Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Heavenly Soldiers in 1917

From February to October 682

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    De Gaulle had just taken the first step, and this step embarrassed the United States and Britain.  Although the French have not yet said that they want to withdraw from NATO, their aggressive posture is very scary. If this guy continues to lose his temper, NATO will lose an important fulcrum on the European continent.  Without the French rear, how many days can the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg survive?  Especially the British were horrified. Originally, their wishful thinking was to let the countries on the European continent consume the Soviet Union's energy and prevent the Soviet Union from targeting them as soon as it came up.  Once France withdraws, the European continent will almost surrender without a fight. At that time, Russia will directly target Britain and fire fiercely.  With Britain's current military capabilities, can it really support American soldiers coming to the rescue?  This is only an impact on the strategic situation. France¡¯s withdrawal may also bring more chain reactions.  First of all, the Netherlands, Belgium and other low-lying countries will be alarmed, right?  Without the support of France, how could they withstand the torrent of Soviet armor? It only took a few days for the Nazis to defeat them?  Nowadays, science and technology have developed greatly, and military equipment has become faster and more powerful. This means that the response time of the low-lying countries will be even less. Maybe there will not even be time for the government to flee. Is this a waste of time?  ¡°And France¡¯s withdrawal means that there are hundreds of thousands less troops. This vacancy can naturally only be filled by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. And to recruit so many standing armies, do you think it won¡¯t cost money?  These days¡¯ aircraft, artillery, tanks, and warships are all gold-swallowing behemoths, and today¡¯s taxpayers are not as easy to fool as they were a few decades ago. They care more about their own welfare and medical care than investment in national defense.  If you want to increase military spending, you must increase taxes. Just look at how the people will vote if you do this!  All in all, for politicians in NATO countries other than France, the French are extremely bad for doing this, and it will cost them their lives.  And they hated De Gaulle even more.  But the problem of returning hatred to hatred still needs to be solved, so Churchill immediately made an emergency trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. The political leaders of the two countries had in-depth exchanges and reached a preliminary agreement.  Immediately afterwards, he had a phone call with Eisenhower and once again exchanged opinions and views.  After settling all this, he went to Paris for a state visit.  Some comrades may wonder that the situation is so bad, you Churchill should go to Paris immediately to talk to de Gaulle, at least test de Gaulle's tone!  But you, an old smoker, didn't do this. Instead, you walked around France and then belatedly went to find De Gaulle. What's going on?  It should be said that Churchill's approach was more sensible, because he knew De Gaulle's temper very well. This guy was really a stinking and hard rock in the pit, and was very difficult to deal with.  And it is difficult to undo what de Gaulle made up his mind.  Churchill knew that going directly to Paris would have no effect at all.  The correct way is to communicate with NATO allies first and come up with a specific plan for France and De Gaulle. That is, we must first form a united front against France so that the French can see the pressure from NATO allies, and then go to negotiations.  They have a good idea, and once the worst situation occurs, there is no need to hold a meeting to discuss it at short notice. In that state, politicians cannot discuss anything!  After securing a group of allies, Churchill headed to Paris with confidence. He believed that De Gaulle was a smart man who knew how serious the consequences of public outrage would be.  However, the result of the meeting between the two parties was completely beyond Churchill's expectations, and de Gaulle's behavior was very strange.  "France is withdrawing from NATO? With all due respect, Prime Minister, where did you hear this rumor? France has no intention of withdrawing from NATO. If France or I have this intention, we will definitely raise it in advance and drive away the NATO Commander-in-Chief.  Ministry? No, no, Mr. Prime Minister, that is not expulsion, but the French people feel that it does not make much sense to keep this command in France. Wouldn¡¯t it be good to expel the US garrison? No, this is not an expulsion.  But the French people have the confidence to protect themselves. In this case, why should we let our American friends spend money? Everything I do is to safeguard the interests of France and NATO allies. France will always belong to the free world! "Regarding this shameless performance!  , Churchill really couldn't stand it, he couldn't believe a word de Gaulle said, and what hurt him was that he had no way to refute it, after all, de Gaulle was very sure of what he said.  If Churchill questioned it, there would be only one outcome: de Gaulle would get furious and stop talking to him.  Therefore, Churchill must be careful to test: "But recently I heard that you had a very happy talk with Moscow!" De Gaulle replied seriously: "This is a political strategy, Mr. Prime Minister, you should know very well what a political strategy is. As far as Europe is concerned,  As far as the allies are concerned, we are all within the attack range of the Soviet Union and the United States.No one can guarantee whether ??'s nuclear protection can take effect, so we are currently at a comprehensive disadvantage. It is undoubtedly extremely unwise to touch the Soviet Union's tiger's butt under such circumstances.  We should exercise restraint and not anger the Soviet Union too much in order to buy time.  " Churchill asked: "Buying time?  " De Gaulle nodded and replied: "Yes, just to buy time.  Only by stabilizing the Soviet Union can we have time to develop our own nuclear power.  If we also possess nuclear weapons, it will ensure our own security. This is the focus of the French government in the next stage.  After a slight pause, de Gaulle continued: "Actually, I am preparing to propose to you, the Prime Minister, the idea of ??our two countries uniting to develop nuclear weapons. If we unite to develop nuclear weapons, we can concentrate our strength and save military expenditures, and it can also deepen the relationship between the two countries."  China's all-weather alliance, isn't this a win-win situation?  " Churchill was stunned. He had no idea that de Gaulle would propose such an idea. To be honest, he was a little tempted. If France and the United Kingdom jointly develop nuclear weapons, it is hard to say whether they can concentrate their efforts and save money, but it can indeed deepen the relationship between the two countries.  . If the two countries advance and retreat together on nuclear strategy, it is unlikely that France will withdraw from NATO and flirt with the Soviet Union. However, Churchill did not agree immediately, but promised to think carefully before making a reply.  Deep expression. Why is de Gaulle's expression so meaningful? The reason is simple. This last point is actually just a smoke bomb he threw to stabilize Churchill. Yes, de Gaulle never thought about cooperating with Britain to develop nuclear weapons.  This was never within his scope of consideration. He always insisted that France would be independent and would never allow such an important strategic tool as nuclear weapons to have the shadow of Britain. De Gaulle hoped that France could independently develop its own nuclear power instead of relying on others.  The main purpose of De Gaulle's smoke bomb was to stabilize the British and make the British think that France only wanted to win limited autonomy, or to blackmail the United States into extorting more aid, thus covering up his purpose of getting rid of the United States and NATO.  Was Churchill fooled? Yes, at that moment he was indeed quite interested in de Gaulle's proposal. Even though he bowed to the United States and admitted that the United States was in a dominant position in the special relationship between Britain and the United States, the Americans did not have nuclear weapons either.  Relenting to Britain was just a general promise to provide certain help, but the Americans were tight-lipped about how much help they would provide. Churchill could see that the Americans did not really want to help Britain. The verbal promises were just words and could not be achieved.  Seriously. And now Britain is so desperate for nuclear weapons. If we can cooperate with France and pool the strength of the two countries, we may be able to achieve a breakthrough faster. But this idea comes and goes quickly.  The reason is that Churchill also knows that cooperation plans between countries are not so easy to do, and there should not be too much quarrels for interests. Sometimes cooperation between the two countries is not as fast as doing it alone. The second reason is that Churchill is interested in French technology.  There is no trust in capabilities. According to his understanding, France's technical capabilities are still in the late 1930s due to the impact of World War II and post-war politicians' inaction, and the gap with the United Kingdom has widened to about ten years. In other words, in cutting-edge technology.  Going to France is simply a drag. Not only does it not bring much help, but it is also suspected of taking the opportunity to steal British technology. From this perspective, cooperation with France is basically a good idea. The most important thing is to give up Churchill's idea!  The reason is that the relevant domestic technical departments have assured him that they will be able to conduct the first nuclear test by the end of the year at the latest. In other words, the UK is likely to become a nuclear country in 1952. In this case, the French will not be allowed to do so.  It was possible to take advantage of it! So soon after, Churchill used various excuses to reject de Gaulle's proposal. As mentioned before, de Gaulle was not surprised by this.  Because a certain immortal told him this information before, he told De Gaulle that if he wanted to stabilize the British, he might as well propose nuclear cooperation between the two countries.  The British will definitely refuse, because the British will soon conduct their first nuclear test.  When de Gaulle was rejected by Churchill, he was both happy and disappointed. He was happy that Britain and the United States had been temporarily stabilized, which meant that he had won time to deal with the domestic troubles with peace of mind.  Disappointingly, this also proves that the intelligence of a certain immortal is correct, and the British will indeed soon become a nuclear country.  I think that Britain and France were basically at the same level at the beginning, but now France's nuclear program has just begun and there is not much progress at all. The British are about to possess nuclear weapons, which means that the United Kingdom has left France far behind.  There is no doubt that de Gaulle felt great pressure, but this also brought greater motivation. The backwardness made him a little more determined. He must overthrow the Fourth Republic. It has done nothing in the seven years after the war. If it continuesIf this continues, France will really be doomed!  De Gaulle was not only determined to catch up with nuclear weapons projects, but also decided to catch up with conventional weapons.  Yes, France has completely lagged behind the great powers after experiencing World War II.  Take a look at the achievements of the French in conventional weapons after World War II that are worth mentioning. They started working hard on tanks in 1946, and it took them 6 years to come up with the wonder of the am-13.  Not to mention the Soviet armored torrent, this weird thing is incomparable to the British and American tanks of the same period, and it is even worse than Germany, which was defeated in World War II.  At that time, France also wanted to build more advanced tanks, but the industrial technology was not strong enough. Neither the tank guns nor the engines could keep up with the situation. They were even ridiculed by the Germans later (France's heavy tank engines and related overall layout were  It was copied from the Panther. When France and Germany jointly developed tanks, the Germans looked down on France.)  Think about it, in the 1950s and 1960s, France was still relying on German engines from World War II. How backward is this technology?  All in all, after World War II, France has completely fallen behind among the world's largest gangsters. If it does not redouble its efforts, the consequences will be disastrous.  In order to revitalize the French government, de Gaulle was willing to spend money and constantly tried to introduce advanced technology from the East and the West.  For example, electroslag resmelting furnaces are related to the quality of tank gun steel. When the French first prepared to develop advanced high-bore pressure tank guns, they planned to introduce technology from NATO allies, but the results were not ideal.  The United States and the United Kingdom do have electroslag remelting furnaces, but the prices are very high. At that time, West Germany did not actually use electroslag remelting technology. Their tank gun steel did not follow this technical route. West Germany used vacuum self-consumption.  Electric arc furnace line.  From a technical perspective, the German route has a higher technical level and theoretically produces more pure electrodes (steel ingots) (because it processes electrodes in a vacuum environment).  However, judging from the development of later generations, electroslag resmelting furnaces are actually no worse than vacuum consumable electric arc furnaces, and everyone is the same.  Moreover, vacuum consumable electric arc furnaces are relatively more expensive.  But for France at this time, both electroslag remelting furnaces and vacuum consumable electric arc furnaces are blank.  Moreover, it is relatively difficult to make breakthroughs based on its own technical strength. The only way is to introduce technology.  As mentioned earlier, Britain and the United States charge very high prices, and it is clear that they want to kill the French.  What kind of temper did de Gaulle have that he would endure being stabbed?  So he immediately switched to the Soviet Union without saying anything and imported three 1.5-ton electroslag resmelting furnaces from the Soviet Union.  This deal shocked the United States and the United Kingdom, because it meant that France and the Soviet Union were one step closer. If this continues, the two countries may really become brothers.  So Churchill made a special trip to Paris, preparing to stop the deal before France and the Soviet Union formally signed a technical agreement (To be continued.)
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report