Chapter 65 Wartime Production and Preparation of the German Army in 1943
According to later historical data, it can be seen that the wartime production in Germany during World War II can be divided into four stages:
First, the preparatory period: 1933 --- September 1939. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. biquge。 info
Second, the plateau: September 1939 --- 1941.
Third, the period of general mobilization: 1942 --- July 1944.
Fourth, the collapse period: August 1944 --- May 1945.
And the period that Chen Yanlong is now passing through is 1943, which is still in the period of full mobilization.
When Chen Yanlong and Romei finished meeting, he sat in his private study in the Berlin Chancellery; While drinking hot coffee to refresh myself, I was worried about how to prepare for pre-war production.
Especially when he used his energy points to exchange a large number of planes and tanks, there was not much left.
Although there are still one hundred and eighty-nine artillery pieces that are not exchanged by the system, but transferred from the Ministry of Armaments; one hundred and forty-eight rocket launchers, in addition to eighty-five assault guns No. 3; 22 "Wasp" self-propelled guns and eight "Vespa" self-propelled guns; Seventy tanks No. 3, thirty-three tanks No. 4, twenty-four "Tiger" tanks No. 6, and thirty-eight captured T-34 tanks were also given to the "Skeleton" Panzergrenadier Division.
But he exchanged an aircraft carrier, and a 'Redstone' missile, as well as 300 F6F Hellcat fighters, and 300 F4U "Corsair" fighters, and 500 T-54 tanks, and 600 TA152 fighters, as well as the Rambo Gun - M607.62mm general-purpose machine gun, and AKM assault rifles, and RPG-740 rockets, and there are 200 TA152 fighters to exchange energy points, or his remaining life-saving energy points, to exchange.
Because when he was on the Eastern Front, he only used his life-saving energy points to exchange for 300 jet planes for the Sixth and Fourth Air Forces for training purposes.
So he still has energy points that can be exchanged for 200 planes and used the rest.
However, after meeting with the "Skeleton" Panzergrenadier Division, there is no energy point left.
To this end, he will find a way to reorganize the production department in Germany to produce more TA152 fighters, Me262 jet fighters, and Ar234 "Lightning" jet bombers for the Air Force, and will find a way to convert the Mauser 98K into a StG44 assault rifle.
Other than that, the useless tanks 1, 2, and 3 were all discontinued.
So after thinking about it for a long time, Chen Yanlong finally picked up the phone and called Speer, asking him to come to the Berlin Chancellery; Discuss with him how you can mass-produce the weapons and equipment he wants to produce.
Because he was well aware that even during such a collapse of production in August 1944 --- May 1945, the production of armaments managed by Speer; In mid-1944, the German army was able to produce more weapons than in 1942 by three times.
Moreover, according to Speer's plan drawn up in the spring of 1944, this figure of weapons production would be five times that of early 1942 by the end of the year.
This goal can be achieved with the full mobilization of human resources, because even during the breakdown of 1944-1945; In Germany, there is still considerable room for production.
Speer's management method was simple, in order to make the production of weapons immediately effective; He began by eradicating the defects that his predecessor, the Minister of Arms and Munitions, had long condoned, and optimizing the methods of production.
To this end, regardless of factors such as political background and officialdom, he handed over production management to highly qualified technicians.
At the same time, he recognized that leapfrogging production would require further mobilization of the resources of the German economy, and that general mobilization could only be achieved by taking control of them; Concentrate in the hands of a small number of managers who have clear goals and form a central plan to achieve them.
Speer's first and most notable contribution to the administrative system was the creation of the Steering Committee and the Business Union.
The aim of this organization was to increase the efficiency of weapons production, because the existing German enterprises and industry were not affected by this; That is, no single company has the ability to carry out the entire production process of a certain munitions alone. The various trade organizations of the German industrial groups are grouped together by industry or occupation.
That is to say, all iron casters, whether they make kitchen utensils or cannonballs; All of them are gathered together for unified casting.
The Steering Committee was created by Speer for end-use products in the field of arms production, such as tanks, aircraft engines, guns and ammunition.
All enterprises of each Steering Committee exclusively produce a specific type of weapons and equipment, and the leading enterprises are selected on the basis of technical efficiency, and their representatives are appointed as the chairmen of the respective Steering Committees.
All representatives are technicians, and operators and managers are excluded; Unless they have the requisite technical qualifications---- they are under 40 years of age, with the exception of Speer himself, and there is no 'official' representative.
The leading enterprises use their own resources to set up offices, and under their guidance, the committee members share patents free of charge; production processes, and experience, and the goal is to maximize equipment utilization, minimize raw material and labor usage, simplify production processes, and raise average efficiency to the standard of the most efficient enterprise.
In addition, in Speer's view, any measures that do not contribute to the supply of finished weapons in the next six months; At present, there is no definite value, for which he ordered the termination of all construction and capital construction projects, and the abandonment of the restoration of damaged capital equipment enterprises for the purpose of improving production efficiency or carrying out production renovations.
And the military-industrial production capacity for new weapons projects will be transferred to the manufacture of spare parts, as well as repair work.
In addition, he has resorted to strong means within the framework of the 'centralized' plan to remove all obstacles that interfere with the priority development of weapons models and the maximization of production.
For example, for the production of each major weapon, the appointment of a Programme Specialist (who are subject matter experts from the Steering Committee) whose responsibility is to rationalize the work of the Development Committee; The suspension of R&D activities for a meaningful period of time, where feasible improvements to existing weapons are not guaranteed, will be further concentrated on the most feasible and developmental projects.
This practice is known as 'Focused Breakthrough Warfare', and the Commissioner also has the power to forcibly halt improved weapons that have already been put into mass production on the basis of the principle of maximum production, since it is more important to maintain maximum production of a weapon than to seek small improvements if it is suitable for mass production from the beginning.
In practice, each weapon improvement project does not have an expiration date, after which it is 'frozen' and declared a 'finished model' and enters mass production.
The purpose of this approach is to put a stop to the fanatical pursuit of weapons performance by military specialists and the design departments of enterprises and to constantly propose improvements to projects that have already been put into production, since this factor has long hindered the optimal use of effective production capacity.
But Speer's most important and representative temporary measure was the creation of the Arms Staff; He selects specialists for each of the major production links from among the officials of his department and from the industry.
These people will be representatives of the construction, energy, railway, postal and civil protection departments; and the General Services Bureau, which was responsible for the supply of labor, formed an unofficial council to coordinate the entire industry---- an arms staff.
This weapons staff meets daily, usually organized by Saul.
At the meeting, the Steering Committee and the business consortium present and discuss the latest problems and problems, and come up with solutions as soon as possible with the assistance of other organizations.
In fact, to put it simply, the Arms Staff is a smaller version of the Department of Armaments and Wartime Production.
But in any case, during World War II, and even in later generations, Speer was the most commented on; It is by relying on these methods that Germany can improve the production efficiency of weapons and equipment.
Of course, the reason why Chen Yanlong knew the methods used by Speer was these, because he had read a lot of explanations about Speer's management methods in various historical materials and online materials before he crossed over, so he knew it so clearly.
For this reason, he finally decided not to dispose of this person who had gassed Hitler to assassinate him when he was about to be defeated.
And at this moment, he has to find a way to vigorously support his reforms, so that the production of weapons and equipment of the German army can be improved more.
If you don't just rely on the gold finger exchange system in his hand, it is still not enough insurance.
Moreover, if a country wants to be truly strong, it must have its own scientific and technological personnel, production lines, production equipment, and resources.
And these problems are also the things that give him the most headaches.