Chapter 261: Pros and Cons

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It wasn’t so much a meeting as it was arranging the next steps. Akado gave August and Merkel full authority to represent the German Führer in negotiations with the Dutch royal family, to accept the Dutch surrender, and to carry out the post-surrender processing work.

“Have the Chief of the General Staff, General von Bock, take over Rotterdam and, together with Raeder, restore the operation of the Dutch ports. We must utilize these ports to turn the German navy into a mobile and flexible force, instead of being trapped in Wilhelmshaven as it is now,” Akado said, pointing at the map. “The place for resettling the Dutch royal family will temporarily be set in Frankfurt. Arrange for a villa in the suburbs there. The security must be very strong!”

“The problem we are more worried about now is that once France’s Gamelin realizes that he is in danger of being surrounded, he will immediately mobilize troops from within France to attack the flank of our Army Group A,” Brauchitsch said, pointing at the map.

“That’s not a problem! Army Group C will attack the Maginot Line, creating the illusion of an all-out offensive by our army. The French will not realize they have been deceived so quickly. They need time to confirm our direction of attack,” Akado said with a wave of his hand. “Now it all depends on how quickly our General von Rundstedt can capture Sedan.”

“Attacking Sedan is not a big problem at present. The big problem will be if Gamelin swings his army south and, together with the forces inside France, launches a pincer attack on Army Group A. At that time, von Rundstedt’s situation will not be very optimistic,” Brauchitsch said worriedly.

Akado smiled and, pointing to some markings on the map, said, “My Field Marshal, General Kesselring has repeatedly assured me that the air force has the ability to create trouble for the Anglo-French coalition forces during their southward advance, making them unable to pose a threat to Army Group A.”

He pointed again to the northern region on the map. “In addition, the 6th Light Panzer Corps and the 7th Infantry Corps under Keitel’s command will follow the Anglo-French coalition forces south, nipping at their heels so that they don’t dare to attack Army Group A with all their strength.”

“That’s all for today’s meeting,” Akado said, ending the conference. “I still have to prepare for this evening’s speech. Please excuse me, gentlemen.”

“Oh, that’s right!” August suddenly remembered something and smiled embarrassedly. “I’m getting old, a bit forgetful… I hear the design work for the helicopter has been completed. They test-flew the aircraft on the outskirts of Berlin, and the results were very good.”

Akado was taken aback for a moment, then nodded. This was a piece of good news for the day, something worth celebrating. From the moment Akado had decided to rewrite history and win his own World War II, he had hoped that he could change the world’s system of warfare. This had always been his magic weapon for victory. He did not dare to bet on Germany’s military commanders, because after all, they had failed once before.

So Akado was very keen on developing all kinds of weapons, keen on using new weapons to change the course of war history. For example, he had developed the Me-109 fighter for the air force ahead of time and had also produced the more mature and better-to-use Fw-190 in advance.

He had also vigorously developed long-range bombers, hoping to rely on the power of strategic bombers to rewrite the outcome of the war. In addition, the air force had already used the super-ammunition “napalm,” which was completed under his supervision, and had allowed Germany to reduce a large number of casualties in the process of breaking through the permanent fortifications during the invasion of Poland.

In addition, he had strongly advocated for the elimination of Germany’s damned interleaved road wheels, putting German tanks back on the track of normal suspension. He had worked hard to accumulate rubber, develop artificial rubber and expired rubber purification technology, and then, based on this, had designed and manufactured the Panther tank, a super main battle tank that was at least a generation ahead of the world.

He had put even more effort into the navy, including the folding-wing structure of carrier-based aircraft, the composition of the aircraft carrier fleet, the use and combat mode of the main fleet, and the deployment and tactical arrangements of the ocean-going submarines. It could be said that he was an enthusiastic supporter of using mature technology to reduce direct conflict.

However, as a pseudo-military fan, Akado also had many obsessions and mistakes. For example, he was overly obsessed with the speed of attack. In order to allow his troops to advance quickly, he had not even produced cannons with a caliber of over 150mm in 1937.

So when he thought of the helicopter, this thing that changed the mode of warfare, he found several aircraft designers and then inquired about the feasibility of helicopter technology.

Subsequently, Akado gave several aircraft designers the necessary hints on several very professional technical issues. For example, Germany had already carried out some helicopter verification tests but could not solve the problem of the lateral stability brought to the helicopter by the propeller. The tail rotor concept proposed by Akado was much more advanced than the left-and-right twin-rotor concept that the Germans had previously studied.

But as he gradually communicated with the technical personnel, many design details also made Akado waver in his own ideas. A question gradually appeared in Akado’s mind, and this question was: is the helicopter really a good thing? Or rather, is the helicopter really suitable for the stage of the Second World War? Akado was very confused, and this confusion directly affected his enthusiasm for pursuing the attack helicopter as a weapon.

In Akado’s understanding, what were the advantages of an anti-tank helicopter? To put it simply: the first point was that it could quickly rush to the battlefield and carry out a surprise attack on the enemy’s tanks in a local area. The second point was to carry out long-range fire attacks on enemy armored targets with guided weapons such as missiles. The third point was that the advanced materials after World War II were sufficient to allow helicopters to withstand the threat of small-caliber ammunition.

But when Akado compared the weapons of World War II with his weapons experts, he found that in this era, using a helicopter for anti-tank warfare was simply suicide. The reasons for this included: lack of radar support, no reinforcement with bulletproof materials, and problems with weapon configuration.

First, there were too many threatening weapons. This was a hard fact. The helicopter was too fragile in the face of the ground weapons of the World War II era. At this time, armies were generally equipped with small-caliber anti-aircraft weapons, including 37 or 40mm anti-aircraft guns, 12.7mm heavy machine guns, and the like. When a helicopter faced an anti-aircraft network composed of these weapons, it was completely helpless. And the helicopters of this era themselves only had close-range weapons like machine guns and rockets. The lack of long-range suppression means made the helicopter extremely dangerous when facing ground attacks. This one-for-one or even one-for-several combat model was clearly not beneficial to the helicopter side.

Second, around 1937, material research had not yet reached the heights of the 1960s of later generations. The defense of the helicopter itself was a big problem. Because there were no high-quality modern materials, even rifle ammunition of 7.92mm and 7.62mm caliber was enough to threaten the flight safety of a helicopter, not to mention the large number of light machine guns that appeared on the battlefield. Moreover, the range of most ammunition of this era exceeded 1,000 meters. For shooting people, this range might be a bit excessive, but for attacking a large target like a helicopter, it was just right. In contrast, the helicopter had neither radar support nor missiles to extend its range. It would undoubtedly suffer a great loss.

Finally, Akado only now understood that in this era, there was one reason why the helicopter was most unlikely to appear on the front line, and that was the lack of survival space. Unlike the world of the 1960s, which was dominated by jet aircraft, the mainstream fighter planes of this era were not very fast (relative to jets). The speed of these fighters allowed them to fly to a low enough altitude to hunt helicopters. Many times, fighter planes could even fly at an altitude of twenty or thirty meters close to the ground, which was an unimaginably dangerous altitude for a jet aircraft without excellent radar navigation. In addition, some attack aircraft that were in service or would be in the future, such as the Soviet Il-2, the German Stuka, and the like, could all easily shoot down the newly born attack helicopter with their overwhelming flight performance.

And Akado also finally confirmed the basic appearance of the attack helicopter he could get in this world, and it was a world of difference from the image of the classic Apache attack helicopter in his mind.

The flexible rotating nose turret was difficult to achieve due to recoil and power problems. The alternative was to equip a fixed-direction cannon on each side. Other weapons included the air force’s standard rockets. As for anti-tank missiles, this weapon was still just a fantasy at this stage.

Another frustrating flaw was revealed at this time, and this was the hard fact that one could not bail out of this type of aircraft. Someone had proposed to install explosives on the helicopter’s propeller blades, so that the propeller could be blown off when bailing out. But considering the lack of an ejection seat, the helicopter’s flight altitude of no more than a hundred meters made it impossible to complete a complex parachute jump, so this suggestion was ultimately dropped.

Now it was just a matter of choice: in a Germany that was short of iron and oil, to create a gorgeous weapon to fight the enemy with, or to seriously evaluate and then give up this crazy plan. At least in the analysis of the German weapons experts, as well as tank combat commanders like Guderian, the helicopter lacked a frontline combat environment at this stage and was not competent for frontline combat missions.

However, these weapons experts were very optimistic about the future of this weapon. At least three aircraft manufacturers had expressed their willingness to self-fund the development of this helicopter. These businessmen and designers, who had been dealing with the battlefield for many years, had keenly smelled the development prospects of this weapon and were convinced that it absolutely had a place on the battlefield. This was an aircraft that could take off without an airport. In terms of emergency material transport, personnel transport, battlefield surveillance, close-range reconnaissance, and special operations, this weapon had a wide range of uses.

“Since a prototype has already been produced, then have them hurry up and produce a helicopter that can be used in combat. Equip each division with two such helicopters for rapid liaison and transport of important personnel and materials,” Akado finally decided on the production plan. “But you must repeatedly test-fly it to confirm its safety and reliability! Understood?”

“No problem. I will pass this news on to Krupp,” August said with a nod.