The Rise of the Third Reich

On June 22, 1942, the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov arrived in Washington, the capital of the United States, via the North Pacific and Alaska. This was the first time that the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Soviet Union, as a representative of the Allied Powers of the United States, arrived in Washington, the political center of the capitalist world, for a diplomatic visit.

"Comrade People's Commissar, welcome!" On the South Lawn of the White House, U.S. President Roosevelt, who was sitting in a wheelchair, greeted Molotov in Russian that he obviously learned now.

"Mr. President, on behalf of the 180 million Soviet people, I wish you good health." Molotov said nonsense in an enthusiastic tone - how could Roosevelt be healthy like this?

"Haha," Roosevelt threw his head back and laughed, then pointed to the main entrance of the White House, "Comrade People's Commissar, let's go in and talk... It's June now, and the sun in Washington can be very powerful."

Washington seemed a bit hot in late June, and Molotov, who came from the north, was not used to it. The temperature inside the White House is not much cooler, and it is also suffocatingly hot. But Molotov still had to wear a thick suit solemnly, sit on a chair covered with soft velvet, which was so hot that it burned his buttocks, and pretended to smile while talking to the supreme leader of capitalism.

This visit was actually unplanned. According to the original plan, Molotov should visit Washington in the hotter months of July or August to discuss autumn and winter operations - by that time, the great Soviet Red Army should have been liberated. Warsaw!

However, the plan could not keep up with the changes. After the Battle of Legionovo-Wovomin, everyone knew that Warsaw would not be liberated so easily. The Soviet Red Army was bound to encounter an unprecedented bloody battle under the walls of Warsaw, and Molotov came for this reason.

"Mr. President," Molotov did not mince words, but said straight to the point, "We suffered a defeat in the Legionovo-Wovomin area northeast of Warsaw. One army group was defeated and lost Hundreds of tanks and 20,000 soldiers! And the losses of aircraft are also huge. In the past ten days, the Red Air Force has lost more than 10% of its strength. This is a very serious loss. This shows that Nazi Germany is worse than we imagined. are more powerful, we may have underestimated their power.”

His words were immediately translated into English by the translators present.

"Do you need more assistance?" Roosevelt did not talk nonsense to Molotov, but asked directly, "If you need anything, just say it."

Roosevelt was not pretending to be bold, but the Polish campaign had proven the value of the Soviet Union so far - not to mention the Soviet Red Army's weak combat effectiveness. It maintained an offensive state for more than ten days, advancing from the Bug River to the gates of Warsaw. A dozen German "ring defense fortresses" were also dismantled. Even if they were defeated in the Battle of Legionovo-Wovomin, the losses were not great, the defeated troops did not completely collapse, and the Soviet offensive state was not broken. The Soviet Red Army can fight like this with the German supermen. If Fatty Qiu's British army goes up to fight, the Germans will probably be beaten to death.

Moreover, the Soviet Red Army was not particularly powerful. If Warsaw had been liberated now and there was a strong possibility of bulldozing Berlin and sweeping the Atlantic in Paris, then Roosevelt would not consider large-scale aid to the Soviet Union.

From the current analysis of the Polish battlefield, Roosevelt and his staff believed that the Soviet Union was a country that could cause huge casualties to Germany. If the United States can provide sufficient assistance, then the Soviet Union can continue to bleed Germany until Germany can no longer support it. Therefore, when it comes to aiding the Soviet Union, Roosevelt will not be too stingy now. Aid is nothing but money. Taking the lives of German supermen is a big deal. As long as the Soviets can kill a large number of Germans, they can provide assistance.

"Mr. President, now we urgently need your P51 fighter jets. The more the better, to protect big cities such as Moscow and Leningrad from the threat of German high-altitude bombers, and at the same time, use them to support the Warsaw Campaign."

Molotov was not polite and immediately made the request.

"No problem, we will provide them immediately." Roosevelt said, "The P51 squadrons that have been deployed to the Soviet Union can cooperate with the Red Air Force in combat, and some fighter wings can also be transferred from the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union. We will also send new aircraft to the Soviet Union as soon as possible. I’ll give you 500 P51s first, is that enough?”

"That's enough for the time being, but these aircraft need to be transported to the Soviet Union via the Atlantic Ocean Route and the North Pacific Ocean Route. We don't know how long these two lifelines of the Soviet Union can be maintained."

Molotov paused and then said, "So we still hope to produce this kind of aircraft and engines in the Soviet Union, but our technology and equipment are still somewhat behind."

This is of course a reasonable request. There are currently no problems with the North Pacific shipping lanes, but the North Atlantic transportation lines are always under threat from the European Combined Fleet. Once the North Atlantic shipping lanes are cut off, supplies shipped to the Soviet Union will be reduced by at least 60%.

"That's no problem at all," Roosevelt nodded. "We immediately sent equipment and experts to the Soviet Union."

The Merlin engine production technology used in the P51 has been transferred to an American company, so Roosevelt was now able to get the American company to transfer the production technology of the Merlin series engines to the Soviet Union.

"In addition, we also need technology to produce anti-tank guns and advanced armor-piercing artillery shells." Molotov made another request.

"No problem, we'll provide it immediately." Roosevelt still agreed.

"We also hope that you and the United Kingdom will launch strategic bombing against Germany and its allies as soon as possible," Molotov said. "This is a necessary means to defeat Germany."

"Haven't we already bombed the Kirkuk oil fields and the Khuzestan oil fields?" U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who was present, seemed to know that Molotov was posing a problem for the United States and said with a frown.

"The target of strategic bombing is not only the oil fields," Molotov said slowly, with a very serious tone, "it should also include large cities in Germany, France, and Italy!"

"We're bombing there," Hull replied.

"You are harassing that place," Molotov corrected, "I know what the British did. They sent out ten or eight Mosquito planes a day to drop several tons of bombs and hundreds of thousands of leaflets, causing almost as much damage as Ignore it. If you really want to defeat the Nazis from the air, you should use large numbers of heavy bombers like B-17s, dropping hundreds of tons of bombs at a time."

"But the loss of doing so would be too great. The Germans' homeland air defense force is very powerful..." After learning the Soviet Union's request from the interpreter, the US President, who responded to requests, also frowned. The bombing of Kirkuk and Khuzestan was effective (from the photos), but the losses were too heavy.

Molotov shrugged and said: "According to our air force expert research, the reason why our bombing of Kirkuk and Khuzestan suffered heavy losses was mainly because the targets of the air strikes were predictable, allowing the Nazis to advance Deploy a large number of fighter units. If we expand the targets of air strikes to all large cities under Nazi rule, the Germans' limited fighter units will not be enough."

There were no military generals present at the meeting today. Roosevelt and Hull looked at each other. Hull said: "If we want to launch a large-scale air attack on Europe under Nazi rule, we must use the Soviet Union and the British mainland as our aircraft." The starting point. There are two difficulties now. One is that Britain is worried about retaliation from Germany on its homeland, so it does not dare to launch large-scale strategic bombing..."

When Hull spoke, the translator next to him translated his words into Russian at the same time. When he said something, the translator translated it. When Molotov heard "fear of German retaliation", he laughed and interrupted: "The Germans have so many strategic bombers? They don't have any! They only have tactical bombers, so there is no possibility of large-scale retaliation." "

After his words were translated into English, U.S. Secretary of State Hull continued: "The second difficulty is that we have no way to break through the German naval blockade and transport enough supplies to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union... Although the B-17 aircraft can do it on its own Flying to the UK, but putting these aircraft into combat requires a large amount of fuel, parts and bombs. A B-17 needs to consume about 10-15 tons of various materials to perform a mission, if there are 100 tons of them every day. 1,000 B-17 missions over Europe will consume 15,000 tons of materials. This is just a day's consumption, and it does not include the consumption of escort fighters. "

In fact, this is the main reason why Britain and the United States have been unable to launch strategic bombing against Germany - strategic bombing is a war of attrition, and 1,000 B-17 sorties per day may not be able to defeat Germany's air defense forces. However, the daily consumption of 15,000 tons will quickly exhaust the British's already tight reserves.

"Then transport supplies to the United Kingdom and our country," Molotov said. "If your navy and the British navy are not enough to break the German navy's blockade, then our Soviet navy can dispatch!"

Roosevelt and Hull looked at each other. They knew that the Soviets now had several super battleships at their disposal. This was indeed a naval force that had the potential to change the balance of maritime power in the Atlantic.

Roosevelt nodded and said: "If the Red Navy can attack, there will be no problem. However, the strategic bombing of Germany still needs a preparation process, and it will take time for our aircraft to be deployed. Before that, I hope to hear about the liberation of Warsaw good news.”

Molotov smiled and said, "Mr. President, there will be good news. Our powerful Red Army will launch an attack on Warsaw in a few days!"