The Rise of the Third Reich

The oil fields in Kirkuk were completely destroyed. It can be said that they were removed, blown up, and burned. All the equipment that could be moved was moved away, and the equipment that couldn't be moved was blown up. After the bombing, a fire was set on the oil well. When Hersman arrived, the fires in most of the oil wells had not yet been extinguished. What he saw was a devastated oil field that looked like a battlefield.

"My leader, the Kirkuk oil field has been severely damaged. All oil production and oil transportation facilities have been destroyed, and the oil wells are still burning. The oil field fire brigade sent by Speer from Romania has just arrived. According to their estimates, It will take at least a month to extinguish the oil field fire.

In addition, it will take at least a month for the railway from Aleppo to Mosul to resume operation, and oil production and oil transportation equipment can be transported to Kirkuk in large quantities. It will then take at least another six months to fully repair the damaged fields. It will be seven months before the oil field's production can hope to return to the level before it was destroyed..."

Berlin, Wilhelmstrasse 77, German Chancellery.

Adolf Hitler was frowning as he listened to Göring's report on the situation in the Kirkuk oil fields - if oil divided the Middle East, then oil could also unite Europe.

So now all of Europe is looking at the oil fields in the Middle East. If the Germans can make those oil fields work at full capacity and continuously supply oil to Europe. Then everyone will become a follower of Germany, because everyone wants cheap and abundant oil!

Hearing that it would take seven months for the large Kirkuk oil field to resume its original production, Adolf Hitler couldn't help but frown, "How much can the production reach after seven months? Can it reach 3 million tons per year?"

"Leader, it's hard to say." Goering replied, "We have also mobilized many drilling teams to prepare to enter Kirkuk to drill wells after the railway is repaired. If high-yield oil wells can be drilled, the Kirkuk oil field may be able to The output exceeded 5 million tons.”

Göring is not clear about the specific recoverable reserves of the Kirkuk oil field. The annual output of 5 million tons was mentioned by Hersman in the report. In fact, the annual output limit of the large Kirkuk oil field, ranked sixth in the world in later generations, far exceeds 5 million tons. However, Hersman was not sure how far the Kirkuk oil field could be developed with the technology of the 1940s, so he reported a relatively conservative figure.

"Five million tons!" Hitler was a little surprised when he heard this. "Is it really that much? Can the Kirkuk oil field be compared with the Romanian oil field?"

"It should be," Goering replied with a smile on his face. "In addition, there are existing oil fields in Syria and the Sinai Peninsula, which are now being repaired and expanded. After the repairs and expansion work are completed, we should be able to get another 1 million from there every year. tons of oil. In addition, the output of Iran's Khuzestan oil field is very large, and there is also the world's largest Abadan refinery. However, it is difficult to transport Iranian oil to Europe, and a road from Basra to Kirkuk is needed. Oil pipelines, or opening up maritime oil transportation routes. If the transportation lines can be opened, Iran can provide 10 million tons of oil..."

"10 million tons!? The route to Iran can always be opened, then we will have more than 16 million tons of oil, right?" Hitler suddenly felt like he got rich overnight.

"If the sea route can be opened," Goering said, "the amount of oil available will definitely increase, because shallow oil fields have been discovered in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and it is also easy to increase production from the large oil fields in Khuzestan. I It is estimated that 20 million tons of oil can be obtained from the Middle East every year.”

Fatty Ge always liked to exaggerate, but the data he reported to Hitler today turned out to be not an exaggeration, but too conservative.

"Twenty million tons?" Hitler exclaimed exaggeratedly, "We still have 13 million tons, and if we add them in, it will be 33 million tons... Now the German war machine no longer has to worry about oil!"

For a long time, the German Wehrmacht fought wars based on oil. Moreover, Germany's wartime economy and military mobilization also revolved around oil. How many tanks, aircraft, and warships could be produced as much oil as possible, and how much air force and armored forces could be expanded accordingly - for Germany, which had conquered most of Europe. , industrial production capacity is sufficient, and it is not difficult to expand further. But the planes and tanks produced cannot be driven without oil.

Therefore, Germany, which owns most of Europe and whose industrial production capacity far exceeds that of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, is far behind even the Soviet Union in the production of mechanized weapons and the scale of its air force and armored forces. The reason is that the Soviet Union can arrange its armored forces and air force according to the annual production of 30 million tons of oil, while Germany can only arrange according to the maximum of 20 million tons of oil (already much more than in history).

If the annual production of petroleum (including various synthetic fuels) can reach 33 million tons, the number of German aircraft and tanks will immediately increase significantly.

And with 33 million tons of oil, Germany can solve the energy supply problems of European countries. In this way, European countries including France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries will truly follow Germany. The industrial and military capabilities of these countries will also be brought into play due to their relatively sufficient supply of oil. Then Germany is really guaranteed to win!

"Joachim." Hitler had calmed down at this time and called the name of Foreign Minister Ribbentrop.

"My leader!" Ribbentrop stood up quickly.

"Go and tell Franco that starting from 1942, we can get 40 million tons of oil every year!" Hitler said, "So there is no suspense about victory. If Spain joins in time, victory will come earlier."

Of course, 40 million tons of oil is a boast. It’s not that it can’t be mined, but that it absolutely couldn’t be mined in 1942. In 1942, it was not easy for Germany to obtain 23 million tons of various oils from various sources. However, Hitler has never been an honest person, and it is not a big deal to deceive potential allies by bragging.

"Rudolf," he then said to Hess, "when you go to Paris and see President Pétain, tell him that Germany will have enough oil starting tomorrow. If he is willing to let France participate more deeply, If we enter the war, starting next year, we can give France an additional 100,000 tons of oil for the national economy.”

The 100,000 tons per month are not used for fighting, but for France's people's livelihood. This number is not worth mentioning in peacetime, but in wartime, giving France an extra 100,000 tons per month is really not a small amount.

"Leader," Göring heard that this number was a bit disgusting, and immediately reminded him, "next year we will collect up to 17 million tons of oil and 6 million tons of various synthetic fuels per year. If we want to launch a large-scale naval and air battle with Britain and the United States, Fuel consumption may exceed 25 million tons if the Soviet Union cannot continue to supply us with fuel..."

In other words, if the Soviet Union cut off fuel for Germany in 1942 (which is very likely), Germany would have to use 2 million tons from its fuel reserves to fill the gap in 1942.

"Here!" Hitler waved his hand and said, "Prepare another 50,000 tons of monthly supply for Spain, 25,000 tons for each of the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and Finland, and 100,000 tons for Italy."

Another 250,000 tons (monthly) will be sent out at once, plus the 100,000 tons given to France, it will be 350,000 tons, which is 4.2 million tons a year. Adding the previous 2 million tons gap, the total gap will exceed 6.2 million Ton!

"Take it from the strategic reserve!" Hitler was squandering the strategic oil reserve that Hersman had finally saved.

Now Germany can maintain a much larger air force and navy than in history, and can also supply fuel to most of Europe, because of the 20 million tons of reserves that Hersman saved over 20 years. But after 40 and 41 years of consumption, Germany's strategic oil reserves are estimated to be less than 13 million tons by 1942. If the amount is reduced by another 6.2 million tons at once, then the reserve quantity will be only over 6.8 million tons.

"It is totally worth using more than 4 million tons of oil to bring France and Spain into the alliance!" Hitler said, "As long as we can capture Gibraltar, we can join the fleets of France and Italy in the Atlantic. This way Britain is almost finished!"

"The British will definitely surrender by then!" Rudolf Hess said, "As long as we can defeat the British navy in the English Channel or the Atlantic, the British will no longer be able to resist. In this way, the war will basically be won. …”

"Not yet!" Hitler interrupted Rudolf Hess, "We still have to fight to the death with the Soviet Union, just after defeating Britain!"

Herschmann's idea was to put the United States first and then the Soviet Union, but Hitler always believed that the Soviet Union was Germany's biggest enemy. Because the Soviet Union is relatively large from the map, and considering the Soviet Union's influence on the East Asian continent, the Soviet Union and its allies control more land and population. If the Soviet Union controls India again, the red flag of GCism will almost be planted across the entire Eurasian continent.

This will be a big red empire with tens of millions of square kilometers of land and 1 billion people! Hitler's good mood suddenly disappeared when he thought of this.

"We cannot let the Soviets easily occupy Afghanistan!" Hitler, Roosevelt and Churchill thought together this time. He asked Goering, "Hermann, does the General Armament Administration have a lot of captured British weapons and equipment?"

"There are some," Goering nodded, "mainly small arms and artillery. We don't have much ammunition to use, so we are going to dismantle them and recycle raw materials."

"No ammunition?"

"A few, not a lot."

Hitler thought for a while and said: "Just a few will be enough... Prepare thousands of British firearms with ammunition. I think the Afghans will need them!"