"Bolshevik Party members, youth league members, citizens, the Soviet Fatherland is being invaded by French imperialism and needs each and every one of you ......"

The voice of Comrade Serov, First Secretary of the Party Committee of the Autonomous Republic, was heard over loudspeakers in the streets of Batumi, who called on every Soviet to defend the Motherland and Batumi with action.

This corrupt man, who was ready to go to the Gulag at 6 o'clock in the morning to spend the rest of his life, now showed his true colors as an old Bolshevik. In just a few hours, Batumi was fully mobilized. One after another "workers' battalions," "fire battalions," and "labor battalions" were quickly formed, and all young and middle-aged men, men and women, were organized into the struggle for the defense of the Soviet Fatherland.

Now 1940 is not 1990, and although it has just undergone the Great Purge, the efficient organizational capacity of the Soviet Bolshevik Party is still there! So by the time the confused French (the French, who were in charge of dropping bombs, did not yet know that the British had released their pigeons) were preparing for the third bombardment, the city of Batumi had already turned from a peaceful industrial city into a fighting fortress.

Tens of thousands of citizens threw themselves into the fight to extinguish the fires at the chemical plant, using every tool they could get their hands on, rushing into the flames. Thanks to the efforts of these brave Soviets, the fire in the Batumi oil city was finally brought under control the next morning, and it was completely extinguished after three days.

In addition, an equal number of young men and women were put on military uniforms within 12 hours of the bombing of Baku, trained by retired officers in factories and institutions, and weapons to be issued to them were taken from munitions warehouses controlled by border guards.

As for the elderly citizens, they were organized to dig trenches in the highlands outside Batumi.

If the Turkish imperialist army really wants to attack Batumi, then there will definitely be a bloody battle waiting for them!

At the same time, 150 TB-3 bombers of a heavy bomber aviation brigade stationed on the Crimean peninsula have taken off and are ready to fly over Turkish airspace to drop bombs on Beirut and Damascus. Since these two places are more than 1,100 kilometers from the Crimean peninsula, those TB-3 bombers simply could not carry many bombs. But in order to show the anger of the Soviet Union, these TB-3 bombers had to fly over even if they threw even a grenade.

Accompanying these TB-3s were Molotov, Chairman of the People's Commissar of the USSR and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and Livinov, the former People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, who had just been appointed ambassador of the Soviet Union to the United States of America, and was going to travel to the United States across the ocean via Britain.

"Prime Minister, Litvinov is coming to London again," Viscount Halifax immediately told Chamberlain and the other cabinet members who had already arrived as soon as he walked into the conference room at 10 Downing Street. "Nominally, he went to the United States to be an ambassador."

"That's good news!" Churchill, the Minister of the Admiralty, immediately spoke, "Viscount, Russia has offered to arrange for you to meet with Litvinov?" ”

Viscount Halifax nodded and said, "Yes, they proposed. ”

"It seems that the losses of Russia in Batumi are really large!" Churchill took a puff on his cigar and asked the Secretary of State for Aviation, Howard. Kingsley, "The Frenchman's briefing received?" ”

"Yes," Howard. "They have already completed 2 airstrikes, and the oil city of Batumi was engulfed in flames," Kingsley said. Admiral Ted has already seen the photos, and the bombing effect is very ideal.

The French themselves lost 3 aircraft, 1 of which was hit by ground artillery fire, and 2 were shot down by Soviet fighters. ”

The two LeO-451 bombers shot down were several Lag-3 fighters that had just been transferred from the airfield in Leningrad to Georgia. In addition, some Il-16s barely flew to an altitude of more than 6,500 meters (because the first wave of bombing ignited the refinery, so the second wave of bombardment by the French Air Force adopted a high-altitude penetration to avoid ground fire), but because the high-altitude performance of the Il-16 was too poor, it did not achieve results.

"Are they still preparing for a third wave of bombardment?" Churchill asked again.

"Yes," Howard. Kingsley smiled, "The wicked can only do it to the end." ”

Viscount Halifax added: "The French are quite angry! ”

The fact that the British released the pigeons and left the French alone to bear the wrath of the Red Empire was naturally outrageous. However, the French have no choice but to continue bombing head-on, hoping to completely destroy the oil refining facilities in Batumi.

"But victory is in sight," Churchill was very optimistic, "without the refineries in Batumi, Stalin had no choice but to cut off the oil supply to Germany!" ”

Like most politicians and military strategists of this era, Qiu Fatzi seriously overestimated the power of the bombing.

In fact, although the bombing ignited a lot of fuel stockpiles, the damage to the production capacity of Batumi Oil City was not fatal - because the oil warehouses were far away from the core production facilities of the refinery, which was terrible to look at in the photos.

According to later information, two weeks after the end of the "bombing of Batumi", the refinery's daily output was restored to 50% of its original capacity, 70% after a month, and fully restored after three months.

Stalin, however, deliberately exaggerated the losses......

"Marshal, the Soviet embassy sent photos about the events in Batumi." On the afternoon of April 5, 1940 (the day after the bombing of Batumi), Colonel Galen, the chief of intelligence of the General Staff, who had just attended the talks between Hitler and Molotov, brought Hersman a stack of aerial photographs of the Batumi oil refinery area, which was shrouded in fire and smoke.

"Albert, come and see." Hersman handed the photograph to Air Force Commander Kesselring, who was in the 1st Operational Command Center with Hersmann.

"I couldn't see anything, it was all covered by smoke." Air Force General Kesselring carefully looked at the photos one by one, "What did the Russians say?" What about their losses? ”

Colonel Galen replied: "The losses are very heavy...... The French bombs hit several large newly built oil storage tanks, igniting millions of gallons of gasoline, and these large tanks were so close to the refinery that after the tanks burst, a large amount of gasoline flowed to the plant, causing a terrible fire that is still burning today. According to Russian estimates, the refinery will take 12 months to repair, and in at least 6 months, the USSR will lose 70% of its oil processing capacity. Therefore, Molotov proposed that we take over the processing of part of the Soviet crude oil for 12 months, processing 250,000 tons of crude oil for the Soviet Union every month. ”

"250,000 tonnes a month is 3 million tonnes in 12 months," Kesselring said, frowning, "and that's more than half of our oil processing capacity." ”

Germany now has an annual oil processing capacity of only 5.5 million tonnes (actual production of about 5 million tonnes), around 4.5 million tonnes of synthetic fuels (mainly for the air force), and less than 180,000 tonnes of shale oil (the Baltic province of Estonia has a large oil shale mine, which began mining in 1918, and in 1924 the first dry distillation plant was built, and the main product is phenolic chemicals).

Combined, the three could fully meet Germany's wartime fuel and petrochemical needs, but if 3 million tons of crude oil processing capacity were allocated to the Soviet Union, Germany's own fuel and chemical supplies would probably be insufficient.

"It's not a problem," Hersman smiled and nodded, "we can agree that we still have a lot of refined oil and chemicals in stock, and even if all the refineries produce for the Soviet Union, we can sustain it for three months." And France will fall in 2 months! He pondered and asked, "What else did Molotov discuss with the leader?" Is there any mention of the conditions for the USSR to join the war? ”

"The Soviet Union demanded the presence of Finland, Russian Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Turkey, French Syria, Iraq and Iran. In addition, the Soviet Union was responsible for the liberation of India. ”

"Humph!" Kesselring snorted coldly, "Stalin really dares to think about it!" ”

Hersman smiled and said, "Stalin did not want to go to war, which is why he made such a request that could not be satisfied. I think...... He wanted to wait until we and England and France were exhausted before joining! ”

Kesselring said: "He can't wait for that day!" Then he asked Galen, "What else does Molotov want?" ”

"He said that the Soviet Union's aviation technology was relatively backward and could not compete with the French bombers, and if we could not immediately improve the technology of the BF-109 and Fokker Zero, then the Soviet Union would probably not be able to protect the oil-producing areas of Baku, Batumi and Grozny."

Hersman and Kesselring looked at each other and frowned. This Stalin is really difficult, everything will be used by him to benefit the USSR!

At this moment, Lieutenant General Paulus, director of the Meteorological Bureau of the General Staff, walked in briskly with a folder.

"Marshal, the weather forecast for April 10-20 is out." Lieutenant General Paulus reported that "our experts predict very good weather conditions from the 10th to the 20th." ”

"Albert," Hersmann smiled as he took the weather forecast, and then said to Kesselring, "April 10 is the time for Operation Scythe to begin, and before that...... Our aircraft no longer actively violate French airspace. In addition, I will inform the Navy that the same action will be taken. With the exception of the activities of submarines, the activities of all surface ships and long-range combat aircraft are to be temporarily suspended. ”

This was a temporary method that Hersman came up with to paralyze the enemy, and the navy and air force shrank and did not move, of course, in order to fill the lack of fuel. At the same time, he intended to put pressure on Romania and Hungary at a meeting of the High Command in the evening, which was to force Romania to immediately supply large quantities of crude oil to make up for the shortfall in Soviet crude oil exports. (To be continued.) )