The Rise of the Third Reich

The day after meeting Einstein and Chaplin, a Rover sedan belonging to the British War Department picked up Hersman and his adjutant Paulus from the Langham Hotel.

"Colonel Alexander, do you remember me?" Hersman said to a British colonel who was about the same age as him sitting in the passenger seat. "The last time we met was in Ambia in Tallinn."

The person who came to pick up Hersman at the Langham Hotel was Colonel Harold Alexander, the head of the military delegation sent to Tallinn by the Allied Powers. In the blink of an eye, more than ten years later, Hersman has been promoted from colonel to lieutenant general, but Alexander is still a colonel - this is caused by Britain's historical small army policy. Barring a major war, it would be difficult for officers in the British Army to advance through the ranks. In contrast, naval officers have many opportunities.

"Lieutenant General, we were unable to reach a consensus last time. We hope we can achieve some results this time."

Hersman's visit to London was on official business - meeting Einstein was just a casual visit. His real mission was to meet with British Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson to discuss the convening of an "International Disarmament Conference."

"Yes, I also hope to achieve some results." Hersman nodded and said with a smile, "Our country has just restored the compulsory military service system, and there are some misunderstandings in the international community. I hope we can take the opportunity of convening an international disarmament conference to correct it. clarify."

"That would be great." Colonel Alexander's attitude was a little cold, and seemed to be a little hostile. He was just dealing with talking to Hessman.

Perhaps in the eyes of this British colonel, Lieutenant General Hersman is now the axis of evil in the German military.

After working as a spy chief for more than ten years, Hersman gradually emerged from the water. He is now the third-ranking figure in the German Army after the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff. Such a status was too abnormal for a German officer who had never commanded a company and was less than 40 years old.

Therefore, the British intelligence agencies and German affairs experts immediately investigated and analyzed Hersman, and then came to the conclusion: Lieutenant General Hersman is the core figure of the German fascist group and the fascist leader Colonel Schleicher. The general's confidants were also one of the culprits in tearing up the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Germany's military expansion and war preparations!

Moreover, Lieutenant General Hirschmann was also a think tank and theorist of the German fascist warlord group, and proposed the "currency war theory" as an excuse to expand arms, prepare for war, and confront the international community. This person is probably the man behind the recent anti-Semitic incidents in Germany.

In short, Lieutenant General Hirschman was an extremely dangerous figure to both the British Empire and the world order.

After conducting a detailed and in-depth analysis of Lieutenant General Hersmann, the British then studied the current German Prime Minister Adolf Hitler. According to Hitler's words, deeds and guarantees when he visited Switzerland after being elected Prime Minister and met with French Foreign Minister Briand in Geneva. They believed that Hitler was actually a pacifist and that his extreme remarks during the campaign should not be taken seriously.

During the meeting in Geneva, Hitler assured Briand that Germany would abide by the spirit of the "Rhine Security Treaty" and the "Logano Convention" and recognize the existing western borders of Germany. At the same time, he also pledged to abide by the "non-war principle" of the Paris Convention and would not seek to use German force to change the status quo.

At the same time, Hitler privately promised Briand to reduce the scale of "Soviet-German cooperation" as much as possible and prevent a large amount of German advanced technology from flowing to the Soviet Union.

Consider the historically bad relations between Hitler's Nazi Party and the German Bolshevik Party. The British believed that Hitler was an "anti-Bolshevik" and that his persistence in Germany had a positive impact on containing Bolshevism.

But there are various signs that Germany's democracy is currently under threat from the military. Moreover, the fascists in the German military were all pro-Soviet. They tried to use their alliance with the Soviet Union to undermine the Treaty of Versailles, and they probably also wanted to collude with the Soviet Union to destroy Poland.

So Hitler and his Nazi Party were clearly the guarantor of German democracy and peace in Europe…

…

In the conference room of the Foreign Office on Whitehall Street, when Hersman set off from the Langham Hotel, an unusually dull cabinet meeting had come to an end.

The British Labor Party is now in power in the UK, another ancestor of Europe’s Holy Mother Bitch in history.

Unlike the Labor Party, which later gradually became more sophisticated, the current British Labor Party is still a party that truly originates from the working class. The prime minister was Ramsay Macdonald, who came from a grassroots background. His father was a farm worker and his mother was a maid. He was their illegitimate son. He later worked as a servant and bill clerk, and attended night classes at the university, but did not obtain a degree.

The Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson, who was about to meet with Herschmann to discuss the "Disarmament Conference", was the chairman of the British Labor Party who was a foundry worker and an authentic workers' politician.

However, most of these British politicians who had worked as servants and foundry workers were disciplined people and pursued the most traditional line in fiscal policy. In fact, they did not understand it themselves and listened to the bad ideas of economic experts. Even in the Great Depression, the government's balance of payments must be maintained as much as possible. They dare not use deficit spending as a means to stimulate the economy, and they are unwilling to stimulate exports by letting the pound depreciate sharply.

They were unwilling to devalue the pound, nor let the overvalued pound depreciate. Moreover, in order to maintain social stability, they had to issue large amounts of unemployment benefits. At this time and space, the unemployment rate in the UK was more severe than in history. By 1931, there were already 3.2 million people. Living on the dole!

In this case, the British Labor government can only save money by cutting "unnecessary" government expenditures, such as reducing military spending and cutting civil servant salaries.

The International Disarmament Conference was held against this background - for the sake of world peace, we cannot just let the UK disarma, we must pull the whole world to disarma.

But Germany happened to rearm its arms at this time! The army will be expanded by 600,000 at once and the air force will be established...

This really weakened the Labor cabinet - considering the position of the British Labor Party in this era, it would be unthinkable to go to war with Germany. As for expanding arms and preparing for war like Germany, it is obviously unrealistic, because the British treasury has no money at all.

"Gentlemen, the representatives of the Germans are coming soon, and today's meeting will end here," British Prime Minister McDonald said with concern. "Fiscal balance must be maintained... The British people did not elect us to power. Totally destroying the British pound!"

The British people are really unlucky. First, they met Churchill, a tough chancellor of the finance, and now they have elected a group of ignorant servants and worker politicians to power... This was during the Great Depression!

"Prime Minister, negotiations with the Germans..." Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson, who later won the Explosives Award in 1934, frowned, "What if the Germans do not agree to control naval armaments?"

"Persuad as much as possible," MacDonald shook his head. "They don't have any money now. Expanding the military so much at once should be a heavy burden. In terms of the navy, there shouldn't be a big problem...for us in the UK As long as the Germans don’t have a strong navy, they can basically sit back and relax.”

It turned out that what the British wanted to discuss with Hersman was naval arms control - Churchill would definitely be furious if he were in this conference room. What kind of naval arms control are we talking about with the Germans now? Where do the Germans have a navy? What to control?

Now talking about naval arms control with them, doesn't it mean recognizing the legitimacy of Germany's army expansion?

Moreover, the German Navy has no room for reduction at all. If it is reduced further, it will be gone. Negotiating naval arms control with Germany will only increase the strength of the German Navy, and it is impossible to reduce the German Navy, which already has few ships.

"35%." The British Prime Minister stood up and when he was about to walk out, the number came out from his teeth. "At most 35%, the tonnage of their capital ships and aircraft carriers cannot exceed 35% of that of the UK. This is our bottom line!"

…

"What? Mr. Foreign Secretary, what are you talking about?"

"Mr. Lieutenant General, I am talking about the issue of controlling German naval armaments!" Arthur Henderson met with Hessmann in a small conference room that was narrow and smelled of cigarettes and coffee.

"Let's talk in Geneva or somewhere else?" Hersman never expected that the other party would suddenly raise this question. He originally thought that this disarmament conference was just a frivolous meeting.

"I hope we can negotiate in Geneva," Arthur Henderson said. "The Soviet delegation may also attend the meeting... There will be the same negotiations between Britain and the Soviet Union, or a trilateral naval agreement between Britain, Germany and the Soviet Union will be signed."

"So what is the principle?" Hessman paused. He knew that there were "Anglo-German Naval Agreement" and "Anglo-Soviet Naval Agreement" in history. Among them, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement allowed Germany to develop large-scale naval armaments and loosen its constraints.

Thinking of this, Hersman asked again, "How many 10,000-ton capital ships and aircraft carriers can Germany have?"

"We will discuss specific issues later," the British Foreign Secretary said thoughtfully while puffing on his cigar. "This requires the participation of naval professionals. What can be determined at present is only the general principle...Germany's naval strength should not exceed 25% of Britain's."

25%? Isn't it 35%?

Hessmann muttered in his heart, but did not argue with the other party. He just nodded and said: "Your Excellency, Foreign Secretary, I will convey this information to Chancellor Hitler. In addition to controlling naval armaments, what other requirements does the British side have?" ?"

"There are no other conditions. Specific matters can be discussed at the disarmament conference. Now we just need to decide the place and time of the meeting... I want to hold this meeting in May this year, in Geneva."

"Okay, no problem." Hersman nodded and smiled, "I think Chancellor Hitler will be very willing to attend the disarmament conference in person."