I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 23

Public opinion on the old Churchill was getting worse by the day.

When Nazi Germany broke the ‘peace of our time’ and invaded Poland, people thought he was a visionary prophet, not a nagging old man who spouted nonsense. 

He kicked Chamberlain’s ass, who said Germany would never start a war again, and Churchill rose to the position of war prime minister in a splendid manner.

But now people thought he was a stubborn and belligerent old rooster who would run away and come back when a war broke out, a fool who had no sense.

“Long live Winston Churchill, the victor of Gallipoli and the conqueror of Arabia!”

People wearing uniforms slightly modified from those of the British Fascist Union, which was disbanded last year, shouted this on the streets. 

Churchill and the British government suppressed them by banning the wearing of uniforms.

But Churchill had long lost much of his political momentum. 

Was it since he stubbornly put half of the British army in France and lost them all? 

Or was it since London began to be constantly bombed?

He could use cavalry officers and constables to beat and arrest the dissidents who appeared on the streets, but he could never suppress the discontent that spread among the citizens.

Rather, the number of citizens who had to endure the situation where they only had tasteless ration bread at home after being mobilized to build fortresses on the coast under the pretext of military training increased. 

No matter how harsh the police baton was, it could not turn people’s hearts around.

This was most evident among the citizens of the southern coastal cities, who were mobilized to build fortresses on the coast in preparation for Nazi Germany’s landing.

“…The souls of our comrades march with us, so sing along!”

“Get him! Catch that bastard!”

People began to believe that Germany would win. 

Some even sincerely believed that Germany would win and dominate the vast European continent from the Urals to the Atlantic.

They argued that they should stop the war immediately through negotiations and preserve the army needed to suppress the natives in Asia and Africa in order to dominate Europe, Asia, and Africa with Germany, the winner.

The radio broadcast incessantly propagandized how well our ally Soviet Union was blocking the German army on the eastern front. 

Politicians endlessly ranted about how cruel and wicked Nazis were, but citizens were tired.

Was it because they were used to Churchill, who acted like a gangster and a rogue, holding both positions of prime minister and defense minister, spitting out insults and jeers? 

Or was it because of the German planes that came by once in a while and dropped leaflets? 

Or was it because of Hitler’s ideology of the great Germanic race?

Hitler never looked down on Britain as an inferior race. 

Rather, he talked about the possibility of negotiation, calling it a brotherly nation. 

Of course, only in leaflets.

The official broadcast dominated by Churchill’s stubbornness did not convey a single word about such attempts.

“Prime Minister, if you are so worried, why don’t you call back the fleet chasing Bismarck now?”

“The people need a victory. What we need is a victory, no matter how small, and hope. Revenge for the sunken battleship, and a feat of sinking Germany’s strongest battleship. Isn’t this enough to find hope?”

The ministers were silent at Churchill’s response. 

No matter how much they opposed him, Churchill would stubbornly stick to his order to sink Bismarck at all costs. 

They all knew it well because they had seen it several times.

Churchill desperately wanted a victory. 

Of course, so did the ministers, but Churchill was especially obsessed with ‘a decisive victory’ as he alone ate up all the resentment of the people.

If he saw intelligence that Nazi Germany was about to land on Britain’s southern coast en masse and still insisted on detaching several battleships and cruisers from the home fleet to sink Bismarck… 

What if he sank it?

Would there be anything more depressing for the people than finding out that they had set foot on their homeland? 

Even Attlee and Eden, who were somewhat persuasive to Churchill, sighed deeply and shook their heads.

“We are already cornered into checkmate. God bless His Majesty and us, we can only hope that we can somehow sink Bismarck and defend our homeland with our current strength. The Nazi bastards are also tied up in Africa and on the eastern front…”

Britain’s huge fleet and colonial garrison were all tied up in their respective places. 

If they could bring all these forces to Europe, liberation of France and defeat of Germany would be possible, but that was physically impossible.

What good is having a much larger army than those Germans tied up on the eastern front if they are stuck in India?

“I think differently, but I’m worried that they might try to connect with Irish rebels. Or if they connect with Indian independence activists…”

Eden trailed off as Churchill scowled. 

The Irish bastards, the pro-fascist, anti-communist group led by Owen O’Duffy, the Monaghan Brigade, began to carry out terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and Britain.

They had raided the local police station’s armory and ammunition depot to arm the Home Guards, and they were carrying out radical terrorist acts such as killing the king’s loyalists in Northern Ireland, sneaking into important cities such as London, Portsmouth, and Manchester, and throwing bombs at government offices.

Churchill wanted to arm the Northern Irish, but the proposal was scrapped because all the other ministers in the cabinet opposed it. 

If they armed the loyalist Irish, they might be able to ‘defend themselves’, but could they control them?

It would turn into a second Irish civil war. 

This time, not a civil war between them over the treaty, but a civil war where the enraged Irish united and attacked the Ulstermen.

The Irish self-government, which wanted to recover the whole of Ireland, hated the Northern Irish, who were pro-British-national traitors or colonialists. 

The Northern Irish hated the filthy rebels, the Irish, just as much.

In this situation, encouraging the Northern Irish to launch a preemptive attack with Britain’s overwhelming national power was tantamount to bringing about a massacre.

Or… did he want a massacre? Like he tried to kill the Kurds with poison gas?

There was nothing more to say about India. Putting Nehru and Gandhi, the leaders of India’s independence movement, in prison only contributed to spreading the anti-British sentiment in India like wildfire. Chandra Bose, the leader of India’s independence movement, even sided with Germany and incited them to drive out Britain.

“Whether they are rebels in Ireland or insurgents in India! Crush them all!”

Churchill roared like an old lion trying to show that he was still strong. 

The ministers knew well what was hiding behind that lion’s roar. 

A third-rate war commander and a second-rate war prime minister at best. 

A stubborn pitcher who only knew how to throw fastballs.

“I can’t give up India! If I give up India, the British Empire is not the British Empire. Do you know how much we have invested there? How can you say that when you know?”

“Oh yes, I know very well how much we have invested! We sent our smartest and most talented children to develop the colonies, spilled our soldiers’ blood, and invested so much that it was impossible to recover.

If we bring back the fleet stationed in India and promise independence in exchange for conscription with the Indians, we can also rebuild our half-collapsed army. General Wavell keeps asking for supplies endlessly, but if we grant them independence, do we need to give them those supplies while we are breaking our backs?”

Attlee, who was calm even at Churchill’s scream, also began to raise his voice as he got excited. 

Archibald Wavell, the commander of the Indian garrison, sent reports incessantly demanding supplies as if he had no interest in the situation of his homeland. 

Even though his homeland was dying of suffocation.

India did not help much in carrying out the war. 

The various small princes of the vast Indian subcontinent did not want to cooperate with Britain’s war. 

They paid a tiny amount of taxes while grumbling and wanted Britain’s full intervention and cooperation for civil unrest. 

Useless bastards who only ate away at their production capacity.

They could use Sikh or Gurkha mercenaries to fill up the British army’s personnel, but they were not enough to cover the vast Indian subcontinent.

The fleet maintained for India and Southeast Asia’s colonies was almost a bonus at this point. 

India, Suez for keeping India, Mediterranean and Gibraltar fleets for keeping Suez. 

It would be enough to catch a breath if they had cruisers scattered across five oceans…

“No way! If those Japs take over China by themselves and reach out to Southeast Asia, who will stop them? We can’t give them all of the Pacific! Do you want to see those inferior yellow races dominate the world?”

Do you not see how we are managing India? 

They will burst their stomachs trying to eat it all! Attlee clenched his jaw. 

He and Churchill were in a cooperative relationship with each other, but they always ran parallel lines on colonial issues.

“Let’s put aside the colonial issue for now… It’s about fighter production.”

Lord Max Aitken Beaverbrook, one of Churchill’s pragmatic men who became a munitions minister despite being a media tycoon and surprisingly showed talent in this field as well.

During his tenure overseeing aircraft production, fighter production increased by nearly 20%, and he maintained his numbers despite being bombed at night. 

Of course, thanks to France’s betrayal in Toulon and Portsmouth that fully cooperated with Germany, the gap was growing.

The ministers entered into a heated debate again. Which one should they produce: fighters, destroyers, or transports? 

Britain began to feel the shortage of materials. 

The number of U-boats sunk increased as more transports were added, and naval officials had to choose between them.

To transport supplies to keep Britain’s lifeline, or to build destroyers to catch U-boats. 

Or should they make more fighters to stop the German air force that was eating away at their production capacity?

Roosevelt gave them 50 destroyers in exchange for the Caribbean naval base, but these destroyers were so old that they were not enough to stop the hundreds of U-boats that were operating from bases in Norway to the coast of France.

Was it because of their poor performance, or because they couldn’t sink U-boats even though they deciphered the code… 

Churchill grumbled that they were incompetent bastards even in the navy. Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound looked at Churchill as if to say, what about you? 

But everyone pretended not to notice.

The Nazis’ Enigma had been deciphered by the mathematicians at Bletchley Park long ago, so Britain could see through their operations. 

Nevertheless, it was humiliating to be pushed back like this.

The British intelligence agency kept the information about the decryption of Germany’s code secret from the Soviet Union, as a check on Churchill, who was an anti-communist.

“Why?”

Some of the most radical members of the cabinet – namely Churchill – argued this and strongly opposed it, and eventually this opinion was accepted. 

As a result, the Soviet Union seemed to be unaware of the fact that Britain knew Germany’s code.

In fact, it would have been a real humiliation if they knew. 

They were blocking it without knowing, but they couldn’t block it even though they knew? 

Are you idiots?

Attlee thought that Stalin might give something quite important if he told him this information. 

He was a socialist, but an anti-Soviet, and he hated Stalin’s totalitarianism. 

But still, Stalin was a good partner. 

He always gave back more than one if he received one.

He was secretly looking forward to what Stalin would give if he told him the whole German code system, but… He didn’t want to provoke Churchill, who was still excited and screaming, with the red talk, so Attlee focused on the meeting again.

“What are you doing with that fleet? Are you going to lose with this?”

Churchill was still making a fuss.