The autumn of 1940 was the most difficult time for the British. Germany began to bomb Britain. At sea, the German fleet took Norway as its base and occasionally rushed into the North Atlantic to attack the British transport fleet.↗This made the British supply of supplies intermittently and often came to a halt.

Thanks to the support of the United States, after receiving assistance from thousands of American fighter jets, the British withs resisted the large-scale bombing of the British mainland and won the Battle of Britain. Under the threat of British aircraft, the activities of the German fleet near the British coast also restrained a lot.

The British Empire, which had adopted a comprehensive strategic defensive trend, was no longer able to take care of its colonies all over the world. The German and Austrian coalition took the opportunity to occupy the entire territory of South Africa and began to march towards the coast of West Africa.

History has appeared here. Britain handed over the British Malayan colonies to the United States in a "leasing" situation in exchange for a large amount of military supplies in the United States, including the provision of 20,000 combat aircraft, and the major projects of the US shipyard to build four heavy aircraft carriers and twelve escort aircraft carriers for Britain.

This forced the Austro-Hungarian Empire to change its battle plan to start attacking the Malay Peninsula in the autumn and winter and open up connections with China. Lee Haydn was not willing to break out with the United States too early, so he ordered Yankel to command the expeditionary fleet to re-anti-Atlantic, sweep away the British naval bases, and return to the Atlantic port with French ports as the base.

Lee Haydn turned his attention to Gibraltar. If the Austro-Hungarian Navy faced the Japanese Navy alone, it would still have the upper hand. However, if the United States added, even if it ignored Europe and devoted all its naval forces to the Pacific battlefield, it would not be able to defeat the United States. This requires the support of the German Navy. Now, occupying Gibraltar and opening up the maritime channel between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean has become the top priority.

Located in Madrid in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery.

Spanish Prime Minister Franco, at the summons of King Markhimilian, went to the Eastern Palace to meet the king.

Because of the civil war, the Habsburg family was restored in Spain, and Emperor Frederick Frederick's eldest son Maximilian I became the new Spanish king. However, the prince of the Habsburg family did not have much practical power, and the power of the entire kingdom was actually in the hands of Prime Minister Franco.

After the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty, Germany and Austria began to win over Spain to join the Axis Group, but Franco's attitude has been shaking. After years of civil war, Spain's people's livelihood has declined and it is impossible to support a large-scale war.

"Prime Minister, this is a secret report from Vienna. Germany and Austria are ready to take action in Gibraltar." As soon as they entered the king's study, King Maximilian brought bad news to Franco.

"But your Majesty, they did not get our consent!" Franco almost jumped up.

"Did they use our consent?" Maximilian sighed. He took over a declining empire. Spain is no longer as glory as the Marine Empire. "The French have only lasted for a month. If we stop them, how long can we last? The Germans are far stronger now than the French in the Napoleon era!"

"Your Majesty. With the current situation, we will definitely be unable to fight them!" After calming down a little, Franco seemed to have thought of a new countermeasure, "German and Austria did not ask us to cooperate with their actions, we can still protest. Then withdraw the southern army and let them act freely in Gibraltar. But this is also the best time for us to take back Gibraltar. If we give up, it would be a pity."

"Prime Minister. I don't think the kingdom should be involved in this war. Now there is food in China, what should we do to fight? Besides, this puts us at the forefront of fighting with Britain. We can solve the problem of Gibraltar through diplomatic means after the war." Maximilian said, who needs to think about the future of Spain.

"Well. The British built strong fortresses and fortifications in Gibraltar, and there were more than 10,000 guards. They also had a fleet of two battleships stationed in the port. If there were not enough troops and heavy artillery, it would be easy to occupy it!" Franco said helplessly, "We can define Malaga to the south of Cadiz as a war zone. We also need to stand on a neutral standpoint and carry out necessary protests."

This was done by the Chinese during the Russo-Japanese War, but neutrality also requires national strength as a guarantee. Norway, like Germany, would still be occupied by Germany. If the Germans do not do this, the British and French will do it. Spain now has fallen to the point where it is at the mercy of those powerful countries.

As the war progressed, the war machines of Germany and Austria began to work with all their strength. All steel plants, shipyards, aircraft factories, tank factories, gun factories, machine factories, automobile factories and other enterprises that were different from the military industry began to operate with all their strength and continuously expand their scale. War is also the best catalyst for science and technology and industry. During the war, with a large amount of capital investment, scientists concentrated their manpower and material resources and invested in the research and development of new products at any cost. Many new scientific and technological products were invented, driving the development of the entire industry technology.

It's ridiculous. The purpose of human technological progress is to solve the problem of how to kill more similar ones.

The advantage of being able to predict the future is that the Austro-Hungarian Empire's investment in this area is more targeted, such as alloy technology, turbine engines, rocket technology, transistor technology, torpedo and rocket guidance technology, especially in the field of atomic energy, the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Academy of Engineering are at a leading level in this regard.

Of course, due to the overall scientific and technological level, these research projects are still in the experimental stage and have not been put into practical use.

The Americans are reorganizing their armies. Their army has expanded to more than 700,000. The Navy has built twelve super battleships in two levels and started construction of ten aircraft carriers at the same time in 1940. Of course, they are not ready yet. Due to insufficient investment, the United States' military industry and technology have been lagging behind Europe. Lee Haydn needs to occupy a relatively favorable strategic trend before the Americans complete their arms and participate in the war.

In fact, in the early days of the war, the United States lagged behind European powers in the performance of major weapons such as aircraft, warships, tanks, artillery, etc. After obtaining the radar technology of the British, the radar technology of the United States caught up with European countries. In the field of aircraft manufacturing, the performance of the aircraft made by the United States lags behind Europe in general. It was also after obtaining the technology of the British Spitfire aircraft in the later stage that they fully copied the p-51 fighter that they boasted that they were "invincible in the world".

Of course, in the field of large-scale aircraft manufacturing, due to the development of air transportation in the United States, they are basically at the forefront of the world.

In terms of army weapons, the United States is not good at it. The tanks they equipped are just "slags", not only lagging behind Germany and Austria, but also behind Britain and the Soviet Union. The Americans have only been suppressing their opponents with their huge number advantage.

But in this world, Germany's strength is much stronger than Hitler's empire, and there is also an Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is not weaker than Germany's. Even after the Americans joined the war, they would not be able to change the final result of the war.
Chapter completed!