"We have to be very careful not to talk about this rescue as a victory. Wars are not won by retreat. However, it should be noted that there was victory in this rescue. This victory was won by the Air Force. Many of the soldiers who returned did not see the activities of our air force; All they saw were enemy bombers that had escaped the covering attack of our Air Force. They underestimated the achievements of our Air Force. I've heard a lot of talk about it: I'm going to digress to talk about it now, and that's why. I'm going to tell you about it.

It was a major test of the strength of the British and Luftwaffe air forces. The Luftwaffe's aim was to make our retreat from the beaches impossible, and to sink all the thousands of ships that were concentrated there: can you imagine that they had a greater purpose? In addition to this, what greater military importance and military significance could be made in terms of the purpose of the war as a whole? They tried their best, but they were repulsed; They were thwarted in carrying out their mission. We withdrew our army; The price they paid was four times the amount they caused us......"

On May 1, 1940, on a plane from London to Paris, British Prime Minister Winston Murphy was on board a plane from London. Churchill was listening to a recording of his speech while smoking an extra-long cigar.

He admired his ability to uncover the favorable factors, and was able to discover the "hidden victory" from a complete military disaster -- the exchange rate of 1:4 was nonsense, and if the British Royal Air Force really had such a skill, then there was no need to withdraw the expeditionary force.

Even according to Royal Aviation's own report, the exchange ratio between the two sides was about 1:1, and this was not an aircraft-to-aircraft exchange ratio, but included enemy planes shot down by ground fire and surface fleet fire, which also inflicted heavy losses on British ships at sea. During the 10-day retreat, 85 ships were sunk by aircraft alone, of which 8 were destroyers full of officers and men (the British battleship units cruised close to the British coast during the day, so they were not attacked by air raids), and 55 ships were damaged.

In addition, the incoming enemy aircraft were not all BF-109 and Fokker Zero, but also a large number of bombers and torpedo attack aircraft. The RAF, on the other hand, was made with all fighters (mainly Spitfires and Hurricanes), and in this case only a 1:1 exchange ratio was played, which only showed that air superiority was still on the side of Germany.

But Germany's superiority was not overwhelming. If the air battle were fought over the British mainland, even with a 1:1 exchange ratio, the RAF would have a chance to defeat the Luftwaffe. Because the downed British pilot had a good chance of parachuting out, and the German pilot would have been captured after parachuting over the UK.

And after several months of confrontation, the Royal Air Force has found the weak point of the Fokker Zero and the BF-109, the former with poor high-altitude performance and dive performance, while the latter has too short range and poor combat performance at medium and low altitudes. The two fighters could indeed overwhelm the Spitfire when they worked together over the continent, but when the battlefield shifted to the skies over the British mainland, the short range of the BF-109 became an Achilles' heel. And once the BF-109 is unable to exert its power, then the Fokker Zero will not be difficult to deal with.

In addition to the "victory" of the Royal Air Force, which made Churchill happy, the 100,000 empty-handed expeditionary officers and soldiers withdrawn from Belgium also gave Churchill a little more confidence. With these battle-hardened officers, non-commissioned officers and veterans, and a large amount of munitions procured from the United States, the British Army was able to recover quickly.

It was with these two cards that Churchill dared to make a bold statement in his speech, declaring: "Although we lose this battle, we will never surrender, we will never give in, we will fight to the end, we will fight in France, we will fight on the sea, we will fight in the air with confidence!" We will fight stronger and stronger, and we will fight at any cost! We will never surrender at any time. Even if this island, or a large part of this island, is occupied by the enemy, and starved (and I never believed that this will happen), our overseas empire, armed and protected by the British fleet, will continue to fight......"

With a click, Hersmann pressed the switch on the next telephonic tape recorder, and the very clear voice of Churchill's speech came to an abrupt end. In the headquarters conference room at 73 Wilhelm Street, a contemptuous smile appeared on everyone's face except Hersman.

"Hahaha, this Churchill must be crazy." During this time, he was probably in a good mood and gained a lot of weight. Goering burst out laughing, "The British are so pitiful, they are going to lose their empire because of this Churchill." ”

Hitler also laughed, he spread his hands out, "He must be paranoid, we didn't want to invade in the first place." At least in '40 and '41 they won't attack the British mainland. He looked at Hersman, "Is that so?" ”

"We plan to go on the offensive in '42 and take LinkedIn territory." "Until then, we will use a submarine blockade against the British," Hersman said. ”

In fact, there is now a "Sea Lion Plan" for the invasion of Britain in the archives of the General Staff, but Hersman does not intend to actually carry out this very risky plan.

"We can also bomb with airplanes," Herman. "We have a lot of bombers," Goering suggested, "and we have a Fokker Zero that can carry out escort missions." In addition, Fokker and Fokker-Wolf also jointly launched a very superior air-cooled fighter Fw-190, which can have a range of more than 1,200 kilometers after adding droppable fuel tanks, which can completely replace the BF-109 and Fokker Zero to protect bomber groups from air raids on the British mainland. At present, the Air Force has placed orders, and the production lines of Fokker and Fokker-Wolf are ready to reach 60 aircraft per month from May. ”

Due to the dual impetus of the "Keynes Plan" and Soviet-German cooperation, Germany had a huge civil aviation industry before rearmament, and now it naturally has a considerable aircraft production capacity, and there is still sufficient accumulation of engine technology for air-cooled routes. Therefore, the Fw-190 and Fokker Zero can be designed and put into mass production in a relatively short time.

However, Hersman was still opposed to air strikes on Britain, shaking his head and saying, "Herman, didn't you listen to that Churchill?" Even if the homeland falls, the British will fight it...... Unless we can eliminate the Royal Navy that was used to protect the British Overseas Empire.

So there was no shortcut to conquering Britain, only to strengthen our navy. In addition to efforts to integrate the shipbuilding industry in Europe and speed up shipbuilding, it is to acquire the capital ships of the French Navy. As long as we can get 2 Richelieu-class ships and 2 Dunkirk-class ships that are nearing completion, we will be able to defeat the British. ”

……

The two near-completed Richelieu-class ships and the two Dunkirk-class ships are now also Churchill's heart disease, and they are now both in the port of Toulon. Protected by coastal batteries and D.520 fighters, there were also dozens of anti-aircraft guns.

Although Cunningham, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, promised to sink or crush them, Churchill felt that it was better to settle them peacefully, after all, the impact on the allies was very bad, so Churchill pondered a line for the "peaceful reunification" of France. However, whether the French government was willing to accept this plan to save the country from "Anglo-French reunification" was not at all sure in Churchill's heart.

At an airfield on the outskirts of Paris, protected by anti-aircraft artillery regiments, Churchill had not yet had time to tell Paul about the proposal for "Anglo-French reunification". Renault heard a bad news from the latter.

"Prime Minister, they are starting to attack Paris!" Paul. "To the northeast of Paris, the positions of the 10th Army between the coast and the Oise are under storm," Reynaud said. In the direction of Reims in the center, German armored units were advancing towards the Marne. And on the southern front, there was also an armored cluster advancing towards Dijon. ”

"Mr. Prime Minister, I have just thought of a plan that could save France...... Shall we get in the car and talk again? ”

Churchill was not surprised by the new German offensive, the French had completely collapsed, and how long would the Germans wait if they were not ruthless? The only way to save France now is to merge with England.

"What? Anglo-French merger? "Paul. Renault was very surprised to hear the news in the car, and looked at Churchill with his mouth wide open before he came back to his senses for a long time.

Renault asked: "Does Britain, like Germany, want to build a strong European community?" ”

"There is no such thing," Churchill shook his head, puffing on his cigarette, "Britain has never had the idea of uniting Europe, such a plan is only to unite Britain and France more closely in order to fight together German ambitions." As soon as we defeat Germany, separation can be achieved immediately. ”

Paul. When Renault heard this, he was slightly disappointed. The British never want to be truly Europeans, nor do they want to see European unity, they just want a divided and powerless Europe. If it weren't for the British, the Emperor Napoleon would have united Europe long ago, and France would not have been in the misfortune it has today.

"Well, that's a solution," Renault nodded, "and I'll try to convince the other members of the Cabinet and the leaders of the various parties in Parliament." But I can't guarantee success, if everybody is against the merger, and we can't continue to fight, can France make peace with Germany alone? (To be continued.) )