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墨書 Inktalez
France
General Staff of the Army
The French Army in 1927 was undoubtedly the most powerful military force in the world. They had defeated the leading German Empire army in Europe over the previous decade and were widely regarded by Europeans as the strongest army in the world.
After all, Britain was not known for its army. The Soviet Union and the United States had not yet formed combat capabilities, and Germany and Austria-Hungary were still under the sanctions of the Treaty of Versailles. As for Poland and Italy, there was no need for comparison.
However, even the powerful French Army is not doing well these days.
Due to the heavy casualties of World War I, the "pacifist trend" began to rise in the 1920s, starting in Britain and quickly spreading to France.
Many people advocate for peace and oppose any form of war, spanning from the lower class of the slums to the highest echelons of society. The lower class believes that World War I was just a matter of the country conscripting a large number of proletariats to the battlefield to die, ultimately bringing no benefit to the French people and taking away their loved ones and friends, thus supporting "pacifism." As for the bourgeoisie, after World War I ended, the economy began to recover, and they greatly cherished this hard-earned opportunity to make money, fearing that war would affect their business, so they also vehemently opposed war.
Since 1920, the anti-war sentiment within France has been very strong, with virtually no support for the war except from the military and arms enterprises. The Ruhr Crisis of 1923 further exacerbated this trend; France's adventurous actions not only yielded no benefits but also drew criticism from the international community. Countries across Europe believed that France was undermining peace in Europe and engaged in acts of aggression, leading to widespread condemnation and isolating France on the international stage.
Since then, the influence of the "pacifist" trend in France has been unstoppable. Many Congress members, in order to win more votes, have been advocating pacifism, claiming that "the worst peace is better than the best war." There are also increasing numbers of government officials supporting the pacifist trend. Originally, the government did not intend to order the armed forces to act in this Franco-German conflict.
When the president went to the Supreme Military Committee to seek opinions, a deputy minister named Charles de Gaulle from the Béthune General Staff strongly demanded that France deploy troops into Germany. This young man is also the vice chairman of the United Nations Arms Control Committee and has been responsible for supervising Germany's military affairs in the committee.
After receiving secret evidence from a spy planted in Germany regarding the expansion of The German Armed Forces, Charles de Gaulle immediately returned to France and discussed the matter with his mentor and superior.
He believes that Germany is already in the process of violating the military restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, demanding that the French Army immediately march into Berlin to arrest or execute the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense Forces, Strasser.
In response, Marshal Pétain would certainly not agree to this absurd demand; he is merely hesitant about whether to deploy the French Army to the Franco-German border.
Since the last time news leaked about Britain secretly signing the Anglo-German Naval Agreement with Germany, there has been a significant sense of insecurity within France.
They suspected that Britain was preparing to abandon the friendly relations established with France during the Four Years' War and was starting to pursue that damned continental balance of power policy again.
Moreover, they also suspected that Britain and Germany were conspiring against France, so they wanted to use this action to effectively intimidate Germany, keeping it in check and preventing it from stirring up trouble.
Understanding this, Marshal Pétain supported the idea of increasing troop deployment along the border during a private meeting with President Gaston Doumergue, and both sides reached a consensus.
So, the next day at the meeting of the Supreme Military Council, Charles de Gaulle resolutely expressed strong support for France to send troops to Germany in front of many senior officers with higher ranks than himself, while Béthouart remained noncommittal. Seeing the highest leader in the meeting not expressing opposition, other senior officers wisely chose to remain silent and let Charles de Gaulle perform. Taking advantage of the situation, President Doumergue smoothly obtained the army's approval and pushed through a proposal in Congress to limit the increase of troops along the Franco-German border, leading to the border crisis at the beginning of 1927.
If things continue to develop smoothly, Charles de Gaulle would be very pleased with this. In his view, as long as he could prevent Germany from rearming, it didn't matter if he was cursed by pacifists; those shortsighted individuals simply did not understand politics. However, it turned out that young Charles de Gaulle had some political insight, but only a little.
French people The first step of the plan was thwarted, as they had intended to steal the The German Armed Forces 1927 arms purchase plan, accusing Germany of violating the prohibition on equipping the German military with new weapons in the Treaty of Versailles. However, Germany shamelessly claimed that these weapons were all produced for export. Regardless of whether the French people believed it or not, the British people did. After negotiations at Lugano between the English and Franco-German Belgian five countries, the result was that Germany had not violated the Treaty of Versailles. France's final resistance was to demand the confiscation of these light weapons.
Originally, France planned to take this opportunity to study what new things Germany had come up with. But shameless German people once again colluded with British person to secretly transport these weapons to a warehouse under the control of British people. When France asked to visit and see what weapons Germany had researched, the response received from Britain was "no comment."
So in the end, France's military operation achieved nothing except burning fuel to transport four divisions to the Franco-German border and then back.
Oh, that's not entirely accurate. Forces within France that support the "pacifist trend" took the opportunity to vehemently criticize the president's adventurous behavior and demanded the dissolution of the cabinet, causing DuMiro's approval rating to drop by a third.
To appease public dissatisfaction, DuMiro had to make many compromises, the most important of which was to find a scapegoat and shift all the responsibility for supporting the war onto that poor guy.
Du Meiluo looked left and right, and it seemed that many responsible people were not ones he could afford to provoke. Adhering to the principle of picking the soft persimmons, Du Meiluo shifted his focus to the evidence of Germany's military expansion and later strongly supported Charles de Gaulle's decision to send troops to France. He portrayed himself as a deceived president at a press conference, claiming to have been misled by certain war fanatics, and specifically criticized Charles de Gaulle.
At one point, the Supreme Military Council found itself in the eye of the storm. In order to protect the collective, Bedan chose to sacrifice his own disciple.
"I am very sorry, Charles. In order to prevent all members of the committee from being purged, I can only push you out to accept the punishment," Bedan said regretfully. He was very fond of his proud disciple, and had sought Charles de Gaulle's advice on many decisions.
The fact that this military operation was approved by the Supreme Military Council is not unrelated to Charles de Gaulle, but now Bedan has no choice.
"It doesn't matter, teacher. Someone has to pay the price for failure, and I have long been prepared for it. Besides, it's just being sent down to the grassroots for a few years, it's not a big deal."
Charles de Gaulle didn't mind being exiled; he believed that being sent to the grassroots level would allow him to better apply the military theories he had learned in practice, preparing for future wars.
"But what worries me is that the Germany people seem to be arming themselves again; they have been working on designing many new types of weapons. Although we have only found evidence of Germany designing light weapons, I strongly suspect that they are secretly designing more weapons."
Charles de Gaulle expressed his concerns.
"Don't worry too much, Charles," Bedant didn't seem to be bothered by it at all.
"Germany would not dare to violate the Treaty of Versailles, unless they have the support of England. But England will absolutely not allow Germany to research any offensive weapons. If they really dare to do so, we will directly mobilize a large army and charge into Berlin, and directly deal with that new Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense Force of Germany, what's his name again?"
After all, Bedan is getting old, his memory is not very good, he pondered for a long time, and still couldn't remember the name of the new National Defense Forces commander."
"Gregor Strasser."
Charles de Gaulle added that after the coup in Berlin, he conducted a thorough investigation into this guy.
"Yes, that's him. Are the Germans crazy to let a brigadier who is not even forty take over as Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense Force?"
"As long as I give the order, our invincible French Army can charge straight to Berlin and capture Strasser alive," Pétain said proudly. Looking at Charles de Gaulle, who still had a furrowed brow, Pétain thought he was still worried about being sidelined and reassured him, "Don't worry, Charles. I'm just sending you out to avoid the storm. Within a year, I will bring you back."
Looking at his mentor who cared for him, the tall figure of Charles de Gaulle, he felt helpless inside, but he still managed to force a smile on his face. "Yes, marshal, thank you for taking care of me. I will definitely not let you down."
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