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Chapter 1761 Pays the Price

As expected, Hitler was furious at the Chancellery in Berlin at this moment. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

On the 31st, Hitler was in Greece, meeting with the Italian head of state Mussolini to discuss the war in North Africa, but he did not expect the news of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, so he hurriedly bid farewell to the Italian dictator and returned to Berlin, and urgently convened a high-level meeting of the Nazi Party to discuss countermeasures.

"Bastard! Idiot! How can you provoke the Americans at this time? Hitler paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, the expression on his face extremely angry.

All the participants were silent, everyone knew where Hitler's anger came from, and they did not want to touch his mold at this time. Yesterday was the beginning of the new year, and the Turkish delegation, which was in Berlin negotiating with the German side to join the Axis powers, suddenly received a notice from its home that it had temporarily suspended the negotiations on joining the Axis powers and returned home immediately.

Early this morning, the Turks returned to Ankara, and it is said that the American diplomatic mission has arrived in the Turkish capital and received a visit from Turkish President Ismail Brown. Warm reception from Inonu.

At the same time, the attitudes of Spain and Portugal, which had vowed to join the Axis powers, suddenly became ambiguous.

As early as the beginning of June last year, when the German army was winning in France, Spain sent troops to occupy the internationally administered Tangier, and then the Spanish fascist leader Franco submitted to Hitler a condition for joining the Axis powers, including territorial claims to Gibraltar, French Morocco and Algeria's Alan province of Oran.

Following the recognition of their claims, Germany and Spain agreed to jointly take military action against Gibraltar after Germany and Italy had resolved the threat to the islands of Malta, Crete and Cyprus in the west-central Mediterranean.

However, when the Germans were now ready for all the heavy weapons needed for the Spanish war and informed them that they would begin operations this month, news came that the United States had entered the war.

In his reply to the German ambassador to Spain yesterday, Franco made it clear that Spain is located at a key point of communication between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, and in particular, the Strait of Gibraltar is a battleground for soldiers, and if Spain participates in the battle on the side of the Axis powers at this time, it will inevitably become the first target of attack by the US and British allies. Whether or not Spain, which had just experienced a civil war, could withstand the fierce blows of the United States and Britain and the question of the survival of the entire country, and without the absolute certainty of victory, it was temporarily unable to participate in the war against the Central Powers.

Franco believed that at this time, it was better for Spain not to enter the war than to enter the war, so that Germany could obtain supplies of strategic materials such as oil and grain through Spain.

As for Portugal, the country is surrounded by Spain, and seeing that Spain's attitude tends to be tough, Portugal has also changed its tone, and the Portuguese dictator Dr. Salazar, after ventilating with Franco, said that he would maintain neutrality and not join the war for the time being.

The Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are located, has many plateaus and mountains, lowlands in the west and southwest, and the Meseta Plateau in the center has an average altitude of 600 meters, accounting for more than 60% of the peninsula's area. Since the Great Geographical Discoveries, Spain and Portugal have become maritime powers and colonial empires, with colonies in Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia. From that time on, the populations of both countries multiplied rapidly due to the abundant supply of grain and products produced by the colonies, but with the complete collapse of the colonial empires in the last century, Spain and Portugal had to obtain food and resources such as oil and coal through international trade.

Since the German invasion of Poland, the allies such as Britain, the United States, and France have been trying to keep the two countries neutral, and they have supplied grain, coal, and oil to Spain and Portugal.

Franco had his own considerations: an important part of Spain's relationship with Germany was the debt owed during the civil war, including weapons and other supplies, to which Spain owed more than $212 million, and was unable to pay off the huge amount of money that Spain was unable to pay off because the 330 tons of gold reserves of the National Bank of Spain had been smuggled into the Soviet Union by Soviet advisers to the government of the Republic as early as 1935.

In addition to the debt relationship, Spain's rich mineral deposits and trade resources were exactly what Nazi Germany needed. In a secret agreement signed the year before, Spain pledged to help Germany import beef and grains from South America, and last May, Spain signed a three-year food cooperation plan with Italy, promising to provide the necessary food through entrepot trade.

Spain is rich in high-quality iron ore, and Germany also imports zinc, lead, mercury, fluorite, lapis lazuli, mica, cork and wool from Spain, and most importantly, tungsten sand.

Franco was quite sure that Hitler, even if he was angry, would not immediately take action against Spain. After all, Spain remained neutral, and Germany could get all kinds of supplies it needed, but Germany would not only have to face Spanish resistance, but also send troops to maintain colonial rule while supporting the lives of millions of Spaniards.

Portugal's cooperation with Germany began with the Spanish Civil War. In this war, Dr. Salazar sided with Franco and Hitler, helped Germany smuggle weapons to Franco's army, and sent Portuguese volunteers to fight. By the end of '37, Germany had become Portugal's third largest trading partner, although Dr. Salazar had protested Hitler's invasion of the Catholic country of Poland the year before.

Portugal had many ports bordering the Atlantic, making it difficult for the British to enforce them, so Salazar was mainly concerned about the Nazi invasion: after the fall of France, the Germans were less than 418 kilometers from the Portuguese border. His other concern was that Franco might form an alliance with Hitler to invade Portugal together.

Weighing the dangerous contrast between the Allies and Germany, Salazar decided to follow in the footsteps of Franco, who would not have had any chance of falling to the Nazis, while Portugal could remain neutral and cooperate economically and politically with both warring sides.

It was a long time before Hitler returned to his seat and asked aloud:

"What are we going to do next? Declare war on the Americans? Also, our troops deployed in France and Greece must be moved, and the target is Turkey or Spain? We must win one of the two in order to completely defeat the arrogance of Churchill's fat man and truly limit the activities of the British Navy in the Mediterranean! ”

Goering's air bombing has not really and completely dealt a blow to the British will to resist, as he said, so far the bombing of the British Isles has been going on for five months, but the British resistance has not stopped, although the southern parts of England, including London, Dover, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Penzance City are almost in ruins, the British still stubbornly resist, constantly sending bombers, attacking the ports where the German fleet is assembled, and even last month, the British long-range bombers, and also dropped several bombs over the city of Berlin, which made Hitler furious.

However, as the second man in the Nazi Party, Goering still has his capital, you must know that Göring is responsible for the implementation of Germany's four-year economic plan, he almost controls German industrial production, and has broad support in the industrial and commercial circles. Therefore, when Hitler asked a question, he still stood up and replied with his head held high:

"We should declare war on the United States right away! According to intelligence from the allies, they are preparing to carry out a landing operation on the Hawaiian Islands...... At the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines and Australia were simultaneously ignited in war, and the Pacific War broke out. Seriously, I personally admire the courage of the *** people, who launched a blitzkrieg at sea, just as we tore apart the French defense line with tanks and armored vehicles, *** people used the navy, with their aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and also taught the Americans who hid behind their backs and fanned the flames! I firmly believe that the final result will inevitably end in the defeat of the United States!

"Compared with the brave *** people, I express my incomprehension of some people who preserve their strength and do not want to forge ahead! Look at the current navy of the Empire, with three aircraft carriers, four battleships, three heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, ten auxiliary cruisers, and forty-two destroyers, such a huge naval force, but passively avoiding war, hiding in the harbor and basking in the sun, some people are not worthy of being soldiers of the Empire at all! ”

Marshal Regel, seeing that Goering had pointed the finger at him, quickly stood up and retorted loudly:

"Marshal Goering, since the beginning of the war, how can you easily erase the sacrifices and contributions of our navy? After the outbreak of the war the year before, the Imperial Navy took urgent action, and on the day of the war, the battleship "Germany" sailed from Wilhelmshaven into the Atlantic Ocean to attack the Allied ships, and achieved the result of sinking two ships and capturing one merchant ship. Last year, the Deutsche Deutsche was also involved in an army and air force operation in Norway, but on the way back, she was hit by a torpedo fired by a British submarine, and the rear of the ship was severely damaged, and it is still being repaired in the dockyard.

"At the same time as the battleship 'Deutschland' was dispatched, the sister ship of the 'Lützov', 'Graf. Admiral Spee' also moved to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, sinking a number of British merchant ships, and repeatedly evading the pursuit of British and French naval fleets, and was intercepted by three British cruisers at the mouth of the Río de la Plata in South America in December of that year.

"In addition, the battlecruisers 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau' of our navy also set out shortly after the start of the battle, and sailed into Iceland-Faroe waters with two other cruisers and three destroyers, and in this sortie sank the British auxiliary cruiser 'Rawalpindi'. At the start of the Norwegian campaign last year, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenaut left Wilhelmshaven and attacked the Allied navy and transport forces near Hallstad, Norway, sinking one Allied oil tanker and one troop carrier. Later, during the voyage, the two ships spotted the British aircraft carrier "Glorious", which was responsible for covering the retreat of the troops, and after some firepower, sank the "Glorious" and the two destroyers acting as escorts. During this battle, the Scharnhorst suffered heavy damage and was subsequently docked for six months of repairs. At present, the 'Scharnhorst' and the 'Gneisenau' are still breaking diplomatic relations in the Atlantic.

"Don't these examples illustrate the great contribution of our navy? On the contrary, the Air Force, equipped with advanced ground radar, was unable to completely suppress the British Air Force, resulting in the distress of many of our ships docked in the harbor, among which our Williamshaven Naval Shipyard has been repeatedly attacked by British aircraft, and so far there have been as many as 1,042 air raids, and the British have dropped about 670 tons of bombs. Although not a single bomb hit our ships, it significantly delayed the construction of many of our ships under construction, as evidenced by the fact that the battleships 'Bismarck' and 'Tirpitz' have not yet been completed. The worst of all was the battleship 'Admiral Scheer', which was also attacked by the air, but luckily the bombs that hit it did not explode and narrowly escaped, but at the cost of being still in the dockyard, undergoing refurbishment and refit!

"Finally, I have to remind Marshal Goering that in the military industry under your leadership, almost all the limited materials are used for the manufacture of weapons and equipment for the army and air force, and the construction of M-class light cruisers and new air defense destroyers used to escort aircraft carriers has been stopped, and there are not enough escort ships, our aircraft carrier formation cannot be formed, and it is impossible for us to take our expensive aircraft carriers to send to the submarines of the British to feast on them!"

Goering's face turned red, and although he knew that what Regel said was true, he still refuted:

"The empire must use its limited supplies to the superior arms, haven't we let go of the construction of submarines? At least so far, the submarine fleet has achieved much greater results than expensive aircraft carriers, battleships, and cruisers...... At the same time, the disadvantage in the total tonnage of ships of the Imperial Navy is not a reason for you to passively avoid war! Now, under the wanton and indiscriminate bombardment of the air force, the British Navy has taken refuge in the Celtic Sea and St. George's Strait in the northwest of the English Channel, and the ships of our Navy can completely assemble and cover the landing of the British Isles with an overwhelming momentum!

"After all, the range of fighters owned by our air force is limited, and we must rely on the army to occupy a bridgehead in the British Isles and advance through the airfields on land, so that we can completely suppress the counterattack of the British! As far as the overall strategy is concerned, as long as we take the British Isles, Turkey and Spain, which are now holding a wait-and-see attitude, will certainly immediately throw themselves into the arms of the empire, and the morale of the Americans will also be seriously damaged, and the current situation that is unfavorable to the empire will be immediately changed. ”

Heydrich was taken aback, he did not expect that Goering could see so far.

Before today's meeting, Heydrich and Zhong Lei had made a detailed analysis of Germany's next strategy, judging from various circumstances, Hitler had decided to completely solve Britain first and then turn around against the Soviet Union from the moment of the failure of the peace, but before that, it was necessary to drive the British out of the Middle East and North Africa, let Germany really own Libyan oil, solve the energy supply problem once and for all, and strategically complete the encirclement of the Soviet Union.

Having accurately grasped Hitler's heart, Heydrich, who had now risen to the rank three of the Nazi Party, stood up confidently and said:

"Field Marshal Goering has a point, we must give priority to Britain and then consider other problems, landing in Britain is for sure! As for declaring war on the United States now, I don't think it's necessary at all, after all, the power of the United States is the fundamental reason for our alliance with the United States, and there is no need to involve us at all.

"However, we need to prioritise our energy and material supply issues before we can solve the UK once and for all. Now, although the United States has not declared war on us, it does not mean that the United States will allow supplies to enter the empire through neutral countries, as before, at least, they will count the total amount of oil exported to Spain, Holland and Sweden, and give a limit to ensure that it does not go into our hands!

"Before that, our oil was mainly supplied by the oil fields of the Soviet Union and Romania and neutral countries such as the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden in the form of entrepot trade, but the main source was still the Soviet Union. However, since the Baku oil fields were bombed by the French at the beginning of last year, the Soviet government immediately used this as an excuse to reduce and gradually stop the export of oil to us, but fortunately, the Romanian government bent to the will of the empire and put all the oil they produced at our disposal, and at the same time, a large number of oil fields were discovered in the empire, which filled the vacancy of the Soviets in time, and the army of the empire did not stop advancing because of the lack of oil!

"Tanks, planes, cars, ships, generators, etc., all need fuel, and without the supply of oil, we can't go on for a single day! Therefore, until we have found an abundant oil supply field, we must not put all our cards on landing in the British Isles. According to geologists, Libya has a good prospect for oil development, with tens of billions of barrels of oil reserves currently being discovered alone, and Libyan oil has the characteristics of good oil quality, low sulfur content, and low extraction costs, and the empire must firmly control it.

"Therefore, I believe that without declaring war, we should launch an attack on Turkey as soon as possible to reduce the resistance to our army due to the intervention of foreign forces such as Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union in the situation in Turkey."

"But—"

Foreign Minister Ribbentrop said with some hesitation: "We have always had good relations with Turkey, and if we use force against Turkey, will it cause unnecessary trouble?" ”

"Good relationship? Fool yourself! ”

Hillem, who had recently been hit by Heydrich and was in poor condition, said disdainfully: "We don't have to care about the attitude of the Turks, they are the grass on the wall, if we show a little tougher, they will give in!" I have here information confirming that Kemal, who died in the middle of the previous year, had been to his successor, Ismat. Inonu left his last words: Remember that Turkey must join the side of Britain and the United States, and history has shown that their side always wins in the end.

"Ismat. After being elected as the second president of Turkey and the chairman of the People's Republican Party, Inonu followed Kemal's diplomatic line of thought, and after the war between the empire and Poland, they quickly concluded a military alliance of mutual assistance with Britain and France, but when France fell, they quickly changed their face and declared neutrality, and after the empire occupied the Balkan Peninsula, they quickly signed a friendship agreement with us. After receiving the ultimatum that the Führer had to go to North Africa through Turkish territory, they sent people to Berlin to negotiate joining the Axis powers, but now that they saw that the United States had entered the war, they immediately shrank back, and we don't need such wavering allies at all! ”

Chief of Staff of the Supreme High Command, William. Marshal Keitel questioned:

"Turkey and the Soviet Union have maintained official relations in accordance with the Neutrality and Non-Aggression Pact, which was signed in 25 years and renewed five years ago, which was extended for 10 years. After the outbreak of the war the year before, although there were many unpleasant quarrels between the Soviet Union and Turkey, even to the point of fighting each other, after we occupied the Balkan Peninsula, Ankara and Moscow immediately put aside their old suspicions and issued a joint communiqué confirming that if either Turkey or the Soviet Union were forced to go to war to defend their respective territories, the 1925 non-aggression pact would still be valid. We have every reason to believe that the Soviet Union, wary of our expansion, is very likely to help the Turks when we attack Turkey!

"With the aid of Britain and France, and the exchange of chromite and copper ore for weapons and equipment, Turkey armed fifty brigades, a total of 800,000 troops, all trained in the harsh conditions of the ancient Anatolian plateau, comparable to the infantry of any European country. Moreover, the Turks are brave and good at fighting, and their population base of up to 10 million is enough to raise more than 2 million troops in a short period of time, and Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union can hide behind the scenes and use Turkey to consume our strength.

"Finally, the Anatolian Peninsula, the main body of Turkey's territory, consists of the Anatolian Plateau and the low mountains of western Turkey, with the Taurus Mountains to the south, the Ponting Mountains to the north, and the Armenian Plateau to the east. The Anatolian plateau is about 1,000 meters above sea level and consists of flat plateaus and faulted basins, with many lakes, mires and desert steppes in between. The western part of the plateau is a relatively low mountainous area, and the mountain range is mostly perpendicular to the coastline, and such a terrain is very unfavorable for the advance of our mechanized troops.

"I'm worried that when attacking Turkey, the Imperial *** team will fall into the swamp of war and will not be able to extricate itself, which will affect the overall strategy of the empire!"

Hitler said unhappily: "No matter how unfavorable the situation is, can there be any danger of attacking Britain and the Soviet Union?" Britain is separated from us by the English Channel, while the Soviet Union has a population of more than 170 million, a long border, and bitterly cold weather...... Turkey is a small country with a population of 10 million at best, and the topography is not much different from the Balkans, so if we can conquer the Balkans, why can't we conquer Turkey? ”

Seeing Hitler say this, everyone knows that the Führer was irritated by the too realistic attitude of the Turks!

Hitler can't be angry with his allies, and he can't be angry with the United States across the Atlantic, but can't he do anything to Turkey yet?

The Führer's attitude determined the will of the Third Reich, and everyone sighed in their hearts - the Turks were going to pay for their contempt!

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