"Bring it here quickly!" Alan Wilson quickly stretched out his hand, took the document and asked, "Have Germany and Italy responded to their proposals for Eurofighter cooperation?"
"Not yet, Deputy Secretary." Wick replied directly, and then backed away from the Office of the Deputy Secretary without hearing the rest.
"If the news from France is true, this is really a big deal..." Alan Wilson said to himself as he flipped through the documents.
Since 1958, as the size of the Albanian Liberation Organization continued to expand, the Albanian leadership made overly optimistic estimates of the situation and began to abandon guerrilla warfare and engage in regular combat. However, they suffered huge losses in the face of the French army's superior strength and equipment.
loss.
It was at that time that reports emerged that the potential number of soldiers for the Algerian resistance had bottomed out.
France has now invested a total of 1.5 million troops, and has also undergone partial mobilization. For Algeria, whose population has not grown but has declined after years of war, this number has exceeded the upper limit of its response capacity.
Even according to the most optimistic estimates, when the entire Algerian people resist, they can only deal with the millions of French troops. This is already the lowest proportion of the soil for guerrilla warfare. After de Gaulle's partial mobilization, today's situation is almost complete.
It's doomed.
If the Algerian War has indeed made decisive progress, as the de Gaulle government said, then the potential future brought about by this result needs to be carefully deduced.
Algeria's book area is close to 2.4 million square kilometers, and France's mainland area is 550,000 square kilometers. This is equivalent to France having nearly 3 million square kilometers of directly controlled land.
At the same time, different from the history in his mind, the hostility between Algeria and France, which succeeded in independence, ultimately hindered France's control over French Africa. However, Algeria's failure to achieve independence will inevitably strengthen France's control over nominally independent French Africa.
To what extent is debatable, but strengthening is definitely the right thing to do.
Such France is a powerful country spanning both sides of the Mediterranean, with a direct territory of three million people, and its influence extends to the interior of Africa, and its influence has also been greatly enhanced.
It cannot be said that the Roman Empire across the Mediterranean was resurrected. The resurrection of a Western Roman Empire would also be fatal.
When arriving at Marshal Mountbatten's home, Alan Wilson met his wife's sister Patricia, who came to visit her mother. When they met, the two nodded to each other and said, "Father is in the study."
"Patricia, thank you." Greeting his genuine sister-in-law, Alan Wilson was not polite and went straight to the study. He believed that the full-time commander-in-chief of the British army should also get the news.
Mountbatten may not be able to take action in the war, but as a military leader for so many years, he still has strategic vision.
Does a commander-in-chief have to know how to fight? Isn’t Slim, the British commander with the strongest record, the marshal promoted by Mountbatten?
As the number one figure in the military, Mountbatten had indeed just received the news. When he saw his son-in-law entering the door, he knew the purpose of his visit. Before Alan Wilson could speak, he asked directly, "Aren't you assessing that the French cannot win this war?"
That was certainly not the assessment of Alan Wilson, but the assessment of the entire Whitehall and Cabinet.
Because France was instantly defeated by Germany in World War II and was disgraced in Vietnam, and Algeria has been fighting for so many years but has made little progress. It is indeed the mainstream attitude in the British government to believe that France will get out of Algeria sooner or later.
"We also didn't expect that the French persisted to the end and would rather carry out partial mobilization than continue fighting." Alan Wilson clarified the relationship without leaving any trace. Some people said that the French could not win, but it was definitely not him.
Besides, it is not the British who think so, the United States also assesses it in this way. The reference point is that it was defeated by Germany in World War II and was disgraced in the Vietnam War. It feels that France can no longer be regarded as a military power.
"France has suppressed Algeria's resistance, and our situation is very difficult." Marshal Mountbatten frowned, "The land of three million square kilometers is ten times the size of the United Kingdom."
"The effective land of Algeria is less than 500,000 square kilometers, and the rest is desert. Of course, plus the French mainland, there are nearly one million usable land, which will indeed greatly enhance France's national power." Alan Wilson explained,
In fact, it's not that exaggerated. It's just that it's mostly comforting.
Take the United States, the owner of the best land in the industrial era, for example. Not all of its land area can be used. Alaska, which is 1.72 million square kilometers, is excluded first.
In the United States alone, there is a large amount of land that cannot be used. Similarly, there is a large amount of permafrost in the Soviet Union. The same is true for famous and powerful countries and a certain big country.
But even so, what Alan Wilson said about effective territory is still a kind of comfort. Britain and France are colonial countries, and territorial calculations cannot be calculated in this way. The maintenance of traditional influence must also be considered, and France is not far from Africa.
"It seems that Malta has become extremely important now. The strength of the Mediterranean Fleet needs to be strengthened." Mountbatten didn't know whether he heard his son-in-law's explanation, and talked about countermeasures from a military perspective.
From now on, whoever says that the Royal Navy should reduce its strength is tantamount to betrayal for Mountbatten. Britain wants to ensure control of the Mediterranean. Now the two camps are in opposition. Although they will not regard France as an enemy, they will maintain their position above France.
Naval power is inevitable.
Malta, an island located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, is known as the heart of the Mediterranean. It is also a strong support for Britain's sea control in the Mediterranean. This strategically important island was naturally snatched from the hands of the French.
Alan Wilson knew clearly that if France was defeated in Algeria, Malta's value would certainly still exist, but it would not necessarily be a place that must be preserved. But the current result is that France has become a big country across the Mediterranean, and Malta's status has once again become prominent.
Already.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus." The few words revealed by Mountbatten had already outlined Britain's arrangement in the Mediterranean in front of his son-in-law.
Is one person's mistake a mistake, or a group's mistake? When the mainstream view within the British government is that France's persistence in Algeria will eventually fail, no one thinks this is a mistake.
However, France's victory in Algeria will naturally not be a matter of France alone. In the past, Britain may have tried its best to strive for the independence of its vast colonies. If it couldn't be done, it didn't mean that it couldn't let it go.
Now it is necessary to preserve important colonies. Otherwise, if France controls Algeria, which is so close, how can Britain have a foothold in Europe in the future?
Prime Minister Eden immediately convened a cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Africa. In fact, the main discussion was the follow-up impact on France. At this moment, the good news about Algeria had spread throughout France.
After losing World War II and the Vietnam War, France finally ushered in a hearty victory in Algeria.
Although some of the Algerian rebels fled into the desert, the Algiers military has stated that organized resistance has been crushed, and the remaining fish that slipped through the net will not cause major troubles.
Under this situation, the whole of France was in a boil, no less than when the French army liberated Paris in 1945.
"Ingrid, guess, our man won't be able to sleep at this time." Hedy Lamarr applied facial cream in the mirror and asked with her back to Ingrid Bergman.
"How would I know?" Ingrid Bergman put her hands on her chest. This posture only highlighted her strong strength.
"He will definitely do it. Maybe he is busy working on it now." Hedy Lamarr was quite satisfied with herself in the mirror. She had also lived in France for so many years. How could she not know how the French viewed Britain?
.
When the results of this victory came out, just look at how many people were holding up photos of de Gaulle on the streets of Paris.
In the French National Assembly, de Gaulle confirmed the results of the victory in front of the various parties in the National Assembly and emphasized again, "I said that when absorbing Algeria into France, the citizenship rights of the locals will be guaranteed. They are all glorious France.
Citizens enjoy all the rights of French citizens. Maybe they are different from French citizens, but I believe this problem can be solved."
"In this kind of incident, even if you have all the political, economic, military, and diplomatic advantages, don't think that violence and coercion can be the only effective means to resolve conflicts. Only use the mentality of public security to deal with ethnic conflicts. The country
I’m afraid division won’t work.”
"In the next five years, the military will gradually leave the scope of management and return to Europe to protect France's prosperity and stability. Of course, this does not ignore the importance of the military. Algeria's reconstruction and development still require the military to play a positive role."
De Gaulle's speech to the French National Assembly was known to the French through television and soon spread throughout the world.
"The Soviet Union and the countries in its camp violently criticized France's so-called victory."
"The United States has not expressed its position yet, but through special channels, the United States is also asking the United Kingdom about its attitude on this matter."
"As for the Third World, India proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as a way to solve the problem. Sukarno of Indonesia expressed support. For the time being, there are some..."
When Sukarno Alan Wilson reported to Rab Butler again, when he saw this name, he thought to himself, "You should take care of yourself. Do you still have time to express your stance on North Africa?"
"The Prime Minister has also been discussing this issue these days." Rab Butler asked, "Alan, you have been working overseas for a long time. Do you think British East Africa has development potential?"
"Basically not!" Alan Wilson thought for a moment and replied, "Especially since Nyerere is ready for independence. It is a mandate territory. We have no reason to prevent local independence. After independence, British East Africa will be fragmented."