c10: The First Division

“First team, raise the flag!” an officer shouted from a trench covered with camouflage netting. “Hunter team has identified the target. It is determined that the commanding officer of the Blue Team’s attacking force has been hit!”

Two clerks were scribbling notes at a table. Beside them stood General von Seeckt, holding a pair of binoculars.

Nearby, Akado was pointing at a battle map, explaining something to the 1st Division’s commander, General Hammon, who was nodding incessantly.

“What’s the result of the battle?” Lowering his binoculars, Seeckt turned around, walked over to the table, and asked casually.

“General, on the front line, we’ve used our hunter teams in coordination with a battalion of soldiers to take out at least 900 enemy troops. According to the war game regulations, the enemy division leading the frontal assault has lost its offensive capability.”

“Intelligence from the reconnaissance company reports a large enemy gathering in Meril Village, four kilometers to the west. Our two tank battalions, supported by infantry, attacked the area. The Blue Team umpires have ruled the enemy force completely annihilated. Another enemy division has lost a regiment and a battalion. So far, it is a complete victory for our side.”

“I never knew snipers could be so effective in urban combat. You don’t know until you try, and once you do, it’s a shock! When Major Akado first asked me to form ten sniper teams in the division, I was a bit reluctant. Now it seems twenty wouldn’t be too many!” Hammon said excitedly from the side. “With just a small amount of infantry support, they took out several hundred enemy soldiers in a ruined area, while only losing about forty of their own men.”

“If it weren’t for General von Seeckt, I would never have traded seven sniper teams for a hundred or so enemy soldiers,” Akado sighed, his tone like a merchant who had lost money on a deal. “These sniper teams I so carefully trained… if used strictly according to combat doctrine, we would lose at most a dozen men, and the enemy would have to leave an entire regiment behind!”

“Not use them like that? These teams you’ve trained, weren’t they prepared precisely to stop the enemy from entering the city?” Seeckt asked, looking at Akado with a shocked expression.

“Stop them?” Akado smirked and waved his hand in denial. “Of course not! If I were in command, I would let the enemy into the southern part of the city. I’d use snipers hidden in all directions to annihilate them, coordinated with an armored force to crush the enemy’s flank, encircle, and devour these enemy troops.”

The two operations staff officers stared blankly at Akado. Even General von Seeckt was at a loss for words. General Hammon, standing nearby, was so shocked he dropped his pencil on the ground. Akado’s battle plan had astonished them. Facing an enemy force twice their size, the 1st Division of the Reichswehr was planning to crush one half and then devour the other.

“Your soldiers need rest, Akado! If you fight like that, the armored force making the flanking maneuver against the enemy’s front will become overly fatigued. Eventually, your lines will collapse, and the enemy will completely crush the 1st Division!” Hammon disagreed with Akado’s vision and shook his head in rebuttal.

“But what if our infantry weren’t riding bicycles, but were transported to the front lines by trucks and armored vehicles? They could rest in the vehicles. A day’s journey for them would be no different than a camping trip,” Akado insisted, holding his ground.

“But your operation fails to accomplish the mission of protecting the city. Although the 1st Division annihilates the opponent, our city is also finished,” General von Seeckt said with a frown. “We are the Defense Force (Reichswehr). Our mission is to protect the German people behind us.”

“General von Seeckt, one day, the German people will rise up and use the swords in their hands to win land for the plows at their feet!” Akado said stubbornly.

“But not anytime soon, Major Akado! Our forces are not yet sufficient to conduct offensive operations in the short term. We can only barely maintain a defense, correct?” Seeckt was getting angry. He could see the strength of the 1st Division, but he had also identified its problem. This division was clearly designed for attack, but what he wanted was a defensive force.

Their topic of conversation was becoming too sensitive. The two divisional staff officers in the field command post quickly excused themselves, walked a few steps away with the guards at the entrance, and formed a small circle in an open area about twenty meters away, lighting cigarettes for each other.

“General, sir! Your notebook contains this passage: ‘What no peace treaty, no enemy can take from us is this: a strong belief. When fate once again calls the German people to arms—and that day will come—it will find not cowards, but warriors, clutching their loyal weapons. As long as we have hands and wills of steel, it matters not what weapon we use.’ Correct?” Akado asked, staring at Seeckt.

“When did you go through my personal belongings, Major?” Seeckt grew even more displeased with his subordinate. He felt an urge to erupt.

“General, sir! Seeckt! What we must do is save all of Germany, to make this nation stand among the world’s great powers in the near future! Therefore, we cannot change slowly. We do not have that much time!” Akado walked up to Seeckt and said solemnly, “The army must be modernized in every aspect. We must use a new form of warfare, one the enemy has never seen before, to crush our opponents. In this new warfare, what matters is not manpower, but speed!”

“Can you make one hundred thousand men defeat a million? Believe me, Akado, there is always a limit that cannot be overcome. A lack of manpower will ultimately be the death of Germany! That is why we cannot start another war,” Seeckt said, unconvinced by Akado’s dreams or his words. His stubbornness was famous throughout the High Command.

“What if we could have more soldiers?” Akado took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, pulled out a lighter, lit it, and took a deep drag before asking his counter-question.

“The Allied Commission forbids Germany from having reserve soldiers. We can’t find any loopholes in the Treaty of Versailles! Although we have tried to circumvent some of its clauses, our recent gains have not been significant. You know this,” Seeckt said, running through all his efforts in his mind. He had no idea how Akado could possibly conjure up an invisible army.

“They allow us to have one hundred thousand infantrymen, but we can also have several hundred thousand policemen! Our soldiers can be trained as company commanders, and the police forces can be trained as squad leaders. In this way, we will have one hundred thousand company commanders and three hundred thousand squad leaders. Once war breaks out, after a short period of training, we can have a force of ten million men ready for combat! While the fighting strength of these units may not compare to front-line troops, their framework will be complete, and it will be an elite one,” Akado said, laying out his plan.

“Hmph.” Seeckt covered his mouth and fell into deep thought. Akado’s plan was perfect. It would allow Germany to preserve its most elite military backbone. It would be a waste to use this force for direct combat, but for command, it was simply perfect.

“Write me a plan. I want it on my desk by tomorrow. And! This plan is to be classified as top secret. I don’t want a fourth person knowing about it before it is implemented,” Seeckt said, glancing at his old subordinate and capable assistant, Hammon.

Akado and Hammon immediately snapped to attention and saluted. “Yes, General, sir!”

The next afternoon, Akado, who hadn’t slept a wink all night, yawned as he placed the plan on Seeckt’s desk and accepted a cup of coffee from Miss Grace.

It was a thick stack, tens of thousands of words long. This plan was like a devil’s bible. It covered more than a dozen fields and had over thirty sub-plans. If Germany were to develop according to this plan, it could not only build a world-class armed force in a short period but could even instigate another world war—this was no mere fantasy.

For the grand blueprint of reorganizing the entire Reichswehr, Akado had laid out a completely new path with his concise plan.

First, Akado divided the new Reichswehr into five mobile strike forces, deploying three on the western border and two on the eastern border. Each of these battle groups would command three reorganized army divisions, totaling approximately 150,000 elite soldiers. These soldiers were hand-picked from the three million men of the old German Army and could absolutely be called the most elite force.

These units would be connected by a developed network of railways and roads for rapid deployment. In coordination with the more than 50,000 border guards officially stationed at the frontiers, they would be able to counter and defeat a frontal attack by an enemy force of over 500,000 troops.

This plan alone exceeded the German Army’s manpower limit stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles by one hundred percent. The plan used a large number of armed troops disguised as civilian personnel to evade Allied inspectors and detailed schemes to deceive inspectors using time discrepancies and other methods.

Reading this report caused cold sweat to bead on Seeckt’s forehead. He had always believed himself to be the savior of the German nation and had wholeheartedly hoped that the German people could rise again through his efforts.

He never expected that there was such a young man who, in the immediate aftermath of defeat, was already organizing a revolution in warfare. A young man who wanted to change the rules of war by his own power, to return Germany to a leading position, and from that leading position, to launch a plan of revenge against the entire world.

A danger? Or an opportunity? Seeckt faced a momentous choice: if he sent Akado to some forgotten corner to cool off now, this insane plan for military expansion and war preparation would be shelved, and Germany would slowly re-emerge according to his own ideas. If he indulged or even supported Akado’s plan, Germany’s military power would expand exponentially. Perhaps in ten years, perhaps twenty, Germany could destroy any opponent and become a world-class military power.

A world-class military power… the temptation was simply too sweet! Seeckt’s heart twitched, and the fingers holding the document trembled involuntarily. This dream was worth the risk! If the plan got out of control, he could suppress it immediately. That wasn’t a problem. Once the army had grown strong, the Kaiser could even return to his throne, couldn’t he? Seeckt put down the document and looked at Akado.

After a long pause, he finally spoke. “Major, tomorrow I will submit your plan to President Ebert and to the most important leader in the military, Marshal Hindenburg. I hope that everything you have planned will become the cornerstone of this nation’s rise, and not the poison that buries all of Germany!”