Chapter 393: The War Without Gunsmoke

Berlin, Germany. An officer in charge of logistics management for the French theater of operations helplessly handed a thick stack of docume

Berlin, Germany.

An officer in charge of logistics management for the French theater of operations helplessly handed a thick stack of documents to his superior. Because the thickness of the documents was a bit exaggerated, it made a “thump” sound when it was placed on the table.

He then stood at attention and, in front of the desk, gave a German salute. “Heil Führer Akado Rudolph!”

“Heil Führer Akado Rudolph,” the fifty-something-year-old officer with glasses looked up and asked with a frown. “Why are there so many?”

“Is this a lot? This is just one week’s worth of supply for the estimated 700,000 troops stationed in France,” the young officer said with a sigh. “Although the Führer made the epoch-making suggestion of simplifying logistics in 1925, in fact, the workload of our logistics department has only been slightly reduced.”

“I know that without you telling me,” the old general said, pushing the documents to the upper right corner of his desk and then beginning to check them, one by one. “I was the one who recommended you for the logistics department! What are you complaining to me for? Isn’t it just that those guys in the army are used to a hard life and are unwilling to part with anything?”

The junior officer pointed to a number on the document and reported helplessly, “General, this is the total number of 7.92mm training bullets to be transported to France. The total is 2 billion rounds, to be transported to France in four batches. In the later stage, we will rely on the factories in France for replenishment, and the total reserve will be increased to 5 billion rounds within a year.”

“Just these bullets alone are enough to give the railway department a headache,” the old general said with a shrug and a smile.

“Then there are the air force’s 13mm machine gun bullets. The total is 120 million rounds. The plan is to complete the transport within three months. The additional number for the later stage is still being calculated. It seems that General Kesselring is holding his breath, preparing to achieve great things in Britain…”

“Hehe, it’s only natural for him to be impatient. The navy and the army both have their field marshals. It seems von Rundstedt has also received a promise from the Führer that he will be promoted to field marshal after the Battle of Britain. The air force still doesn’t have one. How can he, Kesselring, not be in a hurry?” the old general said with a smile, shaking his head and continuing to read the documents.

After a few seconds, he pointed to a set of numbers on the document and asked, “What is this? Are there still 500 S35 tanks left on the French side? Two hundred to be given to Romania to pay off a debt? Three hundred to be sold to Finland?”

“This is the Führer’s intention, General,” the young officer explained, bowing his head. “Merkel’s foreign affairs department is trying to win over these two countries to stand firmly on our side. Romania is easy to say, but Finland, I hear, is an important force to check and balance the Soviet Union in the future…”

“This is just making things more chaotic for us,” the old general said with a sigh, shaking his head and complaining.

Originally, the weapons used by the German military were very uniform compared to other countries. The army’s calibers, from small to large, were only 7.92mm, 13mm, 20mm, 40mm, 75mm, 88mm, 105mm, and 150mm (in addition to three mortar calibers: 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm). But in recent years, including the weapons and ammunition used by the annexed countries and regions, the number of calibers had increased to as many as 25.

The tanks had also gone from a few types to a hodgepodge of all nations. At Dunkirk, 400 British tanks of various types had been captured. After the French surrender, nearly 1,000 tanks and armored cars had been handed over to the German Wehrmacht. Brauchitsch, with a stroke of his pen, had kept all of them, with a portion to be used as heavy weapons for the rear defense forces, and a portion to be used for training the German armored forces.

And so hundreds of thousands of spare parts needed to be stockpiled, transported, and distributed. Hundreds of thousands of types of shells and bullets needed to be arranged for rationing. Now the German army had a vast and complex array of weapons and equipment, from 7.92mm rifles to over 400mm railway guns. Some special ammunition could only be “specially supplied” by French factories.

For example, the 380mm coastal defense guns deployed near some French ports. Germany had no weapon that could replace or substitute for them. These large cannons could only continue to be used, and after the ammunition stored in the warehouses was used up, if Germany did not want its own ports to be completely defenseless, it would have to continue to buy the shells for these large-caliber coastal defense guns from France.

Because they had begun to deploy and use the diesel-engined Tiger tank, while at the same time mixing in a large number of gasoline-engined Panther tanks, plus some British and French tanks and armored cars that used refined gasoline, in February of 1938, the number of gasoline types used by the German army for replenishment had reached as many as five. This did not even include the fuel used by the fighter and bomber units. If you were to also count the naval warships, the number would be so large that it would make one’s scalp tingle.

The field troops needed regular supplements of vitamins, which required fresh vegetables, fruits, and other supplies. In addition to the sausages, beef patties, biscuits, and rice needed to improve their diet, the entire German military train system was running at almost full capacity, and it was only by doing so that a large-scale tragedy of material scarcity had not occurred. But the hard-hit and renowned-for-its-rigor German logistics department was also about to be driven mad. More than once at the regular meetings, they had requested to simplify the types of materials.

Just taking canned meat as an example, from the beginning to the end of the French campaign, Germany had transported a full 9 million processed meat cans to the front line. And this was a number that was only achieved after compressing a portion of the supply for the 2 million-strong army. Many of the second-line units in the rear had not enjoyed this luxury from the beginning of the operation to the end of the war.

Another number was that in order to ensure the offensive speed of the fist of the army, that is, the German armored forces, the German transport units had been busy day and night, transporting 300,000 track links, 50,000 vulnerable engine parts, and 400 complete engines and 450 transmissions to the French front. Only then had it been ensured that the more than 2,000 German tanks in France could surge forward and not be held back by breakdowns.

And the German 7th Panzer Corps, which had been the first to charge to the French coastline and had completed the Sickle Cut operation, had also accomplished the feat, the first in human history, of using helicopters to rush-transport a tank engine to the front line to carry out emergency repairs on a broken-down tank. Guderian had even set a precedent by using a helicopter with a machine gun to escort 3,000 French prisoners.

To maintain the ever-expanding German mechanized forces, Bosch’s IG Farben Group had been frantically refining synthetic gasoline, expanding its synthetic gasoline factories to an annual output of 500,000 tons at any cost. To save coal consumption to support the coal-to-oil production, Germany had built another 13 hydroelectric power plants in various places, which had in turn created hundreds of thousands of job opportunities.

The production capacity of the Romanian oil fields, under the efforts of German engineers and workers, had doubled compared to 1935. More than 90% of the oil produced in a year was sent to Germany, and more than half of it was used for war supplies.

At the same time, to support the German army’s operations in France, the home country had mobilized 3,100 special trains to transport all kinds of strategic materials, ensuring the invincibility of the German army in France. And the air force had dispatched 5,000 sorties of Ju-52 transport planes, carrying out major combat missions such as the parachute drops in the Netherlands and Belgium, and had taken on the material supply for the paratroopers and a portion of the army.

It is no exaggeration to say that the German logistics and supply units had fought a war without gunsmoke. Their efforts were also highly praised by the frontline combat units. Brauchitsch had said when reporting the combat situation to Akado, “Without logistical supply, there is no victory.” And Kesselring had also proposed in his report, “I praise the logistics troops, because every bullet I fire at the enemy comes from them.”

To look at Germany’s industrial level with today’s eyes is still astonishing. The automobile production factories of the Mercedes-Benz company, which were located in various places, had 290,000 male and female workers in February of 1938. The engine production line of the BMW company also had 170,000 people working day and night. The Krupp factory at this time also had 200,000 employees. What was terrifying was that the weapons and equipment produced by such a large number of workers every day were still unable to meet the needs of the German army.

Excluding the weapons and equipment that had been scrapped and eliminated, in the one year from 1937 to 1938, Germany had provided the newly established units with 1,700 tanks, 960 tank destroyers, 750 short-barreled support-type StuG IIIs, and tens of thousands of vehicles of various models. Although this was not very prominent compared to the expanded units, it was still a remarkable achievement.

“It’s time to complain to the Führer,” the old general said, putting down the document in his hand, opening the drawer on the left side of his desk, and taking out two sheets of letter paper. He then took a fountain pen from the pen holder and spoke.

The young officer stood up and bowed his head respectfully. “Then I will go out first.”

“Don’t be in a hurry to go. Take a look at this material I’ve written. There’s not much I can pass on to you young people. How to talk to your superiors is an important skill. From today on, you should learn it well.”

A look of joy immediately appeared on the young officer’s face. He smiled and stood at attention. “Thank you, teacher! Thank you for your cultivation and promotion.”

The old general did not speak again but just wrote on the letter paper in a beautiful cursive script. The young officer did not dare to disturb him but just stood there, watching the old general write. In the office, there was only the pleasant rustling sound of the pen tip on the paper, which seemed extremely peaceful.

And in distant Paris, an exciting piece of good news was translated, compiled into a telegram, and handed to Akado, who was having dinner.

Taking the telegram, Akado could not believe his own eyes, because on it was clearly written a piece of incredible news: the German Navy’s two aircraft carriers that were under construction had already been launched and were in service, and could be converted into the navy’s combat strength at once.

“How can they be so fast?” Akado asked excitedly of the Naval Field Marshal, Raeder, who had passed through Paris and was preparing to rush to the Brest naval port to inspect the handover work. This meal was one that Akado had invited Raeder to, an authentic French grand meal—at least with his confidants, Akado would not be stingy.

“The interior of the two ships is not actually finished. Many of the watertight compartments are still being built in a rush. Although it would be a bit of a stretch for them to fight immediately, there is absolutely no problem in using them to scare people,” Raeder said confidently.