The Rise of the Third Reich

"The Germans actually don't plan to use mechanized warfare against Poland?" Colonel Charles de Gaulle asked thoughtfully after reading the full outline of the "Black Plan".

The general outline of the "Black Plan" did not look fake, but the strategies and tactics mentioned in it made de Gaulle suspicious. As far as he knew, Germany had a huge mechanized advantage. Germany's automobile industry is twice as powerful as France's and can equip a 200,000 mechanized professional army. And such a fully mechanized army is simply unable to resist a traditional army like the Polish Army...

"Colonel, the Germans don't have that ability!" The very handsome "traitor" Stern and de Gaulle were sitting across from each other. The two of them and Colonel Meyer were in a small room inside the French General Staff. Inside the office.

This is where de Gaulle works. He now has a new position - director of the Strategic Research Office. This is not an idle job, but an errand specifically responsible for studying how to help Poland fight the German invasion.

"Don't have that ability?" De Gaulle looked at the Red Army rebel in front of him.

"Their tanks are very weak and are no match for the T-26 on the Spanish battlefield."

De Gaulle shook his head, "But the Spanish War seems to be ending with General Franco's victory."

The Spanish Civil War has been going on for more than a year, and Franco's army will have to fight for about another year to win, but the defeat of the Republicans has been revealed. In the northern campaign from June to October last year, the Republican Army suffered a disastrous defeat, and Spain's important industrial areas, the Basque Country and Asturias, fell.

"That's because the Republicans are killing each other," Stern gritted his teeth. "Franco's people are focused on fighting, but we...the Republicans are busy killing their own people! The endless purge of reactionaries, I don’t know how many soldiers were killed. During the defense of Madrid, the enemy was fighting outside, but our people were fighting each other inside the city. If we could unite like the rebels, the Spanish War would have been over.”

He seemed very angry and let out a heavy breath: "This is all called the Great Suppression and Rebellion. It has been like this in the Soviet Union since 1934. Millions of people have been arrested and at least hundreds of thousands have been killed! Now it has spread again. When it comes to the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, even people like Marshal Tukhachevsky and General Yakir were killed. This is simply destroying the Red Army! The Red Army will be destroyed by Stalin, and the Soviet Union will be finished if this continues..."

Will the Soviet Red Army be destroyed by the purges? De Gaulle was not sure, but executing a large number of officers would definitely damage the army's combat effectiveness.

"Does Stalin know?" De Gaulle asked again.

"How could he not know? He is not a fool."

"Then he still dares to attack Poland?" Colonel Meyer interjected.

"Isn't there still Germany?" Stern frowned and said with some distress, "Germany is also powerful. Their aircraft are very powerful, including fighter jets, bombers and enemy attack aircraft. Our aircraft cannot defeat them. They. They will use our cities, roads and transportation hubs to carry out indiscriminate bombardments. Our cities will be panicked and it will be difficult for our troops to move during the day..."

"Bombing makes it difficult for troops to move?" De Gaulle suddenly interrupted Stern. Although France also has military observers in Spain, their understanding of the war situation cannot be compared with Stern's.

"Yes, their Bf-109, Fokker D.21, and Fokker D.31 are all very powerful aircraft, more powerful than our I-15 and I-16." Stern took a look and frowned. De Gaulle said, "Your D.510 and D.560 are both useless!"

…

73 Wilhelmstrasse, the original presidential palace building during the Weimar Republic now belongs to the Reich Ministry of Defense and Armament. This ministry was reorganized from the original Ministry of Defense. In addition to having all the functions of the original Ministry of Defense, it also added an Arms Planning Bureau with the authority to fully intervene in Germany's armaments production (not design and procurement but production). In wartime, the Arms Planning Bureau will also become the Arms Production Bureau, which can oversee Germany's wartime armaments production.

The current Minister of Defense and Armaments is still the original Defense Minister Schleicher, and the director of the Arms Planning Bureau is Alfred Krupp, the heir to the Krupp Company.

On the morning of January 20, 1938, there was a row of luxurious and exquisite black cars parked in front of No. 73 William Street. This was an unusual occurrence. Since the restoration of Emperor William, this place is no longer the official residence of Germany's top leader, but is just a ministry of the imperial government. It is rare that many big figures gather here at the same time.

The Mercedes-Benz W07 sedan of General Hersmann, the deputy chief of staff, also stopped on the roadside. Hersmann's adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Speidel, got out of the passenger seat and opened the door for the general. Hersman got out of the carriage, and then came the very fat Baron Anthony Fogg (titled by Emperor William).

The Fokker just returned from Japan a week ago. With the support of the Fokker Company, the development progress of the "Fokker Zero" is satisfactory - in fact, this is not a very complicated aircraft. The characteristics are "light" and "fast". The former requires weight reduction as much as possible and a light and hard aluminum alloy material, while the latter requires a small but powerful air-cooled engine.

"The skin is ready-made, and we are going to use heat-treated aluminum-zinc-magnesium alloy." Fokker carried his leather bag and quickly followed Hersman toward the building. He said as he walked, "The main truss beam is a problem. For You cannot use steel to reduce weight, you can only use super-hard aluminum alloy. The Japanese say that they have successfully synthesized this super aluminum alloy and want to use it to exchange engine technology.”

What the Japanese synthesized should be the legendary Igarashi metal, which is probably also a heat-treated aluminum-zinc-magnesium alloy. According to the Alcoa classification standard, it is the so-called 7000 series, either the 7178 series or the 7075 series. It is based on aluminum-zinc-magnesium alloy plus a small amount of copper and trace amounts of iron, silicon, manganese, chromium, and nickel. Although some valuable non-ferrous metals have to be used up, under Hersmann's long-term management, Germany now has very sufficient reserves of non-ferrous metals.

"It can be exchanged." Hersman immediately made a decision. "Who will solve the engine problem? Should we use the existing engine or develop a new product?"

"We can invite bids from BMW and Siemens. We need a small double-row 14-cylinder engine. The diameter cannot exceed 1150 mm and the weight must be less than 600 kg. When equipped with a first-stage and two-speed supercharger, the maximum output power is Must be more than 1,200 horses.”

Hersmann said: "This is not a problem, we can make better ones. Siemens and BMW have long been developing radial engines with smaller diameters. If the horsepower is strong enough, it doesn't matter if the weight exceeds dozens of kilograms." ?”

The historical BMW801 series is a directly smaller (relatively long) double-row radial air-cooled engine, but the BMW801 series "large double-row" engine (there are "small double-row" engines in history, such as Pratt \u0026 Whitney's "small double-row" "Wasp" and Nakajima's "Sei 12") pursue large displacement and high power, which are not suitable for small aircraft such as Zero Fighter.

However, this kind of engine cannot trouble today's BMW company. In fact, BMW now has a "small double-row" civilian engine, called the BMW300 series. As long as it is modified according to the body shape requirements of the BMW800 series under development, it can basically meet Fokker's requirements.

The maximum output power of more than 1,200 horsepower also allows the "Fokker Zero" to have more weight to distribute, and its performance can be compared with the Type Zero 22 that only appeared in history at the end of 1942. This allows the "Fokker Zero" to use self-sealing fuel tanks, which greatly improves the pilot's survival possibility after the aircraft is hit. At the same time, there is no need to drill holes in the main truss beams or grind rivets, which can save a lot working hours.

"When will the development of this aircraft be completed?" Hersman asked as he walked into the Department of Defense building. "Our first aircraft carrier will be ready for sea trials in a few months, and will be delivered to the Navy before June next year. By then, there will be more than 50 'Fokker 0's (this is the new aircraft given by Fokker). Are the codenamed aircraft available?"

In this time and space, Germany's first aircraft carrier was not the 30,000-ton "Graf Zeppelin" but the 15,000-ton "Seydlitz".

This aircraft carrier was built by German engineers using the same hull as the "Admiral Hipper" class heavy cruiser after summarizing the construction experience of the "Karl Marx" class and taking into account the sea conditions of the North Sea and the North Atlantic.

Its speed and displacement are similar to the "Admiral Hipper" class. It has 3 steam turbines and 12 heavy oil-fired boilers, and can reach a maximum speed of about 32 knots. However, the fly in the ointment is that because this class of aircraft carrier has to operate in the Atlantic Ocean with high sea conditions, it uses a closed hangar, which results in a small number of carrier-based aircraft and can only carry 36 carrier-based aircraft.

Moreover, only two aircraft carriers of this class have been built so far (the other one will join active service in 1940). Therefore, it is impossible to form a carrier-based aircraft strike capability and can only be used as an escort aircraft carrier to accompany battleships in sorties.

Therefore, in the Navy's plan, the two "Seydlitz" class aircraft carriers will be equipped with 30 carrier-based fighters and 6 carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, and will not be equipped with any carrier-based bombers and torpedo aircraft.

"Next June?" Fokker thought for a while and said, "It should be in time. Fokker 0 plans to fly for the first time in March next year, and it will be carried out in Japan and Germany at the same time. If everything goes well, the BF-Fk factory in Baltica can If production is arranged before the end of May, even if June is not available, a certain amount can be produced in July and August. However, it will take 1940 to achieve combat effectiveness.”