Chapter 213 Bad News

The successor to the Prime Minister had been decided. Chamberlain took Churchill out of 10 Downing Street and went to Buckingham Palace to meet King George VI.

"Your Majesty, this is the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill." Chamberlain briefly introduced Churchill to George VI, indicating that he would be the new British Prime Minister. "This time the Conservative Party and the Labour Party will form a coalition government."

The appointment power of the British monarch is normally only a ceremonial right, that is, the right to "agree to the appointment" and "stamp and sign". At most, it can make suggestions on the candidates for appointment (and it is limited to when the Prime Minister consults the royal family for advice due to difficulties in appointment). It does not have the right to designate or propose candidates. Therefore, this link is purely out of respect and loyalty to the royal family.

George VI nodded to Chamberlain. "Thank... you for your hard work, Prime Minister Chamberlain... Your Excellency." Because he was not able to speak clearly, he could not say anything long-winded, such as the empire will not forget your contribution and you are the pride of the empire. After chatting with Churchill for a few more words, he asked. "How long will it take this time?" He was already a young man in his twenties during the last war, and even served in the British Royal Navy; he knew the cruelty of war.

At that time, in order to force Britain to withdraw from the war, the German navy launched the so-called "unrestricted submarine warfare", that is, German submarines could sink any merchant ship heading to British waters without prior warning, with the purpose of blockading Britain.

At the beginning, Britain and other Allied countries underestimated the severity of unrestricted submarine warfare, and anti-submarine defense was still in the initial stage. Unrestricted submarine warfare immediately caused serious losses to the Allies. The loss of Allied merchant ships increased from 300,000 tons in January 1917 to 400,000 tons in February, and then soared to 500,000 tons in March, and finally to 850,000 tons in April. On average, one out of every four British merchant ships that went to sea was sunk.

According to official statistics later, until the end of the war, German submarines sank a total of 2,566 Allied merchant ships with a total registered tonnage of 5.73 million tons, of which British merchant ships accounted for three-fifths. The total tonnage of British shipbuilding that year was only 2.7 million tons. The Allied merchant ships were sunk too quickly, and there was no time to replenish and replace them in time. If this continued, hunger and even surrender would follow.

In view of the worsening situation, on April 27, 1917, John Jellicoe, the First Sea Lord of Britain, submitted a report to the Secretary of the Navy and issued a serious warning to the government: "History has proved that if the strategy is based on unsecured transportation lines, the result will inevitably be unfortunate. In this case, a disastrous defeat is inevitable, and our current policy is directly leading to a disastrous defeat. If you are unwilling to consider this, then I firmly believe that the war will be lost and the British people will starve to death."

Jellicoe's warning took effect, and the British government began to face up to the dangers it faced. In order to deal with German submarines, Britain mobilized all the light forces and submarines of the navy, and began to convert a large number of small merchant ships and fishing boats into minesweepers and frigates, and stepped up the construction of new anti-submarine ships.

In the second half of 1917 alone, Britain deployed 227 fleet destroyers, 74 frigates and patrol boats, 65 submarines, 406 motorboats, 49 speedboats, 894 trawlers, 867 drift net fishing boats, 24 wheeled minesweepers, 77 camouflaged anti-submarine ships, 50 airships, and 194 aircraft. In order to clear the mines laid by German submarines, more than 3,000 ships and 250,000 personnel were used for minesweeping in the autumn of 1917 alone.

George VI felt that this war would be a long and protracted war. If the German Navy launched unrestricted submarine warfare again, the British people would likely suffer severe shortages and difficulties in life again.

Churchill replied neither humbly nor arrogantly. "It's hard to say. What I can assure you is that the British Empire will defeat the brutal and barbaric enemies on the European continent and achieve the final victory!"

George VI and Chamberlain sighed at the same time. What price would that cost? "Is there... is there... a possibility of negotiation?" George VI's character always has a trace of cowardice. If this war can be resolved at the negotiation table, he would be more than happy.

"Your Majesty, this was originally an 'unnecessary war'," Churchill said, looking at Chamberlain, who looked a little ugly, and did not continue. If Britain and France had not blindly pursued the policy of appeasement and indulged Germany's growth, things would not have become like this. At that time, he promoted the German threat theory everywhere, but no one listened to it. Now it's good, it has finally borne bitter fruit, right? "Negotiations cannot erase Germany's ambitions, but will only make them more inflated. Only by knocking them down hard and making them unable to turn over again, can Europe restore permanent peace!"

Hearing this, George VI nodded silently.

After discussing some other things, Chamberlain and Churchill bid farewell to George VI and returned to 10 Downing Street, only to hear a shocking piece of bad news.

The German army attacked the Eben-Emael Fortress by surprise and captured the nearby Froenhafen Bridge, Feldwezelt Bridge, and Canny Bridge intact.

"What?!" Churchill and Chamberlain were shocked, as if they had heard a fairy tale. "Didn't the Belgians say that the fortress was impregnable?! Everyone in the fortress was asleep?!" Even if a pigsty as big as a fortress was built, it would take some effort to catch all the more than a thousand pigs in it. How long had the German attack started? It was captured so soon?

"How was the fortress captured?! Are there traitors among the fortress defenders?" Even if there were traitors, the German army would not have been able to capture it so quickly without a certain number of traitors. Could it be that the people in the fortress were so scared by the shadow of the Germans that they came out and surrendered?

The reporting staff shook his head awkwardly. "The specific situation is not yet known."

Chamberlain frowned and muttered. "This is not good news."

The fall of the Eben-Emael Fortress means that the defense of the Albert Canal-Liege line has been broken by the German army. "These idiots, don't they even have the preparations to blow up the bridge?" The most basic means of defending against the enemy's attack is to destroy roads and blow up bridges; even if it cannot be blocked for a long time, it can effectively delay the enemy's offensive actions.

Now, these stupid Belgians have handed over three bridges to the German army. The main force of the German army is bound to rush into the heart of Belgium continuously.

Cursing in his heart, Churchill asked. "It was the German vanguard that captured the fortress and the bridge, right? Can the nearby Belgian troops recapture the fortress and the bridge before the main force of the German army arrives? At least blow up the bridges." Once the main force of the German army passed Albert, the nearby Belgian troops could only retreat in large strides, and the consequence would be that the British and French coalition forces might not be able to arrive in time and would rush into the battle.

But after saying this, he realized that it was useless for him to say this here now. Viscount Gott, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and Gamelin, the commander-in-chief of the French army, should have received the news and responded.