Outside Paris, the Château de Vincennes, the headquarters of the Allied Forces.

Paul. Renault arrived at 1 p.m. on April 25 to announce the sad news that the Kingdom of Belgium had sued Germany for peace. There was a dead silence in the war room, and everyone's faces were as dead as ashes, as if the end of France had come.

I don't know how long it took to hear the 74-year-old Admiral Wei Gang say in a hoarse voice: "Mr. Prime Minister, we must save the 1st Army and the 7th Army trapped in Dunkirk...... They were the spark of French resistance. ”

Much like the situation in England, France now has a severe shortage of experienced officers and non-commissioned officers. The French 1st and 7th armies now retreated to Gravoline and Dunkirk, desperately resisting with their backs to a 30-kilometer coastline.

In the area along the "Maginot Line", the main forces of the French 2nd Army (most of which were annihilated), the 3rd Army, the 4th Army, the 5th Army and the 8th Army (each army had a small number of troops withdrawn) were cut off by the Germans, and they were also flanked by the infantry of the German Army Group A and Army Group C, and it was only a matter of time before the entire army was annihilated.

In addition, most of the French 9th and 2nd armies no longer existed. Of the 10 French armies formed before 10 April, only one 10th Army was now left to defend Paris. In addition, there were several divisions in the newly built 6th Army that were "old units" with combat effectiveness. The rest are critically undertrained and equipped recruits. If there were not enough officers, non-commissioned officers and veterans as the backbone, and the troops were formed entirely with new recruits, it would be easily crushed by the powerful German army.

"It is possible to allow them to retreat from the sea, to leave the port of Dunkirk...... "Paul. Renault said with a gloomy face. "I will discuss this with Prime Minister Churchill. But we also have to prepare for the worst, if the troops can't be withdrawn, how many more combat-ready divisions can we organize? ”

Can't get out? Maxim. Wei Gang was stunned, looked at Renault and said, "Prime Minister, do you mean that we can't evacuate many people?" ”

"Maybe not a single one!" Renault said, "If that's the case, can we still fight?" How many troops will we be able to come up with at the beginning of May? ”

"Can't get a single one?" Maxim. Wei Gang was stunned by Renault's words, and did not say a word for a long time, and after a long time he stammered, "Then, then we can still piece together about 50-60 divisions, and we will have so many troops before May 10...... But those were extremely ineffective troops. ”

France still has a lot of recruits in training, with nearly 3 million recruits on its books, as well as many machine soldiers and logistics troops, and there is no problem in forming another 100 divisions in manpower. But the troops with both equipment and backbone are also cheap cannon fodder on the battlefield, and there is no point in making the French nation bleed a little more.

"I know," Renault nodded, "I see...... I'll go and negotiate with the British, and you should raise your army as soon as possible and deploy to defend against the battle of Paris. Whether there are enough officers and non-commissioned officers, we must defend Paris. ”

……

"Rest assured, Mr. Prime Minister, that Britain will never abandon its allies, and that the Royal Navy will do everything in its power to help the French army in Dunkirk retreat. All you have to do now is hold on, hold on, hold on! ”

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave the French Prime Minister a package ticket on the phone, and when he hung up the phone, he said to Admiral Pound, the First Sea Secretary, who was sitting across from him: "We are not capable of saving the French, are we?" ”

The admiral nodded helplessly. "Yes, our own men did not have time to withdraw, and now that the Belgians have surrendered, there is not much time left for us......"

The Belgian army was supposed to be southeast of the British army, blocking the German Army Group B attacking from the east. As soon as the Belgians surrendered their guns, the German Army Group B would soon be in front of the British.

"All efforts to save the expeditionary force," Churchill said, smoking a cigar cigarette, "as much as you can." ”

"So...... What about the French? Pound asked, "Are we going to save them?" ”

"Of course, of course they have to be saved," Churchill smiled bitterly, "if they don't save them, they will surrender, and then the expeditionary force will really be finished." ”

"But we don't have that many ships......"

Churchill waved his hand and said, "It's one thing to save it or not, it's another thing to save it." Admiral, do you see what I mean? ”

Whether to save or not is a matter of attitude, whether it can be rescued is a matter of ability, the British Empire is now limited in capacity, but it still tries every means to save the French soldiers.

"Mobilize fishing boats and private yachts to pick up people on the beaches of Dunkirk," instructed Churchill, puffing on his cigar, "and make sure the French feel that the British people are doing their best to rescue them." ”

The rescue with fishing boats and yachts looks quite lively, but in fact there are not a few people fished out, which is just a show to the French attitude.

Churchill took a few puffs of white smoke with a cigar in his mouth, and then asked Pound, "Where are the French fleets?" ”

"All gathered in Toulon," replied Admiral Pound. "It's a well-guarded port. The French also placed several squadrons of fighters equipped with D.520 there, saying that they were guarding against the Italians......"

"That's on guard against us!" Churchill snorted a few times and said angrily, "The Germans have spread rumors that the Royal Navy is going to attack the French Navy in order to prevent their ships from falling into German hands." ”

"Prime Minister, now that the French are on guard, are we ......" Admiral Pound knew what was going on in the port of Toulon, where there were many fortified coastal batteries equipped with hundreds of large-caliber guns, and the guns of the battleships could not help the port of Toulon. And the D.520 is a very difficult fighter to deal with, and the F2A Buffalo on the British aircraft carrier may be difficult to deal with them.

Churchill shook his head and said, "We have to trust General Cunningham, he will have a way." ”

……

"Now the Roman Empire and the German Empire have stood together!"

Berlin, Wilhelmstrasse 73. At a meeting of the High Command held on the afternoon of the 25th, Hitler, who had just returned from Rome, said cheerfully: "The rule of the British Empire in North Africa will soon fall apart!" Mussolini told me that he had deployed two army groups on the continent, one in Northeast Africa, with 300,000 men; One in North Africa, with 240,000 people. And the British forces there were very weak, less than 100,000 men combined, so there was no suspense about the victory of Italy in Africa! It seems that our original prediction was not quite accurate...... The Italians are well prepared for war! ”

Before Hitler left for Rome, he was not optimistic about Italy's prospects for expansion in the Mediterranean, but when he learned that Mussolini had prepared an army of 540,000 troops in Africa, he immediately changed his mind.

That's 540,000 Italian troops! (Not all Italians, many are colonial troops) and the opponent is only 100,000 British troops (there are also colonial troops), almost 5 to 1, victory is certain. After all, the British army was also quite weak in the Battle of France, and it was impossible to defeat the Italians who were 5 times their size.

And the victory of the Italian army in North Africa meant that the Suez Canal fell into the hands of Germany and Italy. By that time, the British Mediterranean Fleet would not be able to gain a foothold, at least in the Eastern Mediterranean. Their existence in the Western Mediterranean depended on Spain's willingness to join the war - which was not a big problem in Hitler's view, and Spain had no reason to look at Gibraltar for Britain as long as the great tribes of North Africa and the Mediterranean were in the hands of Italy.

And once Gibraltar is captured by Spanish or German-Italian forces, then Britain will have no place in the Mediterranean.

In this way, Turkey (Turkey is also pro-German, but they are very afraid of Britain, but if the entire Mediterranean is controlled by Germany and Italy, Turkey will not even see the "face" of Britain, naturally there is nothing to fear) will fall to Germany and Italy!

At that time, the German army will be able to advance into the Middle East by land, and Iraq and Iran, two already very pro-German oil producers, will soon become German vassals.

After the capture of Iraq and Iran, the oil problem, which had been stuck in Germany's neck, was solved, and the door to the Indian Ocean was completely opened. If Germany could go further to liberate India, then the German Empire would undoubtedly win the war.

"We're going to win!" Hitler said in a cheerful tone, "In a few months at most, Britain will pray to us for peace, and if they remain obsessed, I will send troops to liberate India, and without it, the British Empire will cease to exist." ”

"Leader," Hersmann, completely untouched by Hitler's optimism, shook his head and said, "we should not hope too much for the fighting power of the Italians, who are likely to lose in Africa." ”

"I know the Italians don't have much fighting," Hitler waved his hand, "but a five-fold advantage would be enough for them to defeat the British, and besides, we'll have some help to the Italians." Mussolini had already agreed to allow our planes to be stationed at the airport in Rnaya. ”

The Minister of Defense, Field Marshal Schleicher, was also very optimistic, and he smiled and said to Hersmann: "Ludwig, I think in the next stage, our main task is to solve the Balkan problem...... Our target is the oil-producing regions of the Middle East, and to get there you have to go through the Balkans and Turkey. In order to avoid the Roman Empire becoming strong in the past, we must take control of Turkey before Mussolini and open the way to Iraq and Iran. At the same time, we must be prepared for a conflict with the USSR! (To be continued.) )