Chapter 152: Out-of-Control Rearmament

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The German National Power Company established another large-scale thermal power plant and began to recruit workers from the nearby small town. The Greater German Party was now plastering posters everywhere encouraging women to go out and work, and the power plant prioritized hiring female employees for many positions.

Germany was severely lacking in human resources in all aspects. The army needed more soldiers to expand the Wehrmacht; factories needed more workers for production; hospitals needed more nurses, schools needed more teachers, film studios needed more actors… Countless gaps needed to be filled.

So, when there weren’t enough men, the elderly and children had to supplement them. When there weren’t enough elderly and children, women had to step up. In the past year, the army had begun to use female soldiers in many logistical institutions, and in one go, 3,000 women with special skills were enlisted. Factories provided a full 120,000 jobs for women, and this number was still continuously increasing.

The scarcity of materials was a huge headache for everyone. At the end of 1934, Germany began to fully ration bread and butter. After the government took over, the quality of both food items began to decline sharply. Many regions had become accustomed to margarine and had even forgotten the taste of real butter. Sugar and salt were also rationed. Factories set up repair rooms to delay the speed at which work clothes were discarded. Although all of this was somewhat depressing, everyone was still jubilant that they no longer had to suffer from hunger and cold.

For military use and to supplement civilian needs, Germany had built 22 thermal and hydroelectric power plants in 14 regions across the country, using more than 20,000 laborers from concentration camps and creating over 10,000 new jobs. For a time, it seemed that the job openings in Germany were endless, and everyone was full of confidence in the Führer’s prospects for economic construction.

In a dim little attic, in a very ordinary rural German home.

“Father! Why won’t you let me go?” a young man shouted, staring at his father. “Didn’t you also go to fight for His Majesty the Emperor? Why can’t I do the same for the Führer?”

“I lost my left foot for the Emperor!” The man took a step forward, and his metal prosthesis made a thudding sound on the wooden floor. “The reason I don’t want you to go is that I don’t want to see my son come home limping too!”

The young man said angrily, “The Führer can lead us to victory! We won’t fail like you did!”

“I was a soldier when you were only seven years old, my boy!” the father roared. “When I put on my uniform and shouldered my rifle, I also believed that the Emperor could lead us to victory! It’s a pity that I lost a leg on the road to victory, and the news I came home to was not of victory!”

“We should be loyal to the Führer! Father! He gave us hope! He gave us dignity!” the son insisted, refusing to back down.

The father stared at his son. After a moment of silence, he spoke. “Have you ever seen what a bullet does to a head? The entire skull shatters, and brains mixed with blood splatter on your face. Hot tea can’t even wipe it off.”

He took a step forward, forcing his son to take a step back. “Have you ever seen a wounded soldier lying in the mud? His whole stomach blown open, his intestines wrapped around the barbed wire, his heart still beating in the black water, crying and begging for someone to help him. When we retreated, his eyes were still open.”

“All night, every night, it was the sound of exploding shells! In the morning, you’d cover your mouth with a bandage and throw the bodies of the enemy and your own comrades out of the trench, because if you didn’t, thousands of men in that trench would get infectious diseases,” the memory seemed to cause him immense pain.

“Father,” the young son called out gently, trying to bring him back from his memories.

“Do you know what it feels like to have your leg sawed off?” the father suddenly asked, grabbing his son’s shoulders with both hands. “It’s like they’re sawing wood, and you’re just a spectator. You’re in a daze, feeling someone kicking your knee, watching your own blood splash around the field tent. There’s blood everywhere, some of it dried, some of it still dripping down.”

“Father!” the son suddenly shouted.

“Right, I’m sorry,” The father was clearly pulled back to reality by this shout. He released his hands from his son’s shoulders and, ignoring the cold sweat on his face, moved with difficulty toward the bed. As he walked, he sighed desolately. “I can’t watch you go to your death, my son.”

Although the wounds of the war had not yet been healed by time, the spirit of revenge seemed to have spread to every corner of the younger generation. The moment the Wehrmacht’s recruitment posters were put up all over the streets, the recruitment offices were swamped with enthusiastic young men.

At the end of 1934, the German Army finally surpassed 1 million men, becoming a military power in Europe second only to the French Army in terms of total strength. The consequence of this frantic expansion was a decline in the quality of the soldiers. Akado strictly ordered the training department to strengthen the training of new recruits, but in fact, the overall combat effectiveness of the German army still declined to varying degrees.

To say “to varying degrees” indicates that this decline was not a problem for all units. For example, the 2nd SS Panzer Division and the Wehrmacht’s 1st, 7th, and 8th Panzer Divisions all saw significant improvements in their combat effectiveness. However, the combat level of the second-tier infantry divisions further down the line was not as high.

Germany, Berlin, the Führer’s Residence.

Akado took the time to meet with two of the famous German generals of a later era that he wanted to acquire. “Good afternoon, Major General Manstein, Colonel Student. Please, be seated.”

“Heil Führer!” Manstein and Student immediately stood at attention and saluted upon seeing Akado. They didn’t dare to sit.

“Let’s talk about your matter first!” Akado said with a smile, pointing to Colonel Student. “I hear you have been researching the impact of paratroopers on future warfare?”

“Yes, my Führer! I believe that on the battlefields of the future, the large-scale use of paratroopers can quickly break through enemy defensive lines, destroy enemy supply lines, and disrupt the enemy’s rear deployments. This can greatly shorten the course of a war,” Student said. Once he started on his concept, he was no longer as reserved as before. He began to explain in detail his vision for the development and combat operations of German paratroopers.

Akado listened attentively, occasionally glancing at the somewhat bored Manstein. This general certainly had not studied airborne operations in depth; to him, this was probably like listening to a foreign language. He had to admire the rigor and thoroughness of the German people; Student had even calculated how many planes were needed to transport a certain amount of supplies.

However, Student was limited by the technical conditions of his era, so there were inevitably some deviations in his methods for airborne operations. For example, German airborne forces were more inclined toward glider landings, rather than the parachute drops that the US military would later prefer. After listening to his presentation for a while, Akado decided to use his status as Führer to teach his subordinates a good lesson, to make them submit to his “foresight and vision.”

“Ahem!” With a light cough, Akado interrupted Student’s presentation. “Student, I am very satisfied with your understanding of glider assaults! However, I feel that while you have analyzed the advantages of glider assaults very clearly, you have not seen the limitations of this tactic.”

“The biggest limitation is the scale of the airborne drop!” Akado stood up, walked to an object on his desk that was covered with a black cloth, and reached out to remove it, revealing an aircraft model underneath. “What if I give you this kind of aircraft and let you expand the scale of your airborne operations tenfold?”

Manstein also came closer to look and saw a model of a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-purpose bomber. To give a sense of its size, a model of an Me-109 fighter of the same scale was placed beside it.

“Gentlemen, this is still a top military secret,” Akado said with a smile, pointing to the large transport aircraft model. “This is the air force’s general-purpose aircraft plan, developed from the Do-217. This plan is to develop a multi-purpose aircraft for the German Air Force, which will be developed into various models such as transport planes, bombers, reconnaissance planes, and anti-submarine planes. It abandons the design philosophy of one-sidedly pursuing the flight speed of a bomber and instead focuses more on payload and multi-functionality.”

He glanced at Student. “What I want to give you is this kind of large transport plane. One plane can deliver dozens of men to the vicinity of the target. Hundreds or thousands of such planes can transport your troops, who will then parachute down. And your glider assault tactics can also be used at the same time to increase the scale of delivery.”

“Of course, we must strengthen the navigation training of the entire air transport force and provide the soldiers with more perfect weapons and equipment. I have a detailed proposal here for the construction of an airborne force. You can take it back and study it. If there is anything you don’t understand, you can come directly to me,” Akado said, handing a document to Student.

Manstein raised an eyebrow from the side and glanced at Akado’s back, thinking to himself, Isn’t this Führer just a little sergeant from World War I? I always thought that although he came from the army, he probably didn’t have any real skills. But now it seems he is a capable and formidable figure. Why on earth did he summon me?

“Führer! I never imagined that you would be so knowledgeable about airborne operations as well. You are truly a gift from God to the German people,” Student said, standing at attention. He was very excited. When a person knows that his direct superior has the same ideas as him and is already developing his painstakingly researched results as a reality, he will feel the emotion of meeting a kindred spirit. And a smart person would immediately think that his own promotion and rise to power were not far off.

As expected, Akado nodded and said with a smile, “The reason I called you here this time is that I have applied for a promotion for you. You are now promoted to Major General of the German Wehrmacht and are responsible for commanding our country’s first airborne division.”

“An airborne division!” Student was taken aback by the scale. Even a commander like him, who was a firm believer in airborne troops, had not expected the German Führer to establish an airborne division all at once. He had thought it would be a regiment, a battalion, or even just an experimental company.

“I will continue to increase the forces in this area. I want you to expand and train this unit into an airborne corps capable of completing its missions by the end of 1935,” Akado’s words even startled Manstein, who was standing to the side. An airborne corps? That was a force of at least two divisions!