I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 881: Fetching water from a bamboo basket is in vain
Like the German army, the British Air Force also suffered heavy losses. In the first month of the war, the number of British pilot casualties was close to a quarter of the total.

During the last world war, the fighting was all carried out in Europe, and the British mainland suffered almost no losses and did not feel any real pain.

France's quick surrender finally made Britain taste the bitter fruit of starting the war. Even Buckingham Palace where the king lived was bombed by German bombers.

George only now knew that before launching the Battle of Britain, the German army had tried to negotiate with Britain. The mustache man's demand was that Britain withdraw from the war and return the German colonies that it had seized after the end of World War I to Germany.

If Chamberlain were still in power, peace might have been achieved between Britain and Germany.

Churchill was resolute in his advocacy of war and made it clear in his inaugural speech: Our policy is to use all the power God has given us to fight on land, sea and air against the dark and evil forces that have never been seen in human history.

George was not sure whether the "darkness" and "evil" Churchill referred to included Russia.

Since the outbreak of the World War, Britain, like Germany, has been trying to win Russia over to its side.

To George's regret, aerial bombing alone could not bring Britain to complete surrender.

In order to train more pilots, the UK has established several training schools to ensure that 200 pilots are added every month.

After the outbreak of World War II, Britain quickly adjusted its domestic industrial production, increasing aircraft output from 700 per month to 8 in August.

Of these, only 470 were fighter aircraft.

Therefore, the pressure Germany put on Britain was not enough, otherwise Britain's monthly fighter production should be more than 1000.

Starting from September 9th, for seven consecutive days, the German army organized bombing of London day and night.

The British fighter planes at that time did not have the ability to fly at night, and night air defense could only rely on anti-aircraft guns and searchlights.

9月15日，经过八天的调整和补充，英国空军先后出动19个中队300余架战斗机，迎战由200架轰炸机和600架战斗机组成的轰炸机群。

The fierce air battle lasted for a whole day. 56 German planes were shot down, including 34 bombers, and another 12 were seriously damaged and crashed during the return and landing.

The British army lost 20 Hurricanes and 6 Spitfires in the air battle, and 7 were seriously damaged and scrapped.

This day was a turning point in the Battle of Britain, as the German Air Force finally realized that simply bombing London would not achieve the goal of forcing Britain to withdraw from the war.

Yes, now the German army’s goal is no longer to land on the British mainland, but to force Britain to withdraw from the war.

While the German Air Force was frantically dispatching its forces, the German Navy was also actively taking action to try to break the Royal Navy's blockade of the German coastline.

The attempt ultimately failed.

Starting from October, the German army expanded its bombing of the British mainland from London to important industrial cities such as Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Southampton, weakening Britain's industrial capacity.

Vasily now understood why George wanted to move important military targets to inland areas.

As Germany began to expand its bombing range, Germany and its vassal states also began mobilizing against Russia.

George reminded Karl Jr. that it would be extremely dangerous for Germany to do this.

Little Karl was helpless. Although Russia was worried about the mobilization of the German army, it was impossible for Germany to remain indifferent to Russia's mobilization.

Every Russian mobilization is a blow to the Junkers in Germany who are inclined to make peace with Russia.

Now even Juncker, who has the most friendly attitude towards Russia, dares not promote the Russian-German alliance in public.

George was even more helpless.

Britain only carried out one bombing raid on Berlin and there were no follow-up attacks.

Now the entire European continent, except Switzerland, belongs either to the Russian camp or the German camp, and the confrontation between the two major military groups has been completely formed.

What George is most worried about now is whether the Russian Air Force can withstand the crazy attack of the German Air Force once the war between Russia and Germany breaks out.

During the Battle of Britain, the German army used the latest fighter BF109.

We have to admit that Germany’s technological background is indeed very strong.

The comprehensive performance of BF109 is comparable to the Type 35 fighter currently used by the Russian Air Force.

Although Russia has more pilots and performs well in daily training.

Alpha's intelligence indicated that most of the pilots sent by the German army in the Battle of Britain were novices, and the skilled pilots trained in the previous phase of operations did not participate in the war.

The Russian Air Force has been watching the fun since the outbreak of the World War, and only tried its hand at attacking Poland.

When the Russian army invaded Poland, the Polish Air Force had been completely destroyed and the Russian pilots had almost no gains.

Like the Air Force, the German army trained a large number of skilled armored troops through the war.

The Russian armored forces also lack combat experience.

No matter how intense the training is, it is still different from actual combat.

Compared with experience, the hidden dangers of the Kingdom of Romania are more serious.

After Carol's suicide, the Russian army sent a corps of officers to the Kingdom of Romania to reorganize the Romanian army.

The situation is not optimistic.

Many Romanians believe that if Romania breaks free from Russia's control, it will gain a more advantageous position in trade with Europe.

To the disappointment of many Romanians, Russian oil experts have concluded that Romania's oil facilities are seriously outdated and backward, and that oil extraction equipment must be updated. Otherwise, Romania's oil will run out in two years at most.

It’s not that there is no oil, but that there is oil but it cannot be dug out.

For the Kingdom of Romania, if there is a problem, it will turn to Russia.

Felix did not reject investments in the oil fields of the Kingdom of Romania.

However, the condition for the investment was that Romania's oil must be included in the Russian oil sales system for unified sales. This requirement was strongly resisted by many Romanians.

On November 11, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ploiesti visited Russia, hoping that Russia would keep more profits in Romania.

"Sorry Nikolai, Russia will never allow another Carol to appear."

Vasily wanted to grind Carol to dust.

Carol devised a way to bypass Russian pipelines and sell Romanian oil to Germany via tankers, making a huge profit.

Unfortunately, he had the chance to earn money but not the chance to spend it. After Carol "committed suicide", the whereabouts of the wealth he had accumulated over the years became unknown.

The money was either taken away by the Germans or kept by Carol in a Swiss bank known for its confidentiality. No one could take the money unless Carol himself came.

This is the most disgusting thing about Swiss banks.

During the two world wars, an unknown amount of unclaimed wealth was left in Swiss banks.

As far as George knew, before the fall of the Russian Empire, many Russian grand dukes also deposited a lot of money in Swiss banks.

"Grand Duke, the Kingdom of Romania will go bankrupt if it does not receive assistance from Russia."

Ploiesti tells the truth.

After Carol ascended the throne, he awarded titles and honors in large quantities in order to make money, and he also lavishly conferred rewards on the army in order to win the hearts of the people, spending generously for the country.

The money from the sale of the title was taken away by Carol.

However, the nobles he rewarded had to continue paying their salaries.

"Who can be blamed for this? Why didn't you stop that bastard when he did this?"

Vasily sneered. Ploiesti was also a vested interest and was named count by Carol.

I don't know if it was bought with money.

"If they don't even care about you, how can we stop it?"

Ploiesti is justified.

"What the hell does this have to do with us?"

Vasily was furious. Russia had no way of doing anything about the situation at that time.

Carol's usurpation of the throne was an internal affair of the Kingdom of Romania. If Russia intervened, it would not only put Russia at a disadvantage in terms of public opinion, but would also arouse the resentment of the Romanians.

The reason why Carol was able to usurp the throne was that he had already reached an agreement with the Romanian bureaucracy and aristocracy, and everyone was waiting for Carol to get promoted and make money after he usurped the throne.

If everyone has a title, it means that no one has a title.

Now that the country has created such a mess, they want Russia to pay for it. Vasily is determined not to be a scapegoat.

"We can use our domestic oil fields as collateral—"

Since no aid is given, Ploiesti hopes to borrow money from Russia.

"Ah--"

Vasily sneered, what a good plan.

Mortgaging domestic oil fields to Russia can only solve the immediate problem but cannot fundamentally solve the problem.

After a few years, when the loan was spent, they looked back and found that the most valuable oil fields in the country had been mortgaged to Russia, so it was still Russia's responsibility.

By then, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania will most likely not be Ploiesti.

"Nicholas, you have to figure it out on your own."

Vasily ignored this unreasonable request.

"In that case, we can only change the Romanian system and abolish the privileges of the nobility."

Vasily was also amazed that Ploiesti could describe the coup in such a high-sounding way.

The nobility of the Kingdom of Romania included those who bought their positions with money and those who were promoted based on their military achievements in the Balkan Wars and the last World War.

It is easy to solve this problem. All we need to do is to invalidate all the nobles who were promoted during Carol's reign as king, and the burden of the Romanian Kingdom will be reduced by more than half in an instant.

But in this case, the aristocracy system of the Kingdom of Romania would become a laughing stock, which is also inappropriate.

"You can have a coup if you want, but wait until the war is over."

George had no time for Ploiesti right now.

"Should we ask Georgi to call Helen?"

Vasily thought Romania wasn't chaotic enough.

"It's no use—"

George was also worried about Helen and Mihaly.

It is unknown how long this orphan and his widowed mother can hold out against the greedy nobles in Romania.

But the good news is that Helen and Mihaly's palace guards were sent by Russia, so it is not easy to touch these orphans and widows.

(End of this chapter)