The Rise of the Third Reich

October 14, 1944, morning, outside the United States Capitol Building.

With an extremely heavy heart, Henry Agard Wallace pressed his left hand on a Bible, then raised his right hand and said in a tone as if he was reading a eulogy: "I solemnly swear that I will To faithfully execute the duties of the President of the United States and to do his best to abide by, preserve, and defend the Constitution of the United States..."

This idealist, who was considered too radical and **** in the eyes of the New Deal backbones of the Democratic Party, has finally become the President of the United States! Although his term is destined to be only a few months. But these few months are more important than the four or eight years that many American presidents have had in office.

Because the United States is now fighting a world war, and the war situation is unfavorable and facing defeat. At least in the eyes of Wallace's predecessor, President Roosevelt, who was recognized as one of the greatest leaders of the United States until 1943, the United States is facing failure. Failure and disaster!

When Wallace took the oath, the square in front of the Capitol and around Wallace were crowded with people and dignitaries who came to watch the ceremony. Unlike previous presidential inauguration ceremonies, where the faces of the spectators were always filled with smiles, now the Americans who came to witness history had solemn expressions and furrowed brows.

When Wallace took the oath and officially became the President of the United States of America, the thunderous applause did not ring out as expected. Everyone craned their necks, waiting for President Wallace's inaugural speech, hoping to hear something useful from it. content.

The scene was a little awkward. Wallace took a breath and began to deliver an unscripted inaugural speech (unscripted speeches are a basic skill of American politicians, and anyone who can stand out can do this). He said: "For everyone who is here today, at this moment Solemn and extremely exciting; however, this scene has long been commonplace in our country's history. According to the provisions of the United States Constitution, orderly transfers of power in accordance with the will of the people have been commonplace for more than a century. But around the world, such as Scenes like this have become extremely rare today. One democratic country after another is falling under the iron heel of Nazism and fascism. If we still cherish the freedom and democracy we currently have, then we must be prepared to fight and sacrifice. Get ready. This is the price of freedom and democracy!

As President Jefferson, the author of our Declaration of Independence, said: The tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is the natural fertilizer for the tree of freedom! Now is the time for us to live this truth! "

After listening to President Wallace's inauguration speech, most of the frowning people in the square relaxed their frowns - this is not a "surrendering president", but a president who will lead the United States to fight!

But the people surrounding Wallace had different expressions. Several Democrats, including presidential candidate Truman and Democratic Party leader Buckley, all showed some joy.

But Republicans and generals in military uniforms looked worried. Because Wallace's speech showed that he changed his father, President Roosevelt's "peace line" to continue fighting Germany.

For the Republican Party, this means that the blame left by President Roosevelt can only be shouldered by the Republican Dewey - if he can be elected president!

President Wallace is likely to present a host of problems to the generals during his short term in office.

Warm applause broke out at this time. Everyone, no matter what opinions they had on Wallace's speech, could only express their blessing to President Wallace and the United States by applauding.

…

"Mr. President, do you need us to introduce the current war situation in detail?"

In the Oval Office of the White House, President Wallace sat in the chair where Roosevelt once sat. Chief of Staff to the President, General William Leahy, Chief of Staff of the Army, Marshall, and Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest King. Opposite him.

This was not the first time that the three most senior generals of the U.S. military reported the war situation to Wallace. Roosevelt had been in a coma and recuperated for several days before, and Wallace was acting president for a time.

"William," Wallace breathed, stepping into the role of President of the United States, and said to General Leahy, "tell me something I don't know."

"Okay." General William Leahy nodded and handed a document he had prepared long ago to Wallace. "Mr. President, this is a summary report of the United States' secret weapons research and development, including important projects of the Army and Navy."

"Is there any progress on the atomic bomb project?" Wallace asked.

"Yes." William Leahy said, "It's on the third page. Our atomic bomb project is codenamed the Manhattan Project. After two years of hard work, we have solved the bottleneck of uranium ore supply and conducted several reactor experiments. And it was successful.”

Because Hessmann's intelligence agency took control of the uranium mines in the Belgian Congo in advance, they bought them all and shipped them back to Europe. Therefore, the biggest difficulty encountered by the Manhattan Project in the United States was that there was not enough uranium ore to conduct experiments. The problem was not solved until a uranium mine in Canada (discovered before the war) was expanded and put into production.

With a sufficient supply of uranium metal, experts from the Manhattan Project can finally conduct reactor experiments. The experimental reactor is not complicated. In theory, it is to pile enough uranium metal together and then use graphite or heavy water to decelerate the neutrons to prevent chain linkage. The reaction is out of control.

However, the experimental reactor can only prove that the chain reaction exists and is controllable, and at the same time provide relevant data on critical values. It does not solve the problem of isotope refining or plutonium-239 production.

The refining of isotopes is currently seriously troubling the Manhattan Project. Although American scientists have come up with two methods, electromagnetic separation method and gas separation method, the equipment for the more efficient gas separation method has not yet been designed. As for the plutonium-239 production reactor, the technicians of the Manhattan Project have not yet overcome the difficulties - due to the lack of many smart brains from Europe, the Manhattan Project always has to spend several times more time and effort than in history to overcome the difficulties. Invest. As a result, progress has been greatly slowed down.

"How long will it take to achieve success?" President Wallace found that the report did not give a timetable.

"I don't know," William Leahy shook his head, "No one knows."

"So how can we counter the German atomic bomb?"

"What we are currently considering are bacterial weapons," William Leahy said. "We have stockpiled a large number of anthrax weapons and plague weapons, which can be used for one-way air strikes with B-29s."

"One-way air strike?"

Army Chief of Staff Marshall took over the question, "Mr. President, a one-way air strike means that after the B-29 completes its mission of releasing bacterial weapons, it does not fly back to the American continent and makes an emergency landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The pilot is picked up by a submarine and brought back to the United States."

This is using the B-29 as a disposable weapon! Because there is no need to consider the fuel for the return journey, the B-29 can penetrate deep into the hinterland of France and even the Rhineland region of Germany. And it can also carry more than a ton of bacterial bombs! If all the more than 500 B-29s equipped by the U.S. Army Air Force were used to drop one-time bacterial bombs, they would definitely cause huge casualties in Europe.

Wallace had heard a lot about bacterial weapons and knew that the United States had many advantages over Germany in this regard - the United States' advantages mainly came from plague weapons. Because the Japanese put the plague they had studied for many years in the United States, the United States also A sample was obtained and the same bacteria grew in abundance!

In addition, in the process of searching for a specific drug to treat plague, American scientists Waxman, Woodruff, Albert Szaz and others also discovered that the streptomycin they were testing was officially a specific drug to suppress various types of plague! After possessing specific drugs, the United States has actually surpassed Japan in its mastery of plague weapons.

He nodded and asked: "So what can we do to counter German missiles?"

"We are developing an anti-ship radar-guided glide bomb ... now in the final stages of testing," the Chief of Naval Operations said.

Ernest King is talking about the ASM-N-2 Bat anti-ship radar guided glide bomb. Although this kind of weapon is unsatisfactory, until the United States cannot overcome the problem of wireless communications being susceptible to interference, the "over-the-top" design of active radar guidance is the only option.

And there is another advantage of doing this, that is, the American bombers carrying the "Bat" do not need to be dispatched during the day. They can rely on radar guidance to release the "Bat" at night, and then rely on the "Bat"'s own radar to search for targets and carry out attacks. ——In other words, just ignore it after it happens!

Although the accuracy of this "fire and forget" glide-guided bomb is worrying, it is also particularly disturbed and its power is insufficient. However, the advantage of being able to attack at night still makes it highly valued by the U.S. Navy.

"This is great!" President Wallace nodded, "This weapon should be put into actual combat as soon as possible!"

He looked at the three American soldiers in front of him who seemed to be looking a little sad, and said: "Generals, now we have weapons that can counter German atomic weapons and missiles, which means we have enough power to fight against the Nazis. I think the war can last for a long time. Because we have enough resources and productivity to fight the enemy until the enemy is exhausted! This is my strategy. As long as I am the president of the United States, we will not engage in any peace negotiations with the Germans. Until victory is achieved!”

Does this stop peace negotiations?

The three generals looked at me and I looked at you, they all looked helpless. Roosevelt is dead, and peace seems to be far away. But is the United States really capable of fighting on?