Chapter 278 Strategy

Upon learning of Lord Gort's decision to surrender from the mouth of the fortunate Montgomery, Churchill immediately flew into a rage. He urgently ordered a telegraph to be sent to Dunkirk, demanding the dismissal of Lord Gort as overall commander and his arrest.

Unfortunately, everyone in politics was a seasoned fox. Lord Gort had long anticipated Churchill's move and had already ordered the destruction of all expeditionary force radios and codebooks under the pretext of preventing leaks. As a result, communication from the London headquarters received no response, and the telegraph operators were nearly breaking the keys of their transmitters without any acknowledgment.

Unable to establish radio contact, an infuriated Churchill sent a detachment of military police to Dunkirk to arrest Lord Gort.

However, as soon as this ship set sail on its way, it struck a German submarine-laid mine and sank into the sea.

The poor military police floundered in the icy sea for a long time, ultimately sinking to the bottom and becoming fish food.

By the time Churchill wanted to contact Dunkirk through the French side, white flags had already been hoisted all over Dunkirk, accompanied by the deafening cheers of the German soldiers.

Everywhere, groups of British and French soldiers were seen raising their hands, being escorted away by German soldiers.

Guderian personally arrived at Lord Gort's headquarters to "greet" the supreme commander of the British Expeditionary Force. "I've heard of your name, Lord Gort. There's a saying in China, 'fortunes rise and fall in a cycle'. Perhaps you don't know, but in the last war, my uncle became a prisoner of war to your army due to your brave actions."

In the previous war, Lord Gort served in the 1st Guards Infantry Regiment. On September 27, 1918, while commanding a battalion of the Guards near Paris, he, as a lieutenant colonel, led tanks to assault German positions. Despite being wounded, he destroyed two artillery positions and captured 200 Germans. For this, he received the Victoria Cross and was known as "Tiger Gort".

Now, as a fallen military commander, Lord Gort felt a bit embarrassed. He quickly changed the subject, pointing to the MP44 carried by Guderian's guard and asked, "I heard this rifle was designed by your country's Crown Prince?"

Guderian waved his hand, signaling the guard to take off the rifle for Lord Gauthier to see. "That's correct. Not only this rifle but also the 98k, G43, MP40, MG3, P38, and almost all of our weapons and equipment are personally designed by the Crown Prince. His Highness believes in promoting the concept of firepower supremacy in modern warfare." Here, Guderian lowered his head slightly and coughed softly, Wilhelm had mentioned this concept to them before. At the time, Wilhelm jokingly said he suffered from "firepower deficiency syndrome" and desperately increased automatic firepower for the military.

Lord Gort, still quite interested, found an open space and fired off a magazine. "It's a fine weapon, but it seems to lack some precision for long-range shooting."

Guderian shook his head with a hint of regret. "Lord Gort, your thinking is still confined to the previous war."

Before World War I, due to the limited effectiveness of heavy weapons or rather, limited artillery power, the typical mode of warfare was frontal assault and linear combat. When both sides entered rifle range, they would form up in lines, marching to the beat of the drum, firing at each other.

As World War I unfolded, the power of artillery became increasingly evident, and soldiers standing on the ground faced significant casualties. The probability of survival for those concealed in trenches greatly increased. Therefore, the defending side often had to construct fortifications, and the attacking side would pay a heavy price. This gave rise to trench warfare. However, during this time, the battlefield was still characterized by flat advances, with a frontline where the forces of both sides engaged in constant exchanges as the power balance shifted—a scenario referred to as linear warfare.

However, in this war, with the widespread introduction of tanks and the improved performance of aircraft and artillery, humanity entered the phase of mechanized three-dimensional combat. With aerial assaults from above, tank support from below, and artillery fire from the rear, the traditional linear warfare was completely replaced. At this point, there was no longer a defined frontline. After the advent of tactics like airborne assaults and bombings, a true rear area ceased to exist, and any region in the warring nations could become a battlefield at any moment.

By World War II, the engagement distance for infantry had decreased from 1000 meters in World War I to within 400 meters. This rendered the advantages of old-fashioned rifles, with their longer range and accuracy, gradually obsolete. Rapid developments in close-quarter weapons, such as submachine guns, eventually led to the creation of the first assault rifle, the Sturmgewehr 44 (STG44), marking the beginning of the rifle revolution.

After listening to Guderian's words, Lord Gort couldn't help but exclaim sincerely, "Your Crown Prince is truly..." He struggled to find accurate words to express what he wanted to say, ending with, "Truly remarkable. It seems that France won't hold out for much longer. After France surrenders, will your army continue to attack the British mainland?"

Guderian didn't hide anything and nodded affirmatively. "Of course, that's our army's strategic direction. How could our Crown Prince, with his farsightedness, leave such a potential threat behind? Europe has been in constant turmoil for centuries, and your country has played a significant role in it."

Ignoring the sarcasm in Guderian's tone, Lord Gort asked tentatively, "What if Britain wants to negotiate?"

"Negotiate?" Guderian's mouth curled into a meaningful smile. "We understand the concept of 'raising a tiger'. But negotiation is not impossible. Our Crown Prince has said that the first condition for negotiations is that our army must station on the British mainland, with a minimum of 100,000 troops."

Most of the German high command wasn't interested in negotiating with the British. They wanted to land on the British Isles, thoroughly defeat Britain, and occupy it. Everyone knew the industrial foundation of Britain was incredibly strong. Once given the chance to breathe, it wouldn't take long for them to rearm and pose a threat to Germany again. Moreover, negotiations or not, whatever conditions the Germans proposed, they were still less favorable than defeating Britain and dealing with it as they pleased.

Most importantly, Wilhelm didn't want Britain to become a springboard for a counteroffensive on the European continent again. So, his bottom line was to station troops on the British mainland.

Lord Gort sighed deeply. He knew Churchill would never agree to such a demand, and the British would fight to the bitter end. "Alas, it's a self-inflicted calamity." If only they hadn't pursued a balance of power policy for their own maximum benefit, tolerating Germany's development, maybe Germany would still be a weak nation by now.

It could be said that if the British hadn't always thought of tricking the French, Germany wouldn't have had the opportunity to develop between them. If it weren't for the French and the British thinking of tricking the Soviets, Germany wouldn't have had the time and opportunity to rearm. Perhaps in that case, Germany would still be nothing more than a weak follower of England and France, and the European war wouldn't have erupted again. Unfortunately, there was no antidote for regret.