The Rise of the Third Reich

"Ludwig, I think you should know very well that without Japan's help, we cannot effectively control the world, even if we control the heartland of Eurasia, because the power of the United States is beyond imagination and too strong. Only Germany and Japan can defeat it together..."

The person who was talking to Hersman was Major General Karl von Haushofer, the German ambassador to Japan. He was Hersman's boss, Hersman's instructor when he was studying at the military academy, and Chloe's teacher when she was studying at the University of Munich. He has a deep connection with the Hersman family.

In addition, he has a close relationship with Hitler and Hess. Many of Hitler's ideas about regional politics come from this person. Chapter 16 on foreign policy in "My Struggle" is almost all Haushofer's ideas.

After the news of the Battle of Panama reached Berlin, Hitler immediately instructed Ribbentrop to recall Haushofer from Tokyo to report on his work. And the day after Haushofer arrived in Berlin, he personally visited Hersman and Chloe.

Hersman knew that the purpose of Haushofer's visit was to lobby for the Japanese. When Hersman met with Oshima Hiroshi three days ago, he proposed additional conditions for aid that were difficult for Japan to accept, and Hersman's opinion obviously represented the German Wehrmacht.

"Doctor," Hersman said in a somewhat helpless tone, "I know that the United States is very powerful. If it is not severely damaged and contained, Germany will not be able to control the world. In fact, from the beginning, I regarded the United States as the most important opponent, and I also knew that Japan could play an irreplaceable role in the war against the United States. But Japan is on the road to failure. If it is not corrected in time, then the Lend-Lease Act alone will not be enough to save the Pacific War."

"Oh," Haushofer raised his gray eyebrows and asked, "Is the Wehrmacht ready to support the Lend-Lease Act?"

Germany is different from the United States. It is useless for the Lend-Lease Act to be passed by the parliament alone. It must be agreed by the Wehrmacht. This is not because the German Wehrmacht is overbearing and unreasonable, but because Germany does not have such abundant materials to control. In order to make the most effective use of limited resources, Germany established the General Armaments Administration jointly controlled by the Wehrmacht and the government before the war. All production and resources related to armaments were managed by the General Armaments Administration. Although Speer, the director of the General Armaments Administration (who was also the chairman of the Economic Committee), was a Nazi, he had to obey the will of the Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht - after all, it was the General Staff, not Hitler's Chancellery, who was in charge of the war.

And even Hitler himself would not reverse the order of the Pacific battlefield and the Soviet-German battlefield. The victory or defeat of the Pacific battlefield only determined whether Germany could dominate the world, while the victory or defeat of the Soviet-German battlefield was directly related to the survival of the Third Reich!

"Doctor, of course we are willing to support the Lend-Lease Act." Hessman nodded and said, "But our support is conditional. We must obtain the right to guide the Pacific War and guide Japan's armament production. Only in this way can the materials provided by the Lend-Lease Act be valuable. Otherwise, we might as well use all the materials on the Eastern Front. As long as the Soviet Union is defeated, the Third Reich can exist for at least a hundred years or even longer." Karl Haushofer pondered for a moment and said, "How are we going to support Japan?" "First of all, we will provide 40mm anti-aircraft guns..." Hessman reached out and took a list from his adjutant Stauffenberg. This was jointly drafted by the German Wehrmacht General Staff and the Navy General Command. "A lot of 40mm anti-aircraft guns are needed. Our production lines in France, Britain, Sweden, Norway and Italy must be fully operational to meet Japan's needs." The number of 40mm anti-aircraft guns needed by Japan is indeed an astronomical number, because they don't have any now! If the European Combined Fleet's air defense weapon configuration standard is to be equipped, 13 battleships (including 4 Yamato-class) alone will require thousands of guns! In addition, Japan has about 10 aircraft carriers, 15 heavy cruisers and 15 light cruisers (some of them were damaged after the war, the details are confidential and Germany does not know), and about 70 destroyers (many of them were also damaged after the war), all of which need to be equipped with 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun systems.

In addition to surface ships, Japan's ground forces defending the islands also need 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns. So the total demand must be at least 5,000 guns!

And it's not just 5,000 guns. The shipborne Bofors anti-aircraft gun is a system with quite automated loading and operating equipment, very advanced sighting and fire control instruments, and even fire control radars on some large ships. Of course, providing tens of millions of 40mm anti-aircraft gun ammunition is inevitable. Although Japan has the ability to produce various ammunition, they do not have a 40mm artillery shell production line now, and Germany has to provide assistance.

Therefore, the funds and resources required for this anti-aircraft gun installation project alone exceed the expenses of providing thousands of aircraft!

As for the project of replacing the useless 25mm machine gun with the 20mm Oerlikon machine gun, and the issue of providing the radio proximity fuse for the 127mm gun, they were not considered because of the need to control expenses and speed up the progress.

"The second is various shipborne radars..." Hersman continued, "The project of providing radars to Japan will be carried out at the same time as the project of replacing the European Combined Fleet with new radars. We will hand over the obsolete radars to the Japanese."

Because of the acquisition of British radar technology, the European Combined Fleet is now preparing to replace more advanced radars in batches. Therefore, the old radars were eliminated and given to Japan. This project costs less, but it is a lot of trouble. You also have to help install and train Japanese radar operators - the Japanese can install the anti-aircraft guns themselves, but not the radar.

“Again, we provide ‘Alliance’-class freighters and ‘Unity’-class tankers.” The “Alliance”-class freighters and “Unity”-class tankers mentioned by Hersman are actually knock-offs of American Liberty ships and T3 tankers.

During the period from late 1942 to early 1943, the European Combined Fleet captured many American freighters and oil tankers. Some of them were handed over to shipyards in Germany, Italy and France for research. The results of the research showed that although these two types of ships are not technically advanced, they can be manufactured in large quantities at low cost, and they are also "assembly line" products. , it is easy to increase production.

So Hessman immediately instructed the General Administration of Armaments to imitate the "Liberty" ship and the T3 tanker to deal with the Americans' disruptive war. On the Atlantic battlefield, the role of the United States and Germany has also changed. Now it is the American submarines attacking the European Community and Rome. The Empire's transport ship!

Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japanese merchant ships have been the prey of American and British submarines and break-up aircraft carriers. Starting from the second half of 1942, the loss figures continued to rise, with the average monthly loss exceeding 100,000 tons. And this was achieved when American submarines were unable to fully exert their power due to torpedo quality issues!

But the torpedo problem will not always plague the United States. The Americans just use advanced but technologically immature products. At worst, they will use backward but reliable products. So as the U.S. submarine force grows larger and larger, the Japanese will soon face the siege of the American wolf pack.

Facing the siege of Sea Wolves, the Japanese Navy cannot guarantee the safety of their transport fleet in any case. Even the European Joint Escort/Transportation Command cannot do this now.

Therefore, the only way to maintain transportation volume is to build more ships. As long as the number of new ships exceeds the number of losses, maritime transportation can be maintained. Japan's shipbuilding capabilities cannot cope with the United States' "submarine sea".

If Japan's shipping cannot be maintained, no matter how many planes Germany provides, Japan will still be unable to fight!

"The fourth focus of assistance is large-caliber artillery!" Hersman continued.

"Cannon?" Karl Haushofer asked, "Japan can produce large-caliber artillery."

"But it's not enough!" Hessman said, "They have many islands that need to be defended. Large-caliber coastal defense guns are very important, otherwise they will not be able to deal with the approaching bombardment of American battleships. Considering the number of islands that Japan needs to defend, they Hundreds of large-caliber artillery pieces may be needed. Only Europe can provide that many in the short term, and they will not have time to manufacture them themselves.”

He paused and then said: "The fifth priority of assistance is suicide aircraft!"

"Suicide...?" Karl Haushofer frowned, "This will lead to hell!"

"I don't care how many Japanese there are in hell," Hersman smiled. "They're too slow on this, and we have a more reliable product... V1 human-operated missile. It's carried by an airplane and powered by a rocket engine. Propulsion, maximum range 100 kilometers.”

The V1 missile in this time and space was developed as a tactical weapon rather than a strategic weapon, so it does not pursue a large range, but only pursues high accuracy and power. There are three guidance methods: one is human control; the other is radar guidance; and the third is television guidance. However, the more mature method currently is only human fucking - this is tailor-made for Japanese people!

"The sixth assistance project is the Ju88 bomber used to launch V1 manned missiles. Using Ju88 to launch V1 manned missiles will be the main anti-ship mode of the Japanese aviation force in the future."

Hersman said: "In addition, we will also recommend that Japan devote all or mainly its aviation industry's research and development efforts to the production and upgrade of the Zero and Comet models. Because we believe that before the end of the war, the Japanese will not It is possible to build better fighters than the improved Zero and Comet dive bombers. As for those messy heavy bombers, they are a waste of resources. Even if Japan barely builds a bomber group that can reach the west coast of the United States, it will not be able to break through. An air defense network composed of P47 and P51 and anti-aircraft artillery shells with TV fuzes.”