At this time, Winston was facing the most difficult moment in his life.
Just one day ago, King Leopold III of Belgium suddenly surrendered to Germany without notifying the British and French governments. The Belgian army has now stopped resisting.
What gave Winston some comfort was that although Leopold III surrendered, the Belgian government did not.
By the 29th, all of Belgium had fallen, and the Belgian government formed a government-in-exile in London.
After Leopold III surrendered, the Belgian government immediately announced that it had severed ties with the king, claiming that the Belgian government was the only legitimate government of Belgium, and guaranteed that Belgium would continue to fight alongside the Allies.
At the same time, Leopold III also made a public speech on the radio, claiming that the "truce" was to better protect the Belgians. Leopold III promised on the radio that he would continue to fight for better treatment for the Belgians.
It has to be said that a small country with few people also has the wisdom of a small country with few people.
Let’s not talk about who was right or wrong between Leopold III and the Belgian government.
Now that the Belgian government is on the side of the Allies, and Leopold III surrenders to Germany, in the end, whether the Allies win the final victory or Germany wins the final victory, Belgium will be the victorious country.
It's not just Belgium that worries Winston.
Same goes for Norway.
After the start of Operation Sickle, the British and French forces were forced to withdraw from Norway, and Norway has completely fallen. In the entire Europe, only France is still insisting on fighting.
France is also in danger, and Paris may fall at any time.
For Winston, how to ensure that France retains a certain combat capability after all of France falls is the biggest problem Winston faces now.
"We need to withdraw as much troops as possible from Dunkirk and retain effective forces, not only the British Expeditionary Force, but also the French -" Winston was not satisfied with "Operation Dynamo". Among the troops that had withdrawn
, the proportion of French troops is too small, and the differential treatment is too obvious, which will plant serious hidden dangers within the British and French coalition forces.
"The performance of the French was so bad. I now doubt the French's will to fight." War Secretary Anthony Eden came from the famous Gray family in Northumberland. He went to fight in France during World War I and received a Cross of Medal.
.
Eden's elder brother and a younger brother were both killed in the Battle of Jutland. After the war, in order to realize his dream of becoming a diplomat, Eden entered Christ's College, Oxford University, and studied Arabic and Persian.
In addition, Aiden is fluent in Russian, French, and German.
"France has not surrendered yet - even if the French government surrenders, France will fight to the end!" Winston has confidence in France and must have confidence in France.
"We need the support of southern Africa to fight the German offensive." Air Force Secretary Archibald Sinclair was very worried. Since the war began, the British Air Force has suffered heavy losses, and there are less than 400 aircraft that can take off for combat.
, including a large number of biplanes with lagging performance.
The UK's support for the air force has always been seriously insufficient. Do you remember the annual funding of 150,000 pounds? It has only been a few years.
After the Spanish Civil War, the British government truly realized the role of the air force. During Winston's tenure as Air Force Minister, the British government increased its support for the air force. Unfortunately, it was too late.
When the war broke out, Britain had nearly 2,000 fighter aircraft, but most of them were old models and there were not many aircraft that could compete with the German BF109.
When Winston was serving as Air Force Secretary, he once hoped to strengthen cooperation with southern Africa and improve the technical level of the British Air Force.
Due to the low efficiency of the British government, this plan was not implemented until the outbreak of the European War. By then, Winston had already become Lord of the Admiralty.
"Don't worry, southern Africa will join the war soon, and we will never fight alone." Winston expressed full confidence.
Southern Africa has actually entered the war.
After Operation Sickle began, Italy quickly joined in and launched an attack on British Somalia.
The British government was simply unable to provide help to British Somalia at this time. Even when the German army broke through the Maas River defense line, the British government transferred six battalions originally deployed in Egypt back to the mainland to strengthen defense. This resulted in British power in the Near East becoming even more powerful.
weak.
Even six battalions of troops had to be mobilized, which clearly shows the difficulties faced by the British government.
In British Somalia, Berbera has also become an isolated island.
The British government still attached great importance to Berbera. On May 28, Berbera finally received a support force, but this did not make Sandy Jerry's mood any better.
This supporting army comes from India and only has 2,000 people.
Britain declared war on Germany, and Commonwealth countries also declared war on Germany.
However, in terms of mobilization speed, the Commonwealth countries are not the same as when the last world war broke out.
A remarkable fact is that after the outbreak of the last world war, it took only three months for the Australian and New Zealand coalition to send the first batch of troops to fight in Europe. In the end, more than 550,000 troops went to fight in Europe.
This world war has been going on for eight months, and Australia has launched a nationwide mobilization early. However, eight months later, Australia has only recruited 35,000 troops, lacks weapons and equipment, and has not even completed basic training.
In the last world war, Australia only had 5.5 million people, but it was still able to form an expeditionary force of 550,000 people.
Australia's population now exceeds 10 million.
Same goes for India.
In the last world war, India sent 2 million expeditionary troops to fight in Europe.
Although the Indian army had few opportunities to perform throughout the First World War, the attitude of the Indians was good. In order to support the British Empire, India starved to death at least 20 million people during the First World War.
When the last world war broke out, Britain promised to improve India's status after the war.
This promise was not fulfilled after the war.
So it is good that India can send 2,000 people now.
Of course, Sandy Jerry can't expect the Indians to play a big role. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Surrey, the commander of this Indian force, also thinks so.
"It's okay for the Indians to dig trenches, but if they are allowed to fight the Italians, they will collapse at the first touch." Jonathan Surrey has served in India for a long time and knows the Indians well.
Indians' ability to talk is unparalleled.
Only God knows the actual ability.
God really knows.
Even Indians themselves cannot recognize themselves.
"Do you mean digging trenches like this?" Sandy Jerry was speechless.
In front of Jerry and Sally, dozens of Indian soldiers were digging trenches.
Southern Africa has strict requirements for trenches. Traffic trenches, foxholes, air raid shelters, field hospitals, and command centers are all available.
Indian soldiers digging trenches is beyond words.
Not only digging trenches, no matter what the Indians do, they make people feel very uncomfortable.
On the surface, Indian soldiers are also working hard and working hard.
If you observe carefully, you will find that the work efficiency of Indians does not need to be compared with that of southern Africans. Compared with Africans, the gap is more than a little.
The Indian soldier in front of Jerry and Sari has been sweating for ten minutes, but he can't even plant a tree in the hole he dug. If this was placed in the Southern African Army, female soldiers would be more efficient than this.
.
"Asshole, these guys dare to be lazy in front of me!" Sari couldn't help but raised his hand and called a major and ordered the major to deal with it.
The major was not surprised, so he raised his hand and called a captain.
The captain called for a second lieutenant.
The ensign called a sergeant major.
The sergeant major should be Indian based on his skin color.
The sergeant major wanted to call someone, but when he saw the lieutenant colonel, major, captain, and second lieutenant standing next to him with wide eyes and eager eyes, he went to find a stick nearby, came back, slapped him in the face, and started beating him.
Damn it!
Sandy Jerry was an eye-opener.
When it was time to eat at noon, the Indian soldiers who had just been weak suddenly became full of energy.
The logistics standards of the Southern African military have always been very high. Chicken, fish, meat, eggs, fruits after meals, coffee, etc. are all open to the public. Officers can also enjoy Coke and ice cream, which is not common in India.
Indians don’t use chopsticks or spoons when eating. They mash them into balls with their hands and stuff them into their mouths. Sandy Jerry noticed that almost no Indian soldiers wash their hands before eating——
Well--
Indians don’t use toilet paper when going to the toilet, they use their hands——
Even though I know it's not the same hand, it's still disgusting enough.
"Have these Indian soldiers always been like this?" Jerry was curious.
"This is already the result of careful selection -" Sarri felt sad, there must be something worse, and he probably couldn't take action.
The officers ate in the tent, out of sight and out of mind. Judging from Surrey's appearance, he must have been used to it.
Jerry wasn't used to it.
After lunch, Jerry walked out of the tent.
The outside of the tent was a mess, with discarded food everywhere on the ground, half-eaten apples, intact fish pieces, untouched rice, and Jerry even saw a complete chicken leg.
"Indians have many strange customs. Some people don't eat beef, and some people don't eat fish -" Sari himself couldn't justify it. He had never heard of anyone who didn't eat chicken.
Even if you don’t eat it.
Don't take it!
What does it mean to just throw it away without eating it?
If you really don’t need money, just make it as you like.
"Sir, we lost a lot of tableware-" The chef in the white coat was very angry. This kind of thing has never happened before.
The tableware of the Southern African military is all made of stainless steel.
In 1940, stainless steel tableware was still worth a lot of money.
"How much was lost?" Jerry admired Sally more and more now.
"There are 200 people here, but only 26 dinner plates have been taken back. These bastards think that the dinner plates are all given to them, and they won't even give them to them if they ask for them -" The chef was very angry. He had never seen such a greedy person.
Even if the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company continue to scrape the land, the mercenaries will only be interested in gold or silver tableware.
what is this?
"How did you handle it before?" Jerry asked Sarri how he should handle this situation.
"Haha, it's simple, look at me -" Sari was confident, and there were no small problems.
