On the morning of April 17, 1942, Roosevelt was only reactivated in December 1941 by the pro-German Joseph Bush, who had been sent to Berlin as ambassador. Kennedy, reluctantly, arrived at the imposing Federal Foreign Office building with a freshly printed ultimatum. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

As a descendant of an Irish Catholic, Joseph was a father who fled to the United States to work as a child laborer due to the Irish famine. Kennedy did not have the slightest affection for Britain. When he was ambassador to Britain, he advocated the "betrayal" of Britain, and as a result, he was dismissed by the pro-British Roosevelt. Until the end of December 1941, in order to temporarily stabilize Germany, Roosevelt sent this pro-German Irishman as ambassador to Germany.

And the business-savvy, but politically and diplomatically clumsy Kennedy, until a few days ago thought he was about to do something big that would be good for both the United States and Europe -- he wanted to broker a non-aggression pact between "America for Americans" and "Europe for Europeans."

To put it bluntly, the United States gave up Iceland and the Azores, and no longer supported Britain. Germany, on the other hand, will no longer support Japan, and at the same time completely blockade the British Isles, and stop letting the hated British run to Canada in the thousands......

Such an agreement was also welcomed by the vast majority of Germans, so Kennedy spent a good time in Germany, being a guest of honor at the Chancellery, the Royal Palace, Charlottenburg Palace, and Potsdam Palace.

However, when the agreement was about to be reached, President Roosevelt suddenly announced the resumption of Lend-Lease exports to Britain, and also announced that he would escort ships to prevent the so-called Japanese battleships from breaking diplomatic relations in the Atlantic.

The result really annoyed the Germans, who really pretended to be Japanese battleships to sink the South Dakota and Indiana, and also killed the commander of the American Atlantic Fleet. Moreover, Germany then sent troops to Dutch Guiana, which can be regarded as stepping on the tail of the paper tiger of US imperialism. President Roosevelt did not even give a chance for peace talks, and directly demanded that Congress pass an ultimatum.

And the ultimatum means that there is no room for negotiation, and there will be no "Iceland, Azov for Guyana" agreement.

Kennedy finally understood that he and most of the Americans were played by Roosevelt, the American president did not want peace at all, he wanted war with Germany from the beginning!

It was now up to Germany to do its utmost to avoid a protracted war with the United States.

……

"It's an ultimatum that the United States demands that we withdraw from Guyana within 24 hours or risk a declaration of war." Hitler said in a gloomy tone.

In the conference room of the High Command in the Ministry of National Defense building, today's atmosphere was actually a little depressing. Although Hitler had agreed to Hersmann's plan to have German battleships pose as Japanese battleships to attack the American and British convoys, he did not give up the idea of sharing the world equally with the United States.

In his opinion, by letting the United States know how powerful Germany is, and then taking Dutch Guiana as a bargaining chip, he will be able to negotiate with the United States a peace in which "America belongs to the United States and Europe belongs to Germany."

But Roosevelt threw an ultimatum directly! Obviously, entering Dutch Guiana was a bit of a miscalculation.

"If the Americans want to fight, they will fight!" Hersman didn't care, he knew for a long time that a war with the United States was inevitable.

Hersman said: "At least 70 percent of the control of the Atlantic Ocean is now in my hands, and communication between Britain and the United States is already very difficult, and less than 20 of the more than 100 British ships escorted by the US Atlantic Fleet last time arrived at Liverpool." ”

The reason why there are still ships that have slipped through the net is that Germany now does not have the strength to completely blockade the Atlantic. Although the European Combined Fleet is strong, there are still some shortcomings.

First, the number of aircraft carriers is insufficient, and the ones that can really cope with a big war are 2 "Zeppelin" class.

The second is that the German battleships all "carry small guns on large ships", and even 406mm cannons have insufficient destructive power because of the use of "high-speed light bullets". In the last "Battle of the Sea of Fog", the Ludendorff's 406mm main gun did not have the effect of a final word, although the "South Dakota" was quickly beaten into a floating iron coffin, but it was not easy to sink it, 3 battleships surrounded it for nearly half an hour without sinking, and finally let the destroyer shoot a few torpedoes before sinking it. There was no such thing as the Japanese battleship Yamato, which could finish an American battleship in three or two clicks.

So a few days after the "Battle of the Sea of Fog", Hitler tried to help the German Navy design the battleship, wanting to replace the main guns of the H41-class battleships under construction with a 480mm caliber. In the end, of course, it was blocked back by Hirschmann, and it would be good if the 420mm H41 class could be put into service as scheduled, if you want to change to 480mm, the H41 class will not want to enter service until 1946.

In addition, there were problems with the seaworthiness of the 4 Italian "Veneto" classes in the combined European fleet. Because this class of battleships is tailor-made for the Mediterranean, when it reaches the windy North Atlantic, it will depend on the sky to leave the port. It could fight at sea for less time than the German and French battleships.

And the 3 French "Richelieu" class are now back to the factory for overhaul because of the problem of the main gun bombing, and if this problem is not solved, who will dare to take them to the battlefield?

Therefore, Britain and the United States can still take advantage of the bad weather and high sea conditions in the North Atlantic to send some supplies to the British mainland.

The only way to completely blockade the British mainland is to control the island of Ireland in the British Isles.

"As long as the island of Ireland is taken, there will definitely be a pro-German government in Britain." Hersman then confidently assured, "Now that the Wehrmacht is ready to take the island of Ireland, even if the United States declares war on us, there will be no problem, as long as we take Ireland and Britain, we will not be defeated by the United States." ”

He paused, and then said: "And the United States is now not at war with our Germany, but with the entire European Community!" They Americans can have America, we Europeans can't have Europe? The occupation of Iceland and the Azores by the United States is an invasion of the whole of Europe. ”

Although Hitler's government wanted to avoid war, the Wehrmacht General Staff, controlled by Hersmann, was always preparing for war with the United States. And preparations for war are not only military and economic, but also political and propaganda preparations. And in terms of political propaganda, "Europe for Europeans" is a long-planned theme.

"Is this a battle for the living space of the Americans and Europeans?" Adolph. Hitler asked.

"Leader, this is a war between Europeans and Americans!" Hersmann corrected Hitler's statement with a smile, "We should now let the people of the whole world, including the American people, know that the European Community has no ambitions for the Americas, and that we only want a united and strong Europe." As for Guyana...... We will help the people of Guyana to build an independent and sovereign State. We went to Guyana to liberate Guyana, not to conquer Guyana. ”

"Emancipation ......" Hitler, of course, knew that the word meant a fee, and he thought for a moment, "This word to the ears of the Americans probably means that we are going to compete with them for the liberation market in South America." ”

Hersman shrugged, "I think this is inevitable, a strong United States and a united Europe will inevitably fight in South America, which is determined by the national conditions of the South American countries and the politics of the Atlantic. Even if we withdraw from Guyana now, the United States will not abandon its position of interfering in Europe and opposing European unity. ”

In fact, it is the same with Germany, as long as Germany unifies Europe, it will inevitably intervene in Latin America. In fact, the distance between Latin America and Europe is not far away, and the relationship between Latin American countries and Europe has always been close, which can be said to be a semicolon of European civilization.

In addition, the vast majority of countries in Latin America are independent countries and are not colonies of the United States. The advantage of this pattern is that the United States can always distance itself from the chaotic Latin American countries and reap economic benefits without getting bogged down in the internal strife of Latin American countries. On the downside, the United States does not have tight control over Latin American countries, which gives many opportunities for external forces to intervene.

Hirschman paused, and then added, "Although we will inevitably interfere in Latin American affairs in the future. But now we should let the Americans and Europeans know that we can withdraw from Guyana as long as the United States agrees to guarantee Guyana's independence and freedom, and withdraws from Iceland and the Azores. So we should respond in the name of the European Community, not reject the American ultimatum. ”

"Response?" Foreign Minister Ribbentrop frowned and said, "The Reich Marshal, diplomatically did not respond to the ultimatum. Either you refuse, you accept, or you ignore it. ”

"But we should still lower our profile and respond and try to negotiate on the surface."

Hersman pondered: "It's not really about negotiating with the United States, it's a means of propaganda warfare." Perhaps the Pope could intervene and ask the presidents of Brazil and Argentina to intercede. ”

Brazil and Argentina are both Catholic countries, and no matter whether the rulers are pro-German or not, they will not refuse the Pope's request for mediation. And in this way, at least the people of Latin America will know what Germany wants.

And some Americans may also be dissatisfied with the Roosevelt administration because of the government's strong rejection of the proposal of "Iceland and the Azores for Guyana." Roosevelt was, after all, a democratically elected president, and a few percentage points of voter defection would be enough to keep his reign in office for a third term. (To be continued.) )