The 800 kilograms of explosives, the end speed of Mach 4, and the invincible state that cannot be intercepted or even tracked constitutes the terrifying London night on April 3.

After several years of lockdown, Great Britain has planted food in the fields, on both sides of the road, even in public places and green belts, and other places where crops can be grown. The self-sufficiency rate of food has increased year by year, basically meeting more than 80% of the domestic needs. In addition to meat, poultry, eggs and milk products, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to go hungry. In addition, London is a city where the government focuses on ensuring supply, so it is normal to eat three meals a day. When the German army launched the V2 missile, it happened to be the time for London residents to have dinner together. Due to the misleading broadcast of BBC, which is the least courageous family, most London people did not believe in the propaganda of German radio. Instead, they believed that the German side exaggerated and ignored the disaster that was about to face until their family was buried in the fire...

The 500 V2 missiles caused great damage to London, especially when civil buildings collapsed as long as they were hit by one shot. Due to the probability of covering weapons and limited accuracy, in addition to residential areas that turned into rubble, several important landmark buildings in London were also doomed, including the famous Big Ben, the Thames Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and even Buckingham Palace, all of which were attacked. Fortunately, the missiles hit were only 1-2, and the buildings themselves were relatively solid, so they did not cause irreversible damage.

The most terrifying thing is that you don’t know when the missile will fall. When an emergency cabinet meeting was held to discuss countermeasures, a V2 missile exploded near the Prime Minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Street. The huge explosion and shock caused the basement shaking, as if it might collapse at any time. Everyone was scared to death. Churchill himself looked pale and frustrated, and his hand that had always been holding a cigar could not help but tremble.

Although it is very troublesome to deal with jet bombers, the top British military and political leaders are not ignorant of this. The UK itself is developing jet bombers based on the research and development of meteor jets. About a year and a half, perhaps products will be released, but everyone is shocked about the extraordinary weapon of V2 missiles.

"Have you asked our scientists? What kind of secret weapon is this?"

"It's a long-range rocket... a rocket that flies out of the atmosphere and then flies back." Marshal Brooke gestured a parabola with his hand, "It's roughly like this in the flight trajectory."

When they heard that they flew out of the atmosphere and flew back, their slightly calmed faces turned pale again. They had never heard of anything that could fly out of the atmosphere and flew back...

"Can we make it?" Churchill asked with a shock.

"No." Marshal Brooke's face was full of frustration. "Our scientists have studied rockets, but they are only scientific research and exploration. They are part of atmospheric physics, but they have not designed them as weapons. At present, we have developed some rockets based on air defense needs. I can't explain the specific technical level differences, but scientists say that the gap between us and Germany in this field is about 5-10 years."

Everyone was speechless. The difference in technical level in 5-10 years seems to be not too big in peacetime. It was a drastic change in war. When the Germans first launched the Battle of Britain 5 years ago, they used the B-109110 fighter and Ju-88 bomber, which were still quite new. What are they now? Even the jets are on the field!

"Then we need to increase the budget, step up research, and focus on ensuring resource demand. We must have what the Germans have!" Churchill thought for a while and added, "Please pay attention to searching to see if there are any explosions of rockets. We will find ways to imitate some."

Aiden couldn't help but complain: "Prime Minister, this is a matter for the future. The most urgent task is to discuss how to overcome the difficulties!"

In fact, the German side was also guarding against this by the British. In addition to touching the fuse, the v2 missile also installed a timed explosion fuse to prevent the complete physical objects from falling into the hands of the UK and the United States.

Churchill glared at him and almost said, "What can I do? I'm also desperate...", but he held back and said calmly, "I guess there are not many advanced Germans, and it should be difficult to make them. Otherwise, Hitler would have been fighting over here for a long time instead of just using it to attack London. The key question now is to prevent the Germans from landing, how about the navy?"

Before Pound spoke, Fraser, the commander of the Royal Navy's local fleet, complained: "The local fleet currently has only some light warships, at most it can only be anti-submarine and cannot stop the German fleet. Several main battleships have not been completed and cannot be used. The large fleet must be returned..."

Pound then said, "I have sent a telegram to Marshal Deere, asking him to request the main force of the Atlantic Fleet to rescue us through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In addition, I have sent a secret telegram to General Cunningham, if the Americans do not save him, let him take the Royal Navy to act decisively."

Churchill certainly understood what it means to act decisively. In fact, as soon as Cunningham's "British and British" policy was implemented, the cabinet knew everything, and it was full of praise, believing that Cunningham had fulfilled the "glorious duty of a noble royal naval general." Churchill was also worried that it would undermine British-US relations and wanted to replace people, but no one in the cabinet agreed, and even Pound and Fraser did not support it. In the end, he could only give up in disappointment.

In addition to personal likes and dislikes, different perspectives and positions of everyone's view of the problem also determine different ideas: as a resistance politician, Churchill believed that without the support of the United States, he could not persist in the Royal Navy's family's wealth, and believed that Cunningham could not be an obstacle to British-US cooperation; while Aiden and Attley believed that if Britain and Germany compromised, the Royal Navy would be retained and sold to the Germans, the French could sell their fleet at a good price, at least it would be much better than giving it to the Americans for nothing!

Even Ribbentrop knew about Cunningham's actions. He expressed his "respect" to Cunningham and the Royal Navy during the negotiations, believing that this was a symbol of the independence spirit of the British Empire and was not comparable to "American lackeys" like Churchill. Due to the development of the situation in the past few months, coupled with the unfavorable consequences of the Battle of Newfoundland and Cape Verde, the balance of the neutral faction (ambiguous faction) within the UK once again tilted towards the compromise faction represented by Edward VIII. The conditions and positions of both sides of the UK and Germany were closer, and it turned out that many problems that were originally located between the peace negotiations between the UK and Germany were also solved.

The most typical example is the issue of India. Edward VIII proposed to retain India for the British Empire. Later, due to the Japanese attack, the condition was once modified to retain North India. However, Germany said that Germany did not take a stance on this. If the British and Indian troops could protect North India, Germany would not obstruct it. However, with the progress of the Japanese Indian dispatched troops, Mountbatten suffered consecutive defeats. Not to mention North India, it would be a luxury to have a place in India in the future. Finally, Slim seized the opportunity of the Japanese army's greed for merit and advancement and fought a small defensive counterattack in Kolkata, but this victory was just a flash in the pan. When Fengwen of Yamashita re-adjusted the deployment and ordered the troops to advance steadily, the loss of Kolkata was inevitable.

By late March, the British and Indian troops had lost Chittagong in Bangladesh, and the eastern coastline was all under the hands of the Japanese army. The Indian dispatched troops and the Myanmar Front were geographically connected. After the 6 division reinforcements of Ishihara Kanr gave Yamashita Bofumi, the six divisions and reinforcements sent in India had reached 13 divisions and 6 independent chariot brigades (including the Myanmar Army), and there were 5 flight divisions. The total strength of the Indian dispatched troops was approaching the Chinese dispatched troops, and the degree of mechanization and equipment level were far better than that, ranking second among the five major heavy troops of the Japanese Army (the First Kanto Army, the Fourth Southern Army, and the Fifth Korean Army).

In terms of equipment level alone, if the Kanto Army had not bought German equipment worth more than 500 million yuan in March, the Indian Expeditionary Army would have ranked first.

The total number of British and Indian troops in India has dropped to less than 120,000, and even their allies have begun to shake their sway: the US Airways stationed in India has not received any follow-up replenishment for a long time, and the number of aircraft has become less and less, and it is becoming more and more difficult to deal with. Now their opponents have been replaced by a large number of F-190 and B-109219; in order to cope with the complex domestic political situation, the Kuomintang used the excuse of maintaining the southwest defense line and took back more than 10,000 troops to India sent in India back to China to fight the civil war. The Chief of Staff of the Chinese Theater Stilwell expressed firm opposition, but because the Kuomintang cannot get substantial supplies, Stilwell's speech is equivalent to farting, Chongqing ignores him at all, and Mountbatten can do nothing about it.

The most embarrassing part was Yan'an. It was originally intended to send 20,000 troops to India at the request of the United States, but because India's route was blocked by Japan, American weapons and equipment could not be delivered. Even the materials and equipment sent secretly from South Africa and Australia should be given priority to supplement the British and Indian troops, so it was impossible to provide arms to the Communist troops. In addition, the British and Eighth Route Army did not trust the combat effectiveness of the Turkish Eighth Route, and finally politely declined this troops. After the large-scale friction between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the civil war was initiated, the Communist Party could not actually withdraw 20,000 troops before going to India. Therefore, under the coordination of the United States, the Indian theater finally accepted more than 200 Yan'an military personnel as observers. The Americans still had to give face.

The military delegation sent by Yan'an had a large number of intermediate cadres in the army with a high cultural foundation. In addition, more than 50 politically reliable graduates from Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai universities were selected as translators and civilian positions, and Chen Geng was selected as the leader. First, he had the qualification to graduate from the Whampoa Military Academy and received a formal military education; second, he had engaged in secret front-line struggles, was familiar with people, and could maintain his negotiations with the National Party on the scene; third, Chen Geng was humorous and free and easy, and was easy to get along with others.

No matter how much the British looked down on the Eighth Route Army, only Yan'an expressed his willingness to support the British side at this critical moment. Therefore, since Mountbatten, he still gave this military delegation the due courtesy.
Chapter completed!