The Rise of the Third Reich

"I don't know how to wipe my butt..." Stalin couldn't help laughing when he heard Frasico's report, "What a bunch of fools, but there's no problem with that. Just let their servants follow. After all, we are still here. These people are needed.”

It really doesn't matter. Comrade Marx didn't say that revolutionaries must wipe their own butts, right? Moreover, now the Soviet Union and the international movement still need these Indian Bolsheviks who are leading the revolution with butlers and servants - this is necessary at this stage, otherwise the Soviet Red Army will look like an invader.

When they bring the Red Army into India and establish a revolutionary base, their historical mission will be completed, and it will be time to clean up the revolutionary ranks...

Frasico only reported, and it had nothing to do with him how Stalin dealt with it, so he turned around and left after paying a military salute to Stalin.

After the Kremlin's butler left, Molotov walked in with Hopkins, the special envoy of US President Roosevelt, and Pavlov, Stalin's secretary and translator.

Hopkins came to the Soviet Union for the joint operations of the United States and the Soviet Union in the Pacific - now that the British mainland is controlled by Germany, the North Atlantic route will never be restored, so the North Pacific route has become the Soviet Union's only lifeline.

Moreover, the Atlantic Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy has no use in the Atlantic, and it is imperative to move to the Pacific for operations.

Once the Red Navy's four Soviet-class ships and two Kronstadt-class ships arrive in the Pacific, it will become possible for the United States and the Soviet Union to jointly fight against Japan.

"Comrade General Secretary," after greeting Stalin for a few words, Hopkins changed the subject and explored the issue of joint war against Japan. "Due to the fall of the British mainland, most of the European continent will into a long and dark era.”

Pavlov translated his words into Russian, and Stalin's face soon became very somber. Because Hopkins' words indicate that the United States has given up on "Europe first" and switched to the "Pacific first" strategy.

However, there is nothing that can be done about it. Once the British mainland is lost, the United States will have no springboard to invade Europe. Although Iceland is still under the control of the United States, its geographical location is too remote, and the island's population, industry, and infrastructure are also seriously affected. Insufficient, it is difficult to support the garrison of the army.

"Therefore, President Roosevelt believed that we could consider concentrating the forces of the two countries to fight Japan together." Hopkins continued, "If we can defeat Japan and seize control of the Pacific, then in the future, the Soviet Union and the United States can join hands. Fight against Germany, the public enemy of all mankind."

He used "confrontation" instead of "annihilation", which shows that Roosevelt has given up the idea of ​​​​eliminating the European Axis group.

"Concentrate the strength of the two countries to fight Japan?" Stalin glanced at Hopkins, "But our strength must be used on the Western Front! The Germans are still besieging Leningrad, and they have also occupied Ukraine. A lot of land. We must launch a new offensive in the spring of 1943 to relieve the situation in Leningrad."

Leningrad cannot be lost! Therefore, the Soviet Supreme Command has decided to launch the second Leningrad relief campaign in the spring of 43. In order to win the second battle to relieve the siege of Leningrad, Stalin had decided to mobilize large armies from the Far East. Under such circumstances, it was simply impossible for the Soviet Union to go to war with Japan.

"Comrade General Secretary, we understand this situation," Hopkins said with a smile, "so we are willing to provide you with more assistance through the North Pacific route. But... at the same time, we also need to prepare for our joint efforts to deal with Japan in the future. Make some preparations for combat.”

"Preparations?" Stalin asked, "What preparations?"

Hopkins said: "Several military bases were established in the Vladivostok region of the Soviet Union to store materials used to attack Japan and station at least 20 air force wings."

It turns out that the United States wants to secretly station aviation troops in Vladivostok, the fortress in the Soviet Far East! In this way, once the Soviet Union and Japan start a war, bombers and fighter jets stationed in the Far East can launch air strikes on the Japanese mainland as soon as possible.

"But this is very likely to cause a complete breakdown of Soviet-Japanese relations," Stalin frowned. He lit his pipe and took a puff of cigarettes as he spoke. "If that happens, we could end up in a two-front war."

"Comrade General Secretary," Hopkins smiled and said, "I think...whether Japan blocks the North Pacific route does not depend on whether we deploy aircraft in the Soviet Far East, but on whether their combined fleet can be deployed in the future. If their situation becomes increasingly critical, your Far East will be very safe."

Stalin smoked a cigarette, thought for a moment, nodded and said: "Yes, once the Japanese completely control the Pacific, they will definitely cooperate with Germany to strangle our Soviet Union. But... you probably won't allow such a thing to happen, right?" ?As far as I know, 1943 will be the year when a large number of your aircraft carriers will be put into service."

"1943, 1944, 1945 and 1946 are all years when a large number of our aircraft carriers were put into service!" Hopkins said slowly, "Because we no longer need to build ships for the counterattack in Europe and to maintain the British lifeline, all of them Shipbuilding power will be used to produce warships to deal with Japan! Among them, the construction plan of the Essex class has increased to 40 ships, the Independence class has increased to 30 ships, and the Midway class aircraft carrier with a displacement (full load) of nearly 60,000 tons is planned to be built. ! All these projects will be completed by the end of 1946."

This is 80 fleet aircraft carriers!

After the fall of the British mainland, the U.S. government and Congress no longer consider world leadership, but the Pacific and South America must be obtained, otherwise the United States will be trapped in North America and life will be difficult in the future. .

To seize control of the Pacific and South America, the navy is of course the key. Even the battles on the South American continent are actually dominated by the navy - South America is different from North America and Europe. There are no convenient road and railway networks, and the northern part of South America is also covered with tropical rainforests that are difficult to pass.

Therefore, the inland areas of South America are very underdeveloped and have a small population. The best areas are all on the seaside. Whoever controls the sea power controls South America.

Therefore, after the United States gave up its counterattack in Europe, its strategic thinking has become clear and simple-it is to use its strong industrial strength to focus on developing its navy and aviation that can be used in maritime operations. And the aircraft carrier is the top priority!

Because if the United States wants to dominate the Pacific, it must capture the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian Islands are too far away from the west coast of the United States, and shore-based aircraft cannot reach them. Therefore, we can only build aircraft carriers in large numbers and use carrier-based aircraft to compete with Japan's shore-based aircraft deployed in Hawaii for air supremacy.

Considering that shore-based aircraft have certain advantages over carrier-based aircraft in terms of performance (provided that the technical levels are equivalent), the US Navy believes that they must invest several times more aircraft than the Japanese in the Hawaiian Islands to win.

While building large-scale aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy has not completely given up its plan to build large battleships and cruisers. This is also related to the fact that the Atlantic Ocean is controlled by Germany, and the United States no longer needs to build ships to aid the United Kingdom and send troops to Europe. Now the United States has enough shipbuilding capacity. Capabilities and resources were devoted to large surface ships - not only were the six Iowa-class ships under rapid construction, but the five powerful Montana-class ships were all started within 1942 (this was also related to the Yamato crisis).

However, with 6 Iowa-class ships, 5 Montana-class ships, and 6 Alaska-class ships (these 6 large cruisers, which should be battle cruisers, all started construction in 1942), it seems difficult to fight against at least 4 Japanese ships. Yamato class and German, French, Italian and British (Bloody Queen) super battleships.

The U.S. Navy is also reluctant to start building new battleships. Because the battleship construction cycle is long, a super battleship of this level such as the Montana class will take at least 3 years from laying the first keel to the ship entering service. It would be good to have the additional orders completed by early 1946.

Moreover, with the continuous advancement of aviation technology, battleships have become a gradually outdated weapon, so the U.S. Navy is unwilling to build too many.

The combination of the German Ju288 and remote-controlled glide bombs caused the United States to lose sea power in the Atlantic Ocean. The Americans themselves have also made considerable progress in remote-controlled gliding bombs. In addition, they have also taken the lead in carrier-based twin-engine aircraft. The development contract for the development of a carrier-based twin-engine multi-purpose fighter code-named XF7F was in 1941. Signed on June 30, 2011, after the fall of the Hawaiian Islands, the United States was in urgent need of a carrier-based heavy-duty aircraft, so the Navy Department added huge investments to Grumman, allowing them to hire more engineers for research and development. The prototype of the XF7F flew in October 1942, as required by the contract (which historically had been subject to serious delays).

In this case, the Americans thought of using the Soviet Union's 4 Soviet-class ships and 2 Kronshtadt-class ships to attack Japan.

Hopkins paused for a moment, and then said: "Comrade General Secretary, if you can transfer four of your Soviet-class ships and two Kronstadt-class ships to the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean route (the Soviet-class ships cannot pass through the Panama Canal), At the same time, if we are allowed to deploy powerful air power to the Far East and use military assistance to strengthen the military strength of the anti-fascist camp in the Far East, we will be able to launch a devastating blow to Japan after 1944."