Chapter 218 Preparing for War 2

After the restoration of Emperor Wilhelm, Germany's national economy gradually turned to paramilitarization. Armament production began to become the center of the entire national economy, and the entire national management system was reorganized.

First, the Armament Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense and the Armament Bureaus of the Army, Navy, and Air Force were established. The Armament Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense was responsible for managing the military's armament procurement, storage, and trade. The Armament Bureaus of the Army, Navy, and Air Force each managed a different area. Among them, because the Army did not have its own headquarters, the Army Armament Bureau was managed by the General Staff. Major General Paulus, a confidant of Hersmann and once his adjutant, became the first director of the Army Armament Bureau.

In addition, in addition to an Armament Bureau, there is also a Resource Reserve Bureau under the General Staff, which is responsible for the storage of various important strategic resources. The Russian-German Economic Promotion Company founded by Hersmann is now also managed by this Resource Reserve Bureau. The director of the Resource Reserve Bureau is Hersmann's early friend Oscar von Ettel.

The second is the integration between the military's armament department and the government's economic department. Unlike the Soviet model, Germany's armaments industry is mainly in the private sector, and there are few armaments production enterprises controlled by the Ministry of Defense. In addition to several state-owned shipyards, there are arsenals and aircraft factories in the former Czechoslovakia. Therefore, it is a very complicated task to fully integrate Germany's huge military production capacity, which must be coordinated by the Imperial Ministry of Economics, the Imperial General Economic Committee and the Armament Bureau of the Ministry of Defense.

The army, navy and air force within the national defense system also need to bargain on the issue of armament production. After all, Germany's industrial strength and resources are limited, and the army's demand for advanced weapons seems to be never satisfied.

Therefore, a joint meeting hosted by the Ministry of Defense and attended by the Ministry of Economy, the General Economic Committee, the Armament Bureau of the Ministry of Defense and the subordinate army, navy and air force armament bureaus and major armament production enterprises-the Imperial Armament Conference has now become an important decision-making meeting for German armament production.

The decision of the Imperial Armament Conference can be included in the annual economic plan as long as it is approved by the leader and prime minister Adolf Hitler.

When Hersman, Focke and Hans Speidel walked into a spacious and luxurious conference room, most of the officials or business owners who were attending the meeting had already arrived. However, the meeting had not yet started, and people were whispering to each other, and some were discussing something quickly and anxiously.

"General, you are here." Lieutenant General Greim, the commander of the naval aviation force, was originally talking to Admiral Michel, the director of the Air Force Armament Bureau. When he saw Hersman coming, he immediately went up to greet him.

"What?" Hersman shook hands with him, "Have you talked to Wetzel?"

Vice Admiral Karl Wetzel is the director of the Naval Armament Bureau. He is a representative of the "decisive battle faction" of the German Navy. He believes that only by relying on large battleships can a decisive battle with the British Navy be fought and sea control be seized. His opinion was supported by Vice Admiral Otto Schneewind, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, and Major General Kurt Frick, the chief of naval operations.

In addition, the leader and chancellor of the Reich, Hitler himself, was also a supporter of the "decisive battle faction" of the navy.

The counterpart of the Navy's "decisive battle faction" is the "destroying faction", including the Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Günther Guze and the Commander of the Submarine Force Major General Dönitz, who are all supporters of the "destroying faction". Their proposal is to use submarines and destroyers to blockade Britain, just like in the First World War.

In addition to these two factions, there is also a very strange Navy "aviation faction". Since the German Navy has not had aircraft carriers for a long time, the naval aviation has not been taken seriously - even in the lion's mouth Z plan formulated by the German Navy, there are not many aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers are not a major strike force in the Navy's plan but the escort of the battleship force.

Therefore, Hersmann had to use the power of the General Staff to directly assign part of the Air Force to the Naval Aviation. The Naval Aviation Command was established with Aviation Lieutenant General Robert Ritter von Greim as the commander.

And those German naval aviation officers who changed from the Army to the Air Force and then from the Air Force to the Naval Aviation became relatively unique figures in the German Navy. They were not "aircraft carrier faction", but advocated the development of shore-based aviation as a method to attack the British Navy's surface fleet.

According to the opinion of the Naval Air Force Command, the Navy needed twin-engine bombers (shore-based) that could conduct dive bombing, could carry torpedoes after simple modification, and had a long range and high speed, and single-engine escort fighters with a long range (the Fokker Zero was what they wanted).

In their view, as long as they could establish an air force with a combat radius of 1,000 kilometers - the Air Force Command called the 1,000-kilometer combat radius the "Scapa Flow distance" and 1,000 aircraft, they would be able to blow up the British Navy... The Naval Air Force Command even proposed an adventurous plan of "undeclared war, thousands of aircraft sneak attack Scapa Flow"!

However, their opinions were jointly opposed by the Navy's "battleship faction" and "submarine faction".

In the eyes of the bigwigs of the German Navy, the only one who could destroy a fleet in battle was another fleet! The plan to use 1,000 aircraft to sneak attack the British Royal Navy anchorage was both risky and unrealistic.

…

"Admiral Wetzel believes that the sneak attack plan is absolutely impossible to succeed," Vice Admiral Graham shook his head. "He believes that it is impossible for a long-range escort aircraft to defeat the latest British Hurricane fighter jets. These two aircraft have Very good performance, enough to compete with our Bf-109.”

The British Hurricane fighter and Spitfire fighter had successful test flights in November 1935 and March 1936 respectively, and now have begun to be equipped with the British Air Force in large quantities. The German side attaches great importance to these two aircraft, tried every means to find out their general performance, and came to the conclusion that they are "on par with the Bf-109".

For this reason, in June 1937, the German Air Force Armament Office urgently drafted combat technical requirements for the development of new fighter jets and issued them to various aircraft manufacturers.

At the same time, considering that Germany does not have an overwhelming advantage in the field of in-line liquid-cooled engines, the Air Force Arms Administration also issued a task book to BMW and Siemens to develop high-power air-cooled engines with "small windward area".

"Anthony," Hersman looked back at his fat brother-in-law, "What do you think?"

"It's hard to say now," Fokker shook his head. "Let's wait until the aircraft is built and simulate it with the Bf-109. If we can compete with the Bf-109, then we will be lucky. After all, this is a long-range aircraft."

"Okay." Hessman nodded. The plan of Thousand Planes to attack Scapa Flow is indeed very attractive, as if it is a reappearance of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. But the Zero fighter planes have not yet come out, so it is impossible to really formulate a plan, unless twin-engine fighters like the Bf110 are used to escort them, which seems too risky.

"However, I will still support the Naval Air Force's 'Thousand Planes'." Hersman said, "Before the end of March 1940, I will try to equip you with 1,000 of the latest medium-sized long-range bombers and single-engine long-range fighters. , but you must also be prepared to support ground operations at any time.”

"Okay, General!" Lieutenant General Graham smiled and nodded. In fact, the "Thousand Planes Sneak Attack on Scapa Flow" was just a wildly imaginative plan put forward by some aviation staff who had stayed in Japan. Even Lieutenant General Grim himself thought it was risky, so he took it out just for the "Thousand Planes Project". As long as the naval air force can expand, he will be satisfied.

"General, what do you think of our Plan Z?"

Hessmann had just separated from Graeme, and before he could reach his seat, Admiral Redl came over.

"Marshal!" Hessman raised his hand to Raeder, then pulled out two chairs and asked Raeder to sit down on one of the chairs while he sat on the other chair.

"I support your Plan Z." Hersman's answer surprised even Redl himself. He was like a lion, waiting for Hersman to cut half of it - the latest revised version of Plan Z. Prepare to spend 33 billion Reichsmarks to build more than 700 ships of various types at the same time. Even in Redl's view, it has greatly exceeded Germany's current shipbuilding capabilities.

"However, the aircraft carrier part of Plan Z is too conservative. Eight aircraft carriers cannot complete the mission anyway." Hersman said, "We still need to add some aircraft carriers...including fleet aircraft carriers, cruise aircraft carriers and light escort aircraft carriers." ”

"Admiral," Redel frowned again, "Of course I don't object to the addition of aircraft carriers, but can we in Germany complete the construction of so many ships?"

Hessmann smiled and patted Redl's arm, "Marshal, the Navy will get all the ships it wants, I promise. But we can't just rely on the power of Germany to complete it, we must use the power of the European continent to do it. Building these ships... we will build a European joint fleet in the future, not the German High Seas Fleet. But before that, Germany must first become the leader in Europe."

He looked at Raeder, whose expression became a little disappointed, and said: "Marshal, I need a navy that can be fully operational around 1940. There is about more than a year to prepare. We can fight as many battles as we have ships. ...and the number of aircraft will be sufficient, and by the end of March 1940 you will have a strong naval aviation force. In addition, by June 1939, you will have a strong underwater fleet. Let these forces defeat Britain!"