< World War II - Winter Storm (1) >
December 24, 1940
The capital of France, the ‘City of Light,’ Paris
French Pri Minister Jean-François de La Rocque stood by his office window, watching the scene of dawn breaking over Paris.
The pitch-black sky slowly brightened, and the sight of dawn rising between the buildings of Paris to illuminate the Eiffel Tower filled La Rocque’s eyes.
It was a scene befitting its moniker, the City of Light, but La Rocque rely kept his silence, looking on mutely at the sight.
Once the light had completely enveloped Paris, La Rocque quietly walked to the desk in his office, sat down, and rested his chin on his hands.
He then remained there quietly, lost in thought, until the employees began to arrive for work and find their seats.
The ambitious offensive that Maxi Weygand had pushed ahead with to occupy Belgium before the German main force arrived was blocked, producing nothing but countless sacrifices.
Now, the French Army was conserving everything, including tanks, to save fuel, and was busy building a trench line with basic infantry.
France tried desperately to import oil from Venezuela, but despite their truly painstaking efforts and previous conservation, the relentless and vicious U-boat raids ant that only a month's worth of fuel remained at most.
And even that was now at its absolute limit.
There were truly no transport ships left, and as Britain had seized control of the sea by deploying its new battleship, the King George V, and the repaired Rodney, the safety of the transport fleet could no longer be guaranteed, even without submarines.
It said it all that they were in a situation where they hadn't been able to send supplies to de Gaulle's expeditionary force across the English Channel for nearly two weeks.
Since the colonial army in Algeria had no way of returning to the mainland with control of the sea completely lost, La Rocque ordered an invasion of Libya to divert the Allied Forces' attention even slightly.
But the Allied Forces, far from dispatching an army to Africa, responded by having the unthinkable Ethiopia enter the war.
They may be the army of a newly liberated colony, but they were n with experience in modern warfare against Italy, and if ard with equipnt supported by the Allied Forces, the colonial army in Algeria wouldn't be able to guarantee victory.
The idea of empowering a colonial nation in Africa was not sothing Britain, a fellow imperialist nation, would do; it was probably Germany again. That loathso Germany…
Having co this far, La Rocque began to calmly grasp the reality.
The great France he had dread of, the great victory, had failed.
If only Italy and Spain had moved according to his intention, or if Japan had at least properly attacked India instead of the Dutch East Indies.
No, it was all a aningless hypothetical.
When even his own country's military wouldn't move as he wished, the plan itself, based on the premise that his allies would act according to his intention, was the problem.
And wasn't the very act of planning a war that couldn't be won by France alone, relying on allies, because La Rocque himself had unconsciously realized that France was no longer great?
When Hitler unilaterally marched into the Rhineland and declared the annulnt of the Treaty of Versailles, France, despite its overwhelming military strength, failed to act due to its misjudgnt of Germany's power.
If France had declared war on Germany then, Germany would not have been able to even put up a proper resistance.
La Rocque lanted France's foolishness.
When France succumbed to Germany's threat at the Munich Agreent and sold out Czechoslovakia, La Rocque was filled with indignation.
At that ti, France could have easily suppressed Germany and beco the center of Europe, regaining its glory.
However, the left-wing governnt of France was deceived by Britain's passive attitude and Hitler's bluff, missing that perfect opportunity.
When the German regi was overthrown and it was in the midst of a civil war, a golden opportunity, but France couldn't intervene for lack of justification, he thought God had given France a chance when the new German governnt declared the reconstruction of the Hohenzollern imperial family.
But that opportunity, too, was canceled when Germany won over Britain and even drew in Belgium.
La Rocque began to despise the traitors, Britain and Belgium.
France's last chance was when Poland, counterattacked by Germany, pleaded for salvation, but that too was canceled when Germany launched a propaganda campaign that provoked the trauma of the last great war in the French people.
Having taken power only after that, La Rocque had no choice but to abandon Poland due to public opinion, and at that point, there was no way to secure a definite victory over Germany.
However, the pledges La Rocque had made, his support factions, all of it could not be maintained without defeating Germany and making France great.
He sought to take power to make France great. He had run this far, never doubting his belief that he could make France great.
France had four monts to stop Germany, but it missed them all, and at those tis, La Rocque was rely the party leader of a promising opposition party.
If he had taken power just one year earlier, he could have surely brought Germany to ruin.
But by the ti he took power, France had reached a situation where it could not wage war without making an unreasonable move.
Should he beco the leader of an era that sees the demise of great France, acknowledging Germany's superiority and relinquishing the era's hegemony, or should he stake his and his country's fate on a gamble to overturn this?
Trusting in the national anti-German sentint and latent power of France that had been building since Hitler's ti, La Rocque chose the latter, and the price is the situation France is now in.
The British Expeditionary Force succeeding just by holding its ground is a success, the Western Front is in a stand-off, unable to even break through Belgium, and all allies are either lost or pursuing only their own profit.
To think he's in a situation where he has to wait for salvation from the Soviet Union, which should have been his original adversary.
Thinking back on it now, all of La Rocque's plans were not focused on achieving victory over Germany and Britain, but on refusing to settle as a loser of the era.
If everything had gone according to plan, France would have won.
Paradoxically, the mont it beca such a plan, France's defeat was already scheduled.
La Rocque glanced at the telegram sent from the Japanese Embassy.
It was a proposal to sign an alliance with the Soviet Union and stand against the Allied Powers.
La Rocque considered it seriously.
Would joining hands with the Soviet Union here change anything?
He felt a desperate need for an alliance with the Soviet Union, but wasn't even that nothing more than a vain hope?
For Japan, an alliance with the Soviet Union has the effect of importing the Soviet Union's abundant resources and definitively shortening its front lines.
But signing an alliance with the Soviet Union doesn't an the Soviet Union can help France.
With both land and sea routes already blockaded, France is in a situation where it must endure alone.
Even if France holds on and the Soviet Union defeats Germany, can that truly be called a victory for France?
If France collapses before that, and it goes well that the Soviet Union wins, it will be reduced to a communist satellite state, and if the Soviet Union fails to win, it will be shattered in the clutches of an enraged Britain and Germany.
And would his existing support base, especially the military that supports Pétain, truly tolerate joining hands with the Soviet Union?
La Rocque's gaze turned to the newspaper.
"Dietrich Schacht…"
The fact that Ti Magazine's Person of the Year was awarded to soone outside Arica, and not even a nation's leader but a second-in-command, had beco quite the piece of gossip, and French dailies had given it a special feature.
Though the content was mostly jeering, calling him the Emperor's puppet who truly moves Germany, the seed of a dictator who only pays lip service to democracy, and the Goebbels of the Fourth Reich.
La Rocque let out a hollow laugh.
Even the fact that France was at a disadvantage compared to Germany would just be the excuse of a loser.
La Rocque summoned his aide.
"You called for ."
"The Christmas Truce proposed by the Allied Powers, we will accept it. Please inform the military command and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
The Allied Forces had been blaring from loudspeakers at the front about a truce from the 24th to the 26th, and then sent an official diplomatic docunt.
The front lines, already exhausted by the war, were naturally in a mood of 'please, just accept it,' and La Rocque had no choice but to accept, knowing that even during that ti, France's fuel would be slowly depleting.
If he refused this, both the people and the French Army would resent him, and at least during that period, the damage from the air force or artillery would be slightly reduced.
"Understood, Pri Minister. There is a telegram that Mada de Gaulle asked to be passed on to her husband…"
La Rocque was about to say he would see it, as he always did, but then shook his head.
"Please send it as is. You may also relay General de Gaulle's reply directly without a report."
"Understood."
After the aide left, La Rocque closed his eyes.
On his desk was a report from the French Intelligence Departnt stating that the dismissed Maurice Galin was showing suspicious movent.
Italy's ugly struggle and coup d'état, Mussolini's end, were very impressive.
France has not yet given up a single inch of its territory to the enemy, and the people's approval rating for La Rocque is not bad so far.
But that doesn't change the fact that this war's defeat is already decided.
His obsession with a great France, a proud fatherland that had won the last great war against Germany's ambition, had reduced it to a cowardly nation that betrayed its ally and launched a surprise attack.
La Rocque's eyes sank darkly.
-
December 24, 1940
Southern England, Portsmouth – French Army Headquarters
"Co, a toast!"
"Hahaha!"
Charles de Gaulle, commander of the French Expeditionary Force in Britain, raised a toast with his old friend Alphonse Juin for the first ti in a while and drank his wine.
He had been suffering from fatigue and stress for so ti, but with the temporary Christmas Truce signed, the French Expeditionary Force in England could also relax a little and enjoy so leisure.
As expected, with Britain completely seizing control of the English Channel, the expeditionary force's supplies were cut off.
The expeditionary force was in a bleak situation where they had no choice but to grit their teeth and hold out by consuming the supplies they had stockpiled and the British army materiel they had captured, but the Christmas Truce had gifted them one last grace period.
Thanks to de Gaulle's painstaking efforts and the atmosphere of the Christmas Truce, conflicts with the local British had also quieted down to so extent, so everyone in the French Expeditionary Force was enjoying themselves, forgetting their worries and anxieties for now.
"General, a telegram from the ho country."
"Hmm."
De Gaulle furrowed his brow at the news of a telegram interrupting his rare rest, but he soon accepted it.
And as soon as de Gaulle realized the telegram was not a governnt directive but one sent by his wife, his face lit up.
La Rocque, who had once blocked even the obituary of his mother from being delivered, allowed him to exchange telegrams with his wife, perhaps out of a sense of debt, and thanks to that, being able to exchange news every few days was a great consolation for the devoted husband, de Gaulle.
"Is it my wife?"
"Yes, it is. Excuse for a mont."
"Haha, of course."
De Gaulle excused himself to Juin, stood up, and with a smiling face, read the ssage sent by his beloved wife, Yvonne de Gaulle.
Thinking that he had to read it quickly and send a reply so she could receive it by Christmas, de Gaulle, who had been reading hastily, made a strange expression after reading a little.
The content up to the middle was, as always, that of an affectionate married couple, but from the middle onwards, the style of writing was a little different from the Yvonne he knew.
With a subtle difference that only he, who trusted and knew Yvonne better than anyone, could recognize, de Gaulle silently stared at it before starting to write down the first letter of each word with a pen.
A mont later, after reading the new completed ssage, de Gaulle let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky.
-General Maurice Galin is preparing a coup d'état with key mbers of the Radical Party. He wants to know if he has General de Gaulle's support.
The ti he had intended to spend without a care for once, to celebrate Christmas, was completely ruined by the telegram delivered through his wife's request.
To prepare a coup d'état at this ti, when a German offensive seems imminent.
Although he, in his predicant of being trapped in Britain, couldn't directly help a coup that would break out within France, his support, as soone who had suddenly beco a national hero, could have a significant influence on the legitimacy of the new governnt.
De Gaulle, with sunken eyes, looked over his subordinates who were laughing and chatting during their long-awaited break.
What choice must he make?
What choice must he make so that France, and his subordinates, can survive by paying the smallest price?
User Comments
0 comments from readers