The Rise of the Third Reich

"Kurt, Ludwig, you don't have to tell me the benefits of expanding the army. I'm not so stupid that I don't understand current affairs. But I still have to ask, if France and Belgium are really preparing to use force. How should we deal with it? ?”

In a spacious and magnificent office once used by German Emperor Wilhelm II, the aging President Hindenburg sat on a sofa chair and looked at Schleicher and Hersmann with turbid eyes.

'He has lost his previous decisiveness and judgment, and is sometimes clear and sometimes confused. He may have Alzheimer's disease. ’ Hessman sighed inwardly.

In fact, Hindenburg didn't just learn about Hessmann and Schleicher's plan today - this plan was formulated together by the Department of Defense and the General Staff. It took nearly half a year to conduct repeated deductions, and all the plans had already been prepared. All possible emergencies have been considered.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff knew about the plan before it was formulated. And after the plan was formulated, it was submitted to the two of them for review. In the end, Hindenburg nodded to advance to the current point.

"Your Excellency," Hersman couldn't get angry with a president who was probably already suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He could only explain patiently, "If the enemy wants to fight, then we will stay with him until the end!"

The plan to fight has been made long ago!

There are plans for a duel with France; there are also plans for uniting the Soviet Union to fight against France and Poland. Although the Soviet Union’s first five-year plan has not yet been completed, in this time and space, Poland took over Ukraine on the right bank and even "frustrated" Lenin. , even children in the Soviet Union knew that "White Poland must be destroyed." Therefore, once Poland declared war on Germany, Stalin had no choice but to join in.

In fact, in January 1931, Stalin had already carried out some mobilization in accordance with Germany's request and formed the Ukrainian Front Army and the Belarusian Front Army. They also continued to dispatch SB-1 twin-engine medium bombers (a fast bomber with night flight capabilities jointly developed by the Soviet Union and Germany) to violate Polish airspace and create tension on the Soviet-Polish border. Of course, this was to scare people. Stalin did not want to do this now. We will attack Poland, but we don’t want Poland to kill Germany.

"Can we defeat France?" President Hindenburg seemed to have forgotten about Poland and only asked France.

"Being able to resist, if the French show signs of attacking," Hersman said, "the Army will send 10 divisions to seize the favorable terrain in the Rhine area and establish defensive positions. They will persist there until the expansion is completed..."

"is it possible?"

"It can be done because our air force will provide support to the ground forces." Hersman told Hindenburg. "We have 150 J.28H heavy bombers (TB-2, but not the original) stored in Baltica. model), 300 Junkers J.30 medium bombers (the SB-1, 150 of which were torpedo bombers), 350 Hs-120 dive bombers (Henschel, which produced locomotives, also entered aviation in the late 1920s. industry, and jointly developed this dive bomber with the Fokker Company) and 450 Fokker D.20 fighter aircraft. The performance of these aircraft is very superior, far ahead of similar aircraft in France, and the pilots who fly those aircraft are also very good! "

Because of the support from the Soviet Union and civil aviation orders, Germany's large-scale air cooling still led in 1931. Although the pace of improvement has been slowed down by the Great Recession, the 14-cylinder 1,200-horsepower air-cooled engine is now very mature. A 14-cylinder, 1,400-horsepower air-cooled engine has also begun trial production in small batches.

Relying on these air-cooled engines with superior performance, German aircraft manufacturing companies not only still control more than 70% of the world's civil aviation aircraft, but also produce several military aircraft with very excellent performance.

"Your Excellency, if there is a war with France," Hersman said, "we will rely on air superiority to force the other side to sue for peace based on General Douhet's theory."

"What?" Hindenburg asked, squinting his eyes.

"Giulio Douhet was an Italian general." Ludendorff was younger than his "big brother" Hindenburg and had a clear mind. "He proposed that the Army would be of little use in future wars and could only squat in trenches, with victory or defeat determined by aircraft bombings."

"That's right..." Hindenburg nodded, "Can our planes bomb all the way to Paris?"

"We have 450 bombers that can reach Paris!" Schleicher said proudly, "And the French fighters fly too slowly to catch up with our bombers."

He was actually lying to Hindenburg. The J.28H model loaded with bombs was not very fast and would definitely be caught up by French fighters. However, the J.30 model does run very fast. Even if it is equipped with bombs, it is faster than the French fighter jets currently in service! In addition, both J.28H and J.30 have night flight capabilities. Today's radar-equipped night fighters have not yet been invented - there are simply no such high-end radars. Therefore, the way for fighter jets to intercept bombers at night is to install a searchlight on the fuselage, but it is basically useless...

So Germany now has 450 planes that can go to Paris to drop bombs in the dark!

"Your Excellency, war is a small probability event," Hersman added, "The purpose of building these aircraft is only to train pilots and scare the French... If they don't take any drastic measures, these aircraft will continue to hide. If they are shouting to kill, then use these aircraft to hold a military parade, so that 1,250 aircraft can fly around Berlin to have the effect of 2,500."

These 1,250 aircraft are the entire property of the secret German Air Force (most of the pilots are not active military personnel), the open Baltic Air Force and the Baltic Naval Aviation. They are also the only things that can be obtained by the German military. The effect of scaring people may be good, but it is definitely not enough to really fight.

"And we have also prepared pacifists," Schleicher said. "The cabinet of generals is just a transition and will not exist for more than two months. When the compulsory military service system is implemented, the cabinet of generals will transfer power to Elected pacifist politicians.”

“Who are the democratically elected pacifist politicians?”

"Herr Adolf Hitler, leader of the German National Socialist Workers' Party!"

"Oh, a socialist?" Hindenburg breathed a sigh of relief, "Then I can rest assured. Everyone knows that socialists love peace. We are evil people, and then let him appease the French. This is a way... Okay, I approve General Sekter (retired) to serve as caretaker prime minister until the parliamentary elections are over and a new government is formed.”

…

On the day after Herschmann met with the slightly demented President Hindenburg, major newspapers in Europe published the latest list of the German caretaker cabinet on the most prominent front page - this was based on Hindenburg's The Cabinet consists of the President's presidential decree (powers granted to the President by Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution).

"A cabinet of generals...and a field marshal as president! What do these Germans want to do? Do they want to fight us?"

In the Prime Minister's Office in Paris, France, Prime Minister Pierre Laval was anxiously walking around in his office. On a chair near the desk, Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, who was nearly 70 years old, squinted. Eyes, as if drowsy.

"Mr. Briand, what do you think we should do?" Prime Minister Laval turned around a few times, and finally returned to Briand. Although he was the prime minister of the left-wing coalition government, on the diplomatic line, Laval Val still had to listen to Brian.

"This is just a caretaker government," Brian glanced at Laval, who was like an ant on a hot pot. "In two months, there will be nothing left for them."

Will it be a caretaker government? Laval was skeptical.

"I know the Germans. They are different from the Russians," Brian smiled. "Military dictatorship will not appear in Germany. If that happens, their people will probably..."

Before he finished speaking, the phone on the Prime Minister's desk rang rapidly and loudly. Laval and Brian looked at each other. Laval grabbed the phone receiver and after listening to a few words, his expression suddenly changed.

"Pierre, what's wrong?" Brian asked.

"Something big has happened!" The French Prime Minister's voice was trembling. "Germans, the Germans are going to tear up the Treaty of Versailles!"

"What? What?" The old man Brian couldn't hold his breath anymore and stood up from the chair suddenly, "What happened?"

"They, they announced the resumption of compulsory military service. They want to reorganize the German Defense Force into the Wehrmacht within 2 months. The number of the army will be expanded to 800,000! Mr. Briand, what should we do now?"

Aristide Briand's body swayed and he almost fell down in the office. Expanding the army is obviously the first step for Germany to tear up the Treaty of Versailles! If sanctions are not imposed immediately, the consequences may be disastrous.

But how many sanctions does France have?

"Mr. Briand, do you want to send troops to the Ruhr area now?" Laval asked in a low voice.

Occupy the Ruhr area again? Brian shook his head and said seriously: "We cannot act rashly. It is not 1922 anymore...Germany is not without the power to resist. If you want to use force, you must be prepared to pay huge casualties! Moreover, there is no help from Poland. , we are likely to suffer failure.”

Poland... won't help! Because the Polish ambassador has been going to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs every day to ask for help these days - the Soviet Red Army is gathering in Ukraine and Belarus, and fast bombers (reconnaissance type) have violated Polish airspace in recent days!

Under such circumstances, how could Poland possibly go to war with Germany again?

"Mr. Briand, are we just going to let Germany go?" Laval wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and spoke in a much more relaxed tone.

"No, we can't let them go like this." Brian was silent for a moment, "We want to sanction Germany! We want to sue Germany to the League of Nations and demand collective sanctions against Germany!"

————

Although the time for Germany to resume compulsory military service has been advanced, the French Prime Minister has not been replaced. Laval in the book is in power for the first time. Historically, the French leftist government was like this, not willing to fight hard - they were all elected by people who were unwilling to fight hard! In fact, it is unfair to pin appeasement on the heads of the rightists. These things were all done by the Virgin Mary of the Left, the origin of the Virgin Mary of Europe.