On the first day of June 1940, Churchill, the new Prime Minister of the British Empire, stood helplessly in the House of Commons and delivered a speech.
Dunkirk was defeated, and the defeat was quite ugly. In the end, even the expeditionary force's attempt to retreat failed to materialize.
War is not won by retreating, but if the defeated army fails to retreat, then there will be no hope of winning the war in the future.
Perhaps due to his obesity, Churchill looked particularly clumsy when walking today. No one can tell whether the culprit for the Prime Minister's condition is his bloated body or the annoying fighting conditions on the front line.
"It's time to start." Waving his hand, Churchill signaled the members of the House of Commons to quiet down: "Let me review everything so far."
In the original time and space, "Operation Dynamo" at this time was still continuing until it finally successfully withdrew the main British troops and some French regiments.
But now, the evacuation operation has been terminated. The vigorous "Operation Dynamo" only evacuated a total of more than 4,000 British officers and soldiers, most of whom were logistics troops, which will not be of much help in future wars. As for weapons and baggage, artillery trucks and
, countless military supplies and combat equipment have also become trophies of the German army.
In the Dunkirk area alone, the British and French forces abandoned a total of 1,200 cannons, 750 anti-aircraft guns, 500 anti-tank guns, 63,000 cars, 75,000 motorcycles, 700 tanks, 21,000 machine guns, 6,400
Anti-tank guns and 500,000 tons of military supplies.
Perhaps, it won't be long before these equipment that originally belonged to the British army will be used by the German army and used to attack the British themselves.
To be able to speak calmly and calmly at such a moment requires an extremely shameless face and extraordinary eloquence!
"Although we have lost this battle, we will never surrender or give in. We will fight to the end!" Unlike the general pessimism of the MPs, Churchill was the passionate subject who made it clear from the beginning that he would fight to the end.
Churchill knew very well that the more the situation deteriorated, the less he could mention too much pessimism. On the contrary, he wanted to celebrate with great fanfare and turn the failed withdrawal operation into a successful one.
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It doesn’t matter if you say you want to turn black into white, or if you say you want to deceive yourself and others without shame. In short, only by inspiring people can we lay the foundation for future struggles. Any discouraging words will be taboo!
Of course, as a mature politician, Churchill would not foolishly confuse right and wrong right away and insist on saying that the action was successful. Members of the House of Commons are not fools. If you want to convince them, you must proceed step by step.
"We must be very careful not to describe this rescue as a victory. I understand that wars are not won by retreat. However, there is victory in this rescue, and this should be especially noted." Churchill's voice was very special.
Calm, giving people a natural sense of reliability.
In addition, he chose the most tactful way to sum up this failure, which made the lawmakers feel that he was impeccable.
After all, what others say is true, and it sounds very pertinent, and there is no obvious deliberate exaggeration of certain elements.
"This victory was won by the Air Force. Many soldiers who returned have never seen the actions of our Air Force. All they saw were enemy bombers that escaped the cover attack of our Air Force. Therefore, they underestimated the achievements of our Air Force.
Regarding this matter, the reason is here, I must tell you this matter."
Without giving everyone a chance to think about it, Churchill immediately used a diversionary approach to bring up the Air Force, which had the most impressive record, to talk about the issue.
Of course, the record of the Royal Air Force is actually not good. In order to cover the retreat, the British Air Force dispatched an average of 300 fighter sorties every day. But after three days, more than 140 fighter planes were lost, which can be said to be heartbreaking.
However, compared with the Royal Navy's defeat in the North Sea and the Army's expeditionary force's abandonment of Dunkirk, the Air Force has become the tallest among the short.
"This victory was won by the Air Force. Many soldiers who returned have never seen the actions of our Air Force. All they saw were enemy bombers that escaped the cover attack of our Air Force. They underestimated the achievements of our Air Force. Regarding this matter
, the reason is here. I must tell you this."
Once you have laid the foundation for this step, you are basically in place.
Next, Churchill began to make up a story rhythm of three parts reality, seven parts fiction, and ninety parts relying on imagination.
"This was a great test of the strength of the British and German air forces. The object of the Luftwaffe was to render impossible our retreat from the beaches, and to sink all the thousands of ships which were densely packed there. To this end they worked with all their might and
to advance, but they were finally repulsed; they were frustrated in the execution of their mission. We withdrew thousands of our armies as planned, and the price they paid was four times the loss they inflicted on us.
"...This has proven that all our aircraft of all types and all our flight crews are better than what Germany has!"
This is typical nonsense. Not to mention that the Royal Air Force did not inflict four times the losses of the British Air Force on the German Air Force. Let’s just say that the air superiority over Dunkirk has been maintained by the Germans. One can guess what the Royal Air Force actually did.
Will it be successful?
If it really caused such heavy losses to the Luftwaffe and still could not gain air superiority, wouldn't it mean that the total base of the Luftwaffe was so large that it could withstand what the British considered huge losses and still have a strong combat effectiveness.
How terrifying must the total number of German fighter planes be?!
"The pilots of the Royal Air Force are all good. It was them who made Operation Dynamo go smoothly!" At this moment, Churchill didn't care whether the story was reasonable or not. Anyway, the losses of the Luftwaffe would not be confirmed until a long time later. Even so.
Now that the German official has released a loss data, Churchill, or the Germans, may have fabricated the data to boost morale.
What Churchill has to do now is to make everyone believe that the Royal Air Force is powerful and far superior to the German Air Force. At least, let everyone believe that now.
The navy has been humiliated. The undefeated myth of the imperial navy, which never sets on the sun, has been broken one after another. The small defeat in Norway can be explained, but the big defeat in Beihai is really unbearable.
In a naval battle, 6 battleships, 12 cruisers, 21 destroyers, and 80% of the carrier-based aircraft on four aircraft carriers were lost. Such a loss would be impossible to make up for in less than ten years.
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Not to mention building a battleship or cruiser, it would take several years at best. Even after the construction is completed, sea trials must be carried out, and personnel must be staffed. The officers and soldiers must become familiar with the battleship and undergo training, which will take at least a year.
Even the hundreds of aircraft carrier-based aircraft cannot be replenished in a short period of time. Without the carrier-based aircraft, what is the use of the four aircraft carriers left by the Home Fleet? Are they used as target training for the German Navy?
Everyone knows that the Royal Navy has been damaged and cannot recover. So to defend the homeland, we have to rely on the Royal Air Force, which is "evenly matched" with the Luftwaffe.
At this time, if Churchill didn't brag about the Air Force, who should he brag about?
