Chapter 343: Mess

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Churchill looked at the information in his hand and felt that after the arrival of God in 1938, he never had mercy on the poor kingdom of the British Empire.
Chamberlain left and gave Churchill an unprecedented mess. Although the King of England and other ministers were extremely reluctant to give power to such a former navy minister who let the Navy lose again and again, but no one else could dare to take over the chaos in front of him, so he had to let Churchill take over as Prime Minister of the British Empire.
But now the UK is like a long-stricken giant. The current bad state is not completely cured by changing a leadership team. At the beginning of Churchill's tenure, he knew that the problems he faced were many times greater than those that the Navy Secretary had to face.
The most terrible first thing is still the threat of submarines on the Atlantic Ocean. He receives news that a transport ship was sunk by a German submarine almost every few hours. And recently, these news have become more and more dense and fatal.
German submarines are being deployed on a large scale, and have adopted a method of attack that makes him helpless. These submarines are flying in groups on the vast Atlantic Ocean, chasing their prey like a pack of wolves. All discovered transport fleets will be attacked by German submarines at night, even if they are escorted by destroyers.
In just a few days, Britain has lost three destroyers leased from the United States and a dozen transport ships. Every day the sinking records have been refreshed these days, almost to the point of making people collapse. In comparison, the losses of the German army are really negligible. The loss of hundreds of thousands of tons of transport ships and destroyers used by the British in exchange for the poor record of sinking a German submarine. What makes Churchill most depressed is that the number of haunted German submarines is at least three times larger than the British Navy ’s previous estimates.
Before the war, the British navy evaluated the German navy. They believed that the German navy had no more than 50 submarines, and most of them were small tonnage offshore models. However, in fact, the German navy had 146 submarines at the beginning of the war. Attack model.
These submarines do not include 10 seized Dutch Navy submarines, 2 Danish submarines, and 3 Polish submarines. And these submarines are designed and manufactured by German designers, so the German navy used it lightly. Therefore, in fact, the total number of submarines available to the Germans is now astounding 151, far from what the British estimated.
Of course, when Churchill was grappling with the German submarine, he also had to resist the pressure on the British mainland fleet caused by the German high seas fleet moored in the William Harbor. That ’s the real 4 fleet aircraft carriers. The aircraft carriers and battleships currently available in the UK are just barely contending with this German fleet.
There was no way to deal with the threats at sea. The defeat on land made Churchill miserable. Lord Gott had submitted several resignations, but because there was no suitable person, Churchill had not replied these resignation letters.
British and French troops have retreated all the way, and now they have lost all of Belgium and are surrounded by the narrow Dunkirk area. Hundreds of thousands of troops have no food, no supplies, lack of ammunition and oil, not to mention breaking through, it is difficult to achieve even if they stick to it.
150,000 British Expeditionary Forces were stuck on the line of defense, and every day an urgent telegraph urging supplies to make Churchill suicidal. From food to being served to artillery and shell weapons, from oil to accessories to supplementing soldiers, it seems that the British and French coalition forces have become poor and overnight, lacking everything.
What made Churchill do not understand is that in the northern part of France, the German armored forces that swept all over did not invest in the battle to annihilate Dunkirk, but the Germans were still unstoppable. Even hours of German attack.
So Churchill began to organize the navy to carry out "Operator Action" to rush the British Expeditionary Forces back to the British mainland. But the plan was full of turmoil at the beginning. The first was that the Secretary of the Navy claimed that he could not secure sea power near the English Channel, and then the British Air Force announced that it was unable to cover the operation-it seemed that all efforts would be lost. I can watch my army become the captive of the German army.
Of course, if the navy is inferior, but still has the power to fight, although the army is almost collapsed, but it is far away from the sky, then the pain of the Air Force's skin pain makes Churchill unbearable.
The hurricane fighter has just entered service. The original fighter performance gap was made up by British engineers. The current form can be said to be a good stage. However, at this time, the German strategic bomber attacked London.
The hurricane fighter, which was originally thought to have very advanced performance, exposed many fatal problems in the process of intercepting the new German strategic bomber, which also made this interception very failed. The king was furious and asked Churchill, who had just become prime minister, about air defense issues near London, and Churchill, who had been in office for only a few days, was very faceless.
But this is not just a question of facelessness. Britain's actual air defense preparations are indeed very backward. The fact that the local air defense lacked a major general made Churchill get the headache.
The first is the reality of the backward equipment of the British homeland air defense forces. The entire army seems to be using the tactics and equipment of the First World War, relying on the listener and the naked eye to guard the sky.
The second is the antiquated anti-aircraft guns. Most anti-aircraft gun units are equipped with backward weapons. The slow-fire rate is limited, and there is no way to deal with the new German strategic bombers. Of course, a small number of troops equipped with Bofors anti-aircraft guns can make up for the lack of low-altitude defense, but in the high-altitude defense system, Britain is like a woman without clothes.
Obviously, replacing a large number of anti-aircraft artillery in a short period of time to strengthen its own anti-aircraft level is an unrealistic thing. Churchill had to focus on the development of fighters that can attack and retreat.
After all, the improvement of the fighter has been completed because of the needs of the war, but this new type of hurricane fighter still needs greater improvement in firepower. So Churchill almost immediately ordered the relevant companies and design departments to increase the firepower of the hurricane fighter from eight 7.7 mm caliber machine guns to four 20 mm caliber machine guns.
Ordered 10,000 anti-aircraft guns to strengthen the air defense forces in the south of the UK, and purchased 2,000 hurricane fighter jets to cover the technical gap with the German Air Force. Immediately develop the next generation of fighters, requiring performance to surpass Germany's existing fw-190d fighters ... Churchill issued a series of commands that he felt impossible to complete in one breath.
But there are two problems that he needs to solve most urgently. These two problems can be solved without delay. The first question is how to quickly improve the air defense capability over the British capital; the second question is how to stabilize the raw material transportation line and increase the output of fighter jets.
He was worried that once the German bombers appeared on a large scale and began to threaten the British industrial production areas, he did not have a sufficient number of fighters to face these terrible "air bombers."
Even more terrifying is that if the British industrial zone and the big city of London are simultaneously targeted, he will have to disperse his already weak fighter forces to deal with the overwhelming German bomber forces at the same time. As a result, Britain will fall into a completely disadvantaged position, and even the Navy's supplements will be affected.
Entering this vicious circle, the United Kingdom will be completely finished: transportation cannot meet the industrial production increase, industry cannot meet the loss of war, and the loss of war makes the army even more unable to guarantee the smoothness of the transportation routes-if it really enters this cycle, It is hard to say whether the United Kingdom can keep the country, let alone the surrender of Yihe.
So today, at this very moment, Churchill had to send a telegram to US President Roosevelt again, requesting the United States to continue to assist British war materials, including 1,000 p-36 fighters, and also requesting the United States to provide 50 destroyers and 20 A cruiser.
And at the end of the telegram, he noted that at least 400 p-36 fighter jets and 20 destroyers were required to be rushed to the UK-so that the British could carry out "Operator Action" and allow the British to withdraw 150,000 troops to resist the possibility of Germany. Invasion across the sea.
But the American response made Churchill very disappointed. Roosevelt claimed that he could only provide 200 p-36 fighters and 12 destroyers for Britain. Other weapons and equipment must wait for the United States to expand production capacity before it can be replenished. These promises are far from hydrolyzing, and Britain has to face the current situation alone.
Now he must fulfill his promise, because in his speech in response to the German bombing of London, the United Kingdom must respond to the German bombing. In his speech, he declared that every time the United Kingdom suffered a bomb in Germany, it would give back Hundreds and thousands of bombs in Germany! But it was not until the actual operation that it was discovered that the British bomber that could fly to Berlin, Germany, is still on the drawings.
However, the situation did not allow him to think more. He decided to heed the suggestions of several members of Congress and ministers and ordered the Air Force to take off the bomber. Without the of a suitable fighter, he attacked the German strategic target of Wilhelmshaven and bombed Germany. The events in Berlin responded as they should.
Sitting behind his desk, Churchill grabbed the telephone set on the corner of the desk and issued the plan he had already ordered: "Hello? Air Force Command? Am I Prime Minister Winston Churchill! Take off the bomber, air strike The German port, the revenge begins immediately! "