readx;

Chapter 1808 is not the time

While An Yi was holding talks with Roosevelt, the situation in Europe had taken a new turn. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After the defeat of France, Germany intensified its war with Britain for the sea passage of the Atlantic, and the situation was radically reversed, and the German navy and air force had mastered the most favorable strategic conditions for a victorious operation against the British merchant fleet, and German submarines did not have to sail from the Gulf of Heligoland to the enemy's sea lines of communication, which in the past required a lot of fuel and reduced the combat radius of the submarines.

Since German submarines did not have to go south or from the north to the British Isles, they were able to stay in the combat area for a much longer period of time, and their sortie routes had been shortened from 1,500 nautical miles to 500 nautical miles, causing great problems for the Allied forces in sea communications.

With more than 70 submarines in Nanhua entering service with the German Navy, and 50 more in service during the first year of the war, the situation gradually tilted in favor of Germany.

In addition to the favorable situation of the German submarine group with a maritime strategy, the tactics of dealing with convoys are also constantly improving, and this tactic has reduced the tactics used to deal with a single ship to a secondary position. Now, if a submarine spots an escort convoy, it summons the other ships and monitors the convoy before all the incoming submarines form a joint attack.

If the convoy enters the radius of movement of long-range bombers, long-range bombers are also summoned to attack. As a result of the correct tactics, the losses of the Allied convoys of escort convoys increased rapidly, causing serious unease among the British.

Germany's submarine operations were not isolated, they were largely coordinated by surface ships, for which the location of the new bases in Norway and France was decisive and decisive. Submarines can enter the ocean very quickly and covertly from these bases. If the British aerial reconnaissance planes did not detect them sailing from their bases, the British Navy would have had a great deal of effort to detect and stop their further operations.

During the German attack on France last year, five auxiliary cruisers left German ports and began cruising the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans for sabotage warfare. By the time the Battle of Britain was launched, 38 ships had been sunk, with a total tonnage of 255,000 tons. By the end of October, the pocket battleship "Admiral Scheer" went to sea to take up the task of attacking, first attacking a convoy in the North Atlantic, sinking seven ships, and then heading south to the South Atlantic, and in just five months, it had sunk and intercepted British ships or ships chartered by the British, with a total tonnage of 127,000 tons.

On December 26 last year, the German Navy heavy cruiser "Hipper" encountered 19 British ships east of the Azores, sank seven of them, and the remaining ships escaped in the thick fog. By the end of last year, the British sadly admitted that 784 of their own ships and those chartered from the Allies and neutrals had been sunk, with a total tonnage of 3.8 million tons, a huge blow to the British.

The Battle of Britain, with constant air and sea raids by the Nazis, had tragic consequences for Britain. Britain's southern cities were all devastated, farmland and water conservancy facilities were also lost, resulting in the destruction of industrial and agricultural production, and a serious shortage of food, Britain had to implement a rationing system in order to barely hold on.

Particularly serious, the bombing of the German air forces and the threat of submarines and torpedo boats left all the ports of the south and east coasts of England, including the particularly developed port of London, in ruins, and the sea transportation was largely disrupted. Ireland remained neutral and could not provide ports for the British, so they had to make use of the Irish Sea harbours at the mouth of the Clyde and Mersey rivers, so that when ships sailed in from the ocean and bypassed Ireland from the north, they would inevitably gather together, thus opening the door for German submarines and aircraft to carry out their raids. The burden on many ports has greatly exceeded their capacity, which has prevented the ships that have gathered here to unload, causing port congestion.

Moreover, the most developed transportation in Britain was actually the south and east, which are now unusable, and the central and northern parts of the country are not large enough to quickly transport unloaded supplies. By October last year, the unloading cycles of vessels at the ports of Liverpool and Bristol had doubled, and the unloading was not fast enough, and the escort convoys were slower and sometimes had to take long detours, all of which significantly extended the turnaround time of ships and left the available tonnage underutilized. In the case of oilseeds, for example, fuel imports from North America have shrunk to half of total demand, and the situation is extremely tight.

At the beginning of the year, the attack of violent storms suddenly intensified, and the threat from the Atlantic Ocean became more and more serious.

In the face of this dire situation, Churchill said: "Battles can be won or lost, adventures can be won or lost, territory can be gained or lost, but the key thing that governs all our forces, and enables us to wage war, and even survive, is our control of our own ocean lanes and the free passage of our ships into and out of our ports." ”

What is now Germany, which controls the European coastline stretching from the Norwegian island of Magpin in the north to the Pyrenees in the south, is active with submarines known as "wolf packs", capable of striking from any port or bay along this long coastline to destroy British food, soldiers, and goods transported by sea.

Germany, which had already been strengthened by the South China submarine and integrated the power of Europe, also multiplied its production capacity. Last year the production rate of new submarines in Germany was 10 units per month, and this year it has increased to 20 units per month. These submarines are available in 500-ton and 740-ton versions, with the former having a range of 11,000 nautical miles and the latter reaching 15,000 nautical miles, posing a serious threat to British maritime transport.

In addition to the destruction of submarines, there were air strikes carried out by long-range aircraft in the open ocean.

Among these aircraft, the "Devourer" FW210 developed by the B17 four-engine long-range bomber technology provided by the company and the "Condor" FW200 bomber developed by Germany are the most threatening. Both long-range bombers have a range of more than 3,500 kilometres and can take off from Brest or Bordeaux, circle over the British Isles, refuel in Norway and return the next day.

Due to the serious lack of escort ships, Britain had to turn into a huge convoy of forty or fifty ships, and German long-range planes could attack these convoys and individual ships at will on the way, and they could also notify the submarines on standby so that they could gather wolves to encircle and suppress them.

Since the invasion of Denmark last year, in less than a year, German submarines have sunk a total of 4.5 million tons of ships of Britain and its allies and neutral countries, in addition, more than 1 million tons of ships have been sunk by surface ships and aviation and sunk by mines.

Because of this, Hitler believed that Britain's resistance had been severely weakened, and that the Axis Powers would be deemed decisive victorious in Africa and Europe as soon as the war in the Middle East and North Africa was over. Coupled with the victorious advance of the *** army on the Australian mainland, the situation in the Pacific region is also very good.

Under these circumstances, at 9 a.m. Berlin time on 11 April, Hitler denounced at the Berlin Reichstag that "Roosevelt is the main culprit obstructing world peace" and "declared war on behalf of the German people against the lame man and the country he led." Subsequently, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, and other Axis countries declared war on the United States.

Mayflower Hotel, Presidential Suite.

An Yi walked around the room with a solemn expression on his face.

After resting for a night, getting up and eating breakfast in the cafeteria inside the hotel, An Yi got the news from Shen Fengdao that Germany had declared war on the United States, and An Yi thought at first that it might be a late April Fool's joke. But then the news was confirmed from several newspapers provided inside the hotel.

An Yi was puzzled, and he couldn't figure out which play Hitler was singing.

You must know that at present, Yin Jinan and Zhou Chongan are still stranded in Europe, responsible for packing the Chinese cultural relics returned by Germany and France and sending them back to China. Yin Jilan had a good personal relationship with Hitler and often went to the Chancellery for visits, so it stands to reason that such important news should be received in advance. Moreover, with Heydrich's position in the Nazi Party today, the "nails" would not be ignorant, but why is there no news?

If Germany had declared war on the United States had been informed in advance, then this trip to the United States would have been carefully considered.

With Germany's declaration of war, it is inevitable that the United States will declare war on Germany, and what should we do when Churchill arrives and the heads of the two countries at the Big Three meeting ask themselves to declare war on Germany as well? In today's international situation, which is already a situation of either friend or foe, if he insists on not declaring war on Germany, will it arouse Roosevelt's disgust?

"Knock-"

Just as An Yi was pondering, a dull knock on the door came.

"Please come in!"

An Yi greeted and returned to the sofa and sat down. Soon, Shen Fengdao walked in with a middle-aged man with a steady temperament and a suit.

Colonel Dai Zhiyao, head of the US branch of the CIA, studied at Jiangnan University of Science and Technology, and joined Rong during the first Songhu War, and after the Great Wall Anti-Japanese War, he entered the Southwest University of Political Science and Law as a lieutenant for further study in international relations, and before going to the United States for three or five years, he conducted training in the intelligence major of the Syrian Non-commissioned Officer School for half a year, and after arriving in the United States, he entered the Harvard Law School for further study, during which he interned in the United States branch of the Fourth Department, and gradually entered the leadership level.

Dai Zhiyao saluted An Yi solemnly, and after An Yi nodded in response, Shen Fengdao explained on the side:

"Xiao Dai came in as a special correspondent for the New York Post and didn't attract much attention. The intelligence officer of the Ministry of State Security and the Intelligence Department of the General Staff Department appeared in the capacity of counselor and military attache of the embassy, and it was inconvenient for him to visit at this sensitive moment, so he was responsible for explaining the situation. ”

An Yi will attend every farewell party for students from all over the world, especially the intelligence officers who focus on training, and will personally meet with Dai Zhiyao, and he will personally make tea for the two of them before asking: "Say, what's going on?" ”

Dai Zhiyao reported: "The news of Germany's declaration of war on the United States reached the United States at 5 o'clock this morning. With the intelligence spying ability of the Americans, they also know nothing about this. There was a five-hour time difference between Berlin and Washington, D.C., and many of the newspapers in print had to temporarily withdraw their news and launch this important news as a front-page headline, which quickly caused a sensation.

At nine o'clock in the morning, President Roosevelt urgently summoned Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of the Army Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Knox, Secretary of the Interior Ix, Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau Jr. and other officials to a meeting. At this meeting, the U.S. government will most likely respond to a declaration of war and then submit it to the Senate and House of Representatives. When Congress passes, the United States and Germany will be at war! ”

An Yi nodded, and asked again: "According to estimates, at what point will this declaration of war be submitted to the US Congress at the latest?" ”

Dai Zhiyao looked at his watch: "It takes a certain amount of time to convene the statutory legislators, so the final deliberation of the National Assembly may be late this night or early tomorrow morning, and try to get the results before the official finalization of the newspapers." So that tomorrow the newspaper will come out, and the American people will know that war has been declared on Germany and the other Axis powers. ”

An Yi sighed and said, "This declaration of war is really not timely, our diplomacy has suddenly fallen into a total passivity!" I don't understand, what exactly did Hitler think, didn't he know the serious consequences of declaring war on the United States before taking the British Isles? Roosevelt was worried about a reason to send American troops to fight in the Middle East and Africa, and he sent it to the door with a blank eye, and now it is good, the Axis powers' already established superiority in North Africa and the Middle East will be wasted in the blink of an eye! ”

"This may have something to do with ***'s appeal!"

Dai Zhiyao said: "*** declared war on Britain, the United States, and China at the same time, eliminated a large number of British troops in Malaya, Burma and East India, and at the same time in the Middle East and Madagascar, it also contained the British army's forces in East Africa and South Africa, a real three-front operation." Now that the war in the Pacific is raging, and the people also want Germany to share part of the US forces, if Hitler refuses, then the "German-Italian-Japanese Triple Alliance Treaty" will become a dead letter.

"As the lead country in this treaty, Germany does not want to see internal divisions and has to make some sacrifices. Moreover, the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa is gratifying, coupled with the sinking of a large number of Allied transport ships by unrestricted submarine warfare, Hitler is becoming more and more arrogant, and it is not surprising that he has made such an arbitrary decision under the repeated demands of the United States. ”

Shen Fengdao analyzed: "In the current situation, even if the United States makes the decision to send troops, it will not be able to form direct support for the Middle East and North Africa for the time being. Because the western Indian Ocean is still controlled by the Japanese army, the United States must first recover Madagascar if it wants to help North Africa and the Middle East from East Africa. This time was enough for the Axis powers to achieve a decisive victory! As long as the oil from Libya and Egypt is continuously sent to Germany through the oil pipeline, then Germany will be invincible in this war, and I think this is an important reason why Hitler dared to bet. ”

"That's ......"

An Yi thought about it carefully, it was true, his eyes rolled, and he bowed slightly:

In this way, the declaration of war between Germany and the United States is not necessarily a bad thing. At least with the United States, a formidable adversary, Hitler did not dare to provoke us more in the Middle East! Moreover, as the U.S. military is pinned down in North Africa and the Middle East, the number of troops invested in Australia will be relatively reduced, and the greater the Japanese army's success, it may not be possible to completely overthrow the Australian regime and expel British power from the Pacific. ”

"That's right!"

Dai Zhiyao said with a smile: "It's a pity that in the next few days, President Roosevelt will have to coordinate the war against Germany, determine whether it is a strategy of Europe first and then Asia or Asia and then Europe, and also unify the thinking of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, so that the strength will be in one place, and it is estimated that the meeting can only continue when British Prime Minister Churchill arrives!" ”

"It's okay!"

An Yi waved his hand: "I just took advantage of this time to go around the United States." When Churchill arrives in the United States, he will certainly have some consultations with President Roosevelt before he talks with me, and I can also take the opportunity to relax. ”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

: Thank you all for subscribing and ***!

Well, this is the first chapter of today, and it is expected that there will be another chapter later, so please cheer us on!