The Rise of the Third Reich

On June 1, 1928, Hersmann flew to Rome, the capital of Italy, on a Junkers J.28 passenger plane with a slender body and four 750-horsepower radial air-cooled engines. Also arriving with him were Mussolini's old friend Val T. Rathenau and the Industrial Promotion Council Karl Haushofer and several entourages.

"Ludwig, this plane is really great. It would be great if our Fiat company can build such a big thing when it can."

The new Italian Aviation Minister Itano Balbo, who was greeted at the airport, has been in charge of "German-Italian Cooperation" in the past few years and is familiar with Hersmann. As soon as they met, they unabashedly coveted the plane that would take Hessmann to Rome.

Although Germany lags behind Italy in both liquid-cooled aero engines and "light high-speed aircraft" (referring to fast aircraft used for racing). However, the advantages in air-cooled engines and large transport aircraft (passenger aircraft) are very obvious. Not to mention Italy, even the British, American and French companies that produce air-cooled engines and large aircraft together, their market share is not as good as that of Fokker, Junkers, Dornier (this is a seaplane company founded in 1922), Fokker Half of the major German companies include Wolff, Albatross, Siemens (Siemens has now also entered the air-cooled aero-engine market) and BMW.

The reason for this situation is due to Hersmann's full promotion of Soviet-German cooperation - because most of Fokker, Juncker, Dornier, Focke-Wulf, Albatross, Siemens and BMW The products were developed in cooperation with the Soviet Union, which borne more than half of the development costs. And each type of engine and aircraft can get a large number of orders from the Soviet and German governments (compensation items). While the aircraft manufacturers in the UK, France and Italy are fighting for orders for one or two aircraft, Fokker and Junkers can easily obtain orders for hundreds of aircraft.

For example, the Junkers J.28 passenger plane that Hessmann flew this time has not yet been finalized, but it has already received 128 orders, of which 75 are "modified aircraft" ordered by the Soviet Red Air Force. In fact, the bomber-type J.28 was exported in the name of a passenger aircraft as parts and assembled into a TB-2 heavy bomber in the Soviet Union.

The assembly of spare parts is only the beginning of the Soviet Union’s localization of J.28. After completing the component assembly of all 75 aircraft, Soviet engineers have basically understood the J.28, and will then produce it on their own with the help of German engineers - the engine will still need to be imported for a while to complete the imitation, and the airborne Electronic and navigation equipment are only exported without technology transfer.

Through this kind of cooperation, not only Germany can maintain a considerable lead in the fields of air-cooled engines and large aircraft. Even the Soviet Union's level in these two aspects is second only to Germany, and ahead of countries such as Britain, the United States, France, and Italy, not to mention the Japanese Empire in the Far East.

"Itano, we can cooperate. Didn't Mr. Junkers come to Italy in April?" Hersman and Balbo hugged each other very warmly and mentioned aviation cooperation with a smile.

"I know that during that negotiation, Fiat was unwilling to transfer liquid-cooled engine technology. We are leading the world in that regard!" Itano Balbo said proudly.

It is true that Italy has a leading advantage in the field of liquid-cooled aero engines, but the Italian market is too small to support a large and comprehensive aviation industry. Therefore, Italy's lead did not last long, and by the time World War II broke out, it was already lagging behind Britain and the United States.

In Hersman's view, the sustainable development model of the Italian aviation industry should be to specialize in one route - either develop the liquid cooling route, or specialize in the air cooling route. It would be better to cooperate with Germany, Italy's close future ally.

Considering that Germany already takes the lead in the field of air-cooled engines, the Italians can leave the development route of air-cooled engines to Germany, and at the same time cooperate with Germany to develop liquid cooling.

However, such ideal things will most likely not come true, because the Italian leader still does not know his sad end after defeat.

Balbo used several Fiat luxury cars to take Hersmann, Rathenau and Haushofer to Rathenau's luxurious residence on the banks of the Tiber River, opposite Castel Sant'Angelo (the Pope's castle).

This is a Renaissance-style house with a large garden and swimming pool that belonged to the Bonaparte family before Rathenau took over. It may be that there is no confidence in Germany's domestic security. Rathenau now lives in this house most of the time - in Italy it is perfectly safe for a billionaire like him and a good friend of the leader. In fact, Italy's public security is now the best in the world, and all mafia gangsters stay in prison. Evil acts such as murder, robbery, and kidnapping occur only a few times a year across the country. In Rome, anyone can walk around with a large bundle of cash without fear.

Moreover, Italy's economy grew steadily under fascist management. The Fascist Party shared to some extent the Bolsheviks' enthusiasm for the development of industrial production. They also like to use the power of the state to support industries. Although they also like the Bolsheviks to have a large and comprehensive industrial structure, they often develop some "big but weak" industries.

But in general, fascism is still a relatively reliable choice for late-developing economies - many successful late-developing economies in history have been called "fascists" and white terror for a while.

"But the situation is different now." The Italian Minister of Aviation took a glass of soda from the servant of the Rathenau family, took a sip, and smiled, "I was not the Minister of Aviation in April, but now I am."

Haushofer smiled and said, "That's great, Mr. Junkers will be very happy. Because his competitor Fokker has acquired BMW's liquid-cooled engine business and is cooperating with Mercedes-Benz to make a big move in the field of liquid-cooled engines."

Hersmann planned to allow Germany to have two air-cooled engine (aviation) manufacturers and two liquid-cooled engine (aviation) manufacturers at the same time, so as to form a certain degree of competition.

Now there are two giants, Siemens and BMW, on the air-cooled line, and Fokker-Benz and Junker-Jumo on the liquid-cooled line. Considering Germany's temporary backwardness in the field of liquid cooling, it is more advantageous to let these two liquid-cooled engine companies cooperate with their counterparts in Britain and Italy respectively-it is also easier for Hersmann's spies to steal technology.

"But I have a condition." Balbo grinned, "I know you provided the Soviet Union with the technology to build aircraft carriers and gave them carrier-based aircraft."

"Yes," Hessman did not deny, "The Karl Marx class was designed by us, and there is a full set of drawings in the headquarters of the Kaiserliche Shipyard in Riga. The carrier-based aircraft on this aircraft carrier were designed by German aircraft manufacturers such as Fokker, Junkers, Focke-Wulf and Dornier, and manufactured by FK-BF. Among them, Fokker made carrier-based fighters, Junkers made bombers, Focke-Wulf made torpedo attack aircraft, and the reconnaissance aircraft was designed by Dornier. We can sell the design drawings of these aircraft to you, but if Italy wants to design and manufacture aircraft carriers, engineers from the Kaiserliche Shipyard must participate in the whole process."

All carrier-based aircraft are air-cooled, and the fighters designed for the Soviet Union by German companies such as Fokker, Junkers Focke-Wulf and Dornier also follow the air-cooled route. Therefore, German companies have quite advanced technology in this regard and do not need to cooperate with Italian companies at all.

However, the design and construction level of aircraft carriers must be improved through cooperation with foreign countries. Through previous cooperation with the Soviet Union, Germany has mastered the construction technology of medium-sized aircraft carriers used in the Pacific, Mediterranean and Indian Oceans. But there is no aircraft carrier used in the Atlantic Ocean yet.

Balbo did not seem to expect the Germans to put forward such conditions. He was stunned for a moment, and then asked back: "Ludwig, what do you Germans want to do? You are a defeated country... The Treaty of Versailles has not been abolished yet, right? I think you should know that Italy is not the Soviet Union after all!"

The Soviet Union is an iron curtain country. Although Britain and France can guess that there are a lot of actions that violate the Treaty of Versailles in the cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union, they can never get evidence. But Italy is not so airtight. Even if Mussolini agrees to keep it secret, it is hard to say how the people below will implement it.

"It doesn't matter. We don't have high requirements for confidentiality." Hersman shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Rathenau. The Jewish billionaire laughed and said, "Mr. Minister, a new era, an era of European unity may soon come... The difficulties faced by Britain and the problems faced by Europe can only be solved through unity and cooperation. I think the chain of the Treaty of Versailles will soon be removed from Germany. So Britain will not only not oppose our cooperation with Italy, but may also directly participate in it."

"What? Britain will cooperate with you to develop aircraft carriers?"

"We hope so," Val T. Rathenau nodded affirmatively, "This is the purpose of my coming to Rome. We want to ask the leader to hold a meeting to discuss European economic issues. You know, the European economy is facing a huge disaster."

"What suggestions do you want to make at the meeting?" Balbo asked immediately. He knew that the Italian leader would definitely agree to hold such a meeting because it would enhance Italy's international status, and the leader liked to talk in front of a bunch of foreign leaders.

"A European Monetary Union!" Val T. Rathenau said, "We want to establish such an alliance so that all European countries use a currency that transcends sovereignty. This currency will be issued by a European Central Bank. It will never depreciate and is a completely reliable hard currency... This was not proposed by us, but by the British. We decided to fully support it, but it is not convenient to hold the meeting on German soil. So we would like to ask the Italian leader to come forward."

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