It’s not just the navy that worries the British government. At the same time as the London Naval Conference was being held, the UK was still looking for ways to restrict its air force.
Many people don't know that the most powerful air force in Europe is not the United Kingdom or France, but Germany, which is restricted by the Treaty of Versailles and cannot have an air force at all.
The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany could not have an air force, but it did not impose restrictions on civil aviation.
This gave the Germans the opportunity to study aviation technology, and the Heinkel Company was developed on this basis.
As we all know, southern Africa has the most powerful air power in the world.
The air power in Southern Africa is based on aviation clubs all over Southern Africa.
Of course, Britain and France also know this situation, but Britain and France are old colonial countries after all. Their pride and self-esteem do not allow them to follow the footsteps of southern Africa.
On the contrary, the pragmatic Germans seized the opportunity and imitated southern Africa in relying on aviation clubs to train pilots.
By 1925, like southern Africa, aviation clubs had spread all over Germany and trained a large number of pilots for Germany. At this time, the only restriction on Germany's development of the air force was the "Contract of Versailles".
After Germany entered the Rhineland, it had actually broken through the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles.
The British appeasement policy gave the Germans greater courage. The Germans have now openly established an air force, which made the British government finally feel the threat from Germany.
The key reason why the British government can implement the continental balance policy is that Britain is isolated from the European continent and has the English Channel as a barrier. With its powerful Royal Navy, it can ensure the security of the British mainland.
The emergence of aircraft broke the restrictions of land. In the past, when European imperial countries attacked the British mainland, they had to first defeat the Royal Navy. This is also the reason why Britain has always ensured the military expenditure of the Royal Navy no matter how difficult it is.
Now the air force can fly across the English Channel and directly threaten the British mainland. Britain finally feels the pain of France.
In this context, the United Kingdom proposed to impose restrictions on the air force. In order not to further irritate the Germans, the British government hoped that Britain, France and Italy could destroy some of the aircraft in their inventory and control the total number of aircraft to around 500, so that peace could be brought to the world.
Winston was very dissatisfied with this suggestion.
Winston has always been a rare person in British politics who is wary of Germany.
Winston often called on the British government to be vigilant against Germany on various occasions. For this reason, Winston did not hesitate to break with the Conservative Party led by Neville, and often gave speeches in the House of Commons to criticize the Conservative government's appeasement policy.
criticize.
Unfortunately, there are only a few followers. Winston does not belong to the Conservative Party or the Labor Party. As an "Independent Party", he has a high profile in the UK. After the British government proposed to restrict the air force, Winston angrily resigned from his position in the cabinet to express his wish.
Protests and anger against the Conservative cabinet.
"When I was in southern Africa, I talked about the German problem with Lord Nyasaland many times. At that time, Lord Nyasaland insisted that the world war would break out again in the near future. I thought the situation was not that bad at the time, but now
It seems that your father is right." Winston looked at Arthur with apologetic eyes, he should not have made such a slip of the tongue.
Arthur smiled and passed by. Not only was he not angry, but he felt a little warm.
Rock feels indebted to Arthur.
Arthur hopes more to be recognized by others.
If one day, the first thing people think of when they think of Arthur is the Baron of Cyprus instead of Roque's illegitimate son, this is Arthur's greatest wish.
"The situation in Europe is getting more and more tense now. We must work together to overcome the difficulties." Winston did not say something. In fact, Neville was not a complete compromise. He also had difficulties as a last resort.
During the World War, France suffered 1.5 million casualties, and British casualties also exceeded one million.
France lost a generation because of the world war, and Britain did not fare much better.
Just a few days ago, thousands of students at Oxford University, instigated by a certain guy, publicly declared that students at Oxford University "will not fight for the British King and the British Government."
This is a very bad signal. Oxford University students are undoubtedly the elite class in the UK.
In the last world war, the British elite, represented by aristocratic children, enthusiastically participated in the war. As a result, they suffered heavy losses in the war, which led to today's result.
The elite represents the backbone of British society. Students at Oxford University have received a complete modern education. They should have been the group of people who love the United Kingdom the most, but now they openly proclaim that they will not fight for their country. This has caused a very serious situation.
The bad influence not only caused divisions in British society, but also fueled the ambitions of the Germans.
"Even if the United Kingdom does not impose restrictions on Germany, it should still be prepared for war." Arthur said carefully. Britain today is more dangerous than before the outbreak of the last world war.
Before the outbreak of the last world war, the British Minister of War was Kitchener. Before the outbreak of the world war, Kitchener had the foresight to order 2 million Lee Enfield rifles from southern Africa, so Britain was conducting a nationwide mobilization.
After that, we can arm ourselves as quickly as possible.
Even so, it still took the UK four full months to complete its nationwide mobilization.
So what about this time?
When the elite actively participated in the war, it took four months to complete the nationwide mobilization.
Now that the elite has publicly stated that they will not fight for the country, how many months will it take to complete the nationwide mobilization again?
Is six months enough?
What about ten months?
It didn't take four months, and France only resisted for 40 days.
"We all know we should do this, but it's too difficult!" Winston sighed, looking up to the sky. He really had no way to save himself.
A fact that cannot be ignored is that Germany is recovering at a lightning speed, so fast that people are caught off guard. It will not take long, maybe only one or two years, for Germany to return to its peak state.
There are many reasons why we have reached this point, the most important of which is the Allied Powers' plunder of Germany after the end of the last world war.
It sounds amazing. Germany, which was completely plundered by the Allied Powers, sounds like it should be in a state of collapse, with no chance of a comeback.
But the reality is so magical. After the end of the World War, the Allies moved away approximately 1 billion pounds worth of property from Germany, including the Germania Shipyard in southern Africa and Zeiss Optics.
However, in just a few years, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Southern Africa gave Germany another loan of about 1.5 billion pounds.
This is amazing. Germany not only made up for its losses through loans, but also successfully completed a wave of upgrading of industrial manufacturing. Germany's current take-off is based on this foundation.
In contrast, Britain and France remain complacent.
After the World War, Germany was not allowed to possess heavy weapons, including machine guns and artillery. Therefore, Germany's heavy weapons were either taken away by the Allies as compensation or destroyed on the spot.
After Britain and France took away German weapons, they did not destroy them. Instead, they sealed them as combat readiness materials in preparation for possible World War II.
So now warehouses in Britain and France are filled with old weapons used during the last world war.
Not only is the quality old, but the technology is backward.
Let’s look at Germany again.
Because all weapons and equipment have been taken away, to rearm Germany, it can only produce newer and more advanced weapons.
Raw materials are needed to produce weapons.
The most resource-rich country in the world is southern Africa.
So the Americans sold scrap metal to the Japanese, and southern Africa sold scrap metal to the Germans.
It's not just "junk metal", it also includes large amounts of aluminum, nickel, tungsten, chromium, natural rubber, and petroleum.
Let’s not talk about copper and iron, which are the basic materials for the development of heavy industry.
The latter are all indispensable raw materials for the development of military industry, especially oil.
Winston went to find Roark for this main purpose.
You can just sell some scrapped ships and machinery, but can't there be restrictions on the export of rare metals and oil?
You must know that every gram of rare metals sold to Germany will eventually be made into bullets by the Germans to start wars. Do you think that in World War I, not enough people died in Britain and France?
Arthur didn't say anything. This was not his business. He hadn't even figured out the naval meeting yet.
While the British government is trying every means to limit the arms race, southern Africa has quietly completed the upgrading of weapons and equipment.
This is mainly thanks to the cooperation of the new Brazilian government.
Brazil's new government built an army from scratch, with up to 500,000 troops.
In the southern African war preparation warehouse, there were not many weapons and equipment produced during World War I. This time, they were completely covered by the new Brazilian government, and the price was still very high. This made Martin ecstatic.
"Our local troops, including the National Guard, have all been equipped with semi-automatic rifles developed over the past 26 years, but this is far from enough. We still need at least 1.5 million semi-automatic rifles to replenish the combat readiness warehouse. In addition, we
All light tanks have been eliminated. In the future, our mechanized forces will be based on the 'Tiger' heavy tanks, supplemented by medium-sized 'Leopard' tanks. The Alligator armored vehicles have been updated to the third generation, with run-proof tires and mine-proof V-type tanks.
The new chassis, more ferocious firepower, and faster speed can provide better cover for the light infantry." Martin is satisfied that the current Southern African Army has far exceeded Martin's original idea.
"Light tanks are still in demand and cannot be completely eliminated." Rock demanded a reasonable combination. Heavy tanks and medium tanks have too high requirements for traffic conditions. They often weigh dozens of tons and many bridges in Europe cannot bear them. How can this be done?
