France was defeated, and on June 22 an armistice was signed with the Nazis, agreeing to Germany's occupation of northern France and the Atlantic coast and disarming the French navy; On June 24, an agreement was signed with Italy ceding the Alpes-Maritimes and Corsica provinces to the south of France. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Not only did the German-Italian army occupy most of the French territory, but the French had to provide food and pay for the occupation.

After the occupation of France, the next offensive direction of the Nazi army, of course, was Spain.

If it weren't for Yang Chao's efforts to keep the Spanish government from being eliminated by Franco as in history, the Nazis would have prepared for the Battle of Britain at this time.

At this time in Spain, the government army had cleared Franco's rebels, purged all the opposition in the country that did not flee, and formed an army of 300,000 with the support of Britain and France.

But the 300,000 troops could not be the opponent of the Nazi Panzer Corps, the Panzer Corps led by Guderian, with only 150,000 men, entered Spain from the Franco-Spanish border, drove straight into Barcelona under the First World War, and then eliminated the Spanish reinforcements, and attacked Valencia along the coastline, and the Italian Navy supplied them in the process.

At the same time, Franco, who was in exile in Italy half a year ago, once again came back, landed from Valencia, and took the Afrika Korps he participated in, with the cooperation of Italy and the German army, to kill Seville, and after capturing Seville, he besieged Madrid from the north and southwest with the German army and the Italian army.

The Spaniards had to behave better than the French, and after the Battle of Madrid lasted for a month, with more than 100,000 dead and wounded, Casado, the commander of the central front of the Spanish government army, staged a mutiny in Madrid, arrested government officials, released the Madrid defense line, and let the fascist group enter Madrid.

After Franco came to power, there was also another large-scale purge, killing the workers' leaders, socialists, etc.

After many wars, Spain's population has lost by more than 8 million, and their total population is just over 23 million.

It's just that the war has not yet left them, the British army is stationed in Portugal, the fascist army is also approaching Portugal, and it is obvious that in the second half of the Spanish campaign, the Portuguese campaign is about to start.

Britain was determined to protect Portugal, their last ally on the European road, not because they were righteous, but because they could not afford the Nazis to take Portugal, unify the Iberian Peninsula, and then capture the Strait of Gibraltar.

At this time, the British Empire no longer considered the issue of control of the Mediterranean route, and they had to worry about the Italian navy going out of Gibraltar and then threatening their Atlantic route.

If the Italian Navy and German submarines were based on the Spanish coast, the threat to the maritime lifeline of the British Empire was too great.

So Britain sent 1 million troops this time to form an alliance with the Portuguese army to defend Portugal to the death.

It's a pity that the determination is very big, the fist is too small, after being beaten by the Nazis and Italy, 300,000 surrendered, 500,000 escaped, and 200,000 died on the battlefield, and the British Empire withdrew from the European continent in gloom, leaving only the last stronghold, Gibraltar!

Gibraltar is located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, the westernmost point of Europe, and is the main communication route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.

After the construction of the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea was connected with the Red Sea, and then with the Indian Ocean, so Gibraltar became the closest distance from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, and the strategic position was further enhanced. Therefore, the British constantly strengthened the military strength here, modernized the fortress, and established a naval and air base.

There is no doubt that Gibraltar belongs to Spain, and there is no barrier to Spain by land.

In 1702, during the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe, Britain and the Netherlands fought with Austria against the alliance of France and Spain, and finally Britain occupied Gibraltar, and finally Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in the final Treaty of Utrecht.

More than 200 years have passed, and this small headland has been run by the British, but the Spaniards do not want to give up this strategic place, and always insist on reclaiming it, and the British have to pull up the barbed wire fence in the border area.

The Gibraltar dispute, until the 21st century, is a war of words often fought between Britain and Spain, according to the public law of the country, the British occupy the reason, the land ceded by the word, of course, is British territory, but just like Hong Kong and the Falklands, this is the era of fist talking, the Argentines can't beat the British, so the Falklands are British, the Chinese can beat the British, so Hong Kong is still Chinese.

But Spain can't beat it, it doesn't mean that Germany can't beat it either, if it's at sea, the ten Nazis together are not the opponent of the British, but on land, the British, a sea creature, are not opponents at all.

Although Gibraltar is a limestone plateau, although the British built a large number of cave-type and permanent fortifications, although they have been operating for two hundred years, they can't stand the Nazis to bring in a 600 mm caliber Carr cannon, under the attack of this crazy weapon, the cave collapsed in a large area, and there was no serious ground war, the British withdrew from here, and more than 100,000 British troops sat on warships and had to carry out a second retreat, the Gibraltar retreat.

At this point, the Nazi army swept from Poland in Eastern Europe across the long European continent to Portugal and Gibraltar in the westernmost part, and the Nazis swept across Europe and shocked the world.

Everyone can imagine that the iron hooves of the Nazis will not stop there, and they will carry out military attacks one after another, but there is still a little suspense about who will attack next.

Whether to attack the British Empire in the north, or to attack Soviet Russia in the east, or to continue westward on the wild African continent, perhaps only the mad Adolf knew the direction of the Germans in his head.

In this case, Churchill, the stubborn John Bull, did not give in, but made a noted speech, saying that Britain would fight to the end, declaring that the French campaign was over, the Spanish campaign was over, the British campaign had just begun, and the British would fight on the seas, in the fields, in the cities, and never give in.

It's just that the clamor is loud and used to stir up the people's hearts, and Churchill's psychology is actually very panicked.

This year is an election year in the United States, and in order to get votes, Roosevelt and his opponents have vowed not to bring the United States into war.

At this time, he received an invitation from China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. (To be continued.) )