The Rise of the Third Reich

In the General Staff Headquarters at Koenig Square, although it is working time now, there are not many officers coming in and out. Under the high vaulted dome, the footsteps of two people on the granite floor sounded like a line of soldiers marching in unison. "Kurt, it's a little deserted here right now," Hersman said, "but there's still hope. At least we're off to a pretty good start."

The person with Hessmann was Kurt Student. They returned from Russia together and stopped in Riga for a few days to inspect the factories there. When they left Riga, the news that Soviet Poland (Poland) would conduct peace negotiations in Riga and the news that Soviet Russia established diplomatic relations with Poland came from Moscow at the same time.

They passed through a rather large conference room, then passed through a long corridor, and walked into an office filled with photos of various aircraft - just looking at these photos, you can guess that this is the General Staff Office. The flight office is gone.

"Well, we were such a success in Russia," said Student, gesturing to a somewhat worn armchair. "But you also gave Junkers and Fokker a big problem...I think Lenin must be very grateful to you, right?"

"It's not just for Russia that I'm trying to embarrass Junkers and Fokker."

"Isn't it for Russia?" Stuart opened a cabinet, took out a thick stack of folders, put it on his desk and started flipping through it.

"Not only," Hessman emphasized, "we need to walk on two legs, so we need to double our investment. Cooperation with the Soviet Union will share the 'investment on one leg', and we will build the other one ourselves."

"Okay, I found it." Student took out a folder with the words "Rotary Cylinder Engine" written on the surface from a pile of folders. "The French's strange engine, the Terra God series... 14 cylinders that rotate together can output 160 horsepower, and the power/weight ratio reaches 0.667."

This is the originator of the radial air-cooled engine that kept pace with the in-line liquid-cooled engine during World War II. The French invented the rotary-cylinder engine. The heat dissipation method of this engine is very strange, which is to rotate the cylinder. Therefore, huge inertial energy is generated, making the aircraft difficult to operate.

"Let BMW improve it and find a way to stop the cylinder from rotating." Hessmann took the folder, opened it, and started looking through it. The information inside is very complete, including not only detailed drawings, but also various test data. The Germans captured many rotary engines during the war and also copied them themselves.

Stuart said: "First let them imitate the Land God 9N. On this basis, in 1923, they came up with a non-rotating 9-cylinder air-cooled engine with a horsepower of over 400... BMW should have such ability."

Historically, the American Pratt \u0026 Whitney Company came up with a similar product, the R-1340 Wasp engine, in 1925. At that time, Pratt \u0026 Whitney had just been established, with only 20 employees, which could not be compared with BMW.

Hirschmann hoped that BMW could come up with a product before Pratt \u0026 Whitney, so that it could obtain the patent for the radial engine.

"That's it," Hersman said, putting the folder Student had given him into a handbag. "Is it okay if I take it away?"

"It doesn't matter, I still have it here." Student said. "And the one I gave you is just an introduction. There are a lot of details and samples."

Hirschmann said: "Send those to BMW."

"So should we put out a bid for an in-line engine with the same horsepower?" Student asked.

"It's not necessary for the time being," Hessman shook his head. "Funds are limited, so we have to save some money. When our cooperation with the Russians starts to generate a lot of cash flow, it will not be too late to start developing in-line engines."

Compared with radial engines, inline engines are widely used and can be applied to automobiles. Therefore, Hirschmann does not plan to fund the development of in-line engines for the time being, but wants German automobile companies and machinery companies to do it themselves.

After all, cooperation with Soviet Russia requires a lot of investment. Because the commodities that the Russians can exchange with Germany are mainly oil. What the Russians can produce is crude oil rather than refined oil, which requires Germany to establish a corresponding oil processing and sales industry.

To do this, the Industrial Promotion Council must provide large loans to BASF and Bayer.

In addition, the construction of strategic oil reserve facilities is now about to begin.

According to Hessmann's plan, future wars will be extremely dependent on oil, so Germany must reserve at least 20 million tons of crude oil before the outbreak of war - enough to sustain the consumption of at least two years of war.

Such a large strategic oil reserve not only requires a large number of storage facilities, but also cannot be completed within a few years before the war breaks out. When the heads of state come to power, Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union will be more vigilant, and of course they will not open up to sell oil to Germany! Therefore, oil reserves can only start in the 1920s, and they will have to be carried out gradually. One or two million tons will be stored every year. By the time World War II begins, they will be almost ready.

In addition to oil reserves, research and investment in coal-to-oil conversion have also been secretly proposed. Hirschmann hoped that by 1939, Germany would be able to form an annual production capacity of 5 million tons of synthetic fuel. This, of course, also involves huge investments - not just in synthetic fuel plants, but also in coal mines. When necessary, we may even go to Austria and the Czech Republic to invest in coal mines.

In addition, the reserve work of non-ferrous metals will also start in the 20s. Like oil, nonferrous metal resources were also a shortcoming of Germany in World War II. Germany lacks almost all non-ferrous metals, and without these non-ferrous metals, Germany's military industry would be in big trouble during wartime.

The reserve of non-ferrous metals is not only a matter of spending money to buy them, sometimes you also need to go abroad to find minerals. In Hersman’s memory, Austria has the largest tungsten mine in Europe, and the Czech Republic has relatively rich manganese, graphite and uranium mines. Czech uranium mines have long been discovered and mined, but they are not used to make nuclear weapons. Used as a colorant for porcelain. Hersman plans to find an opportunity to acquire the uranium mine there and then reserve all the uranium ore produced every year. In addition, the Belgian Congo also has rich uranium resources. As far as Hersman knows, the pitchblende there has been exploited since 1921. The uranium mines in the Belgian Congo must also be obtained...

When Otto Hahn and Liz Meitner discovered the phenomenon of nuclear fission, these things would be of great use.

So, in the next few years. The Industrial Promotion Council needs to spend a lot of money for investment, and it is definitely not rich. It can only invest limited funds in the departments that need it most.

"1939? Why?" In the office of the director of the Political Division of the General Staff, Colonel Kurt von Schleicher looked at the oil and non-ferrous metal reserve plan that Hersman had just drawn up - this plan would Adopted at the 1921 Industrial Promotion Committee working meeting. And Colonel Schleicher is considered a hot and powerful figure in today's General Staff. He has a role in the Industrial Promotion Committee, the Officers' Union, the Aviation Committee, etc. For the plan drawn up by Hessmann to be adopted, his support must be obtained.

"What's special about this year?" Schleicher looked up at Hersmann, "Reserves of petroleum, aluminum, manganese, ferrochrome, zinc, lead, copper, etc., as well as uranium reserves, and The artificial gasoline factory is required to be completed before August 31, 1939. Can you tell me what date September 1, 1939 is?"

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