Chapter 280 Abandoning Paris

Prime Minister Reno returned to the conference room half an hour later, but his face looked a little strange. He slowly opened his mouth while everyone looked at him with doubts. "Prime Minister Churchill suggested that we withdraw to the Brittany Peninsula to establish a resistance stronghold. He assured us that the British Empire would fully support us."

"Full support?" Gan Molin snorted with disdain. "If their Viscount Gott hadn't surrendered without authorization, our soldiers could have held on for a few more days. Now they still have the nerve to say full support?" In fact, even if the British army did not surrender, the French army would not be able to hold on for a few more days. It would be sooner or later for them to surrender. thing. But now that there is such a scapegoat, Gan Molin is still very happy.

Marshal Pétain did not agree with him and said to himself. "It is not impossible to hold on to the Brittany Peninsula, but the price will be very heavy!" The Brittany Peninsula is in the northwest of France, like a bayonet thrust into the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that the French army only needs to hold a defense line of about 100 kilometers in the central part of the peninsula. "But as far as I know, there is no decent defense line there. To establish a defense line, you have to organize a defense battle for Paris to buy time. By then, Paris will be in ruins, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. Who will bear this responsibility? Who can guarantee that even if a defense line is built, it can stop the Germans? "Even the Maginot Line, which took countless manpower and material resources to build, has become a decoration. How effective can the hastily established defense line be?

The current French top brass has been vaguely divided into capitulation faction and escape faction. There are no warring factions or peacemaking factions; the warring factions live in the middle of the fugitive faction, and they can only thrive by fleeing abroad to establish a government in exile. As for the peacemaking faction, no one thinks that Germany would be interested in joining forces at this time. They make peace.

Among them, the representative of the capitulation faction was Marshal Pétain. After all, didn’t Prime Minister Reno bring him in just to make him a scapegoat who would surrender and seek peace?

Moreover, Marshal Pétain also knew that today's French people have long lost the courage to "smile and die for the country" during the last war. Even if the government flees overseas, it is impossible to command the local French people to continue to resist.

Of course, everyone present dared to pat their chests and promise. In the silence of everyone, only Prime Minister Reno muttered something with some lack of confidence. "Prime Minister Churchill said if we just hold on for a few more months, maybe the situation will change."

"..." Everyone knows what Churchill meant by "the situation has changed," which is that the United States may enter the war.

However, most people are not very optimistic about the United States' participation in the war.

The U.S. military that participated in the last war was not actually the strongest on the planet today, but instead seemed very unprofessional. When the US military was preparing to intervene in the war, there was not even a single combat-ready division in the country. In fact, before the U.S. military received authorization from Congress to expand its military in 1916, there were only 130,000 regular troops, which was even inferior to some small countries in Europe. But the United States is, after all, a vast and gifted country. When Uncle Sam's war machine is running, it can mobilize millions of troops in the blink of an eye.

In June 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and began sending troops to France. American soldiers, led by General Pershing, excitedly landed on European soil shouting "Lafayette, here we come!" However, due to the lack of necessary training, the U.S. military at that time performed extremely poorly in actual combat. Due to the lack of telephone lines and the constant movement of infantry units, communication between infantry and artillery was always not smooth, and the advantage of firepower was not fully utilized. Poor mobility made the infantry offensive rhythm slow, making it an excellent target for German artillery and heavy machine guns.

Moreover, the US military units participating in the war were seriously lacking modern artillery and related equipment and supplies. In the U.S. military's first major offensive operation from September 12 to 16, 1918, the Battle of Saint-Michel, the U.S. military used a total of 3,010 guns for bombardment, none of which were produced by the United States itself. All were provided by the British and French armies. As for the latest weapons and tanks at that time, they were also provided by the United Kingdom. It is absurd that American civilian factories provided massive amounts of raw materials for the Allied military industry, but its own arsenal was producing slowly.

Although the early stages of the US military's participation in the war were chaotic and even hindered in many aspects, the main role of the US military was to save the morale of the Allied Powers, not the battle itself.

Marshal Pétain continued. "The United States may join the war. But isolationism is currently prevalent in the United States, and the Neutrality Act has not even been changed. Will they have to wait until the end of the year for them to join the war? Even if the United States starts general mobilization now, we will have to persist for more than 6 months before we can wait for reinforcements."

Everyone couldn't help but smile bitterly. With the current situation, it would be difficult to hold on for even six weeks, let alone six months.

Prime Minister Reno sighed, and continued speaking as if something was broken. "Prime Minister Churchill asked me if we can hand over the fleet to them if we really can't stand it any longer and want to surrender? What do you think?"

"Of course not!" Several senior military officials, including Gan Molin, objected in unison and without hesitation. Navy Commander-in-Chief François Darlan said even more indignantly. "These British guys are really shameless to make such a request."

You must know that although the Scapa Flow surprise attack that shocked the world severely damaged the British naval fleet, so far the overall strength of the British navy is still much higher than that of Germany. In this case, Germany is of course eager to receive French naval warships.

The first ship of the Richelieu class of the French Navy, the Richelieu, is a new battleship that was completed and put into service not long ago. The standard displacement is 38,500 tons, the full load displacement is 47,548 tons, the front deck is equipped with 8 380 mm main guns, the rear deck is arranged with 9 152 mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft guns, and there are 12 100 mm anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the hull, with dense attack firepower. This class of ships is driven by 6 supercharged boiler steam engines with a total power of 70,000 horsepower, and the battleship speed reaches 32 knots. It can be said to be quite powerful.

The class of ships was originally planned to build four ships. In addition to the "Richelieu" that has been in service, there is also the "Jean Bart" that is about to be completed; the third and fourth ships are also under construction on the slipway.

There are two Dunkerque-class battleships: Dunkerque and Strasbourg. Dunkerque started construction in December 1931 and was completed in April 1937. The Strasbourg was started in November 1934 and completed in December 1938.

This class of ships is equipped with 8 330mm naval guns, 16 130mm secondary guns, a full load displacement of 35,000 tons, a main engine power of 112,500 horsepower, a maximum speed of 27 knots, and a cruising range of 5,500 nautical miles.

In addition to these, the French shipyard has several aircraft carriers that have already started construction.

Once the German army gets these warships that have been in service and are about to be completed, their naval strength will be soaring, enough to confront the British Navy. Therefore, the French fleet can be said to be France's biggest bargaining chip. Maybe the Germans will give good conditions for the Richelieu class and Dunkirk class.

In this case, how could the fleet be handed over to the British? Moreover, if it was handed over, the British would probably use them to blockade France and make the French fall into hunger and poverty.

After some discussion, everyone finally decided to give up Paris, and the government moved to Tours, 200 kilometers southwest of Paris.