Chapter 67:
Chapter 67
“Mines? You mean they blocked us with mines?”
“Yes, general. We received a report that most of the ports that Germany hasn’t occupied are blocked by mines.”
Germany had succeeded in literally blockading Britain with a brilliant idea.
Dropping mines from airplanes was something that no one had thought of yet, but it had just been reported.
“Sigh…”
Eisenhower, the temporary brigadier general and commander of the first British expeditionary force, let out a deep sigh.
General Marshall, the chief of staff, trusted him and sent him as the vanguard to save Britain in crisis, but he couldn’t even set foot on British soil.
“When do they think they can clear the mines?”
He asked the panicked British side through radio, but the answer he got was ‘I don’t know’.
Eisenhower didn’t have much connection with the navy, but he could think that even if they tried to remove the mines with minesweepers, the Kriegsmarine ships or the Luftwaffe planes could interfere with the sweeping and install mines.
As they had done so far.
“Is there nowhere we can land?”
He realized that he had asked a stupid question.
What would he do if he landed?
The Germans would just block the port or beach with mines again.
The German reconnaissance planes, like vultures aiming at corpses, often appeared and circled near the American fleet and then flew away.
They probably already detected the movement of the American fleet. Wherever they went, the Luftwaffe planes would be able to drop mines before they arrived with their slow ships.
‘Or maybe they’ll just bomb us… Damn.’
Like those dirty Japs did at Pearl Harbor.
Germany, who was a senior in cowardly tricks, would probably launch an air raid on these 20,000 recruits.
Without any supplies or reinforcements, especially without air force, it was impossible to fight and win against Nazi Germany’s British expeditionary force with only two divisions of recruits.
They should be grateful that they didn’t sink in the Atlantic.
‘From the beginning, these two divisions that left now and arrived near Britain were not troops to fight and win directly…’
They were sorry, but they were kind of disposable cards.
Their role was to buy time so that Britain wouldn’t be completely pushed back until the forces newly organized from the mainland arrived.
“If we only have enough time, if we have time, we can crush them as much as we want!”
General Marshall said so.
After Germany’s attack on Panama and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, he devoted himself to rearmament day and night.
He sent conscription notices to hundreds of thousands, millions of young men, produced military supplies, and expanded the organization.
Thanks to the advantage of being on a separate continent, America had invested heavily in naval power and was the second naval power in the world following Britain. But their army was nothing.
Of course, they could grow as much as they wanted.
‘Right now, the US military is only a handful, but next year or the year after that, it can grow to more than millions.’
Eisenhower himself knew that well.
The European countries he knew were basically not in the same weight class as America.
Modern war was basically a fight of national power.
In terms of national power, European powers such as Britain, France, and Germany were already several times different from America.
But when he turned his eyes to Britain…
Did they have the year after next?
No, could they hold out until next year?
Until we finish rearming and rush in?
***
[Liverpool… can’t hold out!]
The bureaucrats of the British government said so.
The German army advanced so fast that even from the beginning of the war Britain had been in a chronic food shortage due to U-boat blockade.
Rural areas that could produce food themselves might have some room to endure, but large cities that depended entirely on food procurement from outside had no such leeway.
The German army blocked the land route to Liverpool and prevented supplies from being delivered from land.
And now they blocked even the sea.
There was not enough food for several days for hundreds of thousands of people.
The original residents of the city, soldiers who came for defense, and refugees who followed them.
The population increased more than originally lived there, but the supply routes were completely blocked.
[Even if we distribute only a minimum amount… we will have to boil our boots in a week. No, we won’t be able to resist Germany before that. We don’t have enough anti-aircraft shells even if we save them for a few air raids.]
“I understand the situation… but how can we help when we can’t get in through the sea?”
[…]
Eisenhower had a headache.
He reported it to his superiors but he didn’t think they had any good ideas.
The soldiers were seasick and dizzy from sailing.
Even if he landed them, they would be isolated and starved to death.
No matter how much General Marshall squeezed out a lot of supplies from the mainland, what good would it do if they couldn’t reach here where they needed it?
[Maybe we should withdraw. General Eisenhower, wait for the order.]
The headquarters seemed to be considering a full withdrawal. It was not much of a deployment to withdraw.
Eisenhower was a soldier who had to follow orders, but he didn’t think he could easily accept that order.
He answered firmly to the phone from his superiors who asked him seriously.
“Your Majesty, if we can’t protect Britain now, we will have to launch a landing operation on the land that is not only nominally occupied by our allies, but completely in the hands of the enemy. Please keep that in mind!”
[I understand your opinion, but… where should we go with our troops?]
“…”
This time he became speechless.
If he scraped together all the destroyers of the Atlantic Fleet, he could get dozens of them.
He could leave only the destroyers for anti-submarine duty and sacrifice many problems, but he could also deploy them for sweeping.
The admiral who accompanied him nodded his head as if it was possible.
But by then Liverpool would be dead.
It would take a long time for the old destroyers to cross the rough North Atlantic.
It would take another long time to remove the mines.
In the meantime, the Kriegsmarine fleet could come and attack or be attacked by the Luftwaffe again, and then time would endlessly increase.
“Mines? They blocked us with mines?”
“Yes, general. We got a report that most of the unoccupied ports are mined.”
Germany had a brilliant idea and blockaded Britain.
No one had thought of dropping mines from planes, but that’s what they did.
Eisenhower, the temporary brigadier general and commander of the first British expeditionary force, sighed deeply.
General Marshall trusted him and sent him as the vanguard to save Britain, but he couldn’t even land.
“When will they clear the mines?”
He radioed the panicked British, but they said ‘I don’t know’.
Eisenhower wasn’t close to the navy, but he knew that the Kriegsmarine ships or the Luftwaffe planes could interfere with the minesweepers.
As they had done so far.
“Is there no place we can land?”
He realized it was a stupid question. What would he do if he landed?
The Germans would just mine the port or beach again.
The German reconnaissance planes circled near the American fleet like vultures and flew away.
They probably detected the American fleet.
Wherever they went, the Luftwaffe could drop mines before they arrived with their slow ships.
‘Or maybe they’ll bomb us… Damn.’
Like those dirty Japs at Pearl Harbor.
Germany, the master of cowardly tricks, would probably air raid these 20,000 recruits.
Without supplies or reinforcements, especially without air force, two divisions of recruits couldn’t beat Nazi Germany’s British expeditionary force.
They should be grateful they didn’t sink in the Atlantic.
‘These two divisions were not meant to fight and win directly…’
They were disposable cards.
They were buying time for Britain until the new forces arrived from the mainland.
“If we have enough time, we can crush them!”
General Marshall said so. He devoted himself to rearmament after Germany’s attack on Panama and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
He conscripted millions of young men, produced military supplies, and expanded the organization.
America was the second naval power after Britain thanks to being on a separate continent. But their army was nothing.
They could grow as much as they wanted.
‘The US military is only a handful now, but it can grow to millions next year or the year after.’
Eisenhower knew that well.
The European countries were not in the same league as America.
Modern war was a fight of national power. Britain, France, and Germany were already far behind America in national power.
But Britain… Did they have two years? No, could they last a year? Until we finished rearming and rushed in?
***
Hope turned to despair in an instant.
The British government was relieved that the sea was open and prepared to fight, but they couldn’t control the panicked citizens when the supplies were cut off.
The city didn’t have enough food to withstand the blockade, and there wasn’t enough for a few weeks for hundreds of thousands of people.
Rommel and his expeditionary force tried to starve them out by cutting off their supplies.
“We have to break through their lines and free the land route!”
“We don’t have enough ammunition or weapons for that. Do you want to sacrifice our soldiers to their solid defenses?”
“But we’ll starve to death if we stay here. We have to break through while we still have some strength!”
The headquarters favored an offensive.
It was clear that staying put wouldn’t improve the situation.
They could wait long enough and hope for better, but hundreds of thousands would starve before then.
“Then let’s evacuate the civilians at least. The unarmed ones, old or young, women. Let’s not drag them into the battlefield.”
“Let’s try to negotiate with Germany.”
There was one thing they could rely on. Germany seemed to think they had already occupied Britain, and they treated the civilians mildly to minimize resistance.
‘Rommel is a gentleman.’
There was no etiquette or morality in war, but Rommel wouldn’t massacre unarmed civilians at least.
The British leaders believed that.
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