Chapter 290: Berlin

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This was indeed a rather heart-wrenching choice. On the one hand, Germany’s expansion in Europe made the United States uneasy. On the other,

This was indeed a rather heart-wrenching choice. On the one hand, Germany’s expansion in Europe made the United States uneasy. On the other, Germany’s every move in Asia was a great help to the United States. But Roosevelt had always believed that Europe was the fundamental interest of the United States, so he was more inclined to help Britain beat Germany back to its original state.

But because Congress was holding him back, he could not find any other good way for a while and could only continue to watch the changes in Europe, hoping that Britain and France could slow down the pace and give the United States time to respond.

Roosevelt’s mood was now very contradictory. On the one hand, he hoped that Germany could deal a painful blow to the British, so that the United States, or rather the “Lend-Lease Act” that he was promoting, could be accepted by the British. This way, the United States would gain the benefits it had dreamed of without shedding any blood. On the other hand, he did not want the Germans to be able to expand rapidly. He was afraid that Germany would win the entire war before the United States could react.

So Roosevelt had no choice but to use his personal influence to sell 400 fighter planes to Britain in one go. These 400 American main fighter planes, the P-36, were the fighters in mass production in the world at that time with performance closest to the German export-model Me-109C.

This fighter, which had been rushed into design after the emergence of the Me-109A in the Spanish Civil War, had a speed of 480 kilometers per hour, which was very close to the watered-down German export-model Me-109C. Although there were still gaps in some of its main performance aspects, it could at least narrow the gap between the two sides to a level where they could “put up a fight.”

To obtain this batch of advanced fighters to defend their home airspace, Britain had to spend a large amount of foreign exchange to pay the frightening bill. Of course, what was even more ironic was that Britain had even managed to obtain 20 Me-109C fighters in batches from places like Spain and Finland and had even changed their paint scheme to equip a fighter squadron.

They had gone to such great lengths just to be able to seize air superiority back from the hands of the German Air Force. Of course, this attempt ultimately failed. In several days of intense air combat, the German Air Force fought with increasing bravery, shooting down various British fighters, including the Defiant, the P-36, and the Me-109C. In total, Britain lost 410 fighter planes.

This also forced the British Air Force to look for more powerful weapons. They selected a super fighter that was still in the design stage. This fighter was named the Hurricane by the British. At their request, the new Hurricane fighter had a speed of up to 500 kilometers per hour and was equipped with large-caliber cannons. Britain had even begun to deploy production lines in Canada and at home at the same time, preparing to produce this more powerful fighter.

Of course, the United States was not idle either. They had invested their own designers and had ultimately designed the historically famous P-40 fighter ahead of time. But this fighter was still on the drawing board and, like the Hurricane, could not be put into production immediately.

Akado had brought new changes to this world, and the engineers and scientists of various countries were also providing their motherlands with the most advanced science and technology under more brutal environments. For example, Britain’s new aircraft carriers had already begun production, adopting the German-style sectional construction method on some of the non-essential superstructures. And this method was already being fully tested in the United States, and it was believed that it would be able to be mass-produced soon.

Of course, while the whole world was working hard to catch up with Germany’s technological pace, the Germans were not idle either. At a weapons testing ground on the outskirts of Berlin, 20 German helicopters took to the air, demonstrating to several generals from the German Wehrmacht’s logistics department how to use helicopters to rapidly deploy mountain troops.

All the generals present were stunned by the excellent performance of this new weapon. Twenty helicopters had delivered 80 fully armed German mountain soldiers to a target area 10 kilometers away in one go, and had also sling-loaded 10 large-caliber mortars and more than 4 tons of combat supplies. And all of this had taken only a short hour. In the past, using mules for transport, these troops would have had to use at least a whole morning to complete their combat deployment.

Amidst a round of applause, the German logistics department announced the procurement of 2,000 of these helicopters and their subsequent models, and also the customization of a more secure, improved model for the German Führer, the Prime Minister, and other key officials, as a candidate transport tool for short-distance rapid transfers.

Of course, a more secret experiment was being conducted in the mountains. Germany’s new weapon, the “rocket,” had already successfully conducted a short-range flight test. This new weapon, which changed its flight path to attack its target according to radio commands, had been named a “missile” by the Führer, which was a portmanteau of guided missile.

The United States’ duplicity had made the German government quite dissatisfied, but in view of their very close secret cooperation with the United States at present, they could only let the matter of the US sitting on the fence slide. For example, after the start of World War II, the United States had still left a large share of the Middle Eastern oil export quota to Germany’s ally, Italy.

This blatant transaction had also left Britain helpless. First, because the navy had suffered successive defeats, the British government had withdrawn the Mediterranean fleet, which had led to a clear inferiority of British naval power in the entire Mediterranean region compared to Italy. Second, because the United States and Italy had not yet declared war on Britain, rash interference would cause the two countries to turn and support Germany.

But even a fool knew that of the large amount of oil Italy was importing, at least a third was being sold to Germany at a high price. So it could be said that the US government had always been like a good old man trying to break up a fight, on the surface saying peacefully that they hoped everyone would stop fighting, but secretly handing a pistol to every brawler.

The tragedy was that everyone had to give this hypocritical Uncle Sam some face, because Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and France—all of these countries—did not want to push the United States into the arms of others. They had to try their best to please them and did not want to have a falling out unless it was absolutely necessary. This was the enviable geopolitical advantage of the United States. This was the unique skill of the United States that had allowed it to stand proudly in two world wars.

But all the Germans in Berlin trusted their omnipotent Führer more. They pinned their hopes of winning the war on Akado’s personal invincibility. Recently, the German government had launched a series of economic reforms, borrowing some content from Roosevelt’s New Deal, and had launched the next stage of its development plan.

Utilizing the expansion space in the Polish and Dutch regions, Germany’s economy had begun to slowly get back on track. Because they had indirectly and cruelly plundered a portion of the occupied Polish territories, the development and utilization of western Poland had quickly gotten on track. On another front, the German government had also used the plundering advantage established by its repeated victories to repay a large number of MEFO bill debts, which had lifted the German government out of its financial crisis in one fell swoop.

On the one hand, with the genius combination of August and Schacht at the helm, Germany had ultimately not gone down the path of a war economy hijacked by the Junker aristocrats, but had instead adopted a more efficient planned economy strategy for the entire country, putting the German agriculture and light industry, which had been in a state of slow development, on a fast track of rapid development.

On the other hand, the German people, who had been materially satisfied, had invested in the construction of heavy industry with greater production enthusiasm, doubling Germany’s industrial output value in one go. Using high-pressure methods, Germany had established a rationally laid-out national industrial and agricultural structure: the homeland focused on the development of heavy industry and concentrated automated agriculture; Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Austria developed light industry, with the Netherlands as a subsequent supplement; in western Poland, automated farms and light industry were supplementarily developed, while in central Poland, plunder-style agricultural production was developed.

This carrot-and-stick development strategy had allowed the entire of Germany to operate efficiently, and the only ones who were squeezed were those in the central region of Poland. Even western Poland was a beneficiary group. Such an arrangement had compressed the population that opposed German rule to a controllable level, winning Germany a stable rear environment.

On January 11, 1938, the Berlin Reichstag, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister August, passed a bill, approving the proposal of the Greater German Party in the form of law. This proposal stipulated the demarcation of the scope of the Greater Germanic Nation and was of great significance as a guiding document.

The document stipulated that Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the northeastern region of France, and the occupied Polish territories were all traditional areas of activity for the Greater Germanic Nation. These areas should and must be under the rule of the German government. And for the absolute security of the territory of this Greater Germanic Nation, Germany must control an even larger area.

And to thoroughly defend its territory, the German Wehrmacht would be expanded to 7 million, and in the future peaceful era, it should also be maintained at a scale of 3 million. In this document, Germany would continue to produce military supplies to ensure Germany’s complete conquest of the above-mentioned regions.

In another report on the achievements of Germany’s domestic situation, it was claimed that in the past six months, although it had been in a state of war, Germany had still produced 36.9 million tons of steel, had manufactured 29 trains, had laid a total length of more than 7,000 kilometers of roads and railways, and had put dozens of automobile and aircraft production lines into use.

August proudly announced in his speech to the Reichstag that Germany’s economic growth in 1937 had maintained a forward speed of 20%. The people’s daily necessities and food were completely self-sufficient. In the major cities, the power generation had more than doubled compared to last year. In the controlled areas, Germany had built another 21 thermal power plants, providing a reliable power supply for various factories.

Amidst a round of applause, August announced to everyone that the Führer of the Reich, Akado Rudolph, who was in the Felsennest, would return to Berlin in a few days to formally accept the surrender of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in the Führer’s Residence and to formally incorporate the Netherlands into the rule of the German Third Reich.

Everyone was cheering Akado’s name. Everyone was shouting the slogan “Heil Führer.” The Germans had only used four months to achieve a situation that had taken them four years to achieve in the First World War. In some aspects, they had even performed better. And all of this had been brought about by one person, and this person was the supreme ruler of the Reich, Akado Rudolph.