The Rise of the Third Reich

"God, is this true? An armored division and a motorized infantry division defeated 6 infantry divisions in less than 48 hours. This really overturned my understanding of war..."

In the Riga Castle, William II, who had spent more than ten years cutting down trees and hunting in the Duolun Manor, suddenly found that his understanding of military affairs had dropped to the level of a primary school student... If the "Iron Fist-1935" military exercise was not a If he is engaging in a farce of lies, he no longer understands war at all!

"Your Majesty, this is the reality. The advancement of internal combustion engine technology has brought about a military revolution."

At the exercise summary meeting, Hessmann told the future nominal commander of the German army: "The traditional infantry division is completely vulnerable to the mechanized armored division and motorized infantry division! This is not only because of the mechanized force. Their firepower and defense have improved exponentially compared to traditional troops, and they also have powerful mobile combat capabilities.

In the 'Highway 8 Encounter', the armored group went into attack with a powerful assault force before the traditional infantry had completed its deployment. The opponent's infantry did not have time to build a position, the artillery did not have time to set up, and even the concentration of troops did not have time to complete. Just on a long road, I encountered a coordinated attack from armored forces and ground attack aircraft in a marching state..."

The "Highway 8 Encounter" was not a real war, but an "encounter" during an exercise. Two "Red Army" infantry divisions that had just begun to enter a state of rapid march ran head-on into the "Blue Army" armored cluster.

More than 30,000 people, more than 300 artillery pieces of various types (excluding mortars), and thousands of loaded carriages lined the road for more than 15 kilometers... In the war from 1914 to 1918 If two armies like this encountered each other, it would take a whole day just to complete the deployment. Then it will most likely take a few days to dig trenches and build fortifications. After a week, it will be considered slow to launch a fierce attack and defense.

However, in World War II, a European "big country" like Yugoslavia with an army of 1.2 million barely managed to resist Germany's Blitzkrieg offensive for eight days. Poland and France performed slightly better, and they stopped motionless within a month.

In World War I, even a weakling like Romania resisted for several months under the siege of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria.

This is the consequence of the military revolution brought about by the tremendous progress in internal combustion engine technology!

The "Iron Fist-1935" military exercise proved the correctness of the mechanized warfare theory proposed by Fuller, de Gaulle and others by simulating mechanized warfare. At the same time, it also pointed out a development direction for the German army's war preparations.

"The next war will definitely not be a preview of 1914-1918!" Hersman's eyes lightly glanced at the German Kaiser, Hitler, Goltz, Raeder, Guderian and Falkenhausen. After that, it finally stopped at the only figure in the conference room who was not wearing a military uniform - Adolf Hitler.

Hersman's main purpose in promoting this large-scale military exercise, in addition to proving the theory that has long been proven by history, is to compete with Hitler for the actual command of the army in the future!

To successfully obtain the future command, it is not only the elderly emperor who needs to be persuaded, but also Hitler himself. Hitler must be convinced that only Hersmann can lead the German army to conquer Europe.

"Everyone, this military exercise has told us very clearly that the next war will be fought in a completely new mode. It will be a high-tech war that subverts previous perceptions, and those leading this war must be very professional. The great general staff!"

The system of the Grand General Staff leading the war had been established in the First World War, and Hessmann now needed to restore it.

"But," Adolf Hitler glanced at the frowning emperor. The emperor obviously had doubts about the future war, "General, if the new type of war you mentioned is true, then this war will consume a lot of money. Oil. Because tanks, cars, airplanes, and all kinds of warships all need oil to drive them. But do we have so much oil to consume in Germany?”

It seems that Hitler still had doubts about a new world war.

"Yes!" Hessman nodded and said, "The Army Strategic Reserves began to reserve oil and various non-ferrous metals in the early 1920s. After the Keynes Plan was implemented in 1924, it gradually increased the reserves.

A considerable part of the oil and non-ferrous metals we obtained through barter with the Soviet Union was stored in war-ready warehouses in Travemünde, Königsberg and Riga. Among them, the oil storage capacity is as high as 12 million tons. We also plan to increase the strategic oil reserve to 15 million tons before 1939. "

If Albert Speer, the German Minister of Arms who manages German military production in another time and space, were to see the current inventory list of the Strategic Reserve Bureau, he would probably drool with envy.

Twelve million tons of oil is just one asset. In addition, the Strategic Reserve Bureau also holds 103,000 tons of electrolytic manganese metal, 125,000 tons of refined copper, 108,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum, 92,000 tons of lead, 92,000 tons of zinc, 28,000 tons of nickel, 12,000 tons of tin and 9,000 tons of tungsten metal.

In addition, the Strategic Reserve Bureau also stores large amounts of unprocessed manganese ore, copper ore, lead-zinc ore, tungsten ore, chromite, bauxite and uranium ore, as well as large amounts of soybeans, silk, cotton, opium, and cocoa beans. , coffee beans, tobacco and other agricultural products.

However, the reserve quantity of these good things is the highest military secret, and Hessmann will not tell Hitler.

Hersman continued: "In addition, we have been promoting the synthetic fuel plan since 1926. Farben plans to build 15 hydrogenation plants by 1939, creating a production capacity of 10,000 tons of synthetic fuel per day."

Adolf Hitler asked: "15 million tons of oil reserves and an annual output of more than 3.5 million tons of synthetic fuels...are these enough?"

"There are also imports," Hersman said, "from Romania and the Soviet Union!"

"Imported from the Soviet Union?" William II seemed a little surprised by this proposal.

"Yes," Hersman looked at William, "Your Majesty, we are friends with the Soviet Union... Lenin led the revolution and became the leader of the Soviet Union with your help."

"Do we really want to fight with the Soviet Union?" William II still had some doubts. "They are all Bolsheviks!"

"Your Majesty, uniting with the Soviet Union will make us invincible." Hessmann said with certainty. "Germany is currently the second largest industrial country in the world, and the Soviet Union will firmly rank first in the world after completing the second five-year plan." The three major industrial countries. As long as we form an alliance with the Soviet Union, we will be invincible in the next world war!"

In fact, the Soviet Union is Hessman's biggest trump card in fighting for actual command!

Because the whole world knows that Hersman is an old friend of Lenin and the Soviet people, and his relationship with Stalin is also very good. In Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, there is a very wide and beautiful road named Hersman Street.

Therefore, as long as Germany determines the national policy of "uniting the Soviet Union", Hessmann will surely rise.

As for the trump card of "uniting the Soviet Union", it seems at present (whether the alliance can be maintained is another matter), it can indeed make Germany invincible. At least on the European continent, there was no force that could defeat the Soviet Union and Germany at the same time.

"What about Britain?" Emperor William asked again. "If we unite with the Soviet Union, there should be no country on the European continent that can threaten Germany. But at sea, both we and the Soviet Union are very weak and are no match for Britain."

He was deliberately stupid at sea... Hersman had already planned to ignore the English Channel for the time being. After defeating France, he would turn south and attack the Mediterranean and the Middle East with Mussolini.

However, the matter of uniting Italy is not yet feasible. Mussolini is now a pro-British faction. Although his relationship with Germany is good, it cannot be said to be close.

"We can defeat the British Navy from the air!" Hersman gave another answer. "Your Majesty, testing large-scale sea and air combat is also one of the purposes of this 'Iron Fist-1935' military exercise."

The "Iron Fist-1935" military exercise is actually divided into three purposes. The first purpose is to transport army troops over long distances; the second purpose is to test the theory of mechanized warfare; and the third purpose is to perform sea and air confrontation operations - Germany Naval aviation (Göring is still serving as Minister of Economic Affairs, so the German Navy naturally has aviation) will use 100 twin-engine medium bombers/torpedo attack aircraft/reconnaissance aircraft to conduct long-distance raids, taking off from bases in East Prussia to bomb and park. Four target ships in the Gulf of Riga.

Hundreds of aircraft are concentrated at a time, flying hundreds of kilometers, and searching for targets on the vast sea. This is entirely a specialty of the Japanese Navy, but the Japanese Navy mainly uses carrier-based aircraft to do this. The German Navy currently does not have an aircraft carrier, so it uses derivatives of the J.30 medium bomber, equipped with torpedoes and heavy bombs to deal with enemy fleets at sea.

Air-ship confrontation drills have been held many times since Germany restored its compulsory military service system, and the overall results are pretty good. Therefore, this time the plane bombing the ship was completely a performance, and there was no possibility of failure.

"Oh, bombing with planes?" Emperor William nodded, "The times are changing so fast. Not only is the army completely different from what it was more than ten years ago, but even the battles at sea have to rely on planes to decide the outcome. So, at sea, When will the air combat exercise start? Can I observe it?”

Admiral Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, took the question and replied: "The exercise will be held the day after tomorrow in the waters near the Samar Islands. His Majesty and the Prime Minister can go and watch."