Chapter 231: The Plan

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Internal problems, no matter how they are handled, are still just internal problems. What made Akado feel a visceral pain now was the British Navy’s recent combat operation. It seemed the British had already sensed the coming of the war and had already made all preparations for it.

On the other hand, the German Navy’s miscalculation was to still believe that Britain would continue to foolishly tolerate its development. The price of this miscalculation was heavy—as heavy as one destroyer and one Stuka bomber. For Germany, this was a feud that could not be shared under the same sky, a debt that had to be repaid.

At least in Akado’s mind, he advocated for an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Therefore, since the British Navy had sunk a German destroyer, the German Navy had to sink at least ten British battleships to be considered to have taken revenge.

For the sake of revenge, the Führer established a brand-new command structure: the Supreme High Command of the Third Reich. On the day this organization was established, Akado personally gave the order, using his unparalleled authority and appeal in the army and various other institutions, to unify the scattered German military command system.

The Waffen-SS was placed under the command of the Wehrmacht’s Army. Both supply and combat operations were to be handled by the Wehrmacht. The original SS organization was to be used only as a recruitment agency to conscript soldiers to replace losses. The Air Force established liaison offices with the Navy and the Army to better complete coordinated combat missions.

In order to better complete the combat mission on the Western Front, Akado would directly supervise the Army Commander von Brauchitsch, the Navy Commander Raeder, and the Air Force Commander Kesselring, to jointly draw up a combined sea, land, and air offensive plan. However, many German officers had little interest in a war with France. They did not want to destroy the peace that was within their grasp.

The intelligence department was expanded once again, integrating the respective intelligence agencies of the army, navy, and air force. With the addition of analysis and counter-espionage, Gascoigne’s responsibilities seemed to have grown. However, a portion of the arrest missions was assigned to the SS, which could be considered a subsidy to the SS’s authority.

When Manstein arrived in Berlin as the commander of the 21st Infantry Corps, he was extremely nervous. His plan was not perfect, but it was aimed at overthrowing the operational plan drawn up by the army, codenamed “Case Yellow.”

The age of fifty was undoubtedly a very fine age for a commander. At this time, a general often had the impact of daring to fight and struggle from his youth, while also possessing mature experience. And Manstein had just turned fifty this year.

The contents of “Case Yellow” were not difficult to guess. Even the French commanders had already guessed the general outline: Germany planned to prepare three army groups, A, B, and C. Army Group C would be responsible for a feint attack on the front of the Maginot Line to pin down the French forces there. Von Rundstedt’s Army Group A would be responsible for attacking Belgium and Luxembourg to break the French army’s defensive line there. And the main attack force would be Army Group B, deployed in the north of the Netherlands and Belgium, responsible for pushing south through the Low Countries like the Netherlands and Belgium.

The original “Case Yellow” plan was not very brilliant. The German commanders on the Western Front who had received the order to execute this plan had always been hesitant. Even the Führer himself felt that this plan was not very auspicious, because it hardly allowed the German Wehrmacht to use the blitzkrieg tactics that had been so successful in Poland.

In Poland, the large army composed of elite tank units, motorized units, and mechanized artillery regiments had received powerful support from Stuka dive bombers and had immediately broken through the sparse defensive lines of the Polish defenders. The armored troops had charged into the enemy positions, tearing open a huge gap, and the conventional infantry had been able to pour in like a tide.

But if this set of tactics were to be carried out according to the Case Yellow plan, the main breakthrough of Army Group B would almost certainly run into the main Anglo-French forces entering Belgium. In this way, a clash between the main forces of the two armies would be inevitable. Not only would the cost be extremely high, but the outcome would also be unpredictable, and these were all things Akado was unwilling to see. Even if the British and French forces suffered losses, they could still retreat and hold the Germans in that region, all the way along the Somme River to northern France, plunging the German army into the same kind of stalemate as in the First World War.

Of course, Akado knew the correct answer to this problem. But he needed a military professional to complete this plan for him, and thereby to obtain the agreement and execution of the entire military. The spokesman he chose was Manstein.

At Akado’s prompting, Manstein had drawn up an operational plan called “Operation Sickle Cut.” In this plan, he had swapped the offensive contents of the German Army Groups A and B: Army Group A became the main attack, and Army Group B became the support.

In this way, the main attacking force became General von Rundstedt’s Army Group A. They would launch their attack near the Ardennes plateau, cross the heavily wooded highlands, be led by elite armored forces to infiltrate, and suddenly appear before the French army near Sedan. They would tear through the weak French defensive line on the Meuse River near Sedan and drive west all the way to the English Channel.

And the troops of Army Group B would press hard on the Anglo-French coalition forces, preventing the main Anglo-French forces from turning back to escape, forming a huge encirclement to annihilate the several hundred thousand Anglo-French coalition troops inside.

The Führer, Akado, really liked this plan. Like Hitler, he had experienced the cruel trench warfare of World War I and had witnessed the tragic slaughter and huge sacrifices with his own eyes. So, like Hitler, he was filled with a longing for a quick end to the war. Thus, this plan, which could directly crush the Anglo-French coalition forces, had long been his favorite. Soon, the entire plan was deployed.

However, there was still some distance to go before the Anglo-French coalition forces would move north into Belgium. So a very coincidental event occurred. A German plane, while crossing the Belgian border, very unfortunately got lost. After the plane made an emergency landing, it was discovered that it was in Belgian territory.

A German officer on the plane had violated the Führer’s secrecy regulations and was carrying a complete set of “Case Yellow” and a dense plan for fuel and ammunition replenishment in his briefcase. Before he was knocked unconscious by Belgian soldiers, he had frantically tried to set these documents on fire—unfortunately, he did not succeed.

Thus, the Belgian army quickly shared this intelligence with the French army, because if Belgium were to be attacked, France would be obliged to send troops to support it. This secret document confirmed the French military’s guess: the main German attack would be into the Netherlands and Belgium.

The conceited French Commander-in-Chief, the 68-year-old General Gamelin, drew up a tit-for-tat counter-attack plan, “Plan D.” This plan was named because it required the Anglo-French coalition forces to advance and defend the Dyle River. The so-called Dyle Line stretched from Antwerp south all the way to the small Belgian town of Dinant on the Meuse River.

After receiving this intelligence, in order to ensure the safety of his ally, the Netherlands, Gamelin ordered the Anglo-French coalition forces to extend the defensive line northward, all the way to the Dutch town of Breda, and in one go, increased the number of divisions deployed in the Low Countries in northern France from 19 to a full 30.

Speaking of which, anyone who knows history will know that this plane crash accident actually happened in another timeline, in 1940. How could there be such a coincidence in the world, to have the same thing happen more than two years earlier, unchanged, according to Akado’s needs?

Of course, there could be no such coincidence. It was just that Akado, who knew the beginning and end of this matter, had ordered Gascoigne’s German intelligence department to stage, without any changes, a world-shaking, trans-temporal hoax. They had used real intelligence, a real commander, and with the exception of a few executors, no one knew the truth of this “accidental” event.

After learning from the intelligence agencies in the Netherlands that the main French forces were moving north, Akado knew that the opportunity for revenge had come. He summoned the generals of the army, deployed a series of tasks, and then, in order to deceive the French, carefully delivered a deceptive New Year’s address on New Year’s Day 1938, condemning the Soviet government.

On New Year’s Day 1938, after making a brief appearance in Berlin, the Führer of the Reich, Akado Rudolph, boarded a special train. It was publicly announced that this time, the Führer would be going to Hamburg to inspect the reconstruction process of the shipyards there. However, this train suddenly turned to the southwest when it was two-thirds of the way through its journey.

In Hanover, Akado met with his team of meteorology experts. These professional weather forecasters predicted that the weather conditions would be good for the next few days. The “Operation Sickle Cut” that the Führer had long been waiting for could begin at any time. Unfortunately, on January 2, it began to snow in the northwestern region of Germany, and the plan had to be postponed again and again.

With the swaying of the train, Akado became more and more nervous. To be honest, he was now almost no different from an ordinary German general. History, which was already completely unrecognizable, made it impossible for him to accurately predict the course of future events. All he could do was to wait anxiously, to wait and see if the twisted history could develop in the direction he hoped.

Listening to the clanging sound of the wheels hitting the rails, the Führer, Akado, suffered from insomnia. He tossed and turned, unable to sleep, worried about the weather conditions and the various difficulties he might encounter later on. He was also worried about the German navy, worried about whether the navy could seize the opportunity and realize the German navy’s century-long dream.

Braving the heavy snow, Akado and Anna drove 12 miles in a car and arrived at the new headquarters of the Reich High Command West. It was a bunker that had been blasted out of the foot of a densely wooded mountain. Akado could not avoid the custom and used the name Hitler had given this place—the Felsennest.

The bad weather showed no signs of improving, and the German army was forced to postpone the offensive it was supposed to have launched. Akado was anxious and paced restlessly in his office in the Felsennest. However, this postponement was a relief to the army’s generals. They had won more time to transport troops, stockpile supplies, and had more time to prepare the bombs and shells that would be used in the new war.