Chapter 433 Fatal Sanctions

In today's German high-level, there are two views: "pro-Soviet" and "pro-British".

The "pro-Soviet faction" is represented by Marshal Hessmann, Marshal Schleicher, and Hermann Goering, a big man on Hitler's side. Their view is to maintain friendly relations with the Soviet Union as much as possible and concentrate on defeating Britain and the United States. As long as Britain and the United States collapse, can't the Soviet Union do whatever it wants?

The "pro-British faction" is headed by Hitler and Rudolf Hess. They think that Germany and Britain are "relatives", and the people of the two countries are relatively close in blood and language, and they should not fight to the death. Moreover, Hitler and Hess both think that the land in the south of the Soviet Union, that is, Ukraine, the lower reaches of the Don River, and the Caucasus Mountains, is very good. If it can be taken as the German mainland, it would be ideal. Therefore, they think that as long as Britain is willing to admit defeat, they should let it go and not dismantle the British Empire. After making peace with Britain, Germany can turn its guns to the Soviet Union.

However, these two factions are not life-and-death, and they are clear about each other's views. And it is not that different opinions are completely unacceptable - in fact, the difference between the two opinions is not very big.

If Britain is really willing to surrender and lose half, Hessmann will also be happy to see it. After all, once Britain surrenders, Germany can station troops in Canada and the Caribbean, and the American Empire will be completely doomed.

And Hitler, because of the advocacy of Hessmann and Goering, had great expectations for the atomic bomb - if a few super bombs could be dropped to deal with the Soviet Union, it would definitely be a more economical way.

Therefore, Hessmann and the General Staff knew about Hess's secret contact with the British side, and even participated in the secret contact... Although Hessmann did not believe that Britain would consider surrendering before completely defeating the British Royal Navy, it was still necessary to maintain contact.

And the secret contact between Britain and Germany is not the most important secret negotiation in the world at present. At least in the view of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet who visited Europe, the secret negotiation between Japan and the United States is the one that can really change the course of history.

"Oshima-kun, Kuroshima-kun, I must return to Japan immediately. The next negotiations with Germany will be up to you two."

In the Japanese Embassy in Rome, the head of the Japanese Navy Observation Group, Commander of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, had packed his luggage and said goodbye to Vice Admiral Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, and Colonel Kameto Kuroshima, the chief staff officer of the Combined Fleet, with a gloomy face.

"Commander, is there something wrong in the country?" Kameto Kuroshima was stunned for a moment. Because according to the previous schedule, Isoroku Yamamoto also had to discuss the issue of German-Japanese military and technical cooperation with Hessman.

After more than 20 days of observation and investigation, Isoroku Yamamoto has discovered that the two killers of the Japanese Navy Air Force, the Zero carrier-based fighter and the Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber, are not as sharp as imagined.

The high-altitude performance and dive performance of the Zero carrier-based fighter are not ideal, and it is not strong enough. Once hit, the pilot has to parachute to escape quickly.

When fighting against the British "Spitfire" series fighters, the Zero fighter only has a greater advantage in low-altitude combat. However, British pilots have already had corresponding methods. They will try their best to avoid fighting with the Zero and adopt the tactic of hitting and leaving.

If they are bitten by the Zero at medium and low altitudes, they will adopt the tactic of diving at a large angle to escape from the battle, and then quickly pull the plane up to an altitude of more than 5,000 meters.

Therefore, the Germans have launched their own upgraded version-the Fokker Zero C-3, equipped with an excellent mechanical supercharger and jet combustion system, and equipped with a self-sealing fuel tank with better performance.

At the same time, the Germans also developed a fighter Fw-190 with a longer range and superior medium and high altitude performance and dive performance to cooperate with the Fokker Zero.

The Germans' optimization and improvement of the Zero, as well as the Fw-190 used to cooperate with the Zero, all used advanced technologies that Japan did not have. Isoroku Yamamoto hoped to introduce technology from Germany and purchase several Fw-190s as references for the new generation of Japanese carrier-based fighters under development.

In addition, the performance of the Fokker 99 carrier-based dive bomber introduced to Germany by the Fokker Company on the battlefield can only be described as poor. Although the bombing accuracy of this aircraft is relatively high, the bomb load is too small. It can only carry one 250 kg bomb, which is not enough to damage battleships with solid armor.

As a result, in the entire Mediterranean campaign, only the German Ju88 and the Italian S.M.79 were seen shining, and the Fokker 99 was hard to find.

In fact, the Japanese Navy itself has long been aware of the shortcomings of the Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber. As early as 1937, it proposed the requirement to develop a carrier-based dive bomber with both high speed and large bomb load. And in 1940, a dive bomber named "Comet" was actually developed. The performance on paper is very good, but this carrier-based dive bomber that the Japanese Navy has high hopes for suffers from "heart disease".

The DB601 liquid-cooled engine of Germany's Mercedes-Benz, which was copied by Japan's Aichi Corporation, had a complex structure and high technical difficulty, so its production volume was very low, which also affected the mass production of the "Comet" carrier-based dive bomber.

In order to allow the "Comet" carrier-based dive bomber to completely replace the Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber as planned in 1942, Yamamoto Isoroku hoped to obtain the technology for producing the DB601 engine from Germany before the outbreak of the war between Japan and the United States, and to purchase 2,000 German original DB601 engines.

In addition, Yamamoto Isoroku and Kuroshima Kameto were also very interested in German radar technology. They hoped to introduce relevant technology from Germany before the war, so that all Japanese battleships and cruisers would be equipped with air and sea search radars.

Since the technology that Yamamoto Isoroku wanted to obtain from Germany was very high-end, it would be difficult to make progress in a short period of time without the strong support of senior German officials. Therefore, Yamamoto originally planned to negotiate with Hessmann in person to reach an agreement.

But today Yamamoto Isoroku suddenly decided to leave Europe and return to Japan.

Yamamoto Isoroku frowned and answered Kuroshima Kameto's question, "The Americans announced a trade embargo on us and froze our assets in the United States."

"What?" Kuroshima Kameto was shocked when he heard this, "How could they do this? Isn't Admiral Nomura negotiating with the United States?"

The current Japanese ambassador to the United States is retired Navy Admiral Nomura Yoshisaburo. Since the end of last year, Ambassador Nomura Yoshisaburo has been responsible for secret negotiations with the US government, and the content of the negotiations involves US-Japan relations and Japan's expansion direction.

During the negotiations, the Americans demanded that Japan withdraw from Southeast Asia and not threaten Western colonies in Southeast Asia. At the same time, the United States expressed its willingness to see the situation in the East Asian continent return to "normal" and hoped that Japan would play a leading role in the East Asian continent.

In fact, the United States wanted to lead Japan to the East Asian continent to reduce the pressure in the Pacific direction so that it could concentrate on dealing with Germany.

And Japanese Prime Minister Konoe Fumima did not want to be enemies with Britain and the United States, so while allowing the military to actively prepare for war with the United States, he was also studying the issue of attacking the East Asian continent. But the government of the East Asian continent has the Soviet Union as its big brother behind it. Japan suffered in 1939 and is now a little timid, so Konoe Fumima proposed the conclusion of a US-Japan alliance. But the United States repeatedly refused, and at the end of February 1941, the US government announced a comprehensive trade embargo and economic sanctions against Japan without any warning.

"Not only the United States," Lieutenant General Oshima Hiroshi added angrily, "the British and Dutch East Indies authorities also participated in the embargo! Like the United States, Britain prohibits the import of all strategic materials such as oil, steel, non-ferrous metals, rubber, etc. into Japan, and does not allow the Dutch East Indies to sell the same materials to us."

"What? The Dutch East Indies also participated in the sanctions?" Kuroshima Kameto's face suddenly changed.

Now Japan's oil is mainly imported from the Dutch East Indies, the United States and British Malaya. If it is only the British and American sanctions and embargoes, Japan can make up for it by increasing imports from the Dutch East Indies. But if the Dutch East Indies also joins the sanctions, then Japan will face the crisis of oil shortage.

Of course, not all of them were cut off. Japan could import some oil from the Soviet Union's Sakhalin Island. Taiwan under Japanese rule also produced a small amount of oil. Japan also mined oil shale in Northeast China for refining. In addition, Japan also had coal-to-oil factories. However, the total amount of oil or other oil obtained through these channels was very small, and it was impossible to meet Japan's wartime needs.

Kuroshima Kame thought about it and felt that it was wrong, and asked again: "The Netherlands is not a friendly country of Germany, so why did the Dutch East Indies also embargo the Empire?"

"The Dutch East Indies did not embargo, but sold all the oil and rubber to Britain and the United States." Oshima Hiroshi sneered, "and now the survival of the Dutch East Indies depends on Britain and the United States, and the Netherlands can't help the Dutch East Indies at all. In addition, how could the Dutch not know the Empire's requirements for the Dutch East Indies?"

"So is the United States forcing us to move west?" Kuroshima Kame thought about it and asked again.

"It seems not to be the case," Yamamoto Isoroku scratched his bald head and frowned. "The Americans have withdrawn their support for our westward expansion. They don't want us to invade anywhere. U.S. Secretary of State Hull recently said: We must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries; uphold the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries; uphold the principle of equality, including equal trade opportunities; and must not disrupt the status quo in the Pacific region except by peaceful means... This means not allowing the empire to expand in any direction!"