The Rise of the Third Reich

"Is it only the oil-producing areas in southern Iran that will not be given to the Soviet Union?" Adolf Hitler quickly heard the implication of Hessmann's words. He asked: "Are we going to take all other areas in Iran, as well as Afghanistan and India?" Leave it to the Bolsheviks?"

"Leader, this is the condition for the Soviet Union to join us in participating in the world war. We cannot give nothing." Hersman explained, "But Stalin will not join at the moment. He must still want to wait and see. Otherwise he will not They will put forward conditions that are absolutely unacceptable to us..."

"He doesn't want to attack Britain and the United States with us at all!" Adolf Hitler interrupted, "I know his thoughts very well. He wants us to fight to the death with Britain and the United States, and then launch a surprise attack while we are exhausted. Everything is in hand!”

Hitler may have been right! Herschman thought: Germany and the Soviet Union are too close. From a local political perspective, it is difficult for such two powerful and bordering countries to become friends unless they have a common strong enemy. In the previous two decades, both the Soviet Union and Germany were hostile to the Allied Powers, led by Britain and France, so there was such a long period of cooperation and honeymoon period.

However, with Germany's victory in the Western Front and the Mediterranean Campaign, the Allied Powers group had collapsed. France was about to completely surrender to Germany, and the British Empire was also in danger. Since the factors that caused the Soviet Union and Germany to unite no longer exist, it is only a matter of time before the Soviet Union and Germany turn against each other.

However, sooner or later the Soviet Union and Germany would turn against each other, which was of decisive significance to Germany. If the peace between the Soviet Union and Germany can be maintained until Germany possesses nuclear weapons, Germany will naturally be sure of victory.

If it cannot be delayed that long, then it should at least be delayed until Germany swallows the big cake of the Middle East. Only with the rich oil resources in the Middle East can Europe's huge industrial potential be fully realized. Only in this way can Germany remain invincible in future confrontations with the United States and the Soviet Union.

"Leader, it is precisely because the Soviet Union is a very dangerous potential enemy," Hersman said slowly, carefully choosing his words, "that we should try to appease and delay the outbreak of war as much as possible. Because we need time to disintegrate the British Empire. , and digest the spoils we got from the battlefield. Whether we can win the war with the United States and the Soviet Union in the future depends largely on how much we can leverage Europe's industrial and demographic advantages, which in turn depends on how much we can leverage. How many resources have been obtained from the Middle East, Africa and India? Therefore, our main task now is to continue to disintegrate the British Empire, and then swallow up and digest the resource-rich territory that originally belonged to the British Empire. In the process, we should avoid large-scale outbreaks with the Soviet Union. war."

Having said this, Hessmann winked at Marshal Schleicher, another "pro-Soviet" leader.

Schleicher was in charge of military affairs, and war mobilization was also part of military and political work. As a believer in Ludendorff's "total war" theory, Schleicher knew very well that the European Community's economy had not yet fully transitioned to wartime, and even Germany's own industrial potential had not been fully unleashed. The main reason that limits Germany and the European Community from realizing their industrial potential is the lack of raw materials, especially the lack of oil.

Because now is the era of mechanized warfare. If there is not enough oil, Germany will not be able to operate even if it produces several times the number of tanks and aircraft.

Moreover, Germany is now working hard to expand the size of its navy and air force, which in turn requires a large amount of fuel - the navy's warships are all oil tigers, and training and dispatch must burn a large amount of oil. If Germany wants to maintain a European combined fleet larger than the Japanese combined fleet, it must prepare to supply the fleet with millions of tons of oil every year.

The skills of air force pilots are also fed by aviation kerosene. According to the plan of the German High Command, the number of commonly used aircraft of the air force and naval aviation will increase by 300 every month starting from 1942. By the end of 1942, the number of aircraft commonly used by the German Air Force and Navy The number of commonly used aircraft in the aviation force will exceed 10,000. The increase in the number of commonly used aircraft does not mean that it is OK to build more aircraft. The so-called "commonly used aircraft" is actually the concept of a combat unit, and behind a commonly used aircraft is by no means only one aircraft, but there are aircraft that can support one. Various elements of aircraft take-off combat.

The most critical thing is not the aircraft but the pilots. According to the regulations of the German Air Force and Naval Aviation, the number of pilots (referring to drivers) in each aviation regiment should be 1.5 times the number of commonly used aircraft. In other words, there are 10 pilots who are capable of combat, and at the same time, there are 5 pilots who are receiving training or serving as instructors in the training group or who are on vacation to recuperate.

In other words, if the number of commonly used aircraft of the German Air Force and Naval Aviation were to exceed 10,000, there would be at least 15,000 pilots, and this does not include those who participate in training or serve as instructors in various flight training schools. Considering that the current training requirements for German pilots are very strict and the training time is also very long. The total number of pilots (pilots) of all abilities behind 10,000 commonly used aircraft must be over 30,000. Therefore, the annual fuel consumption is also an astronomical figure!

"Leader," Schleicher began, "Oil has now become a huge bottleneck. On the one hand, we now need to expand the navy and air force, and on the other hand, we must maintain the basic needs of the members of the European Customs Union. In 1941 The consumption of petroleum and synthetic gasoline is planned to be as high as 22 million tons, while our synthetic gasoline production can only reach 6 million tons. Oil production includes crude oil and shale from Romania, Poland, Western Ukraine, Hungary, Baltica and other places. Including oil (produced in Estonia), the total is only more than 6 million tons. In addition, we also plan to import 3 million tons of crude oil from the Soviet Union... This leaves a gap of 7 million tons, which requires consuming nearly one-third of the strategic oil reserves! "

Hitler glanced at his confidant Goering. The fat man was also opposed to falling out with the Soviet Union now. He told Hitler: "My leader, if we want to go to war with the Soviet Union, the Army will also need a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and trucks, which will consume a lot of fuel... The consumption of fuel will probably exceed 30 million tons per year! And to obtain Because we can no longer import from the Soviet Union, the amount will drop to 12 million tons. This will increase the annual gap to 18 million tons! Our current reserves can only sustain consumption for a year and a few months. "

Hersman then concluded: "Only when the stable acquisition of oil and synthetic fuel exceeds 36 million tons, can we start a war with the United States and the Soviet Union at the same time and ensure victory!"

The figure he reported was almost three times the amount of petroleum and synthetic fuels that Germany steadily obtained during World War II. For Germany, which controls most of Europe's productivity, the output of tanks, aircraft and even warships is not a problem. What really limits Germany's ability to exert its strength is fuel.

Considering that the United States produced more than 200 million tons of oil annually during World War II, Germany's acquisition of 36 million tons was actually not much at all.

"Perhaps we can solve the Soviet Union first while the United States remains neutral!" Hitler expressed his thoughts. "The Soviet Red Army performed very poorly against the Poles and Finns. Maybe we can solve the Soviet Union in a very short time, like within a few months!"

"There is no such possibility!" Hessman said in an extremely firm tone. "The Americans will soon intervene in the war. In fact, they have already intervened in various ways. They donated weapons and equipment to Britain and escorted British ships. , and also provided volunteer pilots. Many of the pilots we captured in the Mediterranean were Americans! And with our victory in the Mediterranean and the collapse of the British Empire, it was only a matter of time before the United States would directly participate in the war. There should be no illusions.

And it is also an illusion to expect to solve the Soviet Union in the short term. Even if the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army is far inferior to ours, the Bolshevik Party will still choose to fight before exhausting war resources. In order to compete with us for world hegemony, the United States will definitely use their huge industrial power to continuously provide blood transfusions to the Soviet Union. We would then be stuck at constant attrition in the vast, cold lands of the Soviet Union. If we wanted to win without nuclear fission bombs, we would have to first gain control of the Atlantic Ocean, thereby cutting off the Soviet Union's access to foreign aid. The prerequisite for seizing control of the Atlantic Ocean is to defeat the British and US navies! "

First the United States, then the Soviet Union! This is Hessman's consistent line. Who made the United States the world's leader in later generations, and the Soviet Union became the Russian Oil and Gas Company?

"Defeat the United States?" Hitler shook his head repeatedly. "Isn't this more difficult than defeating the Soviet Union? What if the Soviet Union stabs us in the back when we are in a fierce battle with the United States? Stalin must be thinking so now, right?"

"It's actually not that difficult to defeat the United States," Hessman shook his head and explained, "If we were to land in the United States and occupy New York and Washington, it would be very difficult. We should not ignore the American people's resistance to foreign aggression. With the courage and determination to invade, we will face tens of millions of troops armed to the teeth on the beaches of the East Coast of the United States. It will not be easy to defeat them. But we don’t need to do that. We don’t need to go to the mainland of the United States. We just need to be there. Defeat the United States at sea, establish a forward base for combating the United States in Canada, and then turn South America, the backyard of the United States, into Germany's anti-American base. Let the United States be surrounded by us and our allies. In this way, the United States will lose its world Empire!"