After the French border battle in August 1914, the French 4th and 5th Group Armies and the British Expeditionary Force withdrew to the south of the Marne River in early September and deployed defenses along the line from Paris to Verdun. General Joffre, Chief of the General Staff of the French Army, formed the First

6. The 9th Army was deployed outside Paris and between the 4th and 5th Armies, preparing to launch a counterattack. In order to pursue and annihilate the French 5th Army, the German 1st and 2nd Army deviated from the original attack direction and went beyond Paris.

In the eastern area, the right wing of the 1st Army was exposed. After learning that the French army was about to counterattack, the German Chief of General Staff Moltke ordered the 1st and 2nd Army to shift to defense east of Paris on September 4. The 3rd, 4th, and

The 5th Army moved south and cooperated with the 6th Army attacking from the east to encircle the French army south of Verdun. However, the commander of the German 1st Army Kluck refused to carry out the order and continued to lead his army southward, forming a situation conducive to the coalition's counterattack.

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On September 5, the leading troops of the French 6th Army encountered the German 1st Army on the west bank of the Ourc River. The French army used cars for the first time to transport part of the 6th Army from Paris to the front. The Battle of the Marne then began.

At the same time as the Battle of the Marne started, when a piece of good news came through the newspapers, and when the British people began to cheer that victory might not be far away, they did not know that at this time, Britain was falling into an unprecedented crisis.

The origins of this crisis were so inconspicuous that they were not known to the outside world at all.[]

"The current crisis is testing the entire UK. It can even be said that it will determine the outcome of the war!"

Sitting in front of the Prime Minister in the Prime Minister's Office at No. 10 Downing Street, Minister of Munitions Lloyd George said unceremoniously.

"Without acetone, there is no propellant, without propellant, there are no bullets, without shells, without bullets, without shells, Britain will be defeated!"

In 1888, Nobel introduced his double-base gunpowder. He developed it by adding 60% nitroglycerine and 40% low-nitrogen nitrocellulose. It was called Balisite gunpowder at the time. Because it contained cellulose, nitrate, and

The two main energy components are polyol, nitrate and cheese, so it is also called double-base gunpowder. In 1889, the British Fire and Explosives Committee headed by Sir Abel based on the Barisite gunpowder invented by Nobel in 1888.

Chemists Aibel and Deuille found another way, using acetone and nitroglycerin to plasticize high-nitrogen nitrocellulose, and successfully developed Kodak-type double-base gunpowder.

Double-base gunpowder overcomes many of the weaknesses of single-base gunpowder. It has high energy, low hygroscopicity, good physical stability and ballistic stability. Kodak's double-base smokeless gunpowder, which has very stable performance and high energy, was once invented.

The British Army and Navy chose to prepare the projectiles as the standard.

However, when Kodak's double-base propellant was widely used twenty-five years ago, no one thought that this kind of propellant, which was ahead of the rest of the world in performance, would become a shortcoming of the British military in this war.

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Acetone - This is an essential component of the Kodak double-base propellant used by the British Army and Navy. Before the outbreak of the war, all acetone used in military factories was made from dry distillation acetate. The raw material for this production method was hardwood.

Obtained by retorting, each ton of acetone produced requires the consumption of about 100 tons of hardwoods such as birch, beech or maple.

In fact, almost all important industrial organic chemicals are obtained through wood distillation, but for the UK now, the UK needs acetone more. And acetone-producing countries are often countries with rich forest resources, and the largest

The supplier is the United States, and most of the acetone the UK needs is imported from the United States. The cost of gunpowder has always remained high.

As early as a year ago, in order to reduce the cost of acetone, the United Kingdom established an acetone manufacturing plant, but now the war broke out. The annual output of this acetone plant was several hundred tons, which was far from meeting the needs of the war.

"When the war broke out, the UK's acetone reserve inventory was 3,200 tons, but now, it is almost all consumed within one month of the war. Three months later, if acetone is not imported in large quantities from the United States, then the military department will be unable to

Produce enough propellant!"

Lloyd George's words contained a warning.

"If there is not enough propellant, there will be no shells! This is true whether it is the army or the navy!"

The Admiralty Secretary Churchill on the side said bluntly.

"But no matter what, the navy's artillery shells must be satisfied!"

"But what about the army? If the needs of the navy are met, then the artillery force of the frontline expeditionary country must have a limited supply of artillery shells!"

In fact, this acetone crisis was caused by the conflict between the Navy's demand for artillery shells and the Army. The munitions department needs to give priority to the Army's needs, but has always turned a deaf ear to the Navy's needs. The fundamental reason for this situation is

Propellant, arms manufacturers do not have enough acetone to produce propellant.

In this case, a trade-off must be made, and Lloyd George's trade-off was very simple, that is, 5 to 1. This ratio is not the ratio of artillery shells between the army and the navy, but the propellant. The army received 500 tons of propellant.

Only the navy can obtain 100 tons of propellant, and 500 tons of propellant is used by the army, which may be able to fire hundreds of thousands of artillery shells. However, for the navy, one hundred tons of propellant can only fire hundreds of large-caliber artillery shells. For propellant

, Churchill has been engaged in a verbal lawsuit with Lloyd George for a week.

"Without a navy, who will stop the German High Seas Fleet, who will stop the German Navy's attack, and who will trap the German Navy in the port? If the German intelligence agency now obtains the Royal Navy's propellant, it can only launch three

If ten thousand shells are fired, the High Seas Fleet will definitely leave the port immediately. By then, the Royal Navy, which has not failed for a hundred years, will have to face the possibility of defeat, not because our fleet is not strong enough, but because you put the navy's

Supplies have been allocated to the Army!"

An angry Churchill asked quickly, and then he took another deep breath.

"Can the Army stop the German High Seas Fleet?"

"So, can the fleet sail to the Marne River to stop Moltke? Mr. Churchill!"

Roush George retorted unceremoniously that as the Minister of Munitions, he knew better than anyone what choices must be made.

"At least, for the Germans, the powerful Royal Navy has always been their nightmare. They will never care about how many artillery shells the Royal Navy has. All they care about is how many warships the Royal Navy has. Dear Mr. Churchill, have you ever cared about it?

How many shells does the German High Seas Fleet have?”

Roush George's rhetorical question only made Churchill groan in his heart. Although he was unwilling to admit it, he understood that Roush George was telling the truth. The navy is different from the army. When looking at the navy, everyone only pays attention to

How many warships they have, how thick the armor is, how big the artillery is, who cares how many cannonballs are on the warships in this fleet? No one cares.

But how long can this self-deception last?

One month, two months, or half a year?

"If the High Seas Fleet appears on the high seas now, then Mr. George, what do we need to use to stop the High Seas Fleet? Should we just rely on those pitiful tens of thousands of artillery shells? Or should we drag the cannons of the expeditionary force to the English Channel to bombard the High Seas Fleet?"

Churchill's words were full of sarcasm

"Well, gentlemen, I think this problem can be solved!"

Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, who did not want to see their argument continue, quickly persuaded them.

"We can also import another batch of acetone from the United States. I think Mr. George will not object!"

Turning your attention to Lloyd George, it is British tradition and practice that the Chancellor of the Exchequer also serves as the Minister of Munitions.

"Mr. Prime Minister, now the acetone in the United States has increased from 22 cents before the war to 2.15 US dollars now, and its price is still rising. According to the calculations of the munitions department, if the price rises to 2 US dollars, then

, you need to pay US$4,500 per ton of acetone, which is one thousand pounds, and the UK needs at least 40,000 tons of acetone every year!”

Forty million pounds!

During the war, paying 40 million pounds worth of gold to foreign countries for a certain chemical raw material is obviously not in the interest of Britain, and it is also not in the interest of the war. It pays nearly 300 tons of gold to foreign countries every year. This gold could have been used for

More importantly, hundreds of tons of gold are being lost from the British treasury every month. If another three hundred tons of gold are added, the gold reserves in the British treasury may be exhausted before the war is over.

"So, when will the Canadian factory be established?"

Lloyd George's words only made Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith frown slightly. A month ago, no one expected that this kind of thing would happen, but what has happened now cannot be controlled.

They don't pay attention to the fact that Canada also has abundant forest resources.

"Canada is already very dissatisfied with our large use of pound banknotes to purchase supplies. If tens of millions more pounds are added, it may cause political and economic panic in Canada!"

International trade has always been paid in gold. Although Canada is a British territory, it is an autonomous territory. They have their own currency. There is no problem with a small amount of pound banknotes circulating in Canada, but using tens of millions of pound banknotes for trade settlement will definitely cause problems.

Triggering political panic in Canada, no one can predict what will happen by then.

"So, the solution is to set up a factory in the UK?"

Churchill, who had already realized from Lloyd George's words the many possible consequences of this small amount of acetone, asked, and without waiting for George's answer, he muttered to himself.

"But there are no forests in England!"

"There are no forests in the UK for us to produce acetone, and acetone must be obtained by distilling wood, so we..."

At this moment, there was a rapid knock on the door of the Prime Minister's Office. When the visitor entered the Prime Minister's Office, Herbert Henry Asquith noticed that his secretary's face was full of panic.

holding a telegram in his hand.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is a telegram sent by the Ambassador to Spain. There is a big news reported in the Spanish newspapers today!"

"Big news? Spain?"

Everyone was stunned, what big event will happen in Spain now? Has Spain declared war? But this news will not be published in the newspapers!

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister, what was mentioned in the newspaper was..."

While speaking, the Prime Minister's Secretary's eyes moved towards Churchill.

"The reference was to the Royal Navy!"

Although he still didn't know what the newspaper said, Churchill's heart suddenly tightened for no reason.

"Mr. Foss, what exactly is it?"

"The newspapers say that the Navy does not have enough artillery shells to stop the High Seas Fleet!"

"What?"

While screaming, Churchill grabbed the telegram from Foss almost regardless of etiquette. Although the content of the telegram was very simple, he still knew through this telegram that someone had already seen through the Royal Navy's "bluff!"

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"Damn, how did they know! Someone must have leaked the secret!"

"Kodak propellant, acetone, production, import, export..."

After receiving the telegram and looking at the analytical information excerpted from the newspaper mentioned in the telegram, although he had little understanding of the intelligence, as Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, this was not a leak at all, but a

The reporter made this judgment through the analysis of public information. In fact, if the German intelligence agency paid attention to those public information, it would definitely discover this secret.

"Mr. Prime Minister, the most important thing now is to give the navy enough propellant and artillery shells. Otherwise, once the German Navy goes to sea, the Royal Navy will not have enough artillery shells to defeat them! It may even be..."
To be continued...