Chapter 262: Empire at Sunset
Compared to the foggy capital of London, the end of February is the same cold in Washington, except that February in London is cold to the bone, while February in Washington is much drier and colder.
On February 15, the weather was sunny in Washington, D.C., and the temperature had risen considerably.
In good weather, Americans are naturally good. Since the start of the war in Europe, the mood of the whole United States in the past few months has actually been very good. The "cute" Teutonians in Europe have begun to provoke John Bull again, and the stubborn and treacherous British cousins have once again foolishly "taken the initiative" to declare war for the sake of a European country, as they did twenty years ago.
As in the opening of the war in 1914, the British had a terrible start to the two world wars, and then had to go to their "cousin's" house with boxes of pounds to buy this and that, and the large orders brought unprecedented "war prosperity" to the United States of America.
In the history of no traverser, Germany launched World War II to save the "Roosevelt's New Deal", which was about to go bankrupt, and this plane, the outbreak of World War II because of Germany, also saved the "Ghana New Deal".
Compared with what Roosevelt encountered in history, this face of Britain is more than ten times more wolf than the same period in history. In the Battle of Bergen last month, the Royal Navy's main fleet was nearly wiped out by the weak German Navy off the coast of Bergen, only barely retaining less than half of its body because the opponent ran out of shells.
Before the war, the British Royal Navy, which was on an equal footing with the U.S. Navy, had 12 battleships, three battle cruisers, four aircraft carriers, and 56 cruisers (including 18 heavy cruisers).
However, from December 1939 to February of the following year, it was less than two months. After only two naval battles, the Royal Navy's capital ships lost more than half. Three battlecruisers were completely destroyed, half of the twelve battleships were sunk, and the cruiser was lost just over half. The British Royal Navy, the world's number one warship, fell to the third in the world in the blink of an eye.
The U.S. Navy, which was originally "very reluctantly" "king side by side" with it, did nothing. When I woke up, I became the world's No. 1 navy, which is really a good thing and gratifying.
Before Christmas last year, the new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill came to the United States to ask for help, and the new prime minister from the old empire still wanted to put on the imperial stand in Washington, and sternly rejected all kinds of "reasonable" demands put forward by the president of the United States of America, with the arrogant appearance that "without the United States, our British Empire can still settle the Teutons." At that time, he roared at the president of Ghana. Almost the entire White House can hear it.
However, Churchill's "arrogance" lasted less than a month, and after the Battle of Bergen in the first month of the following year, the British had always "felt good" about themselves in a major defeat of the Royal Navy, and they were not allowed to "revisit" the old place again on the 10th of the second month of the following year, on the 10th of the second month of the following year, to "revisit the old place" and pay homage to their little cousin in the United States.
Churchill was able to speak loudly during his trip to the United States last December, but now he is in the United States. can only bow his head and be an honest grandson, in fact, he has been doing exactly this for the past few days.
From February 12. People all over the United States have developed a good habit of turning on the transistor radio station exported from Germany at home at 12 noon or 7 p.m. every day, listening to Mr. Churchill's speeches, listening to the arguments of that guy who is supposed to preach the red threat, which is really a delusional attempt to draw the United States into war. It has long been one of the after-dinner pleasures for many Americans.
All Americans know that after this war, the British Empire has completely fallen from the throne of the world. Every day after dinner, I admire Britain's ugly state of falling from an "empire on which the sun never sets" to an "empire at sunset", but it still has to slap its swollen face and become fat, insisting on maintaining the "world's number one power" shelf. It's not a lot of fun.
On the square on Capitol Hill, Vivien Leigh, the "spokesperson for the image of war" launched by the United Kingdom, was giving a speech to the microphone and the thousands of American audience in the audience. The content of the speech was nothing more than advocating the "justice" of the British in this war and shouting that the United States should "bear responsibility" to the world.
A few years ago, Vivien Leigh became popular in the United States for starring in the film "Gone with the Wind", and won the Oscar that year, and is a household name in the United States. Churchill also brought her to the United States to "ask for help" this time, and her purpose was naturally to use her influence over the Americans.
As Vivien Leigh's businessman, backroom chat and best friend, Maria also followed Vivien Leigh, and she sat in the audience, smiling and listening to Vivien Leigh's speech.
After the Battle of Bergen, Maria was awarded a Knight's Cross in recognition of her intelligence work for Germany. Of course, for the sake of secrecy, the medal was not issued directly to her personally, but was received by her immediate supervisor on her behalf. As a high-ranking spy who had penetrated into Britain and had frequent access to sensitive areas of the British army, there were less than four people in Germany who had direct access to its intelligence, two of whom were Hannah and one Linhan.
Before the Battle of Bergen, it was the photographs provided by Maria that allowed the German Navy to confirm that the British Navy had begun to install a large number of radars on warships, and only then did targeted measures be taken. The photos provided by Maria were secretly taken by Vivien Leigh when she was performing in Scarpa's Bay, and she pretended to be the frame for her photoshoot.
The content of Vivien Leigh's speech today was prepared for her by a group of British visitors to the United States, and she also had the opportunity to read it once beforehand. Vivien Leigh on the screen is beautiful and moving, but what is inversely proportional to her beauty is her knowledge and brain. Of course, most of the beautiful female stars have this problem, and there are only a few who are beautiful and have brains, and most of the vases in Jin Yu are outside.
Maria was not only a high-ranking spy sent by Germany to England, but she was also a cultist of Sephiroth. She is exactly thirty years old this year, and her appearance can only be described as average. On the surface, Maria and Vivien Leigh are friends, but in fact, she looks down on this empty English vase in her heart. Two days ago, after Vivien Leigh's speech was delivered by Vivien Leigh in Germany, Maria was waiting to see a good show here.
After Vivien Leigh's speech, she was soon surrounded by a large number of American reporters, followed by all kinds of sharp questions.
"Ms. Vivien Leigh, are you here advocating that the United States should enter the war, and you mean that the American people will shed tons of blood for the benefit of Great Britain, as they did in 1914?"
"At the time of the Versailles peace talks, Britain and the French joined forces at that time to help Britain force the United States of America to force the League of Nations at the most critical time.
"Pay back, pay back! In the last world war, I remember that your country and France were still struggling to pay their debts after the war, and how much are you going to owe this time? ”
There are many people who slap and slap their faces, and a few of these journalists are Germans, and many more are "isolationists" in the United States. So far, the voice of isolationists in the United States has been very strong.
Vivien Leigh is just a beautiful actress, not a politician with a cheeky skin comparable to the main gun turret of a battleship, where can she cope with the snarky mouths of these crazy reporters. Fortunately, at this time, her own entourage helped her drive the American reporters away, clearing the way, and ending with a sentence of "no comment", which made the American reporters more indignant in addition to disappointment.
Outside the Capitol Hill in the United States, a group of Chinese overseas Chinese and German-Americans were marching in protest, holding up signs that the Americans should not participate in the war to defend Britain, a colonial imperialist country, and that the British on Capitol Hill were singing against the British.
Propaganda is also part of the war. Although it is very possible to know that the Americans are involved in World War II and help Britain, it is also good to do something in propaganda and delay the entry of the United States into the war as much as possible.
So far, the United States has acquiesced to the existence of these "anti-war" voices at home, because it is also their choice to raise the price of the British.
The purpose of Churchill's current visit to the United States was to ask the United States to buy several battleships to make up for the huge losses of domestic warships. After the Battle of Bergen, the Royal Navy collectively suffered from a phobia of night fighting, not to mention that the battleships in its hands had fallen to a pitiful six, and these old antiques of the treaty era, even if they were four against two to fight less, had no advantage over German ships. The new George V-class battleships will not be commissioned until September this year at the earliest, and when Churchill arrives in the United States, the German Navy, which was slightly wounded after the Battle of Norwegian Sea, has completed repairs and is ready to set sail into the Atlantic Ocean at any time for another smashing operation.
And with the poor family background of the British Navy with only "two or three big cats and small kittens" left in the family, let alone destroying the opponent, even if it is encountering, unless only the remaining six warships are all dispatched, it is very dangerous to encounter German ships and even themselves, not to mention the problem of "German ships are invincible in night battles" that is completely unsolvable in the face of the British.
Now in the White House, Churchill is suppressing his anger and is forced to "calmly" discuss the topic of exchanging colonies for warships with the president of Cactus Ghana. Only this time, the Americans' appetite is much greater than it was two months ago, and not only do they want the 99-year lease of the dozens of Atlantic islands, but also the Southeast Asian issue, the Indian issue, the Middle East issue, and the Suez Canal issue are once again on the table.
During the last White House meeting, Churchill unceremoniously pulled back the dirty hand stretched out by the cactus Garner, but this time, under the pressure of the shape, he had to pinch his nose to endure the stench exhaled by the red neck of the United States in front of him, and then signed one treaty after another that can be called "loss of power and humiliation of the country". (To be continued......)
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