Chapter 307 It's France's Turn 1

On February 12, 1940, the weather in Berlin was still quite cold, and the outside of 73 Wilhelm Street (where the Ministry of Defense and the High Command held meetings) was also quite deserted. There was only an anti-aircraft artillery group fiddling with an 88mm anti-aircraft gun on their anti-aircraft artillery position, and several Opel trucks with anti-aircraft balloons were parked on the roadside. Last night, Berlin was attacked by air strikes again! The war seemed to be really moving in the direction of "bombing and blockade to win". The ground forces of both sides of the war hid behind solid defense lines and rarely exchanged fire. Only the struggle in the air and at sea was fierce. While German planes kept bombing French airports, British and French bombers would occasionally visit Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and other major German cities at night, drop a few bombs, and then leave quickly.

Although such a guerrilla air raid would not cause too much damage to Germany, the sudden sound of air defense alarms and bomb explosions in the middle of the night was annoying enough.

Hersman, who had not slept all night because of handling official business and bombing, got out of the Mercedes-Benz 770K sedan with red eyes, and accompanied by his adjutant Major Schneider, walked into the Ministry of Defense building surrounded by anti-aircraft balloons.

There were many people sitting in Conference Room No. 1, where the High Command meetings were held. Hitler had not arrived yet, but Schleicher, Goering and Ribbentrop had already arrived and were sitting at the conference table holding coffee and talking about things. Seeing Hersman coming in, Schleicher waved at him: "Ludwig, I heard that a bomb fell in Zossen. Didn't you sleep well last night?"

Due to problems with navigation and blackouts, bombers flying over enemy airspace at night often lose their way and drop bombs far away from the target.

"The bomb fell in my manor and blew up a big hole," Hersman said with a frown, "and it scared Chloe."

Hersman's manor in Zossen covers a large area, and horses can be run in the yard. Although the bomb landed a long way from the house (about 3 kilometers), the loud noise still frightened the pregnant Chloe. She ran barefoot in the house, woke up the children and asked them to hide in the basement, and then rushed into Hersman's office.

"Is she okay?" Schleicher asked with concern.

"Nothing," Hersman shrugged, "She was directing the servants to fill the bomb crater early in the morning."

"What a trouble!" Schleicher shook his head in annoyance, "It seems that we have to think of a way to deal with this kind of night bombing."

"Method?" Hersman found a chair and sat down, "The British may be ahead of us!"

He took out a photo from his briefcase and handed it to Schleicher. The photo showed a strange thing, a black disk and a glass cover, plus some messy wires and so on.

"What is this?" Schleicher asked.

"This is a resonant cavity magnetron," said Hersman, "invented by researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK - it can emit powerful microwave rays, with a power dozens of times higher than existing transmitters. Using it, the British can build highly efficient airborne radars."

The University of Birmingham is the top university in the UK, and it also has a top research institute. It is naturally the focus of monitoring by the Central Security Bureau's Foreign Intelligence Bureau. As early as the 1920s, spies had infiltrated it.

"Did our agents steal it?" Schleicher asked again.

"Not yet, but we are working hard." Hersman thought for a while and said, "We are also working hard on it ourselves. Maybe these photos will be of some help."

It is not easy to take photos secretly, and it is unlikely to steal the real thing. After all, the British counterintelligence agency is not a vegetarian.

"In addition, we can also try to get resonant cavity magnetrons from Japan and Italy." Hersman said, "They are now countries that Britain, the United States and France want to win over, so it is still possible to get a few advanced radars." Hersman once heard a rumor: Japan developed a cavity magnetron with fairly reliable performance in 1939 - in fact, the Japanese are not backward in the field of microwave transmission and reception. The Yagi antenna was invented by Dr. Yagi Hidetsugu of Japan. However, like this possible cavity magnetron, the Japanese themselves did not make good use of this invention. Historically, the Japanese seized the British Yagi antenna (radar) in Singapore, but they couldn't figure out what it was. So Hersman wanted to get Japan's cavity magnetron through technical cooperation, and by the way, also pass on German radar technology to Japan. "Marshal," Ribbentrop reminded, "The Japanese have no intention of turning to us now. Ambassador Todman and Ambassador Dixon reported that the Japanese government and the emperor are still hesitant, and their army is not ready for war. At present, Japan only asks us to provide technology to help them prepare for war, and has not made any promises." Hersman nodded and said, "Japan has established a complete national mobilization system, and their army will be ready within 12-18 months. At that time, they will decide the direction of attack, either westward, northward, or southward. Anyway, they can't hit us!" Hersman knew that the current situation in Northeast Asia seemed tense, but there was actually no possibility of fighting. On the one hand, Japan was not prepared for war-in the past few years, they spent too much money on the "03 Ship Supplement Plan".

The budget for a Yamato-class ship is more than 100 million (actually it costs more than 200 million), and Japan started construction of four ships at once! The construction budget for an "ideal aircraft carrier" is also 85 million, and the Japanese also started construction of four ships at once.

In addition, the "03 Ship Supplement Plan" also includes a large cruiser, destroyer and auxiliary ship construction plan.

The navy spends too much, so the army can only save money... Anyway, the Japanese Imperial Government has less than 6 billion yen in the national total budget to allocate a year.

So the number of personnel and equipment level of the Japanese Army are not yet at the level of being able to fight a large-scale war.

On the other hand, Stalin has not yet decided the direction of the Soviet Union's expansion-according to the tradition left over from the Tsarist era, the Soviet Union will only actively fight in one direction at a time. If the Soviet Union wants to shift the focus of its expansion to the Far East, it will definitely conclude an alliance treaty with Germany, but the current Soviet Union has no intention of forming an alliance.

"Your Excellency the Leader is here!"

While several people were talking, the door of the conference room was pushed open, and then Hitler, dressed in military uniform, walked in quickly. The officers and government officials attending the meeting of the High Command stood up and saluted, and Hitler raised his hand in return.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I was just on the phone with Stalin!" Hitler said after sitting down.

After the release of the "Liberator's Declaration", Hitler and Stalin had a telephone hotline (of course, there was a translator involved).

"He told me that the Battle of Brest will be won within a week!" Hitler said, "Then the Soviet Red Army will feint to Warsaw. Marshal Schleicher, Marshal Hessmann, I ask the Wehrmacht to carry out a protective occupation of the entire Poland within a week after the end of the Battle of Brest in accordance with the provisions of the Polish-German Armistice Agreement!"

This was planned long ago, and there was naturally no problem. Even the people of Poland who were about to be occupied would cooperate more. Because if they did not accept the "protective occupation", then the great Soviet Red Army would come!

However, how to deal with Poland after the occupation is a headache...

"In addition, Stalin also said on the phone that he would attack Finland this spring." Hitler glanced at Schleicher and Hessmann after he finished speaking, "This is our last chance to defeat France from land!"

Hitler originally wanted to attack France in the winter of 1939, but was stopped by Schleicher and Hessmann. The reason is that the German Wehrmacht exposed many problems in the 12-day Polish campaign, which needed to be solved by strengthening training and replenishing equipment.

In addition, Germany's senior generals also need time to digest the experience of the Polish campaign in order to better master the armored forces.

"Leader," Hessmann said, "The troops will be ready as early as the end of March, and the attack can be launched in April. The specific date will depend on the weather conditions."

The battle plan for attacking France has been drawn up. There are two copies, one is the "Yellow Plan" copied from the "Schlieffen Plan", and the other is the "Manstein Plan" for a surprise attack through the Ardennes Forest.

Among them, the Yellow Plan is a smokescreen to paralyze the opponent, while the Manstein Plan will be truly implemented.

However, the Manstein Plan is not the only operational plan used to deal with France - it is only a plan to defeat the main force of the British and French coalition forces concentrated in northern France.

Because in addition to these main forces of the British and French coalition forces, France also has a very powerful force - the French Navy! Hessmann will not be as easy to talk to as Hitler, allowing France to retain the navy's main battleships until the end of the world war!

Three "Richelieu" class battleships, two "Dunkirk" class battleships and seven heavy cruisers must be handed over to the German Navy for use. With these battleships, the German Navy can organize a Mediterranean fleet, and the Mediterranean operations will be foolproof.

In addition, France's colonies in Algeria, T Nice and Morocco must also be liberated by Germany and Italy.

The operational plan to seize the French battleships and liberate Algeria, T Nice and Morocco was formulated by Deputy Chief of Staff Halder and Air Force Commander-in-Chief Kesselring. The plan was named "Operation Liberator" and would be implemented jointly by the German and Italian armies when the time was right.