The Rise of the Third Reich

The proposal for general mobilization was rejected by the confident Hitler!

However, the establishment of the General Administration of Armaments to unify and lead Germany's arms production was approved by Adolf Hitler.

"Ludwig, I would like to recommend Hermann Göring to concurrently serve as director of the General Administration of Armaments." Hitler said to Hersmann in his Chancellor's Office. "Göring is the Minister of Economy. His work has been very effective over the years. I believe he can make armaments production meet the needs of the war."

"Hermann," Hermann nodded to the fat Goering sitting on a chair next to him, "let us fight for the future of the German Empire together!"

Fatty is not the best candidate, and his abilities are not as good as Speer's. But it is better to have one director of the General Administration of Armament than to have separate bureaucracies in charge.

And Fatty Göring also has enough authority. In the past few years, he has formulated and supervised two four-year plans, and the results seem to be very good. Under his command, Germany produced 26.6 million tons of steel, 473 million tons of coal, 70.2 billion kWh of electricity, 250,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum and 520,000 automobiles in 1937. In addition, Germany's shipbuilding industry has also been restored, as illustrated by the construction of the "Scharnhorst" class battleships and "Seidlitz" class aircraft carriers.

However, the General Administration of Armaments will not be completely handed over to Göring. It’s not that he didn’t trust Göring’s ability. In fact, Göring was quite capable, but he was corrupted by power in history. In this time and space, Goering's power was not powerful enough to corrupt him. But knowing the future development direction of weapons and equipment is Hersman's biggest reliance, so the jurisdiction of this department still lies with the military.

The General Staff and the Ministry of Defense have the power to jointly decide on the candidates for the director, deputy directors and directors of the subordinate bureaus (the Army Bureau, the Air Force Bureau, the Navy Bureau and the Reserve Bureau). Moreover, the director of the General Administration of Armaments is only responsible for organizing production. As for what weapons to produce, it needs to be decided by an armaments committee chaired by Herschmann himself - the Ministry of Defense, the Army (General Staff), the Navy and the Air Force are all represented on this committee, while the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense And have the final say.

In other words, the power of what to produce and what not to produce was held by Hirschman.

Of course, the armaments production plan approved by the Armament Commission must be signed and confirmed by Chancellor Hitler. At this time, Hersmann handed Hitler the latest version of the Navy's "priority" shipbuilding plan.

"Mr. Prime Minister, this is part of the latest project of Plan Z." Hersman said. "This shipbuilding plan is formulated with the goal of defeating Poland in 1939, France in 1940, and Britain in 1941."

Victory over France in 1940? Victory over Britain in 1941?

Hitler and Fatty Göring looked at each other, feeling as if they were talking in their sleep.

Hersman said: "Before defeating Poland, the navy will mainly conduct operations with submarines to break diplomatic relations. After defeating Poland and before defeating France, the navy will conduct operations with a strategy of mainly submarines breaking diplomatic relations and attacking the British home fleet as a supplement. In After defeating France, the navy will fight for sea control in the North Sea and the Mediterranean.”

"Why is there still a Mediterranean Sea?" Adolf Hitler interjected.

"Because the General Staff predicts that after Germany defeats France, Italy will become our ally." Hersman said, "The focus of the war will then turn to the Mediterranean."

"Aren't you going to attack Britain immediately?" Hermann Goering asked with a smile, "Aren't you going to defeat Britain in 1941?"

"Yes," Hessman nodded seriously, "We will bring Britain to its knees within 1941! But the battlefields to achieve this goal are in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. We will use submarines to suffocate Britain, and at the same time seize their oil and threaten their most precious colony, India...and the successful implementation of this strategy will make our strategic resource supply situation quite abundant, which will help us integrate European power."

Unlike Hitler who did not attach great importance to the Mediterranean battlefield in history-Hitler may have believed that Mussolini had the ability to conquer this region-Hersmann paid considerable attention there. Because he knew that the Middle East and North Africa contained the resources Germany needed to sustain the war and become the leader of Europe.

The rich oil in the Middle East, the various metal resources in Turkey and Iran, and the grain and cotton in Egypt are all extremely important materials. They kept Europe's factories running at full speed and allowed Europeans led by Germany to live a reasonably comfortable wartime life.

"...The priority in Plan Z: two Bismarck-class battleships, to be outfitted and put into active service within 1940."

At this time, Hitler whispered the plan for the construction of large surface ships that he was most concerned about. At present, the German Navy already has some new large surface ships, including two "Scharnhorst" class battleships and three "Deutsche" class armored ships. However, in general, the strength of the German Navy is still very limited and urgently needs to be strengthened.

"The four 'Admiral Hipper' class heavy cruisers were all outfitted and put into active service in 1939; of the two 'Seydlitz' class aircraft carriers, one was outfitted and underwent sea trials in 1938, and one was put into service in 1938. Delivered to the Navy within 1939..." Hitler looked up at Hersmann, "These are the only priorities?"

"Yes," Hessman nodded, "That's all we know for sure at the moment."

Regarding the shipbuilding plan, the General Staff and the Navy Department have great differences, and bargaining is still going on.

…

Charles de Gaulle struggled to get out of the narrow tank hatch. The Polish 7TP light tank was too small for a tall man like him. But he was still very satisfied with the Polish tank.

"General, this is a very good tank, almost as good as our R-35 tank." De Gaulle jumped off the 7TP tank and ran to the French Army, which was surrounded by a group of Polish generals. In front of General Gan Molin, Chief of General Staff.

The visit of Gamelin's military delegation meant the comprehensive deepening of the military alliance between France and Poland, and also gave the Poles a reassurance.

"I think Poland should speed up the construction of 7TP tanks," de Gaulle suggested, "and then use all the 7TP tanks together with the R-35 tanks we provided and the British Vick tanks. This will be enough to form four 5 tank battalions. If these tank battalions are combined into two tank brigades and combined with the two motorized brigades that are being formed, they can form two light armored divisions. "

The 7TP tank is a tank produced by Poland on its own. It is equipped with a Swiss or British engine and purchased a turret and artillery from Bofors, Sweden (some models also use self-produced turrets plus British artillery and Brown). Ning's machine gun), is a very good light tank. However, the output was not high, with only one hundred, thirty or forty units produced in history.

In this time and space, because Poland took over Ukraine and Lithuania on the right bank, its financial and industrial strength have increased. Therefore, we can produce more 7TP tanks, and at the same time purchase more British Vickers light tanks and French Renault R-35 light tanks (the Poles also had these two tanks historically). But the total number is not much more. According to the establishment level of a battalion of 49 vehicles, the Polish light tanks can form up to 5 battalions. In addition, Poland has also produced more than 800 TK series ultra-light tanks. However, these ultra-light tanks can only be used to support infantry and have no value in forming armored forces. Therefore, each Polish infantry division has a company equipped with TK tanks. .

…

"Char, tell our Polish friends what you think."

In a war room within the Polish Ministry of Defense, General Gamelin asked de Gaulle to tell the French Army General Staff's vision for future wars - from the 1920s when Germany was still bound by the Treaty of Versailles to the present, the French army has been Studying how to defeat Germany again together with Poland and Britain. Many versions of plans were also formulated, and some of them were aimed at the Soviet-German alliance.

Charles de Gaulle took the baton from a Polish officer and walked to a huge military map. What is shown on the map is the severe defense situation currently faced by the Polish Federation. The Polish Federation was "too big", with too many places to defend, and it was also surrounded by the territories of Germany, East Prussia, the Baltics, Bohemia, Slovakia and the Soviet Union. It is almost impossible to adopt a "fight for every inch of territory" strategy.

"We believe that it is impossible for the Polish Federation to deploy heavy troops on every border for defense in future wars." Charles de Gaulle said, "Therefore, we can only adopt a strategy of combining focused defense and mobile defense to protect the entire Poland." The federation is divided into 'key defense areas', 'mobile defense areas' and 'temporary abandonment areas'."

De Gaulle used the baton in his hand to point to Brest and Pinsk, which belong to the Polish Free State; Kiev and Lviv (the capital of the Ukrainian Free State), which belong to the Ukrainian Free State.

"Brest, Pinsk, Kiev and Lviv are all key defense areas." De Gaulle said, "Since Poland is facing war on multiple fronts, it is unrealistic to hold on to the entire Pilsudski Line of Defense. The Polish Federation is not that More troops.

However, the three important supporting points on Piłsudski's defense line, Brest, Pinsk and Kiev, have great holding value. In addition, Lviv, the capital of the Ukrainian Free State, must also hold on because it is the center of Poland's heavy industry. Holding on to these areas will be able to delay the progress of the Soviet army to the maximum extent, destroy the Soviet army's effective forces, and create favorable conditions for victory in mobile defense operations on the Western Front. "