The Rise of the Third Reich

William Joseph Donovan is now a regular visitor to the White House, and will soon become a senior official in the U.S. government-President Roosevelt has promised to establish an Office of Strategic Services during his third presidential term, and Donovan will be the first Director.

After meeting Churchill in London, the future intelligence chief went to Alexandria, Egypt, and saw the intact Mediterranean fleet before returning to Washington with satisfaction. And on July 19th, I met President Franklin Roosevelt, whose face was glowing with red.

"Hi, William." The president happily shook Donovan's hand. His hands were hot and wet. It's July now, the hottest season in Washington. Although the windows in the Oval Office are open, the room is still stiflingly hot.

"This is Admiral Stark," Roosevelt pointed to a four-star admiral sitting in the Oval Office. "His chief of naval operations, the admiral, the White House intelligence coordinator, Colonel Donovan. "

Donovan and Stark greeted politely. Roosevelt added: "There is good news today. Congress has just passed the 'Two Oceans Navy Act.' According to this bill and the supporting shipbuilding plan, our navy will have 18 'Essex' ships in the future." -class aircraft carriers, 6 ‘Iowa’-class battleships, 5 ‘Montana’-class battleships, and 15,000 aircraft!”

The "Two Oceans Navy Act" was one of the preparations for the United States to participate in the world war. It was proposed by Admiral Harold Stark, the Chief of Naval Operations. He originally planned to spend 4 billion U.S. dollars to reduce the total strength of the U.S. Navy by 1946. Scale expanded by 70%. But the U.S. Congress gave more than Stark, and unanimously passed the "Two Oceans Navy Act" to allocate US$8.55 billion to the Navy within 5-6 years.

Compared with Germany's "Z" plan, the U.S. "Two Oceans Navy Act" is much larger. The "Montana" class, which is comparable to the "H41 class", has budgeted for 5 ships at once, and the "Iowa" class, which is comparable to the "H39 class", has started construction of 6 ships. In addition, the "Essex" class aircraft carrier, which is comparable in combat power to the "Zeppelin" class, plans to build 18 ships!

However, Germany is not the only enemy the United States has to deal with. There is also a Japanese Empire in the Pacific, and it is also sharpening its sword to join the war.

"President, I also have good news," Donovan said. "I saw the intact USS Warspite, USS Malaya and USS Sovereign in Alexandria. The aircraft carrier USS Glorious was also undamaged. Only the USS Eagle was damaged... There was a big hole in the flight deck, which may take 30 days to repair."

"How is this possible?" said the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stark in disbelief. "The Italians have 500-600 humpback aircraft. This 3-engine aircraft is a good shore-based torpedo bomber. We use it Did experiments."

"But the Italians don't know," Donovan said with a smile, "the Italians use these planes to drop bombs. They don't drop bombs in a dive, but drop bombs horizontally at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, and the bombing accuracy is extremely poor."

"What cute Italians!" Admiral Stark laughed heartily. "It seems we don't have to think much about the threat of the Italian navy."

"The threat from the Italian Army is not great," Donovan added. "I met General Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East in Alexandria. He did not think that Italy's more than 500,000 troops in North and East Africa were huge at all. threaten."

"But if the Italians fail, the Germans will step in," Roosevelt said. "Does Churchill know the outcome?"

"He knows," Donovan replied, "but he still plans to defeat Germany."

"Use the empty-handed expeditionary force that fled back to England from Belgium to defeat Germany?" Admiral Stark said sarcastically.

"Use bombers!" Donovan took out the photo of the four-engine bomber that Churchill gave him and placed it on Roosevelt's desk. "They are preparing to use strategic bombing to defeat Germany... This kind of aircraft has a huge combat radius. Taking off from the UK, it can cover most of Germany."

"But doesn't Germany have fighter jets?" Admiral Stark said. "The Germans seem to have thousands of high-performance aircraft."

"But we have more!" Franklin Roosevelt said, "To defeat Germany, we must first weaken it, and there are three ways to weaken it. One is strategic bombing; the other is blockade and embargo... If we want to bomb Germany , then Britain is the final departure point for bombers, so we cannot lose Britain. Similarly, the British fleet and colonies around the world are also the best tools to block Germany and the European continent. "

He glanced at the Chief of Naval Operations: "So we must do our best to assist the United Kingdom! Those 50 destroyers must be ready as soon as possible."

Admiral Stark said: "I understand, Mr. President. But...you mentioned three ways, what is the other one?"

Roosevelt was silent for a moment and said in a very low voice: "Use the Soviet Union!"

…

"Marshal Hersmann, do you think the Soviet Union can be defeated with just 100 super bombers?" Adolf Hitler held a stack of documents in his office of the Chancellery, looked at them carefully with reading glasses, and asked questions from time to time.

What Hitler was reading was the latest version of "The Terminator Plan", but he was not the most interested in the plan to defeat the United Kingdom and the United States. Instead, he directly found the "ultimate case" to deal with the Soviet Union and started studying it - "The Terminator Plan" All the plans in the plan, except for the plan to fight against Britain, are all plans of the General Staff and may not necessarily be implemented.

But what Hitler saw was not the "Barbarossa Plan" to use blitzkrieg to conquer the Soviet Union, but a "Terminator Bombing Plan."

In this "End Bombing Plan", the bombers used to carry out bombing missions were not tens of thousands of four-engine heavy bombers, but no more than 100 six-engine giant bombers. This bomber is also responsible for the mission of "termination bombing" of the United States.

"Actually," Hessmann laughed after listening to Hitler's words, "I didn't plan to use 100 planes to defeat the Soviet Union. I only planned to use a dozen planes to complete the mission... If it really comes to the end of the Soviet Union, When it’s not possible!”

"More than a dozen?" Adolf Hitler stared with gray-blue eyes, examining the great military strategist in front of him who was regarded by the Germans as the "Second Moltke".

"Yes!" Hessman nodded, "Just a few! Use a few giant bombers to drop powerful terminator bombs on several important Soviet cities... One such terminator bomb can release 20,000 to 30,000 tons The power of a ton of explosives is enough to destroy a city!”

Hersman actually did not intend to use atomic bombs to destroy the Soviet Union, because in his view, the Soviet Union was just the predecessor of the harmless Rosneft Company in the future... The real threat to Germany was the United States! Even if the United States is defeated at sea and in South America and shrinks to North America, it will still be a superpower that can compete with Germany, which dominates the world.

However, it is still necessary to have the ability to nuclear attack the Soviet Union. This will not only establish Germany's advantage over the Soviet Union, but also effectively deter the Soviet Union from risky moves. At the same time, this was also a way to fool Hitler. It is definitely more cost-effective to use a few or dozens of atomic bombs to solve the Soviet Union than to send millions of troops, at least not to let hundreds of thousands of noble Aryan supermen die in battle.

"Is it the kind of bomb produced by Project U?" Of course Hitler knew about this top-secret plan that had cost hundreds of millions of marks.

"Yes," Hersman nodded. "The U Engineering Committee built two important uranium fission chain reaction test devices between April and May this year, and both were successful."

Building two uranium fission chain reaction test devices is actually building two very primitive reactors. One uses graphite as the neutron moderator, and the other uses heavy water as the neutron moderator.

Unlike historical situations, both reactors were successful - Hersmann knew that someone had messed up Siemens' graphite production in the past, so he ordered the U Engineering Committee to conduct inspections on the graphite produced at the Siemens-Plania plant. After strict inspection, the results actually fully met the requirements. Therefore, the graphite reactor test was also successful.

Through nuclear fission chain reaction experiments, scientists from the U Engineering Committee have a more thorough understanding of fast neutron reactions. This is very important for making atomic bombs. The chain reaction of uranium is a very complex problem. Without a test reactor, it is difficult to obtain accurate data by calculation alone.

After possessing the reactor, scientists from the U Engineering Committee quickly calculated that the minimum amount of uranium-235 needed to make an atomic bomb was only a dozen kilograms.

Immediately, scientists from the U Engineering Committee wrote to Marshal Hersman, suggesting that the nuclear fission bomb project should be carried out immediately, and of course Hersman approved it at the first opportunity.

"Can we make this kind of bomb quickly?" Adolf Hitler showed an interested expression.

"It may take 2 to 3 years," Hersman replied, "because there are many difficulties to overcome, the biggest of which is to separate uranium-235, which can produce nuclear fission reactions, from metallic uranium. This takes a lot of time and Money, but definitely worth it.”

There is actually an easier way, which is to make plutonium bombs. Plutonium-239 is the product of the uranium fission chain reaction. Now the U Engineering Committee is already conducting uranium fission chain reaction tests, so it is only a matter of time before plutonium-239 is discovered - the fission reaction of uranium will produce uranium-239, and uranium-239 has been The decay produces neptunium-239, which then decays to produce plutonium-239. Plutonium-239 is easier to separate because it is not an isotope of uranium.

The current U Engineering Committee has enough talented scientists and sufficient experimental funds, so Hersman only needs to wait quietly for a few months (decay period) to a year, and a plan to make a plutonium bomb will appear...