The Third Reich in Desperation

Although the No. 3 assault gun, which uses a fixed turret to replace the tank's rotating turret, does not look as aggressive as a tank.Less maneuverable and less protective than tanks.

However, Guderian, who has been secretly promoted to the director of armored forces, agreed after communicating with Reinhardt that this is a practical tank weapon suitable for attacking enemy infantry, heavy weapons, and stronghold fortresses, and it can increase the infantry division's counterattack. tank capacity.

In addition, the structure of the No. 3 assault gun is not as complicated as that of the tank, and the manufacture is simple and cheap.This combat vehicle with the nature of supporting infantry is still being mass-produced.

The ugly MG33 light machine gun, the low and ugly No. 3 assault gun.It seems that Reinhardt is pulling the German Army's weapons research and development step by step from the beautiful and sophisticated road to the ugly and rough road of no return.

But in fact, with the same amount of funds and resources, the production volume of the German Ministry of Military Supply has abruptly increased by 30.00%.This is crucial to Germany's upcoming large-scale military expansion!

Although Germany imported and processed a large amount of steel from the Soviet Union at a low price, it even bought a lot of iron ore in Sweden.But now, Germany's demand for steel is still astronomical.

Although the army is saving and using steel resources to produce new weapons everywhere, the huge consumption base is actually put aside.

As for the German Navy, after experiencing the Rainbow Operation that saved face and lost its lining.It is crazy to build new warships to make up for the huge gap in warships.

On the surface, Reinhardt Britain’s secret signing agreement stipulates that the total tonnage of the German navy cannot exceed 20.00% of the total tonnage of the British navy, which seems to limit the development of the German navy.

But in fact, the total tonnage of the German Navy after Operation Rainbow was less than [-]% of that of the British Royal Navy.

If the German Navy wants to reach 20.00% of the scale of the British Royal Navy, it has to launch new warships at full capacity.

And Reinhardt, who has always been regarded as his fortune in the navy, is indeed not prepared to treat this military branch he first came into contact with after crossing.

In recent years, the steel consumed by the army's secret production of armored forces is only a fraction of the steel consumed in the manufacture of new warships.

Text Chapter 78 Inaugural Prime Minister

January 1933, 1 is a day remembered in German history.On this day, Reinhardt, the head of the Socialist Workers Party, became Chancellor of Germany as expected.

The youngest general in Germany, who is about to turn 30, has the title of the youngest prime minister in an instant.

For this, the leaders of many countries have sent their congratulations.Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, even sent a congratulatory letter written by himself.

You know, when Gustav took office as the President of Germany, Stalin just said a courtesy congratulations.Today, he is showing undue enthusiasm for the inauguration of a tiny German chancellor.

Of course, it made sense for Stalin to do so, both in public and in private.

Yu Gong said that Stalin, who had secretly cooperated with Germany for many years, clearly felt that Reinhardt's power and influence in Germany were by no means just that of an ordinary prime minister.To some extent, Reinhardt's attitude can represent the attitude of the entire German high-level.

Yu privately said that when Tukhachevsky returned all the responsibility for the failure of the Soviet-Polish War to him, it was Reinhardt who asked by name to cooperate with him, so that he kept his position at that time.

Then, Reinhardt ordered the German students of the Tucker Hill School in Germany to bypass the Soviet domestic personnel under Stalin's arrangement, and secretly killed Stalin's competitors Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin and Pi Dakov et al.This move directly helped Stalin ascend the throne of the supreme leader of the Soviet Union.

Although Stalin was increasingly wary of Reinhardt, on the surface, the Soviet supreme leader and Reinhardt seemed to be the closest comrades-in-arms in the world.

In April 1933, the German Navy launched the 4th new destroyer, which further accelerated the reconstruction of the German Navy and erected the skeleton of the future German Navy.

Twelve new destroyers were produced under the supervision of Reinhardt.This new destroyer, which has weakened its artillery combat capabilities, has greatly enhanced its air defense capabilities, and is also equipped with a new type of anti-submarine equipment called "sonar".

Under the intervention of Reinhardt, a "navy faction", the German shipyard adopted a new assembly line manufacturing method and produced 12 identical new destroyers.This manufacturing method has been verified and can greatly improve the efficiency of shipbuilding.

Moreover, the trained destroyer sailors can work proficiently on any new destroyer in the future.Once they have accumulated enough experience, they can be transferred to new destroyers, leading inexperienced recruits to master the use of them.

In other words, every time Germany launches a new destroyer in the future, it will be able to quickly be equipped with backbone personnel who can operate it skillfully.

What is different from the history is that this time the new destroyer has slightly improved the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, which is used as a dual-purpose gun for the destroyer, and is also equipped with a large number of 37mm anti-aircraft guns.

In addition, the anti-submarine-minded Reinhardt equipped each "Z" class destroyer with a large number of depth charges and equipped with anti-submarine torpedo tubes.

The fly in the ointment is that the main gun of the "Z" class destroyer was changed from the planned 150mm gun to the 88mm flat-height dual-purpose gun suggested by Reinhardt, which reduced its anti-ship capability.In a firepower confrontation with the Royal Navy, or even the French Navy, the "Z" class destroyers did not have a firepower advantage.

However, given that the current strategic goal of the German Navy is to break engagements rather than decisive battles at sea, there is not much opposition to Reinhardt's reduction in the caliber of destroyers' main guns.

In fact, the "Z" class destroyer has a speed of up to 38 knots under extreme conditions, which makes it extremely survivable in a breakaway battle.As long as it is commanded properly, even the British naval fleet will be difficult to intercept.

Therefore, the German Navy selectively ignored the poor anti-ship firepower of the "Z" class destroyers.

Of course, Reinhardt's requirements for these new warships were not born for the battle at sea, as the top German navy officials thought.

In Reinhardt's conception, these new warships with intensive anti-aircraft firepower and the strongest anti-submarine capabilities in the contemporary era will all become the escort fleet of the German Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier in the future.

Reinhardt's plan for the future sea decisive battle is not to let the German battleship take the lead, and the British Royal Navy will have a duel with cannon giant ships.Instead, attack the British fleet through the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier as much as possible.

After all, the steel consumed by carrier-based aircraft is not even a fraction of that of a battleship.Using fighter jets to sink the opponent's warships is the most asymmetric transaction that Reinhardt has discovered from the summary of later generations.

It is a pity that the British Royal Navy, which obtained information on the artillery caliber of the German "Z" class destroyer, was extremely relaxed.Showing that they are not afraid of the "junk" new warships of these German naval warfare capabilities, further relaxing their vigilance against Germany.

According to the assessment report of the Royal Navy, the danger index of the German Navy is less than half of that of the French Navy next door.

After all, the French "Jaguar" class destroyer has five 130mm guns, and its firepower is much higher than the 5mm guns of the German "Z" class destroyer.

Of course, Reinhardt, who pursued aircraft carrier tactics, did not completely give up construction on battleships.

According to the terms of the secret cooperation signed with the Soviet Union, Prime Minister Reinhardt ordered the construction of three battleships that were in arrears for the Soviet Union at the same time.

These three battleships are the original historical Bismarck, Gneisenau, and Scharnhorst.But their current names are Peter the Great, Lenin Mentor, and Stalin Leader.

Among them, the Stalin Leader has a displacement of more than 50000 tons and is the most combat-ready battleship.

Putting Stalin on the same level as Peter the Great and Lenin, Reinhard's intentions are already obvious.

Battleship, he will definitely lose in the end.Reinhardt even thought about the future captain of the battleship Stalin Leader, so he asked his old superior, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, who planned Operation Rainbow together, to be the captain.

Ludwig, like Reinhardt, was regarded by the German people as a hero who preserved the honor of the German Navy.Moreover, Ludwig also commanded the battleship Kaiser in the Battle of Haigulan Bay in World War I and has rich experience.

Letting Ludwig be the captain of the strongest battleship in the German Navy is not only because Reinhardt is very assured of his ability, but also because Reinhardt expresses an attitude subconsciously, an attitude of employing people!

In the end, although he was not prepared to let the Soviet Union get the battleship, Reinhardt insisted that it was right for Stalin to have an addiction to naming.

Therefore, the German side asked the Soviet government very seriously and responsibly whether it was feasible to temporarily call the three battleships Peter the Great, Mentor Lenin, and Leader Stalin.

Of course, this German naming proposal was readily accepted by Stalin in Moscow.

Text Chapter 79 The Threat from Poland

Contrary to the wisdom of the Germans, the Poles caused Stalin one trouble after another.First, the Polish ambassador to the Soviet Union asked the Soviet Union to announce to the outside world that Soviet-Polish relations must be based on the "Riga Treaty".This treaty that made the Soviet Union lose its power and humiliate the country was signed when Stalin took full responsibility.It is conceivable how furious Stalin was when he received Poland's request.

As early as 1924, when Stalin was in charge of the Soviet Union, he "borrowed" all the materials on the Soviet-Polish War and never returned them.What Stalin did was to prevent his own stain from spreading.

As a result, Poland's past events were brought up again, in an attempt to show off its greatness as a great power, and the "Treaty of Riga" that Stalin tried to erase was brought up.

Unexpectedly, Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, not only did not raise objections, but instead extended the "Soviet-Polish Nonaggression Pact" with the Polish government to December 1945, 12.

At the same time, another neighbor of Poland, Germany, proposed to sign a 10-year "German-Polish Non-aggression Treaty" with Poland, but was directly rejected by the proud Polish government.In this regard, the leader of Poland, Joseph Piłsudski, actually commented in private that "Poland does not need to talk about non-aggression with a weak country."

The Polish dictator who once defeated Tukhachevski, the so-called "Red Napoleon" of Soviet Russia, and launched a military coup in Poland would never have imagined that his ridicule of Germany would become a sentence when Germany occupied Poland later. A joke that has been brought up repeatedly.

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