The Rise of the Third Reich

On September 9, 1939, the whole of Europe was stunned by the sudden drastic changes.

One of the three major subjects of the Polish Federation, and also the largest and most resource-rich subject, the army of the Ukrainian Free State announced its surrender to the German army!

Hundreds of thousands of heavily armed troops surrendered to thousands of German soldiers who were virtually surrounded by them. Foreign reporters in Lviv witnessed the most absurd and joyful surrender in history.

A war correspondent from the British "Times" wrote: "...About 1,000 very tall and handsome German Waffen SS soldiers in beautiful military uniforms came from Lviv Airport in neat lines. They must have history. The most popular invaders since then, Ukrainians were welcoming them along the way. Everyone was holding a paper German flag (a swastika, it seemed that they had been prepared long ago), waving it desperately, and shouting in German: thank you!

It seems that these German devils are not evil invaders, but saviors who came to liberate Ukraine!

In fact, this is the view of most residents in Lviv, including Jews and Ukrainians (all outside Lviv are Ukrainians, and the residents in the city are mostly Ukrainians and Jews, with some Poles as well). When they learned that it was not the Soviet Red Army but the German army that parachuted into the airport, the whole city celebrated, and every Ukrainian looked like someone who had survived the disaster.

The Ukrainian Free State Assembly in Lviv also immediately passed a resolution to surrender to Germany and requested the German Emperor to immediately send more troops to complete the occupation of the entire Ukrainian state as soon as possible..."

…

"Are these Ukrainians crazy? Are they crazy?"

At the British Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Chamberlain couldn't believe his ears after listening to the Foreign Secretary's report.

There are so many people in Europe who want to be German!

"Lviv was originally a German city. It was originally called Lemberg. It belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Austrian Empire 20 years ago. Now that Germany and Austria have completed the merger, it can also be regarded as inheriting the legal system of the Austrian Empire. Perhaps In the eyes of the citizens of Lemberg, Germany is their motherland..."

Viscount Halifax tried to explain: "In other parts of the Ukrainian Free State, people may not welcome German troops in this way."

It turns out that the Ukrainians in Lviv are originally Germans!

"But this is not allowed!" Winston Churchill was a little annoyed. He was still so happy after being invaded. Is Germany really that good?

"But this matter is not a bad thing for us," Churchill thought for a moment and then said, "Ukraine was a problem to begin with. Now it belongs to Germany. If Stalin wants to take Ukraine, he should declare war on Germany!"

When it comes to drawing the Soviet Union into the war, Ukraine's ownership has always been a problem. Ukraine is too rich and too big for the Polish Federation to give up - they gave up Ukraine for a dream, didn't they pick up sesame seeds and throw away the watermelon?

And it is impossible for the Soviet Union to give up its demands on Ukraine. If it does not want Ukraine, and then helps White Poland, which Lenin must perish in his will, to fight Germany, even Stalin will not be able to secure his position as General Secretary.

"That's true," Chamberlain thought for a moment, feeling that things were not that simple. "What if Hitler and Stalin reached an agreement to carve up Ukraine?"

"In that case..." Churchill frowned, "I'm afraid we will be in big trouble! Because Stalin will not just take over part of Ukraine, he will also swallow up the eastern part of Poland that originally belonged to Belarus!"

"Will the Soviet Union go to war with Poland?"

Churchill nodded. Of course! If the Soviet Union captured half or most of the Ukrainian Free State, what reason would there be for letting Poland go?

"Then what should we do?" Chamberlain felt a little numb. If the Soviet Union fell to Germany, it would mean that Poland would soon be finished. The German armored forces will soon be able to be mobilized to the western battlefield.

"Perhaps we should consider executing the plan to bomb the Baku oil fields!" Winston Churchill said, "Because most of the Germans' oil comes from the large oil fields in Baku and Transcaucasus. If we can bomb them there, Germany will "The war machine will soon cease to function for lack of oil."

Germany's fuel supply now mainly comes from three major sources: one is imported from the Soviet Union, the other is imported from Romania, and the third is domestic synthetic fuel. In addition, there are strategic oil reserves that have been gradually accumulated since the early 1920s and now amount to 20 million tons.

However, the United Kingdom does not know the true situation of Germany's strategic oil reserves, nor does it know the production capacity of synthetic fuels - the latest information told by the Strategic Deception Bureau to Britain, France and the Soviet Union is: 3 million tons of oil reserves, 2 million tons of synthetic fuels per year, and Germany Wartime oil consumption (including synthetic fuel consumption was 10 million tons).

In other words, without oil from the Soviet Union and Romania, Germany's war machine could only last a few months at most.

Therefore, the British envoy is now lobbying in Romania with a checkbook: as long as Romania is willing to destroy the Ploiesti oil field, Britain will immediately pay a reward of 60 million US dollars! If Romania is unwilling to destroy the oil fields, then Britain is also willing to buy Romanian oil at high prices.

However, Romania's oil production cannot be compared with that of the Soviet Union. The two are not on the same level. The British naturally judged that once the Soviet Union stopped supplying oil to Germany, the German war machine would not be able to fight for a long time.

…

At this time, Stalin actually already knew a little bit of intelligence about Britain and France assembling bomber groups in the Middle East - the Soviet intelligence agencies were still capable, even if they suffered a major purge.

However, Britain and France assembled bombers in the Middle East to bomb the Soviet Union. This was a conclusion that the Soviet Red Army Military Intelligence Bureau did not dare to make and could not detect. This matter is basically the highest military secret of Britain and France. In the Middle East, only a few high-level officials such as the newly appointed commander of the Eastern Army, General Wei Gang, know about it.

Therefore, the Red Army General Staff came to a conclusion that seemed more reliable: Britain and France deployed bombers in the Middle East to deter pro-German Iran and Iraq, and also to put pressure on Turkey - Turkey is Germany's chromite mine. The source of chromite is an important military raw material.

However, Stalin was not in the mood to consider what the British and French aircraft in the Middle East were doing now, because he, like the British cabinet ministers, was also stunned by the drastic changes in Ukraine.

"I was wrong!" Stalin had not admitted his mistake for many years. However, when he heard that the Ukrainians were happily surrendering to Germany, he admitted his mistake at the political bureau meeting, "I had a poor estimate of the counter-revolutionary situation in Ukraine on the right bank. Seriously inadequate!”

Stalin reflected in a very sad tone: "I used empiricism to deal with the Ukrainian issue without investigation and research. This was wrong! What is happening in Lviv now shows that on the west bank of the Dnieper River, the number of reactionary elements of all kinds accounts for The proportion of the population is not 8% or 10%, but dozens of percent!”

He glanced at Khrushchev, who also looked distressed. Khrushchev said: "Comrade General Secretary, this is not your fault. The main reason is that I, as the First Secretary of Ukraine, did not do a good job. I underestimated the counter-revolutionary situation on the right bank... It is obviously the last stronghold of various reactionary elements in Russia. , is a stronghold of counterrevolutionaries!”

"So, Comrade Khrushchev," Stalin's tone had become serious, "are you confident in destroying them?"

Khrushchev immediately stood up and said categorically: "I promise to complete the task and completely eliminate the reactionaries in right-bank Ukraine, leaving no one behind!"

This is a very difficult task!

Stalin was very satisfied with Khrushchev's statement, but to eliminate the various reactionaries in right-bank Ukraine, Khrushchev alone could not do it alone.

"Comrade Voroshilov!" the fatherly leader of the Soviet Union named the People's Commissar of Defense.

"Comrade Stalin, the Belarusian Front and Ukrainian Front of the Red Army are ready to launch an attack on reactionary Poland and reactionary Ukraine at any time!"

Stalin looked at Voroshilov and said, "Comrade People's Commissar of Defense, who do you think is the enemy of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army?"

This is a problem! Now that the Polish Ukrainian Free State happily surrendered to Germany...then will Voroshilov's Red Army now go to fight the German-Ukrainian coalition? Look at the performance of the Germans when they beat Poland, it seems very difficult to deal with!

Can the Soviet Red Army survive?

"Comrade General Secretary, if we want to go to war with Germany..." Voroshilov felt that the problem was a bit tricky, "We must form an alliance with Britain and France."

"Alliance with Britain and France?" Stalin snorted, "Same as Tsar Nicholas II?"

Voroshilov trembled and quickly changed his words: "Comrade General Secretary, that's not what I meant... I meant that a war with Germany would be very detrimental to us."

Stalin nodded and said thoughtfully: "We should avoid war with Germany... But this depends on Germany's ambitions for right-bank Ukraine. Comrade Molotov, what do you think?"

“Comrade General Secretary, I think what the reactionaries on the right bank of Ukraine want to see most is for us to go to war with Germany!” Molotov said thoughtfully, “And Germany’s position is very unclear at the moment. "The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk at this moment is different from the previous one, Germany did not occupy Ukraine), then the right-bank Ukrainian issue will be easily solved."

"Will such a good thing happen?" Stalin looked at Molotov, "Comrade Molotov, you go to Berlin immediately and tell Hitler our position. We demand that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk be used as the basis for basis for demarcating the future borders between the two countries.”