On the European battlefield, on the night of August 23, during a small-scale bombing operation, a German bomber lost its course due to weather conditions and mistakenly flew over London and dropped a bomb.

On August 25, in retaliation for the bombing of London, the British Royal Air Force sent 81 bombers to attack the German capital Berlin, while carrying out small-scale bombing of other large German cities.

At this time, both Germany and Britain tore off all the masks of "gentlemen's war" and opened the box of war for attacks on civilian targets.

On Monday, August 26, Li Junhao received an urgent telegram from Washington, and Deputy Secretary of State Ayers asked him to provide an analysis of the air battle in Britain within 24 hours, the sooner the better!

Although he was a little surprised, Li Junhao knew that this old man must be in urgent need of his own opinion on the German "Sea Lion Plan", so he did not dare to slack off, and immediately began to analyze and write.

Fortunately, with the experience of a previous life, it is relatively easy to write this report. It took him three hours to finish the report, check it, and send it back to Washington.

In this report, he briefly mentioned the actions of the "Sea Lion operation" in the past few days, and believed that the reason why the German army did not achieve the intended operational objectives was not only the stupidity of its air force commander Goering, but also the flaws of the plan itself, the biggest of which was that no war in the world could be ended by the actions of the air force alone, just as the most powerful battleships could not be driven on land, and the fighters could not carry out the occupation!

Later generations of military fans once argued why Hitler only used the air force and did not send the land force to land at the same time, and many people believed that the strength of the British naval fleet was still stronger than that of Germany at that time, and the German army did not dare to send land forces to carry out landing operations. But Li Junhao thinks that this should not be the reason!

At that time, the Germans had already occupied all of France, and could choose any point in France to cross the English Channel at any time, and the narrowest point of the Strait of Dover, which was only 34 kilometers (21 nautical miles) wide from Calais in France to Dover, England, could be crossed by a slightly faster landing ship in less than an hour......

Although the British fleet was stronger than Germany in strength, it did not dare to sail into the narrow Strait of Dover, because the water environment here was not suitable for the deployment of the large fleet at all, and it could not give full play to its advantages; In addition, if the German air force was strong, if the British fleet really dared to come, it would face a three-dimensional attack on the sea and air, and it would not survive the victory of the war.

Some people also believe that at that time, Britain concentrated British, some French, and some colonial troops on the three islands, the number of regular troops reached 500,000, and it also organized millions of militia units called "Home Guards...... So Germany abandoned the plan of landing operations, hoping to force Britain to surrender with the power of its air force.

Li Junhao also disagrees with this point of view, is Hitler the kind of person who gave up fighting because he was afraid that the loss of troops would be too great? Apparently not!

In the report, Li Junhao stated all these reasons in his own words, and finally asserted that until the end of the air war in Britain, Germany would not send ground troops to land, for two reasons:

One is that Hitler did not pay enough attention to the British people's determination to resist before, and probably really thought that the air force alone would force them to surrender, but later found that it could not be done, and the time had been delayed, and the best opportunity to attack was lost;

The second reason is that the mainland plot is at work, the British Isles are three small islands, what Hitler really wants is the Soviet Union with a huge land area, it is estimated that in his mind, it is not worth wasting manpower, material resources and time on the small land of the British Isles!

Therefore, the "Sea Lion Project", which started in a hurry, will also end in a hurry.

He expected that in a month at most, the Luftwaffe would stop its large-scale air raids; Of course, there will still be small-scale air raids in the coming days, but the focus of the German offensive will shift......

——

Ailes was very relieved to receive the analysis report so quickly, no matter what the content was, it showed that Little Og still attached great importance to what he had explained, and when he heard that it was urgent, he must not have lost time.

However, after reading the report, Ayers frowned, a little difficult to judge. It's not that the analysis in the report is wrong, but he doesn't believe that Germany will soon give up air strikes against Britain!

After the United States made it clear that it would not participate in the war at this time, Britain no longer asked the United States to send troops, but it wanted weapons and equipment, ranging from warships and airplanes to tanks and armored vehicles, as small as rifles and bullets.

Under these circumstances, President Roosevelt, who had just decided to run for re-election, was under great pressure.

At present, isolationism in all walks of life in the United States is still very serious, especially the members of Congress, if Roosevelt insists on a large amount of foreign military aid at this critical moment of the election campaign, it will definitely affect the next election; But if you ignore the British pleas, you will offend a large number of British voters - you know, the white people who make up the American high society are basically from the United Kingdom!

The reason why Ayers urgently asked Li Junhao, who was far away in Shanghai, for his views on the air battle in Britain was mainly because of a special military aid requested by Britain - 50 destroyers. This was to defend the sea routes between the British colonies and the mainland, to deal with the German submarine threat, and with the addition of these destroyers, the British main fleet could concentrate on defending the homeland in order to contain the possible landing operations of the Germans at any time.

President Roosevelt was hesitant in his heart, the amount of military aid requested by Britain this time involved a huge amount, but Churchill, while claiming that it was urgently needed, said that he had no funds to pay for the purchase of ships, and hoped that it would be in the form of pure aid.

In order to share the worries of the old president, Ayres immediately came to the White House with Li Junhao's report......

——

On 2 September, after several rounds of negotiations, Roosevelt adhered to the bottom line and finally signed an agreement with Britain stipulating that the United States would transfer 50 destroyers to Britain, and Britain would lease some naval bases around the world to the United States.

Because the agreement did not disregard U.S. interests and expanded the U.S. presence abroad, it was quickly approved by Congress; But in reality, Roosevelt's little trick succeeded—the signing of this agreement meant the end of formal neutrality and the beginning of a limited American entry into the war.

(End of chapter)