Western Front Headquarters Meeting (Part 2)
Hitler spoke again: "You all stop arguing, let our empire hero finish explaining the plan of their navy before asking questions." Zhou Tianlei saluted Hitler and then said to the generals at the conference table: "When I was studying in military school, I had a few Chinese friends who were exchange students. One of them, named Wang Xianbo (played by Q friend Lonely Soldier), told me that China has several thousand years of war history. In this war history, they accumulated a lot of experience. He gave me a book written by a famous Chinese military strategist thousands of years ago, 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu, and he helped me translate it into German. It mentions that before going to war, calculations must be made, the more calculations, the greater the hope of victory. It also mentions 36 traditional Chinese strategies. My plan is one of those 36 strategies. First, there's 'open repair of the bridge, secret crossing of the river'. This means I'm doing something on the surface for the enemy to see, but in reality, I'm doing something else. I want to secretly move our navy to the French coast. This is my 'secret crossing of the river', but if the British navy finds out that our navy has arrived at the French coast, they will definitely want to engage in a Jutland-style sea battle with us. Our navy isn't afraid of them, but this would affect the coordination between our navy, air force, and army in attacking the British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army Group. So I need to release some information to the British in a way that makes sense, telling them that our navy plans to attack their naval bases in Spaatz Bay and Iceland while they're focused on Dunkirk. If they find out about this plan, what will they do? They'll definitely concentrate most of their forces in that area. This is my 'open repair of the bridge'. When they discover our true intentions, I'll move our fleet over, and I'm sure I can give them a defeat they won't soon forget. That's my overall plan."
"It sounds good, can you tell us the details of your plan?" Jodl asked. "Can I make a few requests?" "Go ahead," Hitler said. "Firstly, during this battle, due to the large number of participating troops and the possible changes in the situation over time. Our navy believes that we should have the right to deploy the troops that our navy thinks need to be deployed, our navy should have the highest command of this battle, can command and deploy troops of various military branches. And can punish officers and soldiers who do not obey our naval command and are detrimental to the battle."
"Secondly, I request that the Air Force lend us a composite air unit for this campaign under naval command." G?ring looked at him as if he were about to explode, but then glanced over at Hitler who was still sitting silently. He calmed down and said: "Really just a loan? Then I can consider it."
Third, if we win this battle, France will truly be ours. Our navy has made two plans: one is a plan to seize the gold reserves of the Bank of France, and the other is a plan to force Britain to surrender without firing a shot." When he heard the first plan, G?ring's eyes sparkled with countless little stars. When Zhou Tianlei mentioned the second plan, Hitler and several old men from the Army Command looked at each other with wolf-like eyes, like a pack of hungry wolves. "However, the basis for realizing these two plans is that we must achieve our campaign goals in this battle; otherwise, those two plans will only be a moon in the water, visible but untouchable."
Hitler bowed his head in thought for a moment, then said: "The first requirement you mentioned, I authorize the highest command of the Navy to give you the power that is necessary to defeat the enemy." Following this, G?ring hastily said: "Okay, I can transfer an air force division to be under naval command during this period." (Everyone on earth knows that you are eyeing France's gold and making concessions) Keitel saw Hitler and G?ring take a stance, plus the temptation of defeating Britain, so he had no choice but to say: "Our Army Group A and Army Group B will follow the Navy's command at any time."
"We, the Navy, after defeating France, hope to immediately take over the French Navy. I fear they may escape or join our enemies in resisting us. Additionally, we want to transfer several army infantry divisions into the naval combat sequence and train them as marine corps. To counter our most powerful enemy, the US Navy, I also request training of naval aviation troops. We have captured the British aircraft carrier 'Furious' and it is being repaired in our dockyard. The Zeppelin is also on the shipbuilding platform. We hope it can be launched soon and join the naval combat forces. According to intelligence, the French Navy has one active aircraft carrier 'Béarn', and there are two more under construction at the French shipyards. So we will have five aircraft carriers in total. Therefore, we hope that the training of naval aviation troops can start as soon as possible. As for the expenses, our Navy plans to pay from the gold reserves in France."
Hitler burst out laughing; "So you guys are playing this kind of trick. The Supreme Command agrees to your navy's request, as long as your plan can defeat France and Britain. Now quickly tell me the general details, I really want to hear how Gott uses mysterious Chinese tactics to defeat the French and British." Others echoed: "We all can't help but listen to your navy's plan."
Our naval plan is as follows: first, our navy suspects that there are high-level enemy spies within our Third Empire, traitors who have sold out the interests of our Third Empire. Some of our combat operations seem to always let the British know in advance. We can't help but be suspicious. However, we currently do not have evidence to make accusations. So I've prepared some false intelligence here that will let those people we suspect are spies and traitors know. Then we can judge through the British reaction whether these people are spies or traitors, and also trick the British into taking a big fall. Our navy will gather forces in Norway, making it seem like we're going to attack the British naval base, while we'll let them know this false intelligence as if by accident. This way they'll pass on this false intelligence to Britain. This way Britain will concentrate most of their home fleet's strength at their bases waiting for us to attack.
Second, after the fake action is completed, the navy should immediately secretly gather along the French coast and blockade the English Channel. The army and air force must closely coordinate with our actions. The air force must guarantee to seize air superiority in a certain area to cover our naval deployment. The army must continue to exert pressure on the British Expeditionary Force and the First Army Group of France.
Third, our naval feint operations will not last long before the British discover they have been deceived. They will shift their fleets and aircraft to try to cover the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army Group back to Britain, and also attempt to inflict heavy losses on our navy in a sea battle. Our navy will choose suitable locations to ambush the British. But we need air force cooperation to seize air superiority and suppress the attack of the British fleet, so that our operations are successful. We can also inflict heavy losses on the British Navy and Air Force.
Fourth, in this campaign we should capture as many Englishmen as possible. They will be the pawns for our future negotiations with England. We can use Goebbels' propaganda to stir up the ordinary people of England and also some politicians who are dissatisfied with Churchill, to provoke them into a struggle against him. Once Churchill is out, I reckon that England will sign a peace treaty with us.
Everyone's expression was frozen in shock after hearing this grand plan. The plan was indeed too big, not only mobilizing the army, navy and air force, but also requiring Germany's intelligence and propaganda departments to participate deeply.
After a while, Hitler woke up and said: "You said there are traitors among us. Is that true?" Zhou Tianlei replied: "Everyone here is an elite of our empire, they are all loyal to the empire, no problem at all. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare reveal our naval plans here."
Hitler said: "G?t, we really underestimated you before. You have such good command ability. What do you want to do after this battle?" "Report, because I participated in the development of many new types of submarines built by the Empire, and gained a lot of practical experience in the Battle of Norway, I would like to form a separate squadron with those new submarines, and I will be in command. I believe this will be very beneficial to the Empire's Navy and the Empire's dominance. We will not specifically go to attack British merchant ships, we are going to deal with the US Navy and all sea powers that may pose a threat to the Empire's Navy (he had already consulted D?nitz on this matter and got his permission, now he just brought it up in front of Hitler)."
In the second half of the meeting, everyone praised the plan made by Zhou Tianlei on behalf of the Navy. It was unanimously adopted. The generals and marshals discussed the specific details and key points of the plan while giving orders to the relevant troops. They were busy until the middle of the night before it ended.
