Churchill's "Balkan Strategy".
Churchill lit the "torch" of Africa while stubbornly refusing to open a second battlefield in northern France at the scheduled time, and at the same time he developed his strategic proposition of the "Balkans" or "Mediterranean".
In the Mediterranean, according to de Gaulle, "Britain wanted to defend the positions already occupied in Egypt and all the Arab countries, such as Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar, but also intended to seize new positions in Libya, Syria, Greece, and Yugoslavia." It is precisely for this reason that Britain has tried its best to direct the spearhead of the joint Anglo-American offensive at the flank of the battlefield. ”
Churchill's insistence on opening up a second theater of war was not based on military considerations, but from a political point of view. He sought to block the Red Army's road to the Balkans, to halt the growth of the local democratic movement, to consolidate the British position in the Mediterranean, and to maintain its control of the Near East.
Roosevelt said to his son Elliott: "The Prime Minister's proposition of an offensive through the Balkans at every opportunity made it clear to all those present that he intended to drive a wedge in Central Europe in order to prevent the Red Army from entering Austria, Romania and, if possible, Hungary." ”
In fact, Churchill himself did not hide that he intended to drive an Allied wedge in the Balkans separating Europe from Soviet Russia."
American journalist Ralph Ingersoll once vividly said: "The Balkans are like a magnet, and no matter how much the compass shakes, the needle of British strategy always points to it." ”
The "Balkan Strategy" was also proposed because Britain wanted to use the opportunity to fight in a secondary direction to accumulate forces in order to attack Germany in the final phase of the war.
In order to put his "Balkan strategy" into practice, Churchill and the politicians who supported him in Washington put forward a plan for the creation of a Balkan-Danube federation, that is, an anti-Soviet bloc in the Balkans and the Danube countries. The federation should be headed by the Bulgarian Coburg dynasty. Its members are: Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece and Albania. The Commonwealth is supposed to be an independent state entity, which is in fact under the leadership of the United Kingdom. The Treaty of Political Union signed in January 1942 between Greece and Yugoslavia** in exile was a step towards the establishment of the federation. The Polish-Czech Agreement on the creation of another anti-Soviet bloc, the Sino-European Union, was also signed in London at that time.
The idea of creating a new "anti-epidemic line" around the USSR has always haunted the minds of politicians in London. However, the development of events made this idea completely impossible, however, they did not stop there, and various new ideas to reflect this idea were repeatedly proposed.
To be continued, this article** comes from the Internet).