Chapter 757 Landing in England 2

It was not only the British cabinet that was thrown into turmoil by King George VI's speeches and orders, but also those now gathered at Buckingham Palace.

They are the regent Princess Elizabeth; the princess's fiancé, Prince Friedrich of Germany; the princess' uncle, the former king and now Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII; and Oswald Mosley, chairman of the British Union of Fascists.

Of course, these people are the leaders of the so-called peace faction. Among them, Princess Elizabeth is still young and doesn't understand anything. Prince Friedrich has not yet married the princess. He is still the prince of Germany and of course has no say. So the real decision-makers were the Duke of Windsor and Mosley, Chairman of the Fascist League.

According to the original arrangement, the Duke of Windsor would actually assume the power of the king after Elizabeth ascended the throne.

The Duke has no children and appears to be sterile, and his marriage to Mrs. Simpson violates the rules of succession to the British throne. Even if he does not abdicate, his and Mrs. Simpson's children (which there are none) cannot inherit the throne.

And he and George VI's other two brothers, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, have taken their families to Canada - which means that the only important members of the Windsor royal family remaining in the UK are the Duke of Windsor and the eldest princess Elizabeth, even though The Duke of Windsor wants to be restored, and Princess Elizabeth is also the first in line to succeed. That's why King George VI recalled his pro-Nazi brother from the Bahamas and asked him to assist Princess Elizabeth.

Oswald Mosley, chairman of the British Union of Fascists, was selected by the Duke of Windsor to serve as Prime Minister after Churchill moved to the New World. He was originally the youngest member of the House of Commons in the Conservative Party. Later, he fell out with the Conservative Party over the issue of Irish independence and joined the Labor Party. However, during the Great Depression, he fell out with the Labor Party because of its economic line (he was a Keynesian), so he quit the Labor Party and founded a new party. Later the New Party evolved into the British Union of Fascists!

Since he is the chairman of the Fascist League, this Mosley is of course more pro-German and pro-Italian - it is not that he is a British traitor or anything, but his "political correctness" is different from Churchill and Roosevelt. He was a nationalist who put the fundamental interests of the British Empire first. Endless fighting with Germany would definitely destroy the empire, so he advocated making peace with Hitler to preserve Britain's overseas colonies to the maximum extent possible.

But Fatty Qiu's approach seems stupid to this British fascist, and he will ruin the empire sooner or later!

So when George VI's order came to entrust the entire British mainland to Churchill, Mosley rushed to Buckingham Palace as soon as possible and found the Duke of Windsor who had been living here since returning to London.

"Duke, the king's order is a disaster for the country... You must stand up to prevent the disaster from happening and find a decent way out for the empire." Mosley's words were urgent and fast. "We must achieve a ceasefire before the Germans land on the British Isles, otherwise we will lose our negotiating leverage."

The Duke of Windsor was also confused. He was originally a weak person, otherwise he would not have lost the throne. If he were a hard-liner like William II, he would not lose the throne because of a woman.

"Stand up? Oswald, I'm not the king now, I'm just a duke, what can I do?" The Duke of Windsor said hesitantly, "And the Imperial Defense Act has authorized the king to use any method to fight against Germany... "

The British are, of course, more law-abiding. Even if you engage in political struggle, you cannot violate the law, right?

"Then repeal the National Defense Authorization Act! You can contact the members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons!" Mosley stamped his feet and said, "The Labor Party definitely doesn't want to continue fighting. The workers who voted for them are starving to death now! Conservatives There must be peace factions in the Party and the Liberal Party. The Royal Navy almost no longer exists, Ireland has lost 90%, and even the west of the British Isles is no longer safe. The German fleet can sail around the British Isles at will... There is no power to do so. The Germans are blocked from landing. If we don’t seek peace now, do we really have to wait for the Germans to land? If the Germans succeed in landing, will there be a decent peace in the empire?”

Mosley turned out to be a law-abiding fascist. If he had been replaced by a Russian revolutionary, he would have mobilized the Royal Guards at this time.

Just when the Duke of Windsor and Mosley were plotting a legal rebellion, an aide suddenly reported that Winston Churchill was visiting - if this was in a country in the East, axemen would be ambushing and preparing to kill people.

However, there seems to be no such tradition in Europe (excluding Russia), so the two "rebels" did not think about it and went directly to the audience hall to accompany Princess Elizabeth to meet Fatty Qiu.

"What? Martial law? A state of emergency? Mr. Prime Minister, what do you want to do? Do you want to turn Britain into a country like the Soviet Union?" Mosley, the leader of the Fascist Alliance, heard that Churchill had ordered martial law and a state of emergency. He immediately jumped up and interjected.

"No, Mr. Mosley, I ordered martial law precisely to prevent Britain from becoming Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1918." Churchill said with a serious face, "Britain must remain united and persist in resistance. Only in this way can we Get through the current crisis.”

"Persist in resisting?" Mosley rolled his eyelids and asked loudly, "Do you want to fight a devastating ground war with the landing German armored forces?"

"There must be such preparations!" Churchill gritted his teeth and said.

He was prepared to fight a homeland defense war, otherwise he would not have mobilized millions of armed personnel in the UK. However, in Churchill's original plan, he was not prepared to lead the resistance to the last moment.

"And... once we are prepared to resist to the end," Churchill paused and said, "Germany is likely to abandon the landing plan. After all, there are millions of armed personnel on the British Isles, and the Germans are likely to pay a heavy price of millions of casualties. This is unbearable for the Hitler government. Their main enemy now is still the Soviet Union!"

It turned out that Churchill still had some illusions, thinking that the Germans would not really land, but would continue to use blockades to trap Britain to death, so that Britain could continue to delay and wait for changes.

...

"Imperial Marshal, if we want to land, are we sure we can succeed? Perhaps continuing the blockade is the best solution."

In Berlin, in the German Empire Ministry of Defense building, Imperial Chancellor Hitler was indeed hesitant about whether to land in Britain.

Although the Royal Navy is now almost becoming the Canadian Navy, it is said that there are millions of English soldiers carrying guns on the British Isles.

Although they certainly cannot defeat the blond German supermen, they will definitely cause heavy losses to the supermen. Let alone the death of 1 million, even if a few hundred thousand died, Hitler would be distressed.

"Leader, the landing is sure to succeed." Hessman said, "and we must make an attempt... The purpose of doing this is to show the determination of the German Empire! Now Churchill has issued a decree of martial law and emergency, and has also stopped the activities of the pro-peace Labour Party and the Fascist Alliance. This shows that Churchill lacks confidence in his people and has to take drastic measures to suppress the peace faction.

The British peace faction did not show its determination at the critical moment. They acquiesced to Churchill's ruling, which shows that the British peace faction also doubted whether we would really land. Therefore, we must show our determination!"

Britain and Japan are somewhat similar in some ways. Both are island countries that have not been invaded by external forces for a long time. Since the Norman Conquest, Britain has never been invaded by foreign enemies on a large scale. Neither King Philip II of Spain nor Emperor Napoleon of France could get their powerful army to land on British soil.

Hersman believed that this might give some British people an illusion of security, and that this illusion must be broken before Britain could be forced to surrender.

And Britain's surrender was of great significance to Germany and Europe. Not only did it eliminate the springboard for the US invasion, making Germany invincible, but it could also add a country with very strong industrial and technological strength to the Axis camp - at this time, Britain's electronics, aviation and shipbuilding industries were quite strong. If Britain could be included in the European Community led by Germany, Germany's air force and sea power would become even stronger.

"Then how many troops do we need to conquer Britain?" Hitler asked thoughtfully.

"Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands," Hersman said, "The General Staff and the Naval Command have conducted research and believe that landing is no problem, because except for southern England, there is no strict defense in other parts of the British Isles coastline, and it is impossible to resist the powerful European joint fleet."

The British Isles have a coastline of more than 8,000 kilometers. If they really want to set up defenses everywhere, Fatty Qiu's millions of troops are simply not enough. Therefore, strict defense only exists in the southern part of England near the English Channel. In other places, that is, important ports along the coast, there are more troops guarding.

So the German army can easily land on the coast as long as it avoids the large ports in southern England and the British Isles.

Once the German army lands on the British Isles and seizes one or several medium-sized ports. Then the false sense of security in the hearts of the British will be completely broken. If the counterattack organized by Churchill is no longer effective, the British peace-loving forces may seize power.

"Okay!" Hitler thought about it, and finally nodded and said, "You can show Germany's determination! But avoid forcing the city. I don't want to turn Britain into ruins, nor do I want to let the German soldiers suffer too many casualties."