By March 1940, Germany had concentrated 136 divisions (including 10 armored divisions and 4 motorized divisions), more than 2,500 tanks, and more than 4,600 aircraft (including 600 transport planes) on the Western Front. Moreover, according to the top-secret "Operation Scythe" (the official code name of the "Manstein Plan"), three army groups A, B, and C have been formed, and they are deployed in place, ready to launch a large-scale offensive to destroy the Second Germany of France at any time!

On the French side, there is a temporary change of prime minister! The Daladier government of the Left Pai Radical Socialist Party, which had been in power since 1938, finally collapsed and was replaced by Paul of the Right Pai Democratic Alliance. Renault government.

The new official Paul. Little did Renault know that his country was in the midst of a catastrophe, because everything seemed to be fine. The Maginot line seemed impregnable and reassuring. The strength of the French Army is becoming stronger and stronger with the addition of more and more mobilized troops, and the first British expeditionary force (a total of 10 divisions) has been put in place. In Paul. When Renault took over the post of prime minister, the Anglo-French forces deployed a huge strength of 105 divisions (including 9 British divisions) on the northern front on the border with Germany and Belgium alone.

And all of them are fresh forces that have not been consumed by the Great War!

The French Navy was also in a very good situation at this time, with one aircraft carrier (the Béarne), six battleships (three of the Colbe class and three of the Brittany class), two battle cruisers (Dunkirk class), seven heavy cruisers, twelve light cruisers and more than fifty destroyers. In addition, there are two super-battleships "Richelieu" and "Jean. Barr". The strength is "secure" in second place in Europe, "far surpassing" the old rival Germany.

Only the French Air Force, having suffered heavy losses in a war of attrition for several months, is now slightly weaker. There are less than 400 more modern Ms.406 fighters left (as of March 40, the French army received a total of 1064 Ms.406), while the D.109, which is more advanced and can fight against the BF-520 and the Fokker Zero, has just been put into production, and only more than 30 are equipped with troops. However, the main bombers of the French Air Force, the LeO451 and MB.210, suffered minor losses because of the tactics of night raids, and there are currently more than 300 medium bombers of these two types in service with the Air Force. And nearly 200 attack aircraft, light bombers and heavy fighters of the Breguet series can still be put into service.

In addition, the "HK75" fighter jets ordered by France from the United States began to arrive in large quantities in February and March 1940.

In general, the current French Air Force also has a certain amount of strength enough to carry out several missions to bomb the oil-producing areas of the USSR.

"Is it really necessary to bomb the oil-producing areas of Baku, Grozny and Batumi?" Paul, who had just taken over the House of Martingnon. Reynaud was taken aback to hear that Churchill and Viscount Halifax, who had come to congratulate him on his election as prime minister, had proposed to bomb the Soviet oil-producing regions.

"That would have allowed us to completely break with the Soviet Union, and would it have made it more difficult? ...... "Paul. Renault looked at Churchill. He knew that Humpty Dumpty, who had been Lord of the Navy during the First World War, would soon be taking over 10 Downing Street. If nothing else, the world war would be fought under the leadership of him and Churchill.

"Mr. Chancellor, the bombing is necessary, because we must cut off the oil supply to Germany!" The Chief of the General Staff of the French Ministry of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Admiral Gamblelin, apparently supported this seemingly insane plan.

"There is ample intelligence that Germany has been importing about 500,000 tons of oil from the Soviet Union every month since the outbreak of the war," he said. That's three times more than they imported from Romania, and it was this oil that underpinned Germany's massive war machine.

The vast majority of Soviet oil was collected from the oil-producing regions of Baku, Grozny and Batumi. There is less than 900 km from our airfield in Syria and completely within the combat radius of our newest LeO451 bomber. ”

Seeing that the French Prime Minister was still hesitant, Admiral Gammelin added: "Our aircraft and that of the British Royal Air Force have repeatedly gone deep into Baku, Grozny and Batumi to conduct reconnaissance. It can be established that the Soviet defense there was very empty, there were neither radars nor high-performance aircraft. As long as we make up our minds, the air raid can be successful! Oil production in the oil-producing areas of Baku, Grozny and Batumi will drop significantly, so that we may not have to launch a large-scale ground offensive to win through blockades and air strikes. ”

The concept of not launching a large-scale ground offensive is very appealing, because it means that there will be no casualties that would be too much for the French people to bear.

"But will we break with the Soviet Union because of this?" Renault was still a little worried, "Have you taken such a risk into account?" ”

"Mr. Chancellor, Stalin and the USSR have always been the enemies of free time." Viscount Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, said, "Whether or not they will completely turn to Germany depends not on whether they have friendly relations with us, but on whether they can reap great benefits by following Germany." And the premise of obtaining benefits is to be able to win the war! If the Soviet Union and Germany lost the oil necessary to win the war, then what reason did the Soviet Union have to side with the defeated Germany? ”

Renault was still hesitating, and Churchill, who was smoking a cigar, said in a heavy tone: "Mr. Chancellor, if we can't make up our minds to do this, then by 1942, it will probably not be 24 panzer divisions that will crush Germany, but 15 super battleships of the Soviet-German combined fleet that will crush the British and French navies!" ”

"15 super battleships?" Renault gasped. Churchill said: "Each one is bigger and more powerful than your Richelieu class!" ”

Each of them surpassed the Richelieu class...... And there are 15 more! Paul. Renault was silent for a long time, then finally nodded and said, "Well, I can approve this adventure." He glanced at the resolute Gunmalin and the confident Churchill. Let's hope this decision doesn't ruin France! ”

"No, absolutely not." Ganmarin assured.

Churchill said, "The British Empire will stand with the French Empire!" ”

This probably means that everyone jumps together in the fire pit. In the bombing plan known to Gammelin and the commander-in-chief of the French forces in Syria, Admiral Weygand, France would send 8 squadrons of 96 LeO451 bombers from Syria to attack the Soviet petrochemical city of Batumi (located in Georgia, where the large oil fields in Baku accounted for about 70% of the total Soviet oil production, and the oil produced there was mainly processed by the refineries in Batumi).

Britain would send 10 squadrons of 120 Wellington medium bombers and 3 squadrons of 36 Blenheim long-range fighters from Iraqi airfields to bomb the Soviet Union's Baku and Grozny oil fields (the second largest oil field in the Soviet Union after Baku).

According to the plan, British and French bombers would take off at 2 a.m. on March 30, 1940, take advantage of the cover of night to infiltrate Soviet airspace, and reach the target after the beginning of the day to carry out the first wave of bombing. Six and a half hours after takeoff, the bombers will return to base to replenish fuel and bombs, with a second wave of air strikes starting at 10 a.m. and a third at around 6:30 p.m. (this is a night raid, and the fires at oil fields and petrochemical plants will be used to navigate the planes for the night).

If all 96 French LeO451 bombers could complete three waves of bombing, then 403.2 tons of high-explosive bombs would have landed on the Soviet petrochemical city of Batumi. According to the calculations of the British and French air forces, these bombs would have completely disabled at least the largest oil processing center in the Soviet Union. The repair time will be more than 12 months......

……

"Comrades, the rejection of the good intentions of the Soviet Union by the bourgeoisie and landlords of Finland shows that the reactionary ruling circles in Finland will act as lackeys for the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Anglo-French imperialist bloc. This was intolerable to the working people of the USSR and the whole world! ”

Stalin, the father leader of the Soviet Union, did not know at this time that British and French imperialism would soon bomb the Soviet Union. He is currently chairing a meeting of the Political Bureau in the Kremlin to discuss the liberation of Finland.

The war for the liberation of Western Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine, although it lasted longer than expected, in general the performance of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was okay. The rapid clusters of the Red Army advanced quickly on open terrain, but were not capable of storming fortified and heavily fortified large cities.

But in the end, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Tsa and Brest were defeated, more than 1 million Polish and Ukrainian reactionary troops were eliminated, more than 400,000 prisoners were captured - most of whom would have been given the opportunity to be reformed through labor, and about 100,000 diehards of officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers were held in the Katyn prisoner of war camp, about 19 kilometers west of Molensk......

Such a record would have been great if Germany had not beaten Poland in 12 days. Therefore, in the end, the fatherly leader did not embarrass the generals who fought on the front line, and also promoted many people and issued medals.

Then the fatherly leaders of the Soviet Union turned their attention to Finland. As a country that split from Russia after the February Revolution, the Finn people have been struggling for two decades, and it is time to liberate them.

Stalin said in an aggravated tone: "Therefore I propose that the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army immediately take drastic measures to liberate all of Finland by force!" ”

"Agreed!" "I agree!" "Agreed!" “……”

The members of the Political Bureau who came to the meeting once again unanimously agreed to Stalin's proposal. (To be continued.) )