The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The second verification plan will be implemented soon.

Just as Derwig estimated, this plan went very smoothly. The German intelligence officers successfully exchanged several bundles of pounds for 90,000 U.S. dollars at the Swiss Bank. You must know that the U.S. dollars at this time can be directly exchanged for gold from the central bank (a The U.S. dollar can be exchanged for 0.888671 grams of gold).

So this can almost be regarded as a direct exchange for wealth.

When the Security Bureau received this information, they cheered again... The nature of the successful exchange this time was essentially different from the last time, because the intelligence officers clearly observed that the Swiss bank staff had different expressions on their faces, and they even avoided it for a while. The time was obviously for a meeting to discuss how to solve this "suspected counterfeit banknote" exchange behavior.

But in the end they had no choice but to accept the pounds... They had no evidence to prove the counterfeit banknotes, so they just knocked out their teeth and swallowed them.

For Qin Chuan and others, this actually proves something on the other hand: the British side has no effective way to distinguish the authenticity of these pounds.

“But we’re not sure yet!” Colonel Koch added excitedly: “Because this may be an implicit compromise made by Switzerland due to some kind of pressure, such as political or military considerations!”

Although Colonel Koch did not explain further, Qin Chuan knew what he meant.

At this time, Switzerland could be said to be one of the few neutral countries that was not occupied or controlled by Germany.

But there is a saying that "no eggs can be found when the nest is overturned." The reason why Germany did not occupy Switzerland was not because of Switzerland's posture... it sent hundreds of thousands of troops to defend the border, nor was it because of the combat effectiveness of the Swiss army. , let alone because Switzerland declared its neutrality in the war.

In fact, at this time, Germany only needed to send out a random legion to occupy the entire territory of Switzerland in a few days. Even Hitler estimated that Switzerland would not dare to resist... The reason is that the Swiss army is nothing compared to Germany. , and most of the surrounding countries and regions are under the control of Germany. If Germany wants to launch a war against Switzerland, it can almost be said to be an "encirclement war."

This was not done because Hitler considered that it might be more advantageous not to occupy Switzerland than to occupy it.

What would Germany gain by occupying Switzerland?

Due to Switzerland's lack of cooperation, Germany had to send excess troops to garrison, and then like other protectorates, it had to deal with underground guerrillas.

On the contrary, Germany would have many advantages by not occupying Switzerland.

For example, Switzerland's comprehensive cooperation...such as opening the Gotthard and Sinjinron tunnels from Germany to Italy, and another example is the production of arms for Germany.

Of course, anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is actually Switzerland’s strategy.

As the saying goes, "There are only interests between countries." Switzerland did this to let Hitler understand that as long as it does not attack Switzerland, everything can be discussed. Arms, supplies, transportation, whatever it can provide you, it will do its best to provide it. Once Attacking Switzerland may not be the case.

Switzerland even took a tough stance: the Germans must pass through the two tunnels mentioned above to transport supplies and troops to Italy. Switzerland has planted a large amount of explosives in the tunnel. Once the German army invades Switzerland, the Swiss will blow it up immediately. This will interrupt the only connection between Germany and Italy, and the consequences will be disastrous. And this is what Hitler did not want to see.

Therefore, after balancing these interests, Hitler believed that there was no need for occupation.

Similarly, Sweden also opened up its own transportation and even directly helped Germany transport troops and supplies.

This is a helpless choice made by a small country caught between the struggles of big powers. It is undoubtedly the right approach from the perspective of national interests. But the so-called "neutral country" is just a fig leaf.

In this case, it is possible that the Swiss bank accepted the pounds not because of the pound itself, but because of pressure from Germany.

But it was not difficult to verify this, for a few days later counterfeit banknotes worth three hundred thousand pounds were also delivered to London.

This day everyone waited with bated breath for news from London.

Things seemed a bit unexpected, because the first batch of exchanges should have been completed half an hour ago. At this time, the telegram of the exchange results should have been received, but there was no news from the correspondent.

"Is the exchanger British?" Qin Chuan asked.

"Yes!" Colonel Koch replied: "A bankrupt businessman bribed by intelligence agents, we gave him a reward of two thousand pounds!"

"Are the counterfeit banknotes separated by pounds of different denominations?" Qin Chuan asked again.

"Of course!" Colonel Koch replied.

This is because of Derwig's reminder that in order to make the exchange more concealed, intelligence agents mixed counterfeit banknotes with real banknotes, and there were also banknotes of different denominations.

But in fact, Qin Chuan also knew that this would not have any effect.

The reason was that it was during the war, and Britain was under a total blockade by Germany and also implemented a rationing system. Therefore, it was impossible for ordinary people to carry so many pounds, and very few people even owned so many pounds. Going to exchange it would definitely arouse the suspicion of bank staff.

However, in a way, this is exactly what Qin Chuan wants. Qin Chuan wants to see how the British side will deal with this batch of counterfeit banknotes.

After waiting for another twenty minutes, the correspondent finally received a message. After translating it, the translator excitedly reported: "The exchange was successful!"

Everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and congratulate each other. Although this was expected, they were still secretly sweating.

Obviously, the British side chose to keep the matter quiet. They did not want the impact of this incident to expand.

But this approach obviously cannot solve the problem, because it has allowed Colonel Koch and Qin Chuan to confirm that this version of counterfeit banknotes can enter mass production.

The news soon reached British Prime Minister Churchill.

Churchill couldn't help but turn pale as he looked at the telegram, and then he asked two questions.

The first question is: "How big?"

"The scale is not big!" the staff member replied: "The Swiss Bank has a total of 500,000 pounds, and the Bank of England has 300,000 pounds!"

After thinking for a while, Churchill, who was holding the telegram, asked again: "Are they all in face value of 10 pounds?"

"Yes!" The staff officer nodded.

Churchill held his cigar in his mouth and smoked it fiercely, frowning in the smoke.

He knew that this was a dangerous signal sent by Germany, or it could be said to be a test by the Germans. Next, it would be time for counterfeit banknotes to flood into the UK on a large scale.

After a long silence, Churchill asked: "Is it possible to recover the pound sterling with a face value of 10 pounds?"

This may be a method, but it is nothing more than a stopgap measure.