The Rise of the Third Reich

In the Kremlin, in a dimly lit, very large office, a map of the Soviet-Polish border situation hung on the wall. Stalin sat behind a painted desk, with a pile of documents placed on a green tablecloth in front of him. . An ashtray full of cigarette butts to the right of the great Bolshevik leader shows that he has been working here for a long time. He held a report in his left hand - it was sent by Yezhov, the NKVD personally, and the content was related to Tukhachevsky's "reactionary military line" and "reactionary royalist line."

When Stalin's secretary invited Hersmann, his adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Hans Speidel, and Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet Union, Tukhachevsky, Stalin stood up, shook hands with them, and then silently With a gesture he invited them to sit down in their chairs and looked at Hersman inquiringly.

"Ludwig, let's talk about the aftermath. It's not easy to start a war, but it's even harder to end it."

Stalin had no opinion on how to defeat Poland - as long as it could be defeated, anything would do, even if the "Black Plan" was fake.

But Stalin had ideas about how to distribute the fruits of victory after defeating Poland.

"Comrade Stalin, I believe that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which does not cede territory or pay reparations, is the basis for maintaining friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany."

What Hersman meant was to divide future borders in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - according to this treaty, Russia lost several provinces along the Baltic Sea and the Kingdom of Russian Poland.

In addition, the so-called "Western Ukraine" is not actually the land of Tsarist Russia, and it never has been. Western Ukraine is the Eastern Galicia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it belonged to Poland before the Russian-Austro-Prussian partition of Poland. So in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, it didn't belong to the Soviet Union.

However, the Soviet Union has always described Western Ukraine as part of right-bank Ukraine, calling it "lost territory."

Stalin put the "small report" in his hand into a drawer - Tukhachevsky's mistake was serious and unforgivable. But now is not the time to capture him, at least not this month. Negotiations with Hessmann still require his expertise.

"I noticed that you still want to retain the Polish nation-state," Stalin said thoughtfully, "Is it necessary?"

Stalin meant that Poland could be completely divided! In this way, Western Ukraine can be taken - Western Ukraine is an industrial and mining area of ​​Poland with good coal mines and iron ores. Coal is a relatively scarce resource in the Soviet Union.

In addition, the geographical location of Western Ukraine is also very important. It was the gateway for the Soviet Union to advance westward into Central Europe, leading to Slovakia and Hungary.

"But there are about 25 million Polish people in Europe," Hersman said. "That's too many for us."

The Polish Federation now has a population of more than 50 million, including about 25 million Poles, about 4 million Jews, about 17 million Ukrainians, more than 2 million Lithuanians, and more than 1 million people from other ethnic groups. Most of the Polish people in the Polish Federation live in the western part of the Polish Federation. If it is to be partitioned, these people will be trouble for Germany.

"Comrade Stalin, I also support the retention of Poland. This will help us reconcile with Britain and France after the war."

At this time, Tukhachevsky suddenly interjected and helped Hessman! Stalin frowned. He knew what Tukhachevsky was thinking - the Polish nation-state could exist as a buffer state.

Although the Soviet Union and Germany were already neighboring countries after Germany merged with the Baltic States, the border between the two countries was not very long, and there was Lake Pskov and a large forest in the eastern section of the border between the two countries, which was not conducive to the passage of large armies. . Only the Baltic and Lithuanian borders with Belarus are more dangerous. However, the distance is not long, and a strong defense line can be built to surround Belarus.

But if the Soviet Union and Germany completely carve up Poland, the two countries will have a very long common border, especially in the southern border area between Ukraine and Poland. The area is very flat and has no dangerous points, which is very conducive to attack. And the public sentiment there... is definitely not towards the Soviet Union. Because the people there had never been Russians for a day, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic completed the land reform and equally divided the land (land belonging to the Austrian nobility), and there was no class conflict to exploit.

As for reconciliation with Britain and France, Stalin didn't pay much attention to it. Together with Germany, the power of the Soviet Union has far exceeded that of Britain and France, so it is Britain and France who need to seek peace, not the Soviet Union and Germany.

"If Poland becomes a buffer state," Stalin pondered, "then how are we going to run the country? Should we divide it into separate administrative districts?"

Tukhachevsky sighed softly after hearing this. Stalin was too greedy. Dividing Poland into two parts and administering them separately to the Soviet Union and Germany would also make Poland lose its buffering role, and sooner or later the Soviet-administered Poland would be merged into the Soviet Union.

"How about the Bug River as the boundary?" Hersman said slowly.

He wanted to get Lviv (Lemberg), which was originally part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a very wealthy area. It not only had a large fertile black soil belt, but also had rich coal and iron resources. It was the heavy industry center of the Polish Federation. .

"But we also want Lviv!" Stalin said.

"That place belongs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire!" Hersman shook his head, "According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, we should have the final say!"

Stalin's face darkened and he looked at Hessmann coldly, "You now have more than 23 million tons of steel (output in 1936, including Austria and the Czech Republic). If you control Lemberg, you will soon We can increase steel production to 30 million tons because there are good coal and iron mines there!

Last year, we only had 12 million tons of steel and only 116 million tons of coal. This puts our two countries in an excessively uneven state. "

Although the Soviet Union is known as "the third largest industrial country in the world," it only claims to have surpassed the United Kingdom in terms of the scale of heavy industry, and is far behind Germany. If compared to technology, the gap between the two countries is even greater - this is also one of the reasons why the Soviet Union was beaten violently by Germany in the early days of the Soviet-German War. The industrial strength of the Soviet Union was incomparable with Germany before the war. Counting France and Belgium In European countries occupied by Germany such as the Netherlands and the Netherlands, the gap in the Soviet Union was even greater.

In addition, the Soviet heavy industry also had a shortcoming - lack of coal!

Although the Soviet Union was a vast country with abundant resources, it had no shortage of resources. But in the western region, which is densely populated and has convenient transportation, there is not much coal (mainly concentrated in Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine), while Lviv, which currently belongs to Poland, has abundant coal resources.

"Whoever occupies it first will control it," Hersman thought for a while and said, "Right bank Ukraine and Western Belarus will belong to the Soviet Union, while Lithuania, Danzi and the Danzi Corridor will belong to Germany. The rest of Poland will belong to the independent Republic of Poland. , jointly protected by the Soviet Union and Germany... As for the jurisdictions of both sides, in principle, first come first served, how about it? "

This seems to be a plan that is more beneficial to the Soviet Union! Because the Soviet Red Army could go straight from Minsk, their stronghold on the western front, along the road to Lublin in the southwest (northwest of Lviv), thus cutting the Polish Federation into two parts and blocking the German army's eastward advance. Wolf's route.

Moreover, this route of advance is very flat, and there are railway lines that can be used. Except for the Bug River and the Brest Fortress, there were no dangers that could stop the Red Army's advance.

Stalin took out his pipe, opened a tin cigarette case, stuffed some tobacco, lit the fire, took two puffs, and then nodded slowly: "First come first, it sounds good... just Let's do that." He thought for a while and asked, "Then when are you going to start a war?"

"In September 1939," Hersman said, "we still had two more years to prepare."

"How long does it take to prepare?" Stalin exhaled, "If I remember correctly, you have been preparing for more than ten years."

"Yes, but it's still not enough." Hessman shook his head. "First of all, the reserves of oil and non-ferrous metals are not enough. We only have 16 million tons of oil now, and we hope to reach 20 million tons in two years... This is to maintain 2 years of war."

Now, Germany's synthetic fuel production capacity and oil reserves are both confidential. Even the Soviets don't know about the former. That's why Hessmann was able to deceive Stalin and say that Germany needed 10 million tons of oil a year.

"In addition, our weapons exposed many shortcomings in the Spanish War." Hersman smiled bitterly, "Our tanks can't beat your T-26, and they probably can't beat the Polish 7TP tanks. We need to wait for the No. 3 and No. 4 tanks. The aircraft was put into production. Our aircraft...the Bf-109 is not ideal, and the Fokker D.31 is not as useful as expected. It needs to be improved or a new aircraft is developed, so it will take another two years to prepare."

What is being sent to Spain now is the Bf-109B. This is the first liquid-cooled air superiority fighter to be equipped with a large number of troops after World War I. Naturally, it will not be done in one step. It has many problems on the Spanish battlefield and needs time to improve. .

The Fokker D.31 has a bigger problem. It is an air-cooled aircraft developed on the basis of the Fokker D.21. It adopts many new technologies and is also equipped with a high-horsepower air-cooled engine. It should be a Very good fighter. However, its performance on the Spanish battlefield was not satisfactory, mainly because this fighter was positioned as a "multi-purpose aircraft" by Fokker, and Fokker also wanted to install a turbocharger on its fuselage in the future. , so the plane was built too big and too heavy.

The advantages of the high-horsepower engine are wasted by its own weight. In addition to its large bomb load, good dive performance, and relatively fast speed (not particularly fast), it does not have much advantage (but it is still enough to crush Iraq- 15 and I-16 series).

Therefore, Hersman gave instructions to his brother-in-law Anthony Fokker in late April this year, asking him to immediately start designing an air superiority fighter equipped with an air-cooled engine, which must be completed by the end of May 1939.

It is required to have the possibility to serve as a carrier-based aircraft; have excellent air combat performance; the practical altitude is medium altitude - 3000 meters - 5000 meters; the flight time using the auxiliary fuel tank is more than 6 hours, the maximum range is more than 3000 kilometers; the maximum speed (4200 meters altitude) More than 550 kilometers.

Moreover, Hirschman also suggested that Fokker could launch technical cooperation with Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, which has experience in manufacturing carrier-based aircraft, and jointly develop...