The Rise of the Third Reich

In the seemingly endless Gobi Desert in the Middle East, there are actually rivers and lakes. And these rivers and lakes flowing on the land of the Middle East have given birth to splendid ancient civilizations one after another. Even in the 20th century, when Middle Eastern civilization declined due to various reasons, there were still developed agriculture and prosperous towns on both sides of the Jordan, Litani, Assi, Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and some could still be seen from time to time. Traces of modernity, such as railroads and oil fields.

Marshal Hersman was currently sitting on a spacious and comfortable Fokker F40 passenger plane, looking through the portholes of the plane at the rivers, railways and towns under the wing.

"Marshal, the city below is Aleppo. It is the second largest city in Syria. It is very ancient and may have existed 10,000 years ago. In the information left by the ancient Greeks, they called this city Beloe. Ya, this place was called Halep during the Ottoman Empire, but the current name was changed after the French came.”

The person who was talking to Hersman was Saddam's ancestor Aflaq - the Arab Ennahda Movement he led was contacting other Arab political parties in Syria to form a large party that could take over power (the Arab Socialist Baath Party) . However, Aflaq himself was more of a thinker than a doer, so the organization of the political party and the establishment of the regime were left to his comrades. He himself accompanied Hersman on inspection tours in Syria and Iraq.

Now Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and most of Iran are under German protection. After the British army withdrew from the Suez Canal defense line, Rommel's African Army rushed into the Arabian Peninsula, then went north along the Mediterranean coast into Syria, and then moved east along the Euphrates River to meet with another force on the Syrian-Iranian border. Turkey enters Iraq to join forces with the Germans. The German Afrika Korps was thus upgraded to the German Middle East Army.

The war in the Mediterranean is basically over. Now only Tobruk, Crete and the Gibraltar Peninsula remain in the entire Mediterranean region that have not been occupied by the German-Italian coalition. Except for the Gibraltar Peninsula, which guards the western gate of the Mediterranean Sea, the other two are isolated islands and it is only a matter of time to seize them.

But the struggle over the Middle East will probably continue for some time. The oil here will be decisive for the outcome of the world war. I am afraid that the three countries of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union will not ignore it and allow Germany to completely take the Middle East under its control, right?

"Really 10,000 years?" Hersman turned his mind away from the war situation and began to talk with Aflaq - the distance between the Middle East and Europe determines Germany's European policy in a sense. A chaotic Middle East with too many extremists is not in Germany's interests. A secularized and Europeanized Middle East is what Hirschman really wants to see. Among Arabs, only the Baath Party can complete the task of secularizing and Europeanizing the Arabian Peninsula.

Therefore, Adamu’s Christian ancestor is a figure that Hessman values ​​very much.

"Dear, this is one of the oldest gathering places of mankind. The only one that can be compared with Syria is Egypt." Hersman's wife, Chloe, studied history at the University of Munich and knew how ancient Syria was. .

"Oh," Hessman nodded, "It's really old, but it still looks very prosperous."

"Of course it is prosperous here. Syria and Iraq used to be the political, economic and cultural centers of the Arabian Peninsula." Chloe smiled and taught her husband a history lesson. "For a long time, Damascus, Baghdad and Aleppo More prosperous than any European city."

“Syria is now also the center of Arabia,” Aflaq said proudly. “Syria is close to the Mediterranean and very close to Europe, and its culture is more diverse. It includes not only the YSL civilization, but also the Christian civilization. Therefore, Syria is in a political and political context. It is far more advanced economically and culturally than Iraq. As for other places in the Arabian Peninsula, it is even less comparable to Syria.”

It turns out that Syria, which is rich in refugees, was still a good place in the 1940s! Hirschman thought.

In fact, in the era before the emergence of oil tycoons, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, etc. were all idle rural places in the Arabian Peninsula. Moreover, those places were not only poor but also very isolated. There was no modern education at all. They were just a group of uncivilized semi-primitive tribes. How can it be compared with the prosperous and progressive Syria?

It is not unreasonable for the Arab Socialist Baath Party, a political party with ideals and aspirations, to be born in Syria.

Without oil, the black gold that makes people rich, it is entirely possible for the Arab Baath Party, which has controlled Syria and Iraq, to ​​unify the Arabian Peninsula. A group of desert tribal countries are not their opponents at all, and the Arabs will also have A strong and united modern country.

Unfortunately, the massive discovery of oil in the Persian Gulf eventually harmed the Syrians and the Arab Baath Party who did not have much oil.

"That river below is the Euphrates?" Hersman noticed that the plane was passing over a very wide river.

"Yes, it is the Euphrates River." Aflaq replied, "It originates from Turkey, goes eastward, and merges with the Tigris River in Iraq to become the Shatai and Shatt-al-Arab River, and finally flows into the Persian Gulf."

"Is the Euphrates well-equipped for water transportation?" Hersman asked.

Germany, which controls the Middle East, already has many large oil fields that can be developed. Although they were destroyed by the British, they are not difficult to repair. The large oil fields in the Middle East are shallow and easy to develop, and it is not difficult to drill new wells. So what troubles Hersman now is not how to dig out the oil, but how to transport the oil back to Europe.

Although the control of the Mediterranean Sea was won by Germany and Italy. But Britain did not give up its resistance in the Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf. The British first blocked the Suez Canal with sunken ships, and then built large airports on Socotra Island and Muscat, clearly intending to block the Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf.

Moreover, the Foreign Intelligence Bureau of the Central Security Bureau recently discovered that two British aircraft carriers (HMS Hundred-Eyed Giant and HMS Arenas) have bypassed South Africa and headed for India. If you include the existing HMS Glory aircraft carrier in the Eastern Fleet, the number of British aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean reaches 3, while Germany and Italy cannot send any.

Obviously, the oil shipping route connecting the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden-Arabian Sea-Gulf of Oman-Persian Gulf cannot be expected for the time being.

So Hessmann had to think of other ways to transport oil. The other options are railways, pipelines and inland water transportation.

"The water transportation on the Euphrates River is not very developed because the water level is unstable. Only in winter and spring there is more water, which can support relatively large-scale inland river transportation."

Aflaq's answer disappointed Hersman, but he still planned to ask the navy and engineers to study the possibility of using the Euphrates River to transport oil. Even if it could only transport a few hundred thousand tons a year, it would be better than nothing.

At this time, the plane had passed over the Euphrates River, and what appeared under the wings was very desolate land. Desertification is very serious in the Middle East. Only on both sides of rivers and very close to water sources can there be large expanses of green. A little further away is the Gobi desert.

However, in the desert Gobi that appeared in Herschmann's eyes, there was something incompatible with the surrounding environment - the railway!

"Your Excellency, Marshal, below is the railway from Aleppo to Mosul. This is part of the British-French Greater Middle East Railway Plan. It is 520 kilometers long and was completed last year." Aflaq said, "However, before the British retreated, they There has been some damage to the railway and it is currently unavailable."

"I know this railway," Hersman said. "The British built it just to transport oil from Kirkuk."

The Kirkuk Oilfield is a famous large oilfield in later generations, ranking 6th in the world. If it could be fully developed, it would be able to meet Germany's needs in World War II.

Therefore, before the start of the Mediterranean campaign, Hersman ordered the General Administration of Armaments and the National Defense Forces Engineers to formulate plans to repair the railway from Aleppo to Mosul and develop the Kirkuk oil fields. He also specially invited oil drilling and drilling equipment from France and the Netherlands. Oilfield management experts have also prepared a large amount of oil drilling and oilfield fire-fighting equipment in advance. In addition, a German-Iranian oil company was organized in advance, and Albert Speer, deputy director of the General Administration of Arms, was appointed as general manager of the German-Iranian oil company, with overall responsibility for the development of the Kirkuk oil field.

In addition, Syria in this era was also a small oil-producing country. There is an oil field developed by the French in Deir ez-Zor on the banks of the Euphrates River. Although the output cannot be compared with the oil fields in Iraq and Iran, fortunately, transportation is relatively easy, there are ready-made pipelines available, and the damage is not serious. The French engineers working there did not run away like the British. Not only could they be used to resume the exploitation of the Deir ez-Zor oil field, but they could also be sent to Kirkuk. This was not a big deal. Be pleasantly surprised.

The plane flew along the Aleppo-Mosul railway for about an hour and a half, and the railway finally disappeared into a town that looked a bit chaotic when viewed from the air.

"Marshal, this is Mosul." Aflaq told Hersman. "Mosul was originally a very small city, but it prospered rapidly after Kirkuk discovered the oil fields. The British are still here. The airport has been built, now we land at the airport in Mosul and then take the bus to the Kirkuk oil field.”

"No," Hessman shook his head, "We will still be flying in the sky for a while. I want to see with my own eyes from the air how the oil fields in Kirkuk were destroyed by the British?"