With the fall of Southampton, the dream of the British to continue to resist is being shattered little by little.

Now the British must face up to the coming defeat. Britain, which had been united, began to split, and some calls for considering surrender began to quietly appear

Except for one person who still insisted on resisting to the end:

Winston. Churchill.

Churchill never considered surrender, and in his view, any form of surrender would be very shameful for the "Empire that will not fall".

Such a shameful thing can never happen to you!

Churchill ordered to defend Britain to the death.

The war that took place in Britain had entered a decisive stage

"All for victory" Churchill delivered a speech that inspired the British: "We will finish an impossible war with the firm conviction of the British Empire"

"All for victory" almost at the same moment, President Wang Hengyue also made a speech with the same eyes: "Before the end of April, let the war end together!" For the sake of victory, move forward! ”

For the sake of victory, move forward!

After the Battle of Southampton, the Sino-German coalition increased the frequency of its reinforcements to the British. A large number of warplanes raged in the sky, a large number of tanks rampaged on British soil, and a large number of soldiers pushed forward with no indomitable progress.

Britain was trembling, and London could even feel the threat of Chinese artillery fire

Admiral H. Alexander knew that it would be difficult to hold back the enemy's attack on his own. All he could do now was to do everything in his power to delay the enemy as much as possible, and to gain enough time for the defense of London.

But what if you can buy time to defend it? Without foreign aid, how long can a lonely city last?

The British 18th Army Group was placed in Hodge County, where it was to be the last line of defense to defend London

In Alexander's opinion, the 18th Army Group was quite capable of holding back the enemy for more than three months, which would buy enough time for the defense of London.

But apparently Alexander again underestimated the ability of the Sino-German coalition to advance.

Under the cover of planes and tanks, 210,000 Chinese and German soldiers launched a terrible attack on Hodge County. The cannonballs were rumbling, and the earth was trembling

From the very beginning of the battle, Hodge County was attacked by a tsunami of mountains. The British soldiers persevered, throwing themselves into the crumbling positions one by one, but no one knew when the torture would end.

"We see no hope of victory," wrote General Alexander in his account: "This is the darkest hour in the history of England, and it will lead England into an hour of endless darkness, and the war should not have been fought in the first place. When Hitler vowed to take LinkedIn, we didn't believe that we had successfully thwarted the German air raids on Britain, that we had succeeded in turning the tide of the battlefield, but then the Chinese came, and then the nightmare of the British Empire began, and we did everything we could, and we did everything we could, but now it still seems so useless I may die here, for the British Empire, for the land I love so much"

This narrative is very tragic, but it is also full of too much helplessness

On March 12, the 82nd Division of the Chinese National Defense Forces, which was at the forefront of the assault, broke into the British defense line in Hodge County, and the two sides engaged in a fierce white-knuckle battle on the position.

It was a day that neither the Chinese nor the British could forget

The Chinese soldiers showed their bravery, and the British soldiers also showed their determination to defend their homeland.

After defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588, England gradually replaced Spain as the emerging hegemonic power on the seas, and began to expand its overseas colonies!

Later, Britain defeated its strongest rivals, the Netherlands and France, in the Anglo-Dutch War and the Seven Years' War, seized large colonies in both countries, and established its maritime supremacy. Britain's victory in the War with Napoleon in 1815 further strengthened its position as an international political and military power, and the Industrial Revolution made Britain an indisputable economic power. The Victorian British Empire was in its heyday. On the eve of World War I, 4-500 million people around the world, a quarter of the world's population at that time, were under the rule of the British Empire; Newfoundland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Burma, Gambia, Malta, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and countless islands were colonized by the British.

The international order under British hegemony was called "Peace under British rule". Britain calls itself the "Empire That Never Falls".

But now this "empire that is said to not fall" is already facing the danger of collapse

The British soldiers on the battlefield were acutely aware of this danger, and they did not want to see a powerful country eventually fall into a place where the conquerors flaunted their might.

They did everything they could

The bayonets glistened there, the blood splattered, and the corpses could be seen everywhere. It's been turned into a brutal hell where everyone can die and end up as a part of the dirt

Alexander also knew the news of the breakthrough of the [***] team, but he had no better way to solve it. Now that all positions are under the onslaught of the enemy, his forces are very embarrassed, and it is difficult to draw enough troops to reinforce them.

The only thing Alexander could pray for was that the soldiers on the ground would be able to drive the enemy out of the position with their bravery, and then successfully defend it

But Alexander did not get what he wanted

The brave and tenacious performance of the British soldiers did not bring them victory, and the Chinese soldiers continued to enter the positions and gradually controlled the situation on the battlefield

The strength of the British in a division here is rapidly decreasing, and the division commander, Lieutenant General Sred, has put the last bit of troops in his hand into the battlefield, but the situation has not changed in the slightest.

The battle line was compressed little by little, and there was almost no room for British maneuvering, while Chinese soldiers were still constantly entering.

The terrible battle situation, Lieutenant General Sred muttered in despair.

General Alexander's orders were to hold on to this position, which was vital to Hodge County and to Britain as a whole, but it was clear that this could no longer be done.

The front line was still crying for reinforcements, but Lieutenant General Sred was powerless. In reply to a call from the front-line commander, Lieutenant General Sred said almost in unison:

"For the sake of the British Empire, fight to the end!"

Slogans do not solve the problem, the British soldiers at the front need reinforcements, they need machine guns, they need bullets. But everything they need, no one to solve for them, they get nothing more than words of encouragement

What could be more sad than that?

After a full day of fighting on March 12, Lieutenant General Sred lost most of his position, and he and his men were forced to retreat to the core for a final defense.

"If we can't get reinforcements, then tomorrow will be my soldiers and I will be prisoners of the enemy," said Lieutenant General Sred in a telegram to General Alexander: "The soldiers have fought to the last moment for the honor of Britain, but they are exhausted, they are facing an endless enemy, a dense bombardment of planes in the sky, tanks on the ground and we have almost nothing"

General Alexander's reply arrived an hour later, and it can be seen that the British commander was also mired in great contradictions and confusion

In General Alexander's return he wrote:

"Dear Oliver. General Sred, I have the utmost respect for your heroic struggle. The situation is very complicated, and I implore you to hold out with your troops until March 16, when you will receive the reinforcements you need."

It's just nonsense!

Putting down General Alexander's telegram, General Sred thought bitterly.

Hold on until 16? No, now I can't even last a day.

After Alexander sent a telegram asking General Sred to hold on to the end, Winston. Churchill also delivered a speech in the House of Commons in which he said:

"What lies ahead of us is a severe and painful test. Before us are many, many long, long years of struggle and suffering. You asked: What is our policy? I would say that our policy is to use all our strength, with all the strength that God has given us, to wage war at sea, on land and in the air, against a tyranny never seen before in the tragic history of human evil. That's our policy. You ask: What is our goal: I can answer in one word: victory - to win at all costs; Win no matter how terrible it is, no matter how far and difficult the road is. Because without victory, there can be no survival. We must realize this: without victory, without the existence of empires, there will be no empires for what they stand for, and there will be no strong ** and motivation for mankind to advance courageously towards their goals from generation to generation. But when I took up this burden, I was in a happy mood and full of hope. I am convinced that people will not allow our cause to fail. At this point, I feel that I have the right to ask for your support, and I will say, 'Come on, let's move forward together.'" ’”

When Churchill's speech was over, he expected to be greeted with a storm of cheers, but to his regret, he did not get what he wanted.

The whole House of Commons was silent, no one cheered, no one applauded the war, and now Britain was pessimistic and hopeless, and it was not by the speeches of some great man that could boost morale

Or is it better to talk to the Chinese, the Germans about the terms of surrender? Some British parliamentarians thought to themselves.

The British, who were once extremely arrogant, now have to bow their heads and compromise in the face of the cruel reality

Now they regret that they chose Churchill as their prime minister to lead Britain in such a war. Or maybe it's really a wrong choice.

At 6 p.m. on May 10, 1939, the King summoned Churchill and ordered him to form a cabinet; An hour later, Churchill met with Labour leader Attlee and invited Labour to join the cabinet and gain support. Three days later, Winston Churchill appeared in the House of Commons for the first time as Prime Minister and made his famous speech: "I have nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat for you, you ask: what is our purpose?" I can reply in one word: victory, to fight for victory at all costs, no matter how terrible, no matter how far and difficult the road, to strive for victory, because without victory there can be no survival. ”

In the end, the House of Commons voted 381 to 0 to show its support for Churchill's political axe.

Churchill first visited France after taking office, and he was surprised to learn that France was about to surrender, but he showed the French leaders that even if France was defeated, Britain would continue to fight. On May 26, Churchill ordered the withdrawal of British troops in France, and the Dunkirk retreat, codenamed "Project Dynamo", began. In just eight days, the Allied forces besieged in a small area around Dunkirk miraculously withdrew more than 330,000 people, and the political axe called on the British coastal residents to use their own boats to rescue the soldiers on the other side of the channel, and even the officers of the Admiralty joined the rescue themselves. On June 4, Churchill reported in the House of Commons that the Dunkirk retreat had been successful, but also reminded that "war is not won by retreat." Churchill then delivered what is probably the most inspiring speech of World War II:

"We will fight to the end. We will fight in France, we will fight in the oceans, we will fight in the air with more and more confidence and more and more power, we will defend the homeland at all costs, we will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing sites of the enemy, we will fight in the fields and streets, we will fight in the mountains. We will never surrender, and even if our island, or a large part of this island, is conquered and starved—and I never believe that this will happen—our Imperial subjects overseas, armed and protected by the British fleet, will continue to fight until the New World, in such time as God thinks fit, with all its might, to save and liberate this old world! ”

At the time, these speeches sounded so exciting. He inspired the English and the French, gave everyone a seeming hope, and brought his personal prestige to a new level.

Later developments may have been in the favor of the British, who defended Great Britain, defended London, and fought back in various theaters.

But with the full-scale entry of the Chinese into the war, Britain collapsed in an instant.

Not only that, but the enemy's army is now terrifyingly present on British soil. If speeches had defeated the enemy, Mr. Churchill would have won the war, but this was not the case

"Sir, the enemy has come to persuade him to surrender."

In the command, General Sred heard such a report.

General Sred smiled, oddly.

Well, it should be admitted that the Chinese are still more polite, and they still chose to persuade them to surrender first despite their absolute advantage.

For the sake of the lives of the remaining soldiers, General Sred made a decision:

I won't continue to insist on it.

Surrender is not a shameful thing, and it can save many lives, especially if defeat is assured.

General Sred sorted out his uniform: "Okay, let's discuss the conditions of surrender with the Chinese"

On March 13, 1944, a scene of General Alexander's despair appeared:

Oliver. General Sred surrendered with his troops.

General Alexander didn't blame his men, they had done enough that you couldn't ask anything more of them.

However, with the surrender of General Sred, it will be difficult for Hodge County to continue to hold, and London will then be forced to face the most direct attack of the enemy.

The three-month plan to defend Hodge County is now completely in vain.

London continued to inquire about the situation at the front, but Alexander did not know how to answer, and if the news of the surrender reached London, it would only cause even greater confusion.

Conceal? How long can this be hidden?

"From one victory to another? Victory belongs to the great British Empire? Mr. Churchill's impassioned speech rang in Alexander's ears, but now it all sounded so ironic.

With the surrender of General Sred, the fall of Hodge County was only a matter of time, and the Chinese were fully capable of capturing it in three days.

Then there is London, the capital of the British Empire.

None of the British could have imagined what a terrible thing it would be for the Chinese [***] team to appear in London. The dignity and honour of the British Empire will also be lost at that moment. But there's nothing that can stop this from happening!

Never!

(To be continued)