At a secret flight test site outside Berlin, two odd-looking planes are ready, their silver wings glistening in the sun. What catches the viewer's eye best is that neither of these planes actually has propellers - yes, they are the world's first jets. One is a test machine developed by Heinkel, codenamed He-280, with engines mounted in wing nacelles on both sides, with a flat wing design, elliptical wingtips, and twin vertical tails arranged on both sides of the flat tail, powered by two Heinkel axial turbojet engines, each with a thrust of 500 kg. The other is a demonstrator developed by Messerschmidt, codenamed Me-262, with an aerodynamic layout similar to that of the He-280, but a closer look reveals the difference, with a nearly triangular tail crossed at the tail, and two Junkers axial turbojet engines mounted directly under the swept lower wing, with a thrust of 550 kg.

This is an extremely important demonstration, not only because the Führer was there to see it, but also because the Imperial Air Force will determine the results of the tender for the new generation of aircraft based on the performance of this test flight and a comprehensive evaluation of the results of previous tests, and the number of orders will be in thousands. At this moment, the weather is sunny and the wind speed is not large, which is a good time for a test flight. According to the original plan, the project was about to start at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, but now the time is almost 3 o'clock, and the start order has not been received for a long time. The test pilots, ground crews, and related technicians on the side have repeatedly inspected the plane, and now they can only look at the conference room of the command center with their eyes, hoping that the big guys will come out to observe it early, while boringly bragging and chatting to pass the time, after all, the taste of waiting is not pleasant.

"Scholz, I heard that the fat man fell because he angered the Führer? The charge of treason was pressed on him by Himmler? Although the products of the two companies are rivals, the test pilots are very good friends, and they often exchange views on the aircraft together, "You have always been a well-informed person, who do you say can take the commander-in-chief's class?" ”

"How can we talk about the big guys?" Schultz frowned, looked at the guards around him who were on guard duty, and whispered, "If I were you, I wouldn't get involved in this kind of thing, and I would hide as far as I could." ”

"Come on, apart from slandering the Führer, you don't dare to say anything else, didn't the Marshal of the Reich look like a clown in your eyes before?" Wendell tested the Me-262, and after dealing with Schultz for a long time, he couldn't help but expose the other party's old bottom, "Say, how uncomfortable it is to hold it in my heart, if it is valuable, I will invite you to the club for a drink in the evening." ”

"Didn't you see that the head of state was here in person today? The meeting could not be finished for a long time, and seeing that the test flight time dragged from 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock, maybe there was a lot of quarrel inside. It's the first time I've encountered such a strange situation, and it's hard to say who will take over as commander-in-chief, but a new purge of the Air Force is probably inevitable -- if you still have any impression of the purge of the stormtroopers back then. ”

Wendell shrugged indifferently: "It's okay to scare the big guys with cleaning or something, it doesn't matter if a pure Aryan like me is, maybe there will be a few more places on it." ”

"Well, I'll tell you if you want to hear that. I can't really guess who will be the successor of the commander-in-chief, but as you said, Marshal Milch is going to step aside, and the Gestapo has found him again, and now there is no one to shelter him, so I will probably quit the test pilot team next. ”

"What does this have to do with you?" Wendell asked, puzzled, "If you could really make friends with Marshal Milch, you wouldn't be just a captain after all these years." ”

"Really, think about it." Schultz patiently explained, "With Milch on the sidelines, Dr. Messerschmitt had no opponents, and with his skills and connections, combined with the Me-262's outperformance of the He-280 in the first few test flights, there was almost no suspense about winning the order." Without the project, I naturally don't have to carry out test flight missions anymore. ”

Wendell was silent, he knew that Schulz was right: in 1928, when Milch was still the chairman of German civil aviation and the president of Lufthansa, Messerschmitt developed the M20 airliner, and as a result, Milch's best friend died in a flight accident while testing the M20. After the design of the Bf-109 was completed, Messerschmidt could barely get a government order under Milch's nose, so he turned to selling M37 and M36 transport aircraft to Romania to keep the business running. When Milch learned of this, he publicly accused Messerschmitt of being a traitor and ordered the Gestapo to investigate, but fortunately Messerschmidt had a close relationship with Rudolf Hess, the deputy Führer. During the development of the jet aircraft, the Me-262 consistently outperformed the He-280, although it started a little late, and it was only because of Milch's obstruction that the Air Force was slow to determine the status of the Me-262. If Milch were to fall, Dr. Messerschmidt would have been a must-have in the applause.

"What are you going to do without being a test pilot? Going to the Eastern Front? ”

"Nope." Schultz said self-deprecatingly, "Now no one is shouting 'I am in charge of all the things that can fly in Germany,' the navy is planning to create its own air force, the Führer approved an air force with an establishment of about 400 aircraft, and the navy is now desperately recruiting personnel from the air force." In the past, some people were reluctant job-hoppers, some were thorns pushed out by their superiors, and some were crazy people eager to take risks...... I'm also going to go to the Navy, maybe a change of environment will be good for my rank. ”

"Hahaha, I see you have all three parts! I didn't say anything, I have to have a good meal to see you off......"

"Stop yelling...... The Führer came. ”

Scholz's speculation was completely logical: because there were so many things involved, the Aviation Arms Coordination Conference, which was supposed to end in one hour, was forced to postpone it for another hour, so that the test flight time was delayed. After Keitel's speech, Speer, who is known as the head of the economy and the soul of the wartime system, formally announced that he would take over the organization of aircraft manufacturing and production and the right to allocate raw materials from the hands of the Air Force Technology Department, and that in the future, the Air Force Technology Department would only assume purely technical functions.

Someone muttered privately: "Look at this posture, after a while, I am afraid that the equipment departments of the three armed services will be separated from the branches of the armed forces and become subordinate institutions of the Imperial Armaments Department." ”

"The armament department of the three services? You underestimate the appetite of the architect, and the establishment of a wartime system management committee to control the whole situation is about to be formed, and when the Führer is in charge, Speer is in charge, similar to the level of the Reich Treasury, the Ministry of Labor (the Trotten Organization), and the Ministry of Arms and Military Industry, and the armament department of the three services is afraid to wait even more, haven't you heard his slogan - all for the sake of winning! ”

Apparently the congregation was not convinced by Speer, who had suddenly risen to a high position and had not yet made a name for himself, believing that he had only risen to prominence by serving as an architectural designer for the Führer. Soon this idea was hit by a storm - the Führer, who had personally come to the meeting, instructed Speer to throw out a bill on the rearmament of aviation.

"The 'Aviation Armament Rearmament Reorganization Case' was personally examined and approved by the head of state, and there is only one core -- in the future, aircraft manufacturing should compress the production lines of multiple models, concentrate the production of a single model and subsequent improvements, and at the same time carry out large-scale decentralized and coordinated production, that is, different parts of the same type of aircraft are produced by different manufacturers, and finally the assembly is completed at the final assembly plant, and the design company is no longer emphasized to complete production. This determination is unshakable, and if you oppose it or are skeptical, I suggest that you go to the Army to learn about the tank rearmament proposal. ”

Everyone gasped, the tank armament reorganization case is no longer a secret in high-level circles: the production line of tanks No. 2 and No. 3, which have made great contributions to the empire, has been ruthlessly terminated, and the army will no longer produce tanks No. 2 in the future, and the existing ones will be gradually phased out, either sold to the Axis brothers in exchange for strategic materials, or returned to the factory to be converted into self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles (equipped with 4 20-mm machine guns). Tank No. 3 had slightly better luck, the chassis line remained and was dedicated to the production of the No. 3 assault gun, which was most needed by the infantry. The Führer had ordered that by the end of 1942, all No. 3 tanks should be returned to the factory to be converted into assault guns, and even the No. 4 tank could not escape the fate of transformation.

Originally, the General Staff of the Army was quite critical of such a major change, but it was dumbfounded in the face of Speer's categorical assurances that after the transfer to the wartime system, the factories would organize production and increase output in three shifts, and would never delay the military plan. Speer even set a gamble: he promised to complete the relevant old model tank modification tasks as scheduled in the next six months, and at the same time provide the Wehrmacht with new tanks equivalent to 150% of the original order volume, and all of them are the latest No. 4G type, and considering that the gap between No. 2 and No. 3 tanks will have to be filled, this number is more than double the original production capacity. If he couldn't, he would resign and go home, but if he Speer completed the plan, then one of the generals in the Supreme High Command and the Army General Staff who questioned it would be counted as one, and each of them would stand guard for him for a week until all the rounds were completed. This gamble frightened the already menacing generals, who muttered, but none of them dared to step forward to take Speer's challenge.

This gamble was so famous that it spread throughout the imperial armaments circles in less than two days, and now all military industrial enterprises and all branches of the military knew Speer's determination, and the aviation community was naturally no exception, and everyone in the venue waited with bated breath for the following.