Reinhard hasn't been this embarrassed for a long time.
Sitting in front of him was the majestic king of the British Empire, the king of the British and Commonwealth Dominions, and the Emperor of India.
It's just that this king belongs to his predecessor.
The former Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor, who was the King of England just five years ago, was actually "held hostage" under the arrangement of Roth and Ribbentrop, who took the initiative to share Reinhard's worries.
Berlin!
What's more important is that Reinhard himself was completely unaware of this matter.
It was only this morning when he got up to have breakfast that he saw a smiling Ross running over, excitedly saying that he wanted to tell him some good news.
The good news is that Rose took the initiative to share the pressure on the troubled Reinhardt and found a "catalyst" to solve the British problem.
This thing, which was jointly accomplished by Gestapo executive Roth and Ribbentrop, head of the Third Reich's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was to kidnap the Duke of Windsor from Portugal and bring him to Berlin, where he was staying!
In the beginning, this was just a small spontaneous action by Ribbentrop and Roth, and there was really no need to report it to Reinhard.
Initially, Ribbentrop only contacted the German representatives in Spain and put Stoller, the German ambassador in Madrid, in charge. He used all means possible to remove the British military officer in France who had fled to Spain at that time.
On behalf of the Duke of Windsor, he was detained in Spain for about two weeks.
At that time, France had just been defeated, and the Duke of Windsor rushed to Spain with his wife almost two days before the French government surrendered to avoid being captured by the German army.
Unfortunately, the relationship between Spain and Germany has been inextricably linked as early as the Civil War.
Although Spain invariably chose neutrality in important military operations such as Germany's surprise attack on Poland, its surprise attack on France, and its crossing of the English Channel, this country was essentially a member of the Allies and had joined the Allies early on.
members of.
In fact, after receiving the request from the German Ambassador in Madrid, Spanish Foreign Minister Atizah immediately complied with the German request and met with the Duke of Windsor, without revealing at all that "this meeting was at the request of Germany."
Then, he quickly sent the results of the meeting to Berlin in a "top secret" telegram: "The Duke of Windsor agreed to accept a two-week political meeting arranged by the Spanish government to promote further food trade between Spain and the United Kingdom.
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Things were not over yet. Soon, Spanish leader General Franco also heard about this plan.
Franco, who didn't know the inside story, thought that this incident came from Reinhard's instruction. In order to win Reinhard's favor and offset Spain's guilt for not participating in the alliance's military operations, Franco refused to invite him.
Ji Lai joined in and contributed to this plan.
After all, among the member states of the Allied Powers, the Kingdom of Italy, the German Third Reich, and the Kingdom of Norway had already participated in the invasion of England.
In Africa, Vichy France, the Kingdom of Italy, and the German Third Reich also launched a series of operations against Britain.
Only Spain not only did not join this war, but also secretly made deals with Britain and purchased British food and raw materials.
As the British proposed a deal, Spain was threatened not to participate in any military operations in the Allied camp.
It’s not that Franco is brave and is not afraid of Reinhardt’s liquidation of his cunning policy of sitting on the fence, but because he has no choice but to do this!
Spain itself is only an agricultural country, and the previous three years of civil war have exhausted Spain's human and material resources.
After the civil war, Spain was in depression, and the national economy was on the verge of collapse. Even the Spanish government itself admitted that after the civil war, many areas turned into ruins, nearly 60% of the houses were destroyed, 40% of the railway rolling stock was damaged, and many bridges and
Road infrastructure was also damaged.
In fact, even Reinhard received a report from the Gestapo in Spain: "The situation in Spain has become more acute in the past three weeks...Hunger riots may occur. Even the army will not receive enough food supplies."
...The food for the prisoners is very poor, and their families are about to starve to death...This country is even more chaotic than Germany under the Treaty of Versailles!"
Therefore, Reinhard and Franco reached a tolerant acquiescence. Spain could not participate in the Allied war operations, and it could also trade grain and raw materials with the British privately.
After all, Reinhard did not want Germany to provide all the burdens Spain needed. It would be better if they could get it from the British. In this case, at least Spain would be prevented from holding back the Allies.
Of course, Franco was not a fool. In many small matters within its power, the Spanish government under his rule almost always intuitively served Germany's interests first by default.
For example, this time, Franco generously agreed to give the Duke and Duchess of Windsor a large, elegantly decorated castle and continue to provide them with living expenses, so that he could live a life worthy of being a king in Spain.
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It was this large and elegant Spanish castle given by Franco that actually kept the Duke of Windsor for half a year. From France's surrender to Germany in June last year, he kept it until the war between Germany and Britain in March!
If Ribbentrop's methods were considered mild before, then after Ross took action, they immediately hardened.
The Ross family directly sent Walter Schellenberg, the head of the SS Security Department, to lead a team of SS elites to kidnap the Duke of Windsor!
The most important thing is that it is more appropriate to say that people were "robbed" from Spain rather than "received".
Moreover, because all the SS special forces were transferred to Spain by Ross to pick up the people, it was really difficult to go to London to carry out the mission of rescuing Mosley. Instead, we could only temporarily send out the English-speaking Rennes and other Wehrmacht paratroopers.
Therefore, facing the Duke of Windsor who had consumed a lot of energy from the Third Reich and used up a favor owed by Franco, and the key was that he did not want to see him, Reinhardt could not give any advice from the beginning.
Good look.
"So, you came here to see me, do you want to hear what I have to say?" Reinhard suppressed his inner dissatisfaction, managed to put on the posture that a head of state should have, and said seriously.
However, his words almost choked the Duke of Windsor to death.
What do you mean, I want to hear what you have to say. It was obviously you who kidnapped me by force, okay?
