"What about our oil supply? Has the trend of using reserves stopped? ”

Speer sighed: "How to say this problem, we have to look at it in two: in the field of production, this year's natural crude oil plus synthetic oil production capacity can at least exceed 20 million tons, and if we are lucky, it can reach 24 million to 25 million tons, which means that we can get 2 million tons of oil every month, compared with the scale of 16 million tons in 1942, which is a very remarkable improvement." But in terms of consumption www.biquge.info the size of the air force and armored forces will increase by 150% compared with last year, and the navy will increase by at least 100%, and we will pay more for the Italian Navy and the Japanese Navy, and the Italian Navy alone now consumes more than 200,000 tons of fuel a month. Fortunately, we got a lot of oil in Egypt and the Middle East, and in the first three months, the battlefield on the Eastern Front was relatively calm, and the fuel consumption was very low, which can barely be maintained after the comprehensive balance, which is a dangerous balance. ”

"It doesn't seem to be a particularly good situation, at least the coal-to-liquid project can't be cut yet."

"Not this year, cutting it will cause a shortfall, and there are currently less than 5 million tons left in the strategic reserve, and I hope to restore it to more than 7 million tons by the end of the year." Speer thought for a moment and then said to Hoffman, "But next year there is a great opportunity, with the exploitation of the two large oil fields in Kuwait and Najd, plus the further increase in oil production in Iraq and Iran, the total output is expected to reach 36 million tons, and optimistically it is expected to touch 40 million tons -- so that some coal-to-liquid projects can be stopped." ”

"In addition to oil, coal, especially electricity, is also a key bottleneck for industry, and coal should be used to generate electricity rather than be uneconomically synthesized as fuel." "That's why I wanted to stop the coal-to-liquids project, but this year it seems hopeless." ”

Speer nodded, understanding the concern, but immediately reported good news: the Donetsk coal mining area has been fully repaired and will soon be mined on a large scale and generated electricity.

This is a very remarkable achievement, in history, Germany has just resumed Donetsk coal production was forced to retreat due to the defeat of the Battle of Stalingrad, and finally had to blow up the coal mine that had been restored with great difficulty again, and Hoffman was very happy to hear that the coal production area with the Donbas coalfield as the core was fully restored.

At first, the Ministry of Armaments only wanted to resume mining, and after calculation, it was found that the annual output of the Donbass coal mines exceeded 100 million tons, accounting for about two-thirds of the Soviet Union's coal production, which was less than a quarter of Germany's output, and the quantity was very large, but it was difficult to transport the 100 million tons of coal back to Germany for use.

There are two ways for the coal from Donbass to be transported to Germany: one is to transport the coal from the eastern route to Germany by rail, with a railway mileage of about 2,500 kilometers, passing through the countries of the eastern route, and it takes 4-5 days to transport it alone; The other is to take the sea route, more than 100 kilometers south of the Donbass is the port, you can take the Sea of Azov - Black Sea - Mediterranean Sea this sea route to Italy and then send to Germany, this road to go more than 2,000 nautical miles, the overall transportation time of more than two weeks.

After accurate calculations, transportation experts believe that although the geographical location of the Donbas coalfield is very good and the transportation is relatively convenient, it is unrealistic to transport 8 million tons of coal every month, and the existing railway and sea transportation capacity cannot support this scale, and will crowd out the transportation capacity of other resources, such as grain and minerals.

"If we want to make effective use of this coal resource, most of it must be converted locally, and a small part can be transported externally. Up to 100-1,500,000 tons can be transported by train and ship back capacity per month, and ...... more," Speer paused and took out a telegram from his briefcase, "The Italian side said that the lack of coal greatly restricted the use of industrial capacity, and that they imported more coal from Germany before the war, and after the war began, because of our own increased demand, the export of coal to Italy was greatly reduced, and Prime Minister Mussolini sent me a telegram in response to the request of several industrial giants hoping to increase the output." ……”

"It can partially meet his requirements, such as giving Italians an extra 500,000 tons a month, but the use must be included in the unified management system, and I don't want to see this batch of coal go to Italy and then go to the black market." Hoffmann's remark meant something, and he received information: Mussolini had bought 100,000 pills (penicillin) from Germany some time ago, saying that they were for use by officers and technical troops, and in a blink of an eye these goods were available on the black market in Rome and Turin -- the price had risen to 300-400 marks.

"I can understand the embezzlement of military supplies by dignitaries and nobles for their own use, and I can even turn a blind eye, but the misappropriation and sale of them for profit exceeds the limit of my patience, and I have sent Comrade Bowman to investigate them."

Speer smiled awkwardly, as if to say: Baumann had no problem checking in Germany, of course, but in Italy there was a big question mark over whether his power would be well exercised.

"Actually, you and I can guess what went wrong, but I have to keep this unforgiving style - these people can sell special drugs for money now, and they can sell military plans and Italian leaders for money later." Hoffman smiled, "He'll understand the need to clean up the portal, and if he can't make up his mind, we'll have someone to do it - the Einsatzgruppen hasn't been dispatched in a long time!" ”

Speer couldn't help but shudder: the Yuan's determination to control Italy seemed stronger than he thought.

"Speaking of coal, this 100 million tons of coal, in addition to the amount shipped back to the mainland and to Italy, how do you plan to arrange the remaining 80 million tons?"

"Part of coking, for iron and steel enterprises, part of power generation, but the installed capacity of the Donetsk power plant is limited, it is impossible to use so much coal, there must be other way out, but unfortunately Ukraine's heavy chemical industry is underdeveloped, and the use of results is very average."

"We should not only consider production, but also the heating needs of the Eastern countries." "I've heard that the Russians used to use crude oil for heating in the winter because of the lack of coal, and I don't have the luxury of using crude oil, but I can do it by providing them with some coal." Intensify mining, and all the coal that cannot be used will be used for heating this winter. ”

Speer looked at Hoffmann in amazement, wondering why the Führer had recently been so generous to the countries of the East: first with diesel, and now with coal—the rhythm of the European Union?

As if to see his doubts, Hoffman explains: "We cannot look at coal or diesel in isolation, we must consider the policy towards the entire system of Eastern countries. Lieutenant General Weller told me that if he could get enough equipment and supplies, and if he had a good training and command system, these soldiers would be good fighters, and Stalin would not have used them well at all. As far as this world war is concerned, our German population is far from being large, and any way to reduce the sacrifice of German youth should be encouraged, and if we can mobilize enough Eastern troops to fight against the Bolshevik army, we will be invincible in this war, and it will be of great help to the future world and European situation. Giving these people a little diesel and coal to the best of our ability strengthens their relationship with us and strengthens their sense of identity, which will not harm our own interests but will do much to our cause, and you as a politician should keep that in mind. ”

"I see, Führer."

"With the addition of the Donbass coal mines, can the aluminum problem be solved?"

"The problem of aluminum can be solved, but there is still a gap in electricity."

Abundant electricity is the guarantee of obtaining electrolytic aluminum, which was originally sufficient in Germany, but due to the increase in the scale of aircraft production and the need for a large number of aluminum ingots, the power gap gradually began to appear, and Hoffmann paid great attention to this. Hoffman's expectation for this year's aircraft manufacturing is 30,000 aircraft, and the consumption of 2 tons of aluminum for an aircraft (the actual consumption of parts and products is far more than that), the new aircraft aluminum consumption is more than 60,000 tons, and Germany's annual aluminum production in 1942 is only 280,000 tons, and it is not easy to achieve an increase of more than 20% in a short time. However, he was still very happy to hear that the problem of aluminum could be solved, which greatly exceeded expectations.

"Industry experts have calculated that the new Donetsk coal production and the corresponding power generation are sufficient to cover the production from raw materials to the completion of aluminium production, but at the moment there is still not enough domestic electricity - not enough power sets and kilowatt hours to be exact, because there is a lot of additional new demand in addition to aluminum."

"What is it?"

"I won't give examples of other industrial production, I will only say one - the purification of raw materials for super bombs requires a lot of electricity, at first I suspected that the professors had miscalculated, but they did a purification experiment, and a small little bit, less than 0.2 grams of raw materials actually consumed millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity. Experts say it takes hundreds of kilograms or even tons of raw material to complete a superbomb. "At this level, it is not enough to give them electricity from all over Germany." ”

Hearing this, Hoffmann had another toothache like a convulsion: Heisenberg's second calculation of the figures began to come close to the truth, but there were still big problems - at least two orders of magnitude higher. But Speer isn't exaggerating, there's no doubt that this thing consumes power. Now the contradiction arises, should the limited power supply be prioritized to ensure the production of aircraft and armaments, or to invest in the purification of nuclear materials?

This is a difficult question to answer, and if the German top brass were to choose now, it is expected that everyone else would bet on armaments, but only Hoffmann knew that the second was the end of the war.

After a long painful decision, he finally made up his mind: "Neither of these aspects can be delayed, purification is a long-term cumulative process, and astronomical amounts of electricity will not be used at once - we don't have so much equipment, I would like to talk to the experts about the super bomb project once to hear about the current progress and follow-up arrangements." (To be continued.) )