplomats handed over the diplomatic note to the British prime minister, the magnates in London learned the main contents of the note, and the Times evening newspaper of the same day also published the news of Germany's note to the British, revealing in speculative language the various demands put forward by Germany, and the British strata were generally pessimistic about this, believing that no matter how Britain replied, it would be difficult to resolve the accumulated contradictions between Britain and Germany and even between the two camps. A new big war may be the trigger for the countdown.

Britain's involvement in the Persian war, the ruling Baldwin cabinet and the current head of the military must bear the corresponding responsibility, and in the midst of the wave of criticism and accusations in British public opinion, Prime Minister Baldwin, who was already questioned by the outside world, made a final effort: on the one hand, he argued that Britain's aid to Persia was for humanitarian purposes, and that the weapons flowing into the Persian region were a profit-seeking move by arms dealers, and the British government should not be too harshly criticized for this, and on the other hand, he suggested that senior military officials in British India should resign on the grounds of poor supervision in the border areas.

Within the time limit of 48 hours, the British Government replied that it had corrected its previous mistakes in accordance with the terms of the 1915 Agreement and the 1927 Memorandum - that all roads on the British Indian border had been closed, that all armed men in British India had left, that Britain had ceased all assistance to the Persian forces, and that the British Government had issued an urgent call to all British citizens in the Persian region, but that the German Government had been asked to relax the time limit of this request to half a month, in view of the distance problem.

At least in terms of the content of the diplomatic reply, the British Government showed sufficient sincerity to defuse the diplomatic crisis, and after a disturbing few hours of waiting, the German Government replied that Berlin had given the other side an additional 24 hours to evacuate all military-related personnel from Persia, and that those who had been stranded for normal commercial or personal purposes were not subject to this restriction, and that the British Government had to inform them to report to the nearest Turkish garrison, Remain in the Persian region only after being reviewed and recorded by the Turkish army.

The time frame given by the German government for the second time is not generous, but at least in the eyes of the outside world, the likelihood of the crisis turning into war has been greatly reduced. On the morning of April 19, 1933, the British government gave a second diplomatic reply, saying that they had made arrangements within their capabilities, and the German government did not raise any objections, and the diplomatic conflict between the two countries caused by the Persian war seemed to come to an end. A combined force of Italian airborne hunters and members of the Irish Royal Guard raided a headquarters in southeastern Persia, where a number of senior Persian commanders were meeting. The battle lasted more than two hours, and the Allied assault team neatly broke up the Persian resistance in the area, and then held the camp until a German armored unit forced a breakthrough of the Persian line to reach the area. After this war, the Allied forces not only demonstrated to the world the amazing power of airborne tactics, but also obtained direct evidence of the British government's diplomatic disobedience - the Allied commandos captured several American and British military personnel in the battle, including a retired British officer and two British and Indian colonial non-commissioned officers.

The diplomatic farce that Britain and Germany had just quelled suddenly resurfaced and intensified!

On the morning of May 4, the German government issued a proclamation denouncing the British government's actions for violating the most basic international credibility of a regime, and international public opinion was in an uproar. At the same time, the German diplomat walked into the British Chancellor's office with a solemn face and handed Baldwin a demanding note, demanding that Britain withdraw all British and Commonwealth personnel from Persia within 48 hours, and withdraw all British investments in Persia within 72 hours.

At the same time as this diplomatic note was submitted, all railway lines in Germany were put under wartime control, which is often considered a prelude to the general mobilization of the German military. Upon learning of this important situation, the British Government immediately sent a note to the German Government demanding that Germany give a reasonable explanation for this move.

The German government replied diplomatically that as long as Britain accepted the ultimatum and acted on Germany's demands within the specified time limit, then the wartime control of the German railway system would be automatically lifted, otherwise Germany would consider issuing a formal ultimatum and carrying out a full-scale military mobilization.

This is nothing less than a naked threat of war.

Faced with tremendous pressure from Germany, the Baldwin cabinet and the British military were in an unprecedented predicament. The British people were very disappointed with the government's consistent backsliding, and at the same time disgusted by the aggressive posture of the German government. Field Marshal Kitchener, the former Secretary of War who had long since retired from active service, shouted through the press, claiming that Britain's concession to Germany was tantamount to chronic suicide, and that only by uniting the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union to curb Germany's frenzied expansion could Britain maintain its current political map, otherwise, Britain would lose control of the Commonwealth countries and overseas colonial territories within twenty or thirty years, and degenerate into a third-rate country curled up in its own territory like Spain and Denmark. Kitchener's appeal caused a deep reflection among the British people, and although people did not have much hope for Britain's ability to challenge Germany's military hegemony, there were still many people who hoped that the British government would take a tough stance to defend the dignity of the Reich.

Although it was impossible for Germany to complete all the preparations for pre-war mobilization in 48 hours, the Baldwin cabinet members were frightened by the Germans' tough moves, and while they harshly criticized the military for quickly investigating the cause of the situation, they lowered their diplomatic posture and asked the German government not to take more combat readiness measures on the basis of the introduction of wartime control on the railway system, so as not to overstimulate the British and German people and make the situation irreversible.

In order to force Britain to make greater concessions, Germany announced the formation of a wartime base camp on the evening of May 4, with Kaiser Wilhelm II still nominally the supreme commander, but he himself stayed with the Empress in the famous spa resort of Baden, and the wartime base camp in Berlin was actually under the control of Crown Prince Wilhelm the Younger.

Rather than the thin figure he always stood behind Wilhelm II, Wilhelm Jr. was not impatient to ascend to the throne, but exerted his influence in more and more areas, so much so that some commentators on current affairs believed that Germany after 1927 had actually entered the "Wilhelm the Younger Track", and the prince's bold and radical views were supported by a large number of middle and high-ranking officers.

In less than 48 hours, the British government recalled the last of its citizens from the Persian region, and after the closure of the British Indian border crossing, the British authorities only allowed the American personnel to evacuate from the Persian region, and did not allow the American side to transport personnel and equipment from British India into the Persian theater of operations. and militarily support Britain in its resistance to the German invasion and seize the strategically important Azores in the Atlantic Ocean as soon as possible.

In the face of the promised assurances of the United States and the real threat from Germany, the Baldwin cabinet finally adopted a cautious strategy, but the position of the politicians did not always determine the direction of the situation, because the military did not always take into account the overall political situation - on the night of May 5, the British Admiralty learned that the German Navy had recalled all its personnel on leave and ordered the fleets and air forces to act according to the predetermined plan, so it feared that the Germans would strike first and launch an early strike against the naval forces of the British mainland. The British Navy will be in a very disadvantageous position after the start of the war. After an emergency meeting, the British Admiralty decided to carry out a secret mobilization and defensive deployment, and the Admiralty Secretary reported the situation to Prime Minister Baldwin overnight, and in the name of the Admiralty to the duty officer of the British royal family. The officer on duty knocked on the door of George V's room late at night, but the elderly British king did not give any instructions after hearing the news, and Prime Minister Baldwin did not make a clear statement after listening to the report of the Secretary of the Admiralty, but Edward, who had been a British **** for 23 years, sighed gloomily that a war that was about to take the lives of tens of millions of people was inevitable, no matter what the result was, Britain could no longer regain its former glory, and even today's status was difficult to preserve.

In the early morning of May 6, 1933, British minelayers began laying mines in the defensive area of the Thames estuary. Nineteen years ago, the British Navy had taken similar precautions before the outbreak of war, when the Germans were full of hope that Britain would remain neutral, but this time, the Germans were so excited about the British Navy's move that the Berliner Zeitung wrote an article accusing Britain of deliberately provoking war, and the clamor for war against Britain was everywhere from elegant Western restaurants to bustling beer halls.

(End of chapter)