The Rise of the Third Reich

"Your Majesty, General, this is British Air Force Lieutenant General Hugh Dowding. He was taking pictures of our Ju.89 and Do.19, and took a lot of photos."

"This is Colonel de Gaulle of France. He is the author of the book "Building a Professional Army"..."

"I've read his book." Hersman interrupted Lieutenant Colonel Galen who was placing a photo in front of him.

When these foreign officers carefully observed German weapons and equipment, they themselves were also the objects of observation by the Strategic Deception Bureau and were photographed.

"He's looking at the tank?" Hersman looked at de Gaulle in the photo. "His head is down."

"Yes, he was indeed looking at the tanks." Lieutenant Colonel Galen said. "He was also very interested in our armored vehicles and motorcycles and took photos of them. However, General Gamelin next to him was very interested in our bombers. very interested."

"Oh." Hessman nodded. Gan Molin, a very good opponent, has probably been deceived by the Strategic Deception Bureau.

"This is Major General Rommel of Poland."

Another photo was placed in front of Hessman. It showed a middle-aged man wearing a strange Polish military uniform. He looked very handsome.

"Rommel?" Hessman smiled, "There is also a Rommel in Poland. Isn't he related to Erwin Rommel?"

"There are actually two General Rommels in Poland," Galen said with a smile. "This one is a 'brigade general,' which is equivalent to our major general."

The general military ranks in Poland include three levels: "General of Arms", "General of Division" and "General of Brigade", and above that is Marshal. However, foreigners habitually call them "general", "lieutenant general" and "major general".

"His name is Carol Rommel, and he is a close associate of Marshal Rez Himigwi," Galen said. "He is from the Polish Army. He is a very good cavalry commander. He also won the third place in equestrian at the Olympic Games."

"Third place in the Olympics?"

"Yes, he is an expert equestrian, but he has no formal military education."

Lieutenant Colonel Galen thought for a while and then said: "In the Polish army, from the colonel on up, there are very few people who came from formal military schools. Many of them joined Piłsudski's 'Infantry Association' before the World War. civilians who have only received the most basic military education.”

"This is a major weakness of the Polish army," Hersman smiled. "We all have studied military for more than ten years before entering professional military careers, and they are actually laymen."

"The quality of their soldiers is not good either." Lieutenant Colonel Galen said. "According to the statistics of the Poles themselves, in the early 1920s, the literacy rate of adults in the Polish Commonwealth lands that originally belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia was only 50% to 60%. %. The literacy rate among adults in the lands originally belonging to Germany is as high as 99.4%.”

The highly educated people were a major advantage of Germany in World War II, allowing German soldiers to master advanced and complex weapons systems faster than soldiers from other countries, especially Eastern European countries.

"A bunch of illiterate people, they can't even use mechanization!" Hersman sneered contemptuously, "Where are the Soviets? Who is here this time?"

"It's Air Force Colonel Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov of the Soviet Union," Lieutenant Colonel Galen took out a photo, pointed at the person on it and said to Hersman, "He is looking at us with a telescope. Ju.89 and Do.19.”

"Stalin will soon propose to buy them," Hessmann took a sip of the coffee on his desk. "These advanced weapons are his toys. He will like them when he sees them, and he will want them if he likes them."

Ju.89 and Do.19 can of course be sold, as long as Stalin exchanges them for oil and non-ferrous metals. However, Soviet-German aviation technical cooperation has long been interrupted, and there is no intention of resuming it.

"Also," Hersman gently turned the coffee cup in his hand, "has the Black Plan been drawn up?"

The "Black Plan" was a false plan to attack Poland. It was prepared by three of Hessmann's confidants, the Chief of Intelligence of the General Staff (the superior director of the Military Intelligence Service and the Strategic Deception Bureau, and was also responsible for the Ministry of Defense's Ministry of Defense). Lieutenant General Tipelskich, who co-manages the Central Security Service, Lieutenant General Halder, the First Chief Operations Officer of the General Staff, and Lieutenant Colonel Galen are jointly responsible.

Although it is a false plan, it still needs to be carried out according to the real combat plan. All kinds of things need to be taken into consideration and several preliminary plans need to be prepared.

The combat idea of ​​this fake plan follows the style of play at the end of World War I - tanks cover the infantry and launch an attack on a very wide front. Artillery will also be used as it was in 1918, concentrating thousands of them. Artillery bombarded the general attack with tanks and infantry for a week.

After the tanks cover the infantry breakthrough, there will be no "blitzkrieg", but a "textbook" slow advance and outflank. The mechanized troops will not rush forward, but will act together with the large troops and play the role of commandos in positional attacks.

There are still changes, mainly in the use of the air force. Aircraft will become an important factor in determining the outcome of the war. Not only will tactical bombers be used to bomb Polish roads and Polish army positions and assembly areas, but a "Strategic Bombing Command" will be established specifically to bomb cities. In many cases, There were 1,500 to 2,000 Ju.89s and Do.19s displayed at the airport - of course they were all fakes that couldn't fly. However, in "The Black Plan", these fake planes will be an important factor in forcing Poland to surrender!

Warsaw, the Polish capital, and the major cities would be bombed indiscriminately until they were wiped off the map...if the Poles refused to surrender.

It seems quite feasible. Even if the Poles can withstand the indiscriminate bombing, their support for the front line will be greatly weakened, which will be conducive to the ground attack.

According to the plan of the "Black Plan", a powerful frontal offensive coupled with aircraft bombings, as well as the Soviet offensive from the east, would basically force Poland to surrender in six months. However, in the "Black Plan", Poland's surrender does not mean that Poland will be destroyed. A political solution must still be sought.

Because Germany’s territorial targets (the targets in the “Black Plan”) are the Free City of Danze, the Polish Corridor and Lithuania, totaling 70,000 square kilometers.

The Soviet Union can take over the right bank of Ukraine and Western Belarus (excluding Western Ukraine or Eastern Galicia), the two lands lost in the Soviet-Polish War.

The remaining Polish mainland plus Eastern Galicia became a new Polish nation-state, existing as a buffer state between the Soviet Union and Germany. The Soviet Union and Germany jointly ensured Poland's security, and Poland's own armed forces remained at around 100,000, subject to strict supervision by the Soviet Union and Germany - this was of course the goal to be achieved in the "Black Plan".

Then Germany will seek reconciliation with Britain and France, and seek a peaceful settlement of the issues in Alsace-Lorraine, the German-speaking area of ​​Belgium (compensation state) and Luxembourg.

In the "Black Plan", Germany's goal for the western border was only to recover the compensation states, then annex Luxembourg, and then take back some of the Lorraine iron ore areas bordering Luxembourg.

In addition, Germany also hopes to resolve the issues of the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The two treaties should be completely voided, and Germany no longer has to pay any compensation. At the same time, Germany also wants to take back several more African colonies.

To achieve the above goals, strategic bombing of Paris and London will be the most effective method.

The Maginot Line was impossible to break, just like the Siegfried Line was impregnable. Although the German Army could avoid the defensive line by passing through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, it seemed unlikely that the German Army would fight better than in 1914. Because there was no Maginot Line at that time, the French were unable to concentrate their forces on the northern front, and they launched a stupid offensive that ended in heavy casualties.

Now, the French, Belgians, and British were able to concentrate most of their forces in Belgium, using the rivers and fortresses there to build an impenetrable line of defense.

"Your Majesty General, the first draft of the "Black Plan" has been completed," Lieutenant Colonel Galen replied. "The first revision will be made after two war games."

Hessman took a sip of coffee and asked: "So, how does the Bureau of Strategic Deception plan to reveal this plan to our enemies?"

"Your Excellency, General," Lieutenant Colonel Galen said, "We have been arranging for every bit of information to leak out. But it is very uncomfortable to send the outline of the entire "Black Project" to the offices of the French and British General Staffs. Easy, because they are not fools." He paused, "So we plan to achieve our goal through the Soviet Union's initiative to leak secrets. We can first hand over the general outline of the "Plan" to the Soviet Union.

Hersman raised his eyebrows, "Do you think the Soviets will betray us?"

"Yes," Lieutenant Colonel Galen frowned, "General, this is obvious... The Soviet Union only wants right-bank Ukraine and Western Belarus, and does not want to continue to follow us to fight Britain and France. Moreover, Stalin will also worry about us and Britain and France colluded, and then turned around to attack the Soviet Union, so he would definitely find ways to communicate with Britain and France to avoid declaring war, and leaking this "Plan" is obviously a good way."

Hessman nodded. It seemed that he had a very good vision and found such a talent among so many young and promising Wehrmacht officers.

Stalin will definitely leak the "Black Plan"! On the one hand, it showed that it had no intention of becoming an enemy of Britain and France - the Soviet Union just wanted to regain lost ground; on the other hand, it also told Britain and France that Germany also did not want to break with them. Therefore, they had better adopt a neutral and wait-and-see attitude and watch Poland be defeated by the Soviet Union.

"What a great idea!" Hessman said approvingly, "Lieutenant Colonel Galen, you have solved a big problem for me... Maybe after they (referring to Britain and France) see the "Black Plan", they will really betray Poland. !”