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. One of Hirschmann's confidants, Major General Paulus, who had served as 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 Hirschmann is now also managed by this Resource Reserve Bureau. The director of the Resource Reserve Bureau is Hirschmann'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 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 insatiable forever.
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 Air Force General Michael, 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 and seize control of the sea. 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 fleet that can destroy a fleet in battle is another fleet! The plan to use 1,000 aircraft to sneak attack the British Royal Navy anchorage is both risky and unrealistic.
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"Admiral Witzel thought the sneak attack plan would never succeed," Vice Admiral Graham shook his head. "He thought that the long-range escort aircraft could not beat the latest British Hurricane fighters. These two aircraft have excellent performance, enough to compete with our Bf-109."
The British Hurricane fighter and Spitfire fighter successfully completed their test flights in November 1935 and March 1936 respectively, and have now begun to be equipped in large quantities by the British Air Force. The German side attached great importance to these two aircraft, and tried every means to find out their approximate performance, and concluded that they were "on par with the Bf-109".
For this reason, in June 1937, the German Air Force Armament Bureau urgently drafted a combat technical requirements manual for the development of new fighters and issued it to various aircraft manufacturers.
At the same time, considering that Germany did not have an overwhelming advantage in the field of inline liquid-cooled engines, the Air Force Armament Bureau also issued a task book to BMW and Siemens to develop a high-power air-cooled engine with a "small frontal area".
"Anthony," Hessman looked back at his fat brother-in-law, "what do you think?"
"It's hard to say now," Focke shook his head, "wait until the plane is built and simulate it with the Bf-109. If we can compete with the Bf-109, then we're lucky, after all, this is a long-range aircraft."
"Okay." Hessman nodded. The plan of a thousand planes attacking Scapa Flow was indeed very attractive, as if it was a reappearance of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. But the Zero fighter has not yet come out, and it is impossible to really make a plan, unless it is escorted by a twin-engine fighter like the Bf110, which seems too risky.
"But I will still support the Navy Air Force's "Thousand Planes Plan." Hessman said, "By 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 Attack Scapa Flow" was just a brain-opening plan proposed by some aviation staff who had been in Japan. Even Vice Admiral Graham himself felt that it was risky, so he took it out just for the "Thousand Plan". As long as the naval aviation team could be expanded, he would be satisfied.
"Admiral, what do you think of our Plan Z?"
Hersmann had just separated from Graham and had not yet walked to his seat when Admiral Raeder came over.
"Marshal!" Hersmann saluted Raeder, then pulled out two chairs, asked Raeder to sit on one of the chairs, and sat on the other chair.
"I support your Plan Z." Hersmann's answer surprised even Raeder himself. He was asking for a big price, waiting for Hersmann to cut it in half - the latest revised version of Plan Z was prepared to spend 33 billion Reichsmarks and build more than 700 ships of various types at the same time. Even in Raeder's view, it has greatly exceeded Germany's current shipbuilding capabilities.
"But the part about aircraft carriers in Plan Z is too conservative. Eight aircraft carriers can't complete the task anyway." Hersman said, "We still need to add some aircraft carriers...including fleet aircraft carriers, cruiser aircraft carriers and light escort aircraft carriers." "Admiral," Raeder frowned again, "Of course I don't object to adding aircraft carriers, but can we in Germany complete the construction of so many ships?" Hersman smiled and patted Raeder's arm, "Marshal, the Navy will get all the ships it wants, I promise. But we can't rely solely on Germany's strength to complete it, we have to use the power of the European continent to build These ships... What we are going to build in the future is the European Combined Fleet, not the German High Seas Fleet. But before that, Germany must first become the leader of Europe. "
He looked at Raeder, whose expression became somewhat disappointed, and said, "Marshal, I need a navy that can be fully operational around 1940, and there is still about a year to prepare. Fight as many battles as there are ships... and the number of aircraft will be sufficient. By the end of March 1940, you will have a strong naval aviation. In addition, by June 1939, you will have a strong underwater fleet. Please use these forces to defeat Britain!"