Chapter 142: This Side of the Sea
A normal port could not handle a normal port compared to a simple beach pier, Calais and Dover were now truly two ferry ports, with German troops embarking on one side and disembarking on the other in no more than three hours.
The High Command's plans were closely thought out, the product of collective intelligence, in which the paranoia and rigor of the Germans were on full display. The specially set up transfer office has become a place that makes people smell and change, there are more than 200 licensed accountants and navy, land and air logistics officers wrestling with numbers and charts in it, each batch of transferred materials has a detailed record, even a box of bullets has its unique number, the daily consumption and replenishment of the front line are accurate to the individual platoon, and every truck is running according to the prescribed route and schedule.
The weight of the materials carried by these vehicles has been strictly recorded, in order to speed up the loading and unloading time of the ship during transshipment, and the professionals in the field of maritime transportation have carefully arranged the parking positions in the cabin according to the load of various vehicles, so that there is no need to spend time and energy to readjust the center of gravity of the ship, and these transport vehicles only need to drive in and out of the vehicle deck of the cruise cargo hold in an orderly manner. German sappers built motorized gangplanks specifically for these ships, which allowed vehicles to drive directly from the cargo side doors of the ship's hold to the dock.
Heavy equipment, such as tanks and artillery, was shipped on passenger and cargo vessels, all of which had dump booms and various cranes on the docks, allowing all the equipment of an armored battalion to be unloaded within an hour. Tanks and guns were mounted on prefabricated pallets, tightly bound with iron chains, and could be lifted directly from the bilge to the dock by attaching the hooks of the cranes, and the tankers only had to unfasten the chains and then start the tanks off the pallets. The pallets are recycled back into the hold for the next shipment of equipment.
The ships and large passenger and cargo ships came from several shipping companies in Germany and France, with the French ships claiming to have been captured and requisitioned by the German army, while the German ships were hired by the government. Among them, the KDF in Germany alone provides all four of its cruise ships, including the famous "Wilhelm. Gustloff's cruise ship, in view of the fact that William. The obscure name of Gustrov was not liked by the new Führer. This luxury cruise ship was renamed "Cybertron", don't ask why it was named, the Führer was also fascinated by alien unlicensed cars for a while before the crossing.
The French Normandy almost joined the fleet, but because it was too explicit and would inevitably provoke some countries, there were a lot of things that needed to be dealt with now, and it was not yet time to turn the other side, so it was politely declined by the German side.
This legendary supercruise ship was not seized by the United States, as in history, after receiving covert assurances from the German army. Pétain's government ordered her to return from the United States in early July, but the journey was so uneventful that the German submarines turned a complete blind eye to her, and on several occasions they openly crossed the Normandy route, scaring the French captain with a heart attack.
The Normandy eventually returned to mainland France without any problems, and is now resting in the port of Toulon for refitting, and the French also think that it is a good blank for troop carriers, and are considering using it to transfer supplies and troops to the colonies. If renovated, the supership could carry one infantry division across the Atlantic at a time. It is also possible to reach French Indochina with the same number of troops.
Now that Germany and the entire German-occupied zone are moving rapidly towards the same goal, any trash fish that dares to stand in the way will be crushed to powder under this frenzy. Production in the German factories and mines was in good order and operated quickly in strict accordance with the production targets set by the High Command.
Xu Jun enabled Albert. Speer, who had always been a close friend of his and Hitler's, had an ambiguous attitude during the War of the Two Kings. He had been oscillating between Xu Jun and Hitler, and it was not until Hitler was finally defeated that he completely fell to the winning side. Xu Jun doesn't dislike this person's style on the wall, it is human instinct to seek good and avoid evil, and he can't force others to blindly support him. Moreover, no one thought that Hitler would be at a disadvantage, and Speer was able to stand in the middle ground and was very worthy of his friendship.
Now Xu Jun is ready to show the world what a handsome man who takes refuge in him will be rewarded, and Speer will become that pile of valuable horse bones, in fact, this man is indeed a thousand-mile horse. Although Speer's ability has been tested by the original history, Xu Jun feels that he still needs to be observed, after all, history has changed too much, and the experience of this great architect has also changed a little, and I don't know if he can continue to complete his myth in the history created by Xu Jun.
Speer, now appointed as the Führer's personal adviser, began a six-month inspection of the industrial and mining enterprises in the German-occupied zone of Europe, the final results of which were to be submitted directly to Xu Jun, who also asked him to draw up a plan to improve the efficiency and scale of production of the German military industry.
Krupp and Rheinland Steel had already begun to implement three-shift production on the orders of the Führer, which in turn added a large number of jobs to the country. The growth rate of ordnance production is not very obvious, mainly because many workers are novices, and it will take some time to train them, and when these people become skilled workers, the efficiency of munitions production will inevitably multiply.
German ordnance was immediately packed and transported to the dispatch center as soon as it came off the production line, where it was loaded and transported according to the latest schedule every day. The effects of the previous purge in Germany have already been revealed, with the bureaucracy and procrastination that had prevailed in Germany swept away, corruption and malfeasance in all links almost eliminated, and the efficiency of the entire transport system has been multiplied. The highways were put to good use, and the trucks of the Imperial Transport convoy were flowing along those straight concrete roads. The railway system is trying to eliminate the appearance of vacant wagons, but because the entire railway transportation system has not yet been fully integrated, it will take a long time to achieve Xu Jun's predetermined goal.
Waste and thrift are being waged in Germany, and any waste of resources and energy is considered anti-German. German domestic enterprises began to transform towards militarization as a whole, not only because of the current British campaign, but also for the sake of a stronger enemy in the future, and to prepare for the planned major expansion of the army. Germany has suffered enough in this regard in history, and Xu Jun will not make the same mistakes that Hitler once made.
The German army began to be fully activated, the huge war machine was reactivated, and the German army on the entire southern front of France retained a certain number of troops on the German-French border, and the rest of the main forces began to gradually move in the direction of the strait.
Every day, each unit consumes a huge amount of food and water, most of which has to be recruited locally. The Germans had a lot of money at this time, and they had a lot of francs and foreign currency in their hands, enough for these troops to spend their days in France.
Of course, this is only lip service, the German army still maintains good military discipline, thanks to the fact that there is a strong Führer overhead, and no one dares to disobey the discipline of the apostle's occupation zone, because those who dare to try will end miserably, and this kind of behavior will be carefully screened by the gendarmerie, whether it is a provocation to the commander of the army. Or to show contempt for the authority of the Führer, the former might be lucky enough to make it out of the court-martial, and if the latter were the latter, the crematoriums of the labor camps would prove the end of such fanatics.
The German army's supply was well underway, and the French did a great deal of effort, and of course the shiny gold franc played a key role. The Germans bought large quantities of food and semi-finished grain products from the French, as well as large quantities of non-staple food and vegetables. The German Army's recipes have been updated, and French cuisine is mostly unpalatable. But it does have his unique charm.
As a result of Germany's policy of occupying the territories, which gained the endorsement of the French government, a large number of fleeing peasants returned to the land where they were raised. Agricultural production in France has been restored, but it is summer, and there is still time to replant some crops, and the previous grain reserves have not been plundered back to the country by the German army as in history, so there is still plenty of food in France. Some wineries have already started to recruit grape pickers, and the grapes are about to ripen for the new season. Now is the time to start preparing for the new 40-year-old wine.
According to the intelligence of Odin's Eye, Pétain's government was even considering whether it could intervene in the German invasion of Britain, declaring war on Britain on the grounds of revenge for the French naval officers and soldiers, and taking the opportunity to recover some losses for France. Now they are only afraid that this practice may cause discontent among the Germans. The Germans managed to pry open the carapace of the British, and the French leaned in to suck the delicious shellfish, which was eaten by the Germans who dipped it in mustard.
Pétain's attitude made Xu Jun very satisfied, he needed this kind of collaborator who would never dare to lie on his knees, he certainly would not provoke the hatred of the French like Hitler, and the effect of appropriate concession and tenderness was a hundred times stronger than violence.
Goebbels is organizing people to rush to the draft, he is using Petain's hand to try to promote the harmony between Germany and France is the right direction of historical development, Germany and France have a long history of friendship, since Roman times together to resist the tyranny of the Roman Empire, the source of all the current suffering is from the deliberate provocation of British conspirators, France and Germany do not have much enmity, Alsace and Lorraine were originally German territory, and now the return is the first step of reconciliation between the two sides, The anti-German sentiment of the French was entirely caused by the malicious distortion of propaganda by some French traitors who had been bribed by the British, and this war was as a human tragedy as the last one, so it must not be allowed to repeat similar tragedies.
Anyway, Goebbels himself didn't believe in this set at all, but he found that the other party really had this idea, Petain's government accepted the German propaganda minister's remarks in its entirety, Petain and his friends thought that this kind of propaganda was actually as effective as the Germans, and it was extremely important for France to alleviate the Germans' hatred against the French, no matter what, they were trying to save France, no one had the right to point fingers at them, and those who dared to disagree were traitors who were bought by the British. It was the conspiracy of the enemies of France to overthrow the French Third Republic.
Germany was already in complete frenzy over the Führer's achievements, and every day the German Chancellery's communications office received letters and gifts from fanatical admirers from all over Germany, from which Bormann selected the most beautiful ones which he thought were sent to the High Command in special wagons for His Excellency to enjoy, mainly porcelain, handicrafts, and paintings and sculptures, most of which featured Reinhardt as the protagonist, but in fact there were some very good works.
Among them is a portrait of Reinhardt standing tall in front of the Brandenburg Gate, and the mastery of the painting technique and the ingenious use of color have amazed the connoisseurs of the entire high command. Xu Jun also expressed his great satisfaction and hung it directly on the wall of the headquarters office for all the visiting guests to see. At the same time, he was ready to meet the artist in person when he returned to Berlin, and he felt that his image could be more glorious, and that the Führer's mind had a lot of ideas to show with the help of this person. (To be continued......)